The bigger rivers are still a hit or miss and the water in the park has just now come back down from flood stage. The Clinch river is running high and the Holston river is a hit or miss. Fortunately when Freddy called me for a trip last week we had a break in generation, so I loaded up the boat and we hit the Holston.

The fishing was slow in the morning, but picked up around lunch time. When the sun started to shine, the bugs came off and the fish were feeding. Don’t count on a splashy rise though, because you will miss a lot of fish. Every strike that we had, we could barely see the water dimple. A small caddis hatch came off for about an hour and Freddy and Billy D. had fun throwing dries for a while.

     

Plus you couldn’t beat the scenery.

Around 2 or so we got back in the boat and covered the rest of the float before the night got us. Along the way Freddy and Billy D. would spot a fish and take turns casting. After a while they were calling their fish like the Babe. The fish were really spooky and longer casts with thin long leaders were a big help.

     

The trip started off slow, but finished out strong which is just fine with me. This was definitely a trip I will never forget and I look forward to fishing with these guys again soon. I had to throw this picture in here because it was my favorite.

The weather channel is calling for a good amount of rain for the next couple of days so pack a rain jacket. Also keep an eye on the generation schedule before you make your trip to the river. If you notice the water coming up don’t take any chances, get out. Have a blessed day.

Recommended Flies:

Lime caddis #18-20

Olive caddis#18-20

Black fly larvae#20-26

Black and gold zebra midge#18-22

Parachute Adams#18-22

Bob and Gail are from Louisiana and come to East TN to fish with us from time to time. They love to float the bigger rivers, so with the leaves colored up and the browns moving around on the Clinch, it sounded like a good idea. The only thing is that TVA has been lowering the lake levels and blowing out our tailwaters, so floating was out of the question. I couldn’t let them go home without catching any fish, so the plan was to fish the park.

     

 

To make matters worse a monsoon pushed in and the bottom fell out of the thermometer.

The water was on the high side and off color, plus the rain and wind filled the rivers with leaves so throwing tiny beatis nymphs was out of the question. Usually when this happens, what we do is put on bigger or darker flies with some flash, like a prince or flashback pt to get the fish’s attention. Also keep the flies out of the main current and into the pocket water. The fish will be there so they don’t have to fight the fast water.

That was the case for this trip and it produced a lot of fish. Leave it to a rainy day in the Smokies to turn the trip around. Plus Bob and Gail are awesome fishermen so that helped too.

 

 

 

I got a call from a guy for a trip up in the Smokies and as I was getting the info for the books he said, “my name is Mark Martin.” I said “like the Nascar driver” and he said “yeah, but I’m not him.” To be honest I never would have known anyway, I don’t watch Nascar. The trip started a little slow, missing quick strikes on beatis nymphs, but as soon as the sun heated up the water the bugs were coming off and the fish were looking up.

Now normally a Blue Winged Olive is known for being a tiny mayfly around the 18 to 22 range. This year though, they have been around the 14 to 16 range which is great for us, because that makes it easy to see the fly in the riffles when matching the hatch.

Mark showing us how it’s done with BWO’s

This fish came up and slowly sipped the fly off the surface, awesome. The fishing was great from then on and Mark caught quite a few more fish throughout the day. This is probably our favorite time of year to be fishing. The browns are spawning, you need a light jacket to fish and just when you think the water is too cold for any dries, you see a BWO hop across the surface and a fish smash it. The thing about fishing in East Tennessee, is that the fishing never ends. It doesn’t get too cold to shut down the fishing, just the fisherman.  So if you can handle it, the fishing is here.

 

 

 

Chris is from Oklahoma and came to the Smokies for some relaxation and fly fishing. It was his first time in a set of waders and I’ve got to say he wasn’t too shabby. The Blue Winged Olives have been coming off pretty good, which makes fishing in the park pretty awesome, even with the cold weather. The bugs haven’t been coming off until the late morning, around noon. That doesn’t mean that you can’t catch fish though. Nymphs have been working well in the earlier part of the day.

Not a trophy, but you couldn’t have convinced him of that. The smile says it all.

That went on for a little while until the bugs started hatching, then it was game time on top. Normally Blue Winged Olives are a really small mayfly, around sizes 18 to 22. Here lately though, the Smokies has been producing size 14 bugs and the fish are loving it.

Congrats Chris on a successful day on the water and looking forward to the next time.

 

We also have October caddis coming off and they are running in the size 12 range, an orange stimulator will do the trick. After the trip was over, Chris was asking questions about living in the area for the future. All it takes is a fun day on the water for most folks and they are hooked.

The leaves are still pretty colorful, but won’t be for long. With the days getting shorter, colors starting to fade out and the fishing as good as it gets, why wait any longer.

 

Dave from Harriman and I headed out for the park last week for some early fall fly fishing. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect and the bugs were coming off like crazy. The morning started off kind of slow, just picking up a few fish here and there on nymphs, but after the sun came out, the river came alive. I had Dave throw his caddis across the current to a riffle running down a ledge and this is what was waiting on it.

     

Dave saw the sip and said, “I think this is a better fish,” just as I see it running down stream. What a nice fish and on a dry.

As the sun got higher, we started seeing several species of bugs coming off. Brown caddis, October caddis, a few isonychia’s, but the majority was a small sulphur which is unusual for this time of year. I had some in my box, so we put one on and noticed another good fish sipping emergers. A few cast’s later Dave hooked up with another good fish.

This one was a big rainbow.

For the next 2 hours it was about every 3rd cast, Dave would hook up with another fish. I told him that he would be spoiled from now on when he came to the Smokies. This is how fall can be in the Smokies, lots of bugs and hungry fish waiting for them to float by. This is also the best time to try to catch a bigger fish, because the brown trout are in spawning mode and fill up before they get on the redds.

