Smokies Fall Fishing... Here Already?

Things shook out such that I had this afternoon free, and I threw my gear in the car and took off. There was a Rod Run in Pigeon Forge and Fall Festival in Townsend, so I expected there to be a significant amount of traffic. I chose to take my chances with Townsend instead of the tourist trap of Pigeon Forge. Surprisingly, I made it all the way to Elkmont quickly with almost no traffic, threw my pack on and headed up the trail. I have a couple areas up the trail that I can hit when I don't really want to go all the way up to Goshen Prong Trail, but still want to separate myself from the rest of the crowd. On the hike up I passed three fishermen, and all three told me that they had slow days and wished me luck. I thought "luck, surely it isn't that bad today". I geared up at the stream and noticed that the water was pretty low and extremely clear. I rigged up with a yellow stimulator and a barbie bug dropper, and began to pick up strikes quite quickly. Unfortunately, I was having difficulty getting a solid hookset. Eventually I figured out why, as I finally pulled a 3" rainbow from the run. I did manage to find some larger trout, but they would inspect everything I threw at them before refusing. After a couple hours, I chose to change tactics and search for staging browns. I found half a dozen in different runs just sitting there that would probably go over 18". However, I could not tempt any of them to budge from their positions (kind of suspended probably a foot above the bottom) for the appetizer I was showing them. Looking back, I wish I would have went in search for some beautifully colored brookies in the higher elevations. Although I have had pretty good luck the past few trips to the park, especially considering my extremely limited fishing time this year, I found today's fishing to be particularly difficult. Regardless, it was still a blessing to get out and enjoy the scenery as the leaves are just starting to turn colors. I expect the next few weeks will have the roads appearing more like parking lots, and I will wait until the crowds reduce before I make a return visit. Also, I have lots of new camping gear that I need to get out and put to use soon, maybe I can go down to Cherokee National Forest where the crowds are much smaller and do some fishing...

Table project is complete

In late December I chose to take on a different kind of project for 2012. We bought a house in the fall, and I thought it would be cool to build our dining table.  This project, which I will post more on later, played a key role in my lack of fishing this year. It was difficult for me to justify taking a day to fish when my family didn't have a table to eat at.  Here is a photo of the finished project, but I will post later a detailed report on how the table progressed.

Chill-how-wee!

My buddy Scott just got a new 3 person toon and wanted to take it out. With low flow on the tailwaters, we figured some small lake action would be a good option. Also, we wanted to try somewhere different. So, we chose to head over the mountain to Chilhowee lake. It is an amazingly beautiful deep lake surrounded by tall uninhabited mountains. It took us a while to figure out exactly what they wanted and where they were concentrated, but eventually we got into some consistent action. Scott even caught his first fish on a popper. I think he enjoyed it, I just need to get him out on an area river for smallies now.

By the way, this is my first post using the Blogger app, so I hope it works.

Memorial Day Weekend Getaway

We took mamaw and papaw to Fairfield Glade this weekend for a little cruising and fishing. Caught a cooler full of slab sided gills just coming off the beds. Here is are some shots of my son all excited with a couple of his fish.

It has been a very busy spring so far, and I have only been on the water once since my previous post. I hope to get out some more soon, or at least discuss some recent camping gear purchases.

Epic Quill Gordon Day

I had originally planned a trip to the mountains Sunday to watch David Knapp tie, and get a couple hours on the water. However, a change of plans for Saturday prompted the wife to suggest I take advantage of the weather and go fish. After a lengthy deliberation of about 1.5 milliseconds, I said okay.

While driving in I saw somebody in about every other pull-off either gearing up or fishing. When I arrived at the trailhead I was surprised to find plenty of open spaces. So, it appears that most everybody was focusing their efforts roadside.


I was anxious to try out some new Patagonia gear, so I had a little more clothing on than was probably necessary. Thankfully, I elected to pack in my waders and put them on after walking a couple miles up the trail.


This is where things began to get interesting....

I found this nice little run and saw one small head poke out of the water, so I decided to give it a go.


I rigged up a #12 Quill Gordon and made my first cast to the middle rear portion of the run. My fly hadn't drifted more than 2 ft before BAM! I caught this little guy.


Keeping with Buzz's posting requirements I took his picture because I figured he would be the only fish of the day. What I didn't expect to happen was to catch 5 more fish on the next 5 consecutive casts.... I actually had a group of hikers see me land the second one, and they hung around to watch me land the next four fish. Eventually they started applauding every time I landed one. I have to say it was quite an experience.




The 5th fish in the 6 fish streak was this 12" beauty that ran me up and down this little run.


I believe this is the best rainbow I have landed on the TN side of the park.

I caught a few more, but eventually wore out this run before moving upstream in search of more water. This was when I met up with RKeeton from the message board and had a nice little chat while searching for more water. I ended up walking another 3/4 mile or so upstream with less than stellar results. I caught a couple more, but there was absolutely no surface activity going on. Thinking that I may have walked above the Quill Gordon hatch range, I walked back downstream and soon got back into the action.




Throughout the day, there were not large numbers of Gordons hatching. However, of all the ones I did see bouncing on the water, none got away free. I did see large numbers of brown stoneflies in a size 16, but had no reason to switch away from the Quill Gordon.

