ifish4wildtrout
08-18-2011, 08:36 AM
Tuesday, I fished the Oconaluftee for about 6 hours. I only managed to land 10 small trout, the largest being an 8 inch rainbow. Catch ratio of browns to rainbows was about 50/50.
The water was lower than when I was there in October and the catching was much tougher. I tried a variety of flies, but the most successful patterns were a dry/dropper combo of a foam winged caddis with a BH green weenie dropper. I did catch a fish or two on a standard BH hair's ear nymph and also on a bushy Adams type dry.
Wednesday, I fished Bradley Fork from Smokemont up to Chasteen. The water was pretty low and I only managed 4 small trout, 2 browns and 2 rainbows.
I threw just about every pattern imaginable, with the weenie catching all 4 trout. There were fish in the runs, but the water was so low I had a hard time not spooking the fish. The fish caught were all out of the deeper holes, which were few and far between.
Both days, I did have a lot of strikes and rises, but the fish did not seem very aggressive, mostly just smacking at the dry. I did miss a few hooksets. I did have a pretty nice brown take the green weenie at Bradley Fork, I was not paying attention and failed to set the hook quickly enough. When I did set the hook, he was there for a second and I saw him come up, he was at least 12 inches. :frown:
I talked to 3 others anglers, all pretty much had the same luck as me over the past few days.
On Monday, I fished a Pisgah National Forest stream that was so low, it was barely a trickle. I landed 10 decent trout in just under 2 hours. I want to blame my poor performance in the GSMNP on low water or the recent waether changes, but I am thinking my skills are lacking for catching GSMNP trout.
Any advice or feedback is welcome. Sorry, I took no pics on the trip.
The water was lower than when I was there in October and the catching was much tougher. I tried a variety of flies, but the most successful patterns were a dry/dropper combo of a foam winged caddis with a BH green weenie dropper. I did catch a fish or two on a standard BH hair's ear nymph and also on a bushy Adams type dry.
Wednesday, I fished Bradley Fork from Smokemont up to Chasteen. The water was pretty low and I only managed 4 small trout, 2 browns and 2 rainbows.
I threw just about every pattern imaginable, with the weenie catching all 4 trout. There were fish in the runs, but the water was so low I had a hard time not spooking the fish. The fish caught were all out of the deeper holes, which were few and far between.
Both days, I did have a lot of strikes and rises, but the fish did not seem very aggressive, mostly just smacking at the dry. I did miss a few hooksets. I did have a pretty nice brown take the green weenie at Bradley Fork, I was not paying attention and failed to set the hook quickly enough. When I did set the hook, he was there for a second and I saw him come up, he was at least 12 inches. :frown:
I talked to 3 others anglers, all pretty much had the same luck as me over the past few days.
On Monday, I fished a Pisgah National Forest stream that was so low, it was barely a trickle. I landed 10 decent trout in just under 2 hours. I want to blame my poor performance in the GSMNP on low water or the recent waether changes, but I am thinking my skills are lacking for catching GSMNP trout.
Any advice or feedback is welcome. Sorry, I took no pics on the trip.