Fly Fishing Report February 29th
A fresh blanket of snow covered the Smokies today. Beautiful to see, however short lived as most areas saw melted snow by noon. Deep in the park at higher elevations the snow is still hanging tight to the trees and covering the ground with several new inches. All of this will be gone by mid day on Monday when temps warm and rain moves in. Currently in the park tonight its 22 degrees as I drove back over from Gatlinburg to Bryson City. 441 is open, just watch for scattered patches of ice. The park service has done a fantastic job this time around of keeping the roads in good shape and keeping the road through the Smokies open.
Smokies Fishing Report
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park streams fished well today. Despite being cold with a bone chilling breeze at times, trout stayed on the feed from early this morning until late afternoon as the sun started to drop. Nymph fishing was the game today with Stoneflies and black caddis being at the top of the menu. Looking for areas of the stream that had good light on the water was key. Fish were stacked in the pockets and softer water. Where you found one, you could usually muster up a couple more.
Tuckasegee River Fishing Report
The Tuckasegee River was in fine shape today for float trips. Water clarity was great and flows were running just 3000cfs at Bryson City. Hatches of Blue Quills started coming off after lunch and continued for hours. Risers were all over the place along the edges especially where the wind lines stacked up tons of bugs in the eddies. Large pods of risers worked over the stacks of spent blue quills feverishly. They were still spooky and required a long leader of 6x tippet to coax a take. Banging streamers off the banks on sink tips brought a good many fish to the net as well. Not a bad way to end out February.