Fishing the Clinch

Fished the Clinch near Miller's Island.  Caught a couple of 16+ inch Trout fishing with two nymphs.  I put a weighted copper john nymph on the bottom to get them deep.

Greene County, TN Fishing Adventure - Horse Creek

I decided to fish Horse Creek one day to see if I could actually catch anything.  It is a great area, but the road and neighborhood leading up to it is kind of rough.  It was kind of cold (40s) and a bit rainy and damp.  It had rained a few times over the previous few days so the water was up just a bit. 

The Creek

 A spur trail across the bridge and off the main trail.

The only fish I caught in Horse Creek

Paint Creek

Did a couple of hours of fishing in Paint Creek the other day and had some pretty good luck.  I caught one rainbow that was around 17 +/- inches on a double nymph rig with a floating strike indicator.   I had the nymphs tied about a foot or so apart with a heavier nymph on the bottom.  The rig looked like:

{           1 ft              }
nymph--------nymph-------------strike indicator/float tied at connection with leader-------fly line
{                     3 ft                       }

The water was a bit cloudy from rain and the flow looked a bit high.

I was fishing deep runs and had the rig set to allow the nymphs to get down to about 3 feet.  I slowly fished up a nice looking run and when I got about 1/2 through it BAM, a nice firm strike that doubled my fly rod over!  I set the hook as soon as I felt the hit and started playing the fish.  She surfaced and my fist thought was that I had a nice fish.  With the light rig I was using I was afraid the line would break so I had to play her a little.  It took me a few minutes to get her in, but it was worth the fight.  I love landing a nice fish.

For more information on Paint Creek (http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/cherokee/recreation/fishing/recarea/?recid=34910&actid=43)

Ouch!

Fishing can be dangerous!!!  I was fishing the North River and slipped while I was trying to land a nice Brown.  It doesn't look that bad, but I had to close that thing up with some super glue.

I need to post a picture of the scar.

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Pond Mountain Wilderness

Fished up in the Pond Mountain Wilderness the other day.  I hiked in in mid-morning on a Sunday and I was the only person up there fishing that I saw.  There were a lot of hikers in the area heading up one trail or the other, but I guess it's too far up for most fly fishermen.  I have noticed that if you get more than 1/4 mile away from the road the number of fly fisherman seen falls off drastically, and generally the fishing improves.  The conditions were perfect.  It had rained a little the night before and the water had some color it, but it hadn't rained so much that the streams were hard to wade.  It was warm, but not hot.

I was using my 7' 6" Redington fly rod, about an 8ft leader, and I fished with a larger Yellow Stimulator (#10) and a Tellico Nymph (#14) as a dropper fly about a foot and a half below.











The fishing started off slow but ended up being really good.  I caught around 20 fish.  Ten were nice sized and brightly colored browns and the others were "horny heads" and a few other warmer water fish.  The browns were smashing both flys.  I caught a few on each one.  I also actually had a first and hooked fish on both the dry fly and the dropper at one time.  One managed to get off the hook though and I only landed one of them.   That was pretty cool!

 
This is a typical Brown Trout that I was catching.  He hit the Yellow Stimulator.
 

Fishing Alone!

This weekend I got the opportunity to fish in the GSMNP and actually didn't run into any other fishermen.  I didn't even see anyone fishing on my drive along the lower parts of the river (West Prong).  It could have been the weather.  It was cloudy and cold with a mix of rain and snow, mostly rain, turning to all snow as it got later in the day.  Accumulations were supposed to range from a dusting to 4-6 inches above 2500 feet.  I didn't see any snow stick while I was out there.

The creek looked good. There was just a bit of color and it was a little high, but the banks showed where it at been much higher recently.  I took a little time to sit along the bank, drink some coffee from my green thermos, and look at the scenery. 

I saw some vibrant greens and reds in the moss and berries. 

I thought this tree was very interesting looking with all the fungus on it.

Folks might not have been out there due to the time that I went.  I headed up there late on Sunday and fished until about dark.

I only caught a couple of trout, but the solitude was priceless.  I appreciate all the folks that stayed at home today!

Thanks!

Fishing the West Prong - GSMNP

The parking area.  It's where the road to Cades Cove crosses the stream and the stream heads up into the mountains.

The fisherman's trail head.  It also seems to be a popular rest room stop for folks coming out of Cades Cove.  There was lots of TP and trash on the ground just out of sight of the road.  The fisherman's trail winds from side to side up the creek.  In some places it is well defined and in others it's not.  Following it also requires a lot of stream crossings.

A view of the bridge from stream level. 

There is an old rail road rail crossing the stream just up stream from the bridge.  I wonder how long that has been there?  I also saw several trout in the pool just behind the rail, but there isn't a good approach with the clear water to get to them and they were staying near the bottom.

Some pictures of the stream itself.  It's a beautiful area.

Some pictures of the fish I caught.  Most of 4 - 6 inches, but a couple I got out of the deeper holes were much bigger.

This trout broke my leader and stole my fly once, but I got him on the second go around and I got my fly back.  He was a fun fish to catch.

This is a pretty typical Trout from the West Prong.  I caught this one in about a 4ft run that ended in a small hole.  You do have to be stealthy with these guys.  I noticed that I got 2 to 3 casts in an area and if I didn't get a strike I didn't get anything.



This is a good book for anyone that wants to fly fish for trout - http://us.nicebooks.com/ISBN/9780865730731