road prong at the last bridge

[knucklehead]

i believe the stream i'm referring to is the road prong. crosses newfound gap road several times. anyways, at the last bridge before the road tops out i set out fishing for a little while. below the bridge fishing was good. several good risers, spooked a few. but above the bridge was another story. nothing at all. fished about 200 yds upstream, really nice water, but not one strike, not one spook, nothing. just wondering if trout live above the bridge and i just didnt find them or if that portion of stream is as barren as it seems.

[Crockett]

Road prong never crosses NFG road I don't think. Maybe the west prong of the little pigeon? What trail were you on or were you fishing from the road? By road tops do you mean the chimney tops trail? If so then yeah it would be road prong.

[duckypaddler]

Originally Posted by knucklehead

i believe the stream i'm referring to is the road prong. crosses newfound gap road several times. anyways, at the last bridge before the road tops out i set out fishing for a little while. below the bridge fishing was good. several good risers, spooked a few. but above the bridge was another story. nothing at all. fished about 200 yds upstream, really nice water, but not one strike, not one spook, nothing. just wondering if trout live above the bridge and i just didnt find them or if that portion of stream is as barren as it seems.

The fishing is OK above the last bridge. I comepletely dies out a little bit past this pool known as Grren Light Falls to the kayakers



At that point you are at about 5000 feet, and above the confluence with Tomahawk branch. While I never got a specific answer, Steve Moore & Matt Kulp both agreed it was somewhere in that section that the fish were no more.

Good luck next time
James

[2weightfavorite]

Its still the west prong of the little pigeon. When it goes under 441 for the last time it goes strait up the mountain to the left (asuming you are driving or walking up the river). I agree with fact that somewhere right there is where the fish stop existing... Fished up a ways, and there are some decent holes and plunges, but very few fish... Kind of disappointing really. I had to try it a couple times, you never know if you just hit it on a bad day, ya know.. but after fishing it for the llast time, i will never fish that stretch again... Its just empty water.. Is it too acidic? not enough food...? Id love to now exactly why there isnt anything up that high..?

[ijsouth]

The stream you were fishing was Walker Camp Prong; it joins Road Prong just off the road, along the trail to the Chimneys, to form the West Prong Little Pigeon. Road Prong is named for the "old" road, the old indian trail that eventually became the overmountain road, before Newfound Gap was found to be lower than the gap the old road went over. Walker Camp is a good stream, but it might be a bit too acidic in its far upper reaches - when US441 was widened, the Anakeesta formation was cut, and acid-bearing iron pyrite leached into the stream. The upper reaches might still be a bit barren.

[duckypaddler]

I agree it was probably West Prong if he was fishing below Chimney's trailhead parking area, or Walker Camp if above. Sorry I read above last bridge on Road Prong and assumed he was talking about last foot bridge.

Knucklehead - Good avatar name!

[Jim Casada]

knucklehead--ijsouth provides all the requisite information in precise fashion. You probably confused Road Prong and walker Camp Prong because it seems logical that the one which 441 parallels would be called Road Prong. However, the first road through the mountains, bult by the Thomas Legion in the Civil War, followed Road Prong. You'll find considerable historical information on both in my book.

As for the fish sort of petering out, he's right again--Anakeesta rock. Part of the problem was construction, but there is very little surface dirt on the Tennessee side in this area and the terrain is very steep. That means lots of acid wash out with heavy rains, and the higher up you are the worse it is. That's also why Alum Cave Creek, lower down, has relatively few fish.
Jim Casada
www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

[tennswede]

Ian,

We have been missing you on this board.

[ijsouth]

Originally Posted by tennswede

Ian,

We have been missing you on this board.

Hans - I've been meaning to post, but I've been incredibly busy. My oldest girl is 15 now, and is quite the soccer player; I got into coaching, and I coached her team last year, and I still coach 3v3 soccer. My trips up to the mountains have been a bit curtailed; we were up there a few weeks ago, and I was going to post a report, but again - just didn't have time.

I'm headed up next weekend, for a very brief whirlwind trip - I'm bringing up a friend of mine who's never fly-fished, but is very intrigued by it and the mountains. We won't have much time, but it's now or wait until next year. I will say that last time up, I hooked the largest spec I've ever seen in the Smokies - he was easily 10 inches, and he hit the reel, taking quite a bit of line. I did everything I could, but the hook pulled out...oh well, I know where he lives now.

[nvr2L8]

Ian,

I second Hans "Welcome back". We've missed your posts. While we've never met, the folks at LRO speak highly of you (excellent endorsement in my book).

While working with the Park Service crew up on Lynn Camp Prong this past week, we shocked up the biggest brookie I have ever seen. It was (not exagerating) close to 12". It was developing a bit of a hook in the jaw and Steve Moore said he had seen brookies that size eating salamanders. While I know the pool where that one was released, chances are it will have passed into speckled heaven by the time LCP reopens.