Beautiful scenery, perfect weather, lots of fish and great folks are just a few ways to describe the trip I had with the Scarbrough family. We headed out late Monday afternoon to the park for some great dry fly action and we found it. The Caddis (Brown, October) are coming off really good in the afternoon, but anything dark in a # 16 will  work or orange in a # 12 or # 10 will do just fine. Don’t forget the BWO’s, it is a little early for them, but they are still coming off here and there. The fly that worked so well for us was a #16 peacock Caddis and a very fine leader, also a good presentation never hurts.

We hit one of my favorite holes in the park where there are always at least 10 good fish rising. To my surprise there was not a one in the spot, so someone must have beat us to it. The next spot we went to, the fish told us that nobody had been there, no I don’t speak fish but Wills got a few rises right off the bat. Wills saw that dry fly fishing in the Smoky Mountains can be frustrating, but hung in there and landed a fat Brown on his next cast. Wills is a great golfer so patience is something he has. Here is a shot of the first fish of the day.

We moved on after a short while, just a little higher up where we got into some more fish and some wildlife. As we were fishing I happened to look over and spot 2 doe cruising down the bank without a care in the world. After spotting a few fish Archie and Wills got into position and hooked up with fish only for them to get off. This happened a couple of times, but Archie managed to catch 2 nice rainbows about 10 inches a piece. Here is a shot of  Archie’s catch and of the deer we got to see.

I decided to take them a few miles down stream to show them some different water and how to fish it. We were fishing longer, slower pools in the early part of the trip and they were interested in learning how to fish the park so we went to some really productive pocket water and they picked it up quick. High sticking, mending and fast hook sets are what you need for this type of water and they saw it. We had strike after strike but the fish were usually faster than us and I explained that it was normal to miss fish in the Smoky Mountains. Anybody that fishes here will testify to that I’m sure.

We had a great day on the water and caught quite a few fish. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day and warm weather. Archie and Wills were great fisherman and super easy going guys and Kathy, the Mrs., was a super nice lady who came along to take photos and enjoy the fall weather. What more could you ask for with all of that. I look forward to fishing with these guys again in the future. Fishing in our area is great, so go fishing when you can and call us for any details about the stream, bugs or taking a trip. Later guys.

Yesterday I took a few guys up into the park to do a little hiking and fishing. We started the day off at daylight because we didn’t want to fish in 96 degree weather. Well it didn’t take long for it to get to us though. We also wanted to hit some higher water where it might be cooler. We started hiking at about 6:45am and hiked for about an hour and already worked up a sweat before 8:00am. We arrived at a very good looking hole with fish rising, but not many bugs coming off.

After watching the fish for a few minutes we decided to move in and try our luck. We snuck up behind them, stayed low and made the first cast. We quickly realized that because the water was so low and pretty warm, the fish were very spooky. The hole had very slow water running through it so we agreed to move on to fish faster water and not waste  time. I had a March Brown shuck stick to my leg so we tied on some nymphs and immediately started getting strikes. After moving up about 100 feet I started working with them on fishing the nymph and everyone started hooking fish and Brad caught his first Smokies trout.

The fishing was kind of slow after a while so we grabbed a bite to eat, took a break for a minute and pulled off the packs. After lunch we all decided to go a little higher and hit some of the river that veered off the trail a good ways. We ran into a spot where the creek split in two, so we fished both sides and starting catching more fish. Here is a good shot of one of the fish that Nathan caught which happened to be his first Smokies trout as well.

We caught a few more fish like these in the next few runs, and by that time the sun was at it’s peak and the fish were sluggish. We started heading back and fished a couple more spots we noticed on the way up, but the sun had already done it’s damage so we agreed to head back. Brad, Will and Nathan are definitely outdoorsman and at no surprise picked up the sport very quickly. They had an exciting week full of roller coasters, rafting, rock climbing, mountain biking and I had the pleasure of taking them Fly fishing. Not bad. Thanks for joining us and we will see you next time.