It was an absolutely beautiful day to be in the mountains and on the water. I would hate to speculate as to the quantity of fish landed today. However, a day like today causes one to completely lose track of numbers and just enjoy God's creation. I feel extremely blessed to have been able to enjoy such inspiring scenery and spectacular fishing.


Tight Lines and God Bless!

My Review of Patagonia Nano Puff Pullover Jacket - Men's

Originally submitted at REI

The Patagonia Nano Puff pullover is wind- and water-resistant and highly compressible. Very warm for it's weight, the pullover can be worn as insulation or outerwear in cold climates.

Patagonia Nano Puff Pullover Jacket - Men's

Don't Hesitate, Get One Now

By Travis the Chemengr from knoxville, TN on 2/12/2012

5out of 5

Fit: Feels true to size
Sleeve Length: Feels true to length
Chest Size: Feels true to size
Pros: Stylish, Windproof, Warm, Comfortable, Lightweight
Cons: Doesn't Breathe
Best Uses: Hiking and Camping, Cold Weather
Describe Yourself: Avid Adventurer
Was this a gift?: No

Been eyeing these for a while, but couldn't justify it with the mild winter we have been having. Then I found the mango version on clearance, and jumped on it. This pullover is the softest puffy I have ever tried on. Medium is large enough to fit over a Cap 1, R1 pullover, and R2 vest layering combo comfortably. I am 5'-8" and 165 lbs. Also small enough to fit under my MH Epic Jacket if needed during rain/snow. Can't wait to try this out on an upcoming late winter fly fishing trip. Recently wore the R1, R2, Nano combo while 20 deg and 25 mph winds and very low activity, and stayed toasty. Windproof and highly compressible. Excellent warmth to weight ratio.

Durability is only concern as the material is ultra light weight and thin. But Patagonia quality leads me to believe this will not be an issue.

Fantastic pullover, and I highly recommend it!

(legalese)

Back to the woods!

As is the typically the case this time of year, I put my fishing gear away from mid-November thru mid-December in hopes of bagging some meat for the freezer. The past two years I have a combined 6 hours in the woods and two deer to account for that. This year, I knew that my luck would probably begin to wear thin, but still had hopes of getting one early on and not having to log lots of hours in the woods.

You see, one large deer or 1.5 average deer will get us through the year and allow us to almost completely eliminate the need to purchase beef at the grocery store.

This year I spent 4 hours in the woods the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and managed to see a couple but no shots were fired. That was it for the weekend, as I had other obligations to tend to.

This past Saturday, I wanted to give it another go. It didn't take long for me to get my deer on the ground, and this one was a dandy. I am quite pleased with it, and am currently having a euro mount prepared to set on top of my fly tying desk.




My hunting for the year is probably over. So, it is time to focus my attention back to fishing and fly tying. I may even try to sneak a couple of winter hiking and camping trips in there somewhere if the wife allows me to.

I hope everybody out there has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

A Little Cold Front Trout Action

With the changing of the leaves usually comes the spawning of trout in the mountains and tailwaters. Most commonly on the tailwaters is the brown trout spawn on the Caney, South Holston, and Clinch (to an extent). In addition to that there are spawning rainbow and brown trout in the mountains. The pre-spawn period allows anglers opportunities to catch large wild trout that they otherwise may not ever even know existed.

This week East TN experienced its first cold snap of the year along with a cold rainfall. Those two events generally kick start the spawning cycle of trout, so I thought it best to take some time off work and give it a shot. I had intended to go up to the South Holston for some lake run brown trout action, but those plans fell through. So, instead I stayed a little closer to home and wanted to focus on some small stream brown, rainbow, and steelhead action. I also managed to convince my long time fishing buddy and friend Scott to join me even though the weather was predicted to not get above 50 degrees and blustery winds.

When we arrived at the stream we realized that the winds were being blocked by the mountains, always a good thing. The temps topped out around 50 degrees and the sun stayed hidden most of the day. However, we went prepared for those conditions, and it was a very nice day to be out on the water.





After gearing up we took our time looking for any sign of pre-spawn trout. That turned out to be less than promising, so we chose to just blindly fish a productive pool from seasons past. Scott was still tying his flies on, so I went ahead and entered the water and started fishing the pool. The recent rainfall had stained the water some, and there was a decent leaf hatch going on. Regardless, I was determined to give the pool my best effort. I had on a #8 golden stonefly and an egg pattern. On about my third drift I saw my indicator dive in a very deep area of the pool. Knowing it wasn't bottom, I set the hook hard. Due to the water clarity and fish we were chasing I was using 5X tippet, so I was not too concerned about breaking off with a strong hookset. My rod immediately bent double and I started yelling for Scott to come help. I managed to keep the fish isolated to the pool we were in and out of the tree limbs on the opposite side. After a brief two minute battle, we were looking at an 18" rainbow.





That got us pretty excited for the days potential, but little did we know that Scott would only land one other fish the rest of the time. I believe we probably timed our trip a little too soon, and may have to make a return trip in a couple weeks to see how things have progressed.



After our fishing time was up we went back to the parking lot and I put some of my new backpacking gear to use by having hot homemade chili and hot chocolate before making our way back home.