Great Smoky Mountains Fly Fishing Report
The Great Smoky Mountains were absolutely beautiful the past two days. Temps hit the high 60’s in Bryson City and touched 70 near Gatlinburg. Even the back country in the Smoky Mountains reached the mid 60’s. The weather has been incredible and the fishing was superb across the region. This morning we woke up to light rain in Bryson City and cloudy skies in Gatlinburg. Its very warm with temps between 55-60 depending on which side of the mountains you are on. Perfect weather for fishing!
Dry fly fishing has been the big news of the week! Numerous streams in the Smokies saw several varieties of aquatic insects hatching which brought trout to the surface. Most hatches started mid morning and continued til after 6pm tonight. We saw Blue Quills, Blue Winged Olives, Black Caddis, and Brown Stones all moving about today inside the park. Dry dropper rigs were of course the best bet, and by mid afternoon, fishing just a dry proved to be the most fun. Lower elevation streams such as the Little River and the Oconaluftee River fished excellent. Water temps were a tad warmer and the flows were about perfect. Of course water clarity is gin clear as is the norm for the Smokies. Today’s light rain and mist have streams unchanged and looking great!
Tuckasegee River Fishing Report
The lower section of Tuckasegee River is running the lowest it has in a long time today at 2300cfs. Those are some great condtions for fishing out here. Water clarity is perfect right now and if the rian doesnt get very heavy the clarity should remain good. Caddis are your best bet along with March Browns and healthy dose of streamers mixed in for those meat eating predators. Game Changers have been the hot ticket for streamers. If you haven’t fished one yet, you are completely missing out! Sinking tips with short stout leaders are highly recommmend as these ig fish will break you off in a hurry. the warm winter this year have hatches starting earlier than normal. March browns started hatching last week and have brought many trout to the surface to feed on these larger bugs.
Raven Fork Fishing Report
The Raven Fork in Cherokee has fished strong so far this week. These big fish tend to be spooky so having some light rain like today is a big help. Hatches of blue quills and Black Caddis are keeping trout happy and feeding on dries sporadically around mid day. Mostly its a nymphing game, getting down deep on light tippet that wins the day. Streamers have also been a good bet. Work them slowly on sinking lines ad fish tight to structure and you can hook into an absolute toad!
Weather forecast this week is calling for intermittent chances of rain. Rain chances are low each day, except for Friday which is showing 60% chance. At this point we aren’t very worried about conditions becoming unfishable or rivers blowing out. The forecast seems to keep bouncing around each day with nothing being consistent. That tells us its pretty much a typical March where anything can happen. The best et is to dress accordingly and bring a rain jacket. The fish are bitting, and we’re hitting the water regardless of what the weatherman says. We tend to believe it when we see it!