Went Fishing....Finally!!!

First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of recent posts. I still have several stories to share about West Trip 2007 and those will come, hopefully soon. School is a terrible thing, keeping the diligent tied down with never ending homework. Fortunately, this past weekend I had a respite. With virtually no homework due on Monday, I was able to take a last minute trip to the Smokies. I haven't done a solo trip to the park in far too long so it was great to be back out camping and doing some intense day trips to sample remote fishing opportunities.

I headed out of Chattanooga around 2:00 on Friday afternoon and made it to Little River Outfitters in Townsend by around 4:00. After finding a few fly tying items I needed, I talked to Daniel about a stream he had fished that I've been eying for awhile. Then he asked me if I had fished one of the Superfine Trout Bum rods yet. "Not yet," was my reply to which he asked if I would like to for the weekend. Opportunity doesn't come knocking like that every day and I saw a great chance to do a product review. After he got the rod and I purchased my items, I headed towards Elkmont to set up camp.

I just had to go fishing so as soon as my tent was up, I quickly put the Trout Bum rod (8' 4wt, 4-piece) together and started fishing up through the campground. The water was terribly low but the fish were still cooperative. A couple nice browns and one small rainbow later, I headed back to camp to get something to eat. After that I hit the sack since I was thinking about a big trip the next day.

The next day, after a huge breakfast, I headed over the hill to the North Carolina side to hike into a stream that I've been wanting to hit for awhile. The hike was fairly intense, made especially so by the fact that I'm not in quite the shape I should be (that will be remedied by the time my October trip rolls around). In hand I carried the Trout Bum rod to continue testing it out. After my first evening of fishing with it, I was already trying to dream up a plausible story that I could tell Daniel as to why I couldn't return the rod.

When I reached the stream, I was dismayed to find two fisherman coming downstream from where I intended to fish. After asking them how far they had fished, I decided to just start there and see what would happen. Despite the recent pressure, I was still able to fool plenty of fish. All the fish caught were brookies except for one lonely rainbow, a good sign I thought. The stream was very good-sized, especially for its elevation and was full of eager fish. Dry flies were the best option with an orange Neversink caddis accounting for most of my fish.

I had forgot to bring my headlamp this weekend so after fishing a couple of hours, I headed back down the stream to make the jaunt up and over the mountain. Getting stuck in the backcountry all night is not my idea of fun. After getting back to camp, I went down to a large pool on Little River to further test the rod. I had already used it to effectively fish dries and also heavily weighted nymphs so I decided to toss some streamers for awhile. I never threw them more than 30-40 feet for lack of casting room but the Trout Bum rod easily handled a weighted #4 Simi Seal Streamer.

After pounding the water awhile, I headed back to camp and got to bed early again. Sunday morning I wanted to fish the Little River above Elkmont. Accordingly, I got up, ate a quick breakfast and after taking down camp, I started up the trail. I decided to just start fishing without hiking very far but soon saw the telltale wet bootprints. I still managed a few fish before getting out to hike a bit farther. This time I thought I was fishing fresh water but after fishing for probably an hour or more, I saw to guys fishing above me. I had still been catching some fish but realized it probably should have been much better if I hadn't of been behind other fisherman all day. Still, despite fishing behind somebody I managed probably 10-15 fish over 2-3 hours so it wasn't a horrible day.

Finally I decided that it would be wise to head back to school and so I headed back to civilization, fully refreshed and ready to hit the books again! Oh yeah, I never came up with a good excuse so I stopped by LRO to give the rod back to Daniel. More on the rod later...