Way to go Dave on all the quality fish, especially the brown.

 

 

 

Jeff is from Northern Ohio and does a lot of Steelhead fishing. When he called me for a trip, I imagined a trip targeting bigger fish, but that wasn’t the case. Jeff had never caught a wild brook trout and it had been bugging him for a while. The weather was perfect for some dry fly fishing, cloudy and sprinkles here and there.

You can see that wearing natural colors while fishing helps you blend in to the background.

The fish were very active and didn’t hesitate to eat a dry. Brook trout aren’t known for being the pickiest of fish when it comes to fly selection, so concentrate on attractor patterns such as an Adams, Thunderhead or smaller caddis for this time of year. This nice brookie fell for an Adams.

Mission accomplished!

After Jeff got the hang of these Smoky Mountain fish, I really challenged his skills that he learned and put him in some pretty tight areas.

Jeff using the “Bow” cast.

Towards the end of the trip Jeff said he wanted to try and finish out with a solid fish, two casts later he landed this nice rainbow which blew up on his fly. It was funny, because we were pretty high up on the mountain and that is when Jeff catches the biggest fish of the day. This fish had been gorging on bugs and was a fatty.

Awesome job Jeff, I look forward to fishing with you again in the future.

 

 

 

Wow the weather has been up and down the last couple of days with heavy rains and the temperature gauge changing daily. The fishing on the other hand has only improved from it. In fact, Thursday we had a great day on the water with Joan and J.J. for some smallmouth action. The topwater bite was all day long and the fish were very aggressive. This was the first time for Joan and J.J. to be in a drift boat and they seemed to handle it very well.

     

 

 

Here are the first 2 fish for both Joan and J.J. Watching these fish blow up on poppers was very exciting.

 

There would only be a few sections on the float that we didn’t land fish, but still had action. With the cooler weather, the smallmouth were  not picky and they would definitely eat a decently presented fly. Every once and a while a fish would sneak up behind the fly and sip it and it was usually a nice fish, but most of them would give us a show. Here are some more fish that we caught throughout the day.

    

It was a great day on the water with Joan and J.J. and getting to show them our world of fly fishing for smallies was awesome. If you think that this would be your type of trip give us a call and let us put you on fish like this. I had to throw in this picture of us anchored up for lunch. It just doesn’t get any better than this.

 

 

 

We have had a long streak of dry days with really warm temperatures and the fishing in the park has been good at certain times of the day, but with the water low and clear they are really spooky. Being stealthy will definitely be the way to keep up the numbers and wearing natural colors. Wednesday, I got to take Steve and Andrew fishing up in the National Park for their first Smokies trip. Andrew has been getting ready for med school at Vanderbilt and has had his head in a book for several months and needed a break.

     

The fish were finicky and gave subtle strikes, but we still managed to catch a few. Terrestrials are still the big hitters during the days with yellow sallies in the evenings. Also, using some 6x tippet and crouching doesn’t hurt. We have always said that if the fisherman is getting strikes, they are doing their job and making the fly look real and catching the fish is an added bonus. Steve and Andrew were great fisherman and now they have another notch on their wading belt.

 

Joan is from Ohio and Pennsylvania and now will be living in East TN. She is a good trout fisherman, but has never tried fly fishing for smallmouth and wanted to learn, so that’s exactly what we did. It was also her birthday present to herself. Now this time of year the smallmouth act a lot like trout sitting in slow riffles and sipping poppers out of the bubble lines, so Joan was used to that aspect of it. It took some getting used to throwing the heavier gear, but it paid off when she stuck her first fish. Unfortunately the fish jumped and we lost it, but not a minute later she caught this guy.

The water is a little low in the park and in the Little River so using the popper aggressively won’t do very well. Instead, make it plop on the water and just give it subtle twitches every once and a while. Also don’t let a smallmouth fool you, just when you think you need to make another cast just wait and let the fly drift through the entire run. If one does come to it and sits underneath, give it a twitch. This is what has been working the best for us.

     

I had to get a shot of Joan fishing in the riffles to show how beautiful the Smokies are. We messed with one about 16 or 17 inches for about 5 minutes, but he would just stare at it and bump it. Which brings me to say that a good fisherman always know when to move on. Be safe while fishing and bring lots of water and maybe a snack and watch out for snakes. If you see Joan on the stream stop and say hi, she is a pretty cool lady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was Tyler’s birthday and his one wish was to go float for smallies. That is usually my birthday wish too and every other day. The fishing was really good and again it was all topwater. With the heat really picking up, the fish are getting weary when they come up to the fly. If you see a fish looking at your popper just let it rest with maybe a subtle twitch (not pop). Also spend time in the shade and be patient. Just because you can’t see anything underneath your fly doesn’t mean he isn’t there. Tyler saw this technique first hand and realized how effective it can be for quality fish.

     

Cicadas are all over our rivers and every once and a while when they are struggling to fly it means they are about to die and they will fall in the water. We have a cicada that we came up with this year that make a good plop. Well we ran across some fish that would follow a fly then turn off so I plopped the cicada in the water and he didn’t think twice about it (whamo).

     

I mean what could be better than dead drifting big bugs in front of smallmouth and watching a big one sip it. It wasn’t  long before we were back to the popper. Remember that in the day topwater flies should be lighter colors and darker colors in the morning and evening. We were about to wrap up the day when I saw one more fish and made a cast, this fish was one to test your patience because he looked at it for a while.

If you still haven’t experienced this type of fishing I highly suggest it. Our state is the smallmouth capital and we are located right in the heart of it so give us a call if you are looking for a good time with some hard fighting fish.