Too Much Fishing

There's probably no such thing as too much fishing, but I've been getting close. In the last few days I've fished the catch and release water in Cherokee, North Carolina and also spent some time on several streams in the Smokies. Naturally I've had a great time, but all the fishing has cut into my blogging time.

The Cherokee trip was a strange one. I honestly expected to have a killer day over there and probably could have by getting there earlier in the day and moving around some. Despite only fishing for a few hours, I did manage a few nice fish as did my buddy Trevor. Late in the evening we switched to streamers and caught a few more as the light was rapidly waning. The pictures turned out a little grainy because of the low light conditions and the fog on the water. You should get the general idea though...

Sunday was a fun day of something different. I was supposed to meet some guys from New Mexico and show them some of the streams in the Smokies. They had fished here in east Tennessee once before and were excited about trying some new water. Unfortunately the water situation was a little sketchy to say the least. Because of all the rainfall lately, the tailwaters were mostly pushing a lot of water. Originally I had hoped to take them to the Caney to chase some good browns but that idea was definitely not going to work. Plan B kicked in which involved fishing in the Smokies. Having fished up there for many years, I can usually find some fish even with high water conditions.

I met Phil and the other guys at Little River Outfitters and we headed up into the mountains. Little River was pretty high even for someone that fishes it a lot so we decided to try some smaller streams. This proved to be a good idea for the most part. We fished one of my favorite small stream rigs which is a Green Weenie and a hard-bodied ant. This is deadly during high water episodes because a lot of terrestrials are getting washed into the streams. The fish were enthusiastic although a bit less so than I expected. Thankfully everyone was catching at least a few and were also getting used to the tight casting conditions and continual mending that is required in the mountain streams.

After fishing up through some of the better pools, we opted to break for lunch and then try something else. After a quick trip back into Townsend to grab some Subway, we got back on the road and headed just over the ridge to the North Carolina side to try for the Smoky Mountain Slam. This was not as good of an idea. While we did catch a few the action was definitely slower. I was surprised to see that the water was higher on that side of the park. Often the Tennessee side gets more water but apparently not this time.

Finally we decided to finish the day by chasing some specs. None of the guys had ever caught a southern strain brookie so we stopped on the way back over the ridge to catch a few. None of the fish are big in this water, but each one is still special. Phil was the lucky one that caught some brookies and one of the other guys managed a few rainbows. It was fairly slow here as well though. I dredged a few fish up on a Tellico nymph including a beautiful brookie. We finished up around 6:00 as the guys needed to head back to Knoxville. A big brown sounded like fun so I went over to Little River to finish my evening.

I have not fished streamers enough and decided to dedicate the last couple of hours to ripping streamers in the slightly stained water. Despite 3-4 hits and moving a few others, I just could not hook up with any browns. Finally I decided to grab the camera and spend a little time documenting the beautiful evening. The light was perfect and the stream looked great after several years of drought.

A big surprise was in store though. The evening was still young, and I wanted to make one last stop on the river. The lower portion of Little River has a few smallies. I've never caught one in the park, until Sunday evening that is. I had cast my streamer to some dead water near the back of a large pool when suddenly the line went tight. The fish felt small and I figured that a little brown had impaled himself on the streamer. When I landed the fish I was shocked to see a little smallmouth. I also caught a decent rainbow on the streamer before I called it an evening. Overall I had a great day. It is always fun to show my favorite streams to other people although they didn't fish nearly as well as I would have hoped. Still everyone caught a few so it wasn't too bad of a day.

Hopefully these guys can make it back to fish again when the water conditions are a little better. If the generation schedule is favorable, we'll hit a tailwater or two next time!

I still owe you a lot of reports from out west as well as a couple of product reviews. Please check back soon for more. I'll have those up as soon as possible!