South Cherokee National Forest was smoking on Sunday

[dwardmba]

And I do mean smoking - I felt like Jeffrey.





Anyhow, I don't count after the first one so I'd guess I ended up with about a dozen. All on hare's ears - first half dozen or so on a beadhead and the other half on a parachute. Switched from the nymph to the dry when I started seeing fish rising to the hatch. Not that large of a hatch but the fish aren't that large so it seemed fair. Largest would have been about 9" and the smallest is below.

I do have to note that for the first time in my life every trout I caught was large enough to be a keeper.



Dave

[Rockyraccoon]

Pretty fish man.

I was floating the Hiwassee on Sunday and the smoke was super thick until noon when the wind shifted. I had my radio tuned to police and emergency but never heard what was on fire or where. Any clue?

[dwardmba]

The FS was doing some controlled burns south of the skyway.

The whole operation looked well managed. They even had flashing road signs warning motorists about a half mile before the area being worked. When I pulled off to take a picture of the smoke I wasn't there two minutes before a FS employee showed up to offer a brief on what was going.

Dave

[2weightfavorite]

I read in a paper that there was a big brush fire in Tellico...30 cabins got damaged or ruined by the fire..im guessing that might be the cause of the smoke... of course, the paper was vague, and I am in florida, but it was first page news...

[flyman01]

I heard and read about the fire in Pigeon Forge burning acres of land and destroying cabins, but nothing around Tellic Plains. I cannot find anything on-line validating a fire in Tellico, anyone else have any information on that?

[dwardmba]

I think the FL paper might be confused. I was in the area this weekend and the only fire / smoke I saw was the controlled burns being conducted by the FS.

Dave

[2weightfavorite]

I could totally be wrong.. that is the downside to reading news 500 miles away...

[Streamhound]

not sure the smoke would have made it over but there was a good size fire in P. Forge around 3/17-18

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/18/us...ire/index.html