Back from a Week on Hazel

[Mac]

Just had a chance to write a report from our week on Hazel. We hiked in on September 30th to campsite # 83. We spent the first part of the day enjoying the boat ride from Frontana to the trailhead. Spent the rest of the day hiking in and setting up camp.

Hate to bring up anything negitive about Hazel but when we arrived the campsite # 82 had all kinds of trash laying around, three or four old plastic sheets, and some old tarps laying around. Good news is that we spent the first hour picking everything up. As you can see we had not cleaned the fire pit yet, but we cleaned it as well. :biggrin: "Leave no trace"

After the cleanup, We spent the rest of the day just enjoying the area. This is one of my favorite campsite's as far as just being a pretty place to camp.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn45/mactrout/HazelCamp.jpg

Our plans were to spend the second day hiking up to Cold Springs Gap trail and entering Hazel from this point and start fishing upstream. We spent the second, third and fourth day fishing from Cold Springs Gap Trail to above Campsite # 82.

The mornings and mid days were consistant but somewhat slower. We had our best luck during the evening fishing somewhere around 3:30 started the magical fishing time's. Everything was caught on dry flys mostly using the parachute Adams, 16 Simulator, and small Elk hairs. After 3:30 the fish were hitting at every hole. Bring plenty of dry fly floatant. :cool:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn45/mactrout/FishingonHazel.jpg

The key was stealth and wearing camo colors because the water was clear and somewhat low. The higher elevations still had nice pools and bolders to hide behind.

All three days that we fished we were able to catch Rainbows, Browns and Brook trout. In the three days that we fished my brother and I landed 82 wild mountain trout and I would bet we missed three times that many.

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn45/mactrout/HazelRainbow.jpg

We saw a lot of bear tracks in the mud on the creek banks and I think we saw a Bobcat. We were hiking up to campsite # 82 one morning and it jumped right onto the trail and spent just a second or two looking at us and then leaped back into the woods. I have never heard anyone talking about seeing a Bobcat in the area but we got a pretty good look and I would have a hard time being convinced it was anything else. :frown:

Spent October 4th breaking down camp and taking our time hiking back to meet the boat for our 1:00 pick up.

Overall it was a wonderful time to be fly fishing for wild mountain trout in the smokies.

[Mac]

One last important point of the trip that I forgot to bring up. The morning before we caught the boat ride across my brother convinced me not to bring two of my single dehydrated Mountain House dinners because he had two dinners that feed two that he wanted to use.

I can know testify that you can eat and not get sick by eating 13 year old Mountain House dinners. :confused:

[mtnman2888]

Great report i'm sure that was a great trip. I would love to be able to get away for a week and spend in that area. Did you fish around the cascades?

[Mac]

Mtnman,

Looking at the map I think we got pretty close to the Cascades. We talked about trying to get there but we never made it that far up.

We spent every day fishing above # 83 to a little past #82 and we still had a long hike back to our camp. The best fishing was in the evenings and made it hard to get back by dark or a little after dark.

Next time I think we will go ahead and stay at #82 like we did this year in April and fish below and above. This way we would not have to worry as much about getting back.

[iamcolby]

This is the other member of the crew. There was a challenge with the food beyond its expiration date of 3 not "13" years. My brother fibbed and told me he had fuel also. So, we only had my fuel. So my "13" year old Mountain House dinners would have been much better heated.