I fished the last three days in the mountains for trout and smallmouth enjoying some cooler weather and some of the most beautiful places NW North Carolina and NE Tennessee have to offer. Our fishing, as always, was spectacular. It helps tremendously to have a good guide. Yesterday, we fished some wild trout water in one of our National Forests. I literally saw 3 pieces of trash, all of which we picked up, and fished all day in a full canopy of mature hardwoods, rhododendrons, and flowering mountain laurels. Our day started out with a 2 mile hike into some wild trout waters, a full day a fishing in some rough terrain consisting of steep, narrow steams with plunge pools and waterfalls. I earned the nickname of “Spider Monkey” due to my enthusiasm to climb the big, slick boulders from pool to pool, eager to present our flies to hunger, opportunistic wild rainbow and brown trout (some of which have probably never been caught or seen a human). It was quite rewarding to make the perfect cast and see a wild rainbow or brown engulf our dry fly.
Today, we floated a section of river in Tennessee that was holding some trophy trout in the upper section and smallmouth in the lower section of our float. I caught the largest Rainbow trout of my life (so far), about 18 inches, and caught my largest smallmouth bass so far, about 3.5 pounds, on a topwater popping bug on a fly rod. I watched the fish eat it, and the rest was history.
As usual, our guide, Judson Conway, of Elk Creek Outfitters, exceeded our expectations. His better smallmouth free-flowing rivers are blown out from all the recent rains. Despite limited options and tough conditions on the better rivers, his resourcefulness and expertise proved valuable in making our fishing experience the best it could have been. We all had an absolute blast, as usual.
