Great Two Days On LR

[David Knapp]

Blog updated now with full report and more pictures.

I spent the last couple of days on Little River and camping at Elkmont. The fishing was excellent but a bit strange. It took a while to get things really dialed in but then the fishing was very good.

All fish the last two days were caught on a dry/dropper rig. Yesterday the majority of the fish took the dropper while today they had a definite preference for the dry. Today I finally just took off the dropper and fished the #12 Parachute Adams exclusively. The hatch situation was quite complex, but thankfully the fish weren't picky. I saw Quill Gordon duns and spinners (way up the trail), Blue Quills, a March Brown or two, brown stoneflies, yellow stoneflies, caddis, and lots of midges.

Yesterday I had three interesting experiences. The first was catching a brookie much lower on Little River than I have ever caught one before. It must be a result of all the high water we have had this past winter. It was probably half a mile lower than the previous "low" spot I had caught one in previously. Notice the bite marks on its back...must be a big brown around somewhere...



Another one was catching two trout at once. I've never done that in the Smokies (in fact don't think I've done it on trout before) although as often as I use two flies it seems like it should have happened before now.



The third thing that happened was the most interesting in my opinion. I had a big brown come out to try and eat a little rainbow I had just hooked. Right as it was closing for the kill, the trailing dropper snagged it. Somewhere in the ensuing chaos the little 'bow escaped. I can now say that I legitimately hooked a small fish but when I landed it a big brown was on the other end of the line...not exactly fair caught but it was there...

Here's a picture of the brown...




Here are a few more pictures from the past couple of days...more pictures to come on my blog as well as a better writeup once I have some time to digest the trip...