Winter Fly Fishing Report
Winter Fly Fishing around the Great Smoky Mountains region is your best shot all year at large trout! A widely known fact is that big trout love cold weather. We are already seeing some very large Brown, Brook and Rainbow being caught by our guests, and at the time of writing this, Winter has not officially even started yet!
Tuckasegee River Brown Trout
The Tuckasegee River is a great bet for consistent Winter fly fishing action. The Tuckasegee holds more trout per mile than any other southern trout river during the cold months. The stretch near Bryson City currently has 17,000 trout per mile! Water temperatures have dropped down to perfect levels and we’re really starting to see the big trout come out and feed. Action has been consistent from early morning until late afternoon. Steady hatches of Blue Winged Olives, Caddis, Midges, and Winter Stoneflies have kept the trout active. We’re seeing good dry fly action from mid morning until late afternoon with small blue winged olives being the fly of choice. There’s nothing like watching pods of rising Brown trout take dry flies off the surface! The streamer bite has been solid too this season. Lots of good trout have fell sucker to a well worked baitfish patterns fished off the banks.
Tuckasegee River Float Trips
Float Trips on the Tuckaegee River have been fishing very well. We are seeing good numbers of Trout caught and several big fish each trip. Fishing from the comfort of a drift boat or cataraft is the best way to fish the Tuckasegee River in Winter. Fishing from drift boats and catarafts keep you from wading cold water and slippery stream beds, plus gives you to ability to cover more water and cast to more trout! You can fish water that people wading simply cannot reach. Big fish tend to be reclusive so being able fish water that is less pressured, you have a higher chance of finding the big ones! If Fly Fishing isn’t your thing, we also offer light tackle fishing for trout with artificial lures.
Cherokee Trophy Trout
The Cherokee Fly Fishing Only Trophy Section on the Raven Fork is fishing fantastic right now. Winter weather brings the bite to its peak for the year. These big trophy fish fight hard all year, but in the winter its even more brutal! We are currently seeing good hatches of midges, winter stoneflies, caddies, and blue winged olives. On warm sunny afternoons we are catching rising trout on dry flies! Imagaine a 20inch plus fish taking small dry flies off the surface, its pretty exhilarating to say the least. Another plus to fishing the Trophy Section is the Elk from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These magnificent creatures frequently cross the river and walk out into the water with us nearly every day. Nothing is more cool than be casting flies to monster trout and have an elk come watch you fish! We offer Wade Trips only in Cherokee and have great access to prime water. We have a Winter Trophy Trout Special that puts you fishing the best water at the best time of the day!
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