This may be the best fishing report I have ever played a small part in doing. Fishing success should never be solely about the numbers or sizes of fish caught. Sometimes large numbers and size catches is being at the right place at the right time, with luck playing a big part. Catching a few fish under adverse conditions, especially very adverse conditions, can be as much or more pleasurable and satisfying. I mentioned a few days ago that Derek Porter and friend David was making a trip into the park on Monday the beginning of a blizzard for lack of better words. He did and this is his report. I consider it a very successful trip in all respects and something I would take a lot of pride and satisfaction from having done. It also contains some information on what appears to be people adversely affecting the National Park stream they fished, which I will not reveal, and its surrounding terrain. I hope you see my points and not only enjoy reading it, but are able to take a lot from it. Note that his email hasn’t been edited as an article or post. It is just directly from an email so please forgive any errors.
Email: It is interesting to look back at the stream levels and see how the different stream level changed while we were there. The streams received greatly varying amounts of water during the time we were there. The other thing that is interesting is that it was the tidal wave of leaves that came down that caused us to wrap it up and head back upstream towards our exit. I’m glad that happened before the water rose too high and we were stuck. All the leaves were off the trees. On Monday we saw huge loads of leaves holding in the Eddie’s or settled on the bottom of the pools. As the water rose and the flow increased Tuesday it was amazing to see how all those leaves got lifted off the bottom and out of the Eddie’s and sent downstream. I had made a joke to David on our hike in “well it looks like leaves won’t be an issue this year”. Boy was i wrong!
We hiked in and set up camp and started fishing around 2pm Monday. Water conditions looked great but it was really slow. Had a few splashy rises and I put one rainbow in my hand. Temps had been real cold Monday morning – and as we had discussed before, the water temp had dropped about 20 degrees since Friday. At least that’s my excuse. It was below freezing when we got to the trailhead to start hiking at 9:30am but it warmed up nicely Monday with the sun.
It started raining at 3 am Monday night/Tuesday morning. We sat around camp in the morning hoping it would slow down but it never did. The creek wasn’t too stained so we hiked downstream about an hour and waded further down to a spot we really like. We didn’t start fishing till noon. In hindsight that was a mistake. The water continued to get more stained and then we noticed the leaves were suddenly getting really bad. The rain became harder. We had caught about 5 but it was too the point that every drift was hooking leaves. We waded back upstream the 30 minutes to where it’s possible to get out We were out of the creek at 2pm. When we got back to camp we realized how much the creek had risen. I set a rock to mark the new level and within 90 minutes it was nearly a foot above that. The rain slowed down by 5pm but it was still a light mist at 10pm. We went to bed figuring there was going to be no way we could fish in the morning.
Woke up and thankfully the creek had dropped a lot. Still not to where it was Monday when we got there but to a safe level. We actually did pretty well yesterday. Caught several brown trout on dry flies (caddis and stimulators) as we were using dry/dropper combos). On Tuesday night during the rain back at camp we actually saw several of the great autumn brown sedge. Also some bwo’s and midges. Not sure if flood stage would kick off a hatch?!?
On a more alarming note – there is a lot of evidence that the creek is seeing way more fishing pressure than it was 10 years ago. There are more and more beat out paths from the trail to the creek at the few spots that the trail is near and the creek is accessible. More alarming is what we saw in spots that are 40-60 minutes of cross country and wading effort to get to. Someone has brought in a saw/loppers and clipped small trees and bushes along the the shore at one of the best holes. We also found pink survey flagging tape marking an exit from the creek. We went to investigate and someone had cleared a 50 ft path up the bank to get to flatter ground where it is easier to then walk to the trail. I of course removed all the flagging tape. I hope they can’t find their exit and get lost next time! Who does that?!?! There was fishing line hooked overhead in several places. Some of it lightweight fly line but also some of it heavy duty 10 lb stren. I guess those folks are coming in and throwing spinners/rapalas.We did not see any “pods” of large fish that used to be so common. Granted Tuesday was blown out and even yesterday it was a little high.
Anyway – enough bitching. It was still fun as always to be at such a special place.
> Here’s a few pics. Pretty sunset Monday evening. Pic of me with what turned out to be nice fish of the trip. About 15”. I just noticed now the gash on its head near the eye. I wonder what caused that? It looks fresh. It didn’t happen from my hook. I had a clean hook set. That flood is what it looked like at our campsite around 4pm Tuesday. We carry in a tarp to set up for camp. It’s actually really nice sitting under a tarp in the middle of the mountains in a 40 degree rainstorm. Makes you appreciate the simple things like staying dry!!!
- For fly and gear recommendations for any time you plan on fishing the park, give us a call us at Perfect Fly at 800 594 4726 or Email us at sales@perfectflystore.com. Check out our sister websites: www.flyfishingyellowstonenationalpark.com & www.perfectflystore.com
Smoky Mountain Stream Conditions:
The streams with links that have nearby USGS Station Real-time stream data: Click the links to see updates:
Little River: Rate 209 cfs at 1.98 with extra caution up to 375 cfs)
West Prong Little Pigeon River (Gatlinburg): Rate 91.3 cfs at 3.32 ft (Good wading up
to 75 cfs and with extra caution up to 115 cfs)
Oconaluftee River: Rate 327 cfs at 1.63 ft, (Good wading up to 550 cfs and with extra
caution up to 750 cfs)
Cataloochee Creek: Rate 48.5 cfs at 2.33 ft. (Good wading up to 90 cfs and with extra
caution up to 145 cfs.
Hazel Creek and the other larger NC streams flowing into Fontana Lake:
The streams are all flowing a little above a normal level.
Weather Forecast: (click the boxes below for more detailed weather information)
https://forecast7.com/en/35d71n83d51/gatlinburg/?unit=us
https://forecast7.com/en/35d48n83d32/cherokee/?unit=us
Trout Flies Currently Needed Now:
Streamers:
Brown Sculpin: 6
White Belly Sculpin: 6
Articulated Sculpin and Leeches: 4
Blue-winged olives: 18
nymphs
emergers
duns
spinners
Slate Drakes: 10/12
nymphs
spinners
Great Autumn Brown Sedge, size 10,
pupa
adults
Needle Stoneflies: 16/18
nymphs
adults
Recommended Fishing Strategy:
Keep in mind, the strategies I am recommending is for the maximum odds of catching numbers of fish. Many prefer or favor a dry fly and by all means there isn’t anything wrong with that. It’s just a fact that if nothing is hatching at the time, it reduces your odds of success. You can still probably hook some trout, just not as many as if you fish subsurface. Of course, this is also based on using good techniques and the right flies. Some guys don’t know how to fish below the surface.
Strategy:
Not all of the insects you see above will be hatching in the same location. It is usually only one or two. It varies with the elevation. Some are just starting in the low elevations and some about finished in the higher elevations. If you fished the day or two before and know where something is hatching, fish the nymph or larva stage of it. If you haven’t fished the day or two before, until I spotted something hatching, I would fish the BWO nymph. If you spot something hatching (coming off the water), change to the appropriate emerger, dun or adult imitations of the insect.
Tips for Beginners:
Don’t let anyone intimidate you by contending that fly fishing is more difficult to learn and master than other types of fishing. It isn’t.
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James Marsh