FishNHunt
08-05-2011, 03:38 PM
I know there are other "Panther creeks" but, the one I am going to talk about feeds in Chilhowee Lake.
Today I took my soon to be 5 yr old son to Chilhowee Lake. We headed up to the head waters to do a little trolling for trout. As has been my luck with my boat lately my trolling motor would barely pull. After some investigative work I found a fuse blown on the onboard battery charger so the batteries never charged. We did see some super nice fish feeding on schooling shad thou. So, with no trolling motor we went exploring and headed up Abrams creek and turned into Panther creek. I'd been in it before but, today we took a small hike up the stream to "play" and throw rocks. On the way in there was the usual National Park sign on the tree stating limits and sizes but, at the bottom of the sign it read in big bold letters, "POSSESSION OF BROOK TROUT PROHIBITED". It got me to wondering if the Park believes that there was a Brook trout population higher up the creek. The creek is small, comparable to the west prong of the Little River or Twenty Mile creek with some deeper plung pools. When I returned to my boat the depth finder temp guage (setting at the mouth of the creek) read 73 degrees even though there was most likely warmer water from the lake affecting the actual temp. I would guess the temperature in the river to be some what cooler. I never saw a trout but, the creek was full of small minnows and a couple smallmouth. I believe that I will give this creek a try this fall or spring.
Today I took my soon to be 5 yr old son to Chilhowee Lake. We headed up to the head waters to do a little trolling for trout. As has been my luck with my boat lately my trolling motor would barely pull. After some investigative work I found a fuse blown on the onboard battery charger so the batteries never charged. We did see some super nice fish feeding on schooling shad thou. So, with no trolling motor we went exploring and headed up Abrams creek and turned into Panther creek. I'd been in it before but, today we took a small hike up the stream to "play" and throw rocks. On the way in there was the usual National Park sign on the tree stating limits and sizes but, at the bottom of the sign it read in big bold letters, "POSSESSION OF BROOK TROUT PROHIBITED". It got me to wondering if the Park believes that there was a Brook trout population higher up the creek. The creek is small, comparable to the west prong of the Little River or Twenty Mile creek with some deeper plung pools. When I returned to my boat the depth finder temp guage (setting at the mouth of the creek) read 73 degrees even though there was most likely warmer water from the lake affecting the actual temp. I would guess the temperature in the river to be some what cooler. I never saw a trout but, the creek was full of small minnows and a couple smallmouth. I believe that I will give this creek a try this fall or spring.