Great Smoky Mountains Fishing Report 10/10/16

The fishing Great Smoky Mountains and surrounding region has been off to a good start for October! We have several fisheries hitting their stride this past week and the action has been very consistent and down right incredible on several rivers!

We guide many area rivers and streams around the Great Smoky Mountains region, so occasionally we will be reporting on those as well.

Tuckasegee River Fly Fishing is hot!

The Tuckasegee River was stocked last week in Bryson City and Dillsboro. The section in Bryson City was loaded with 11,000 trout per mile! That’s a massive amount of trout per mile and that number only continues to grow with each passing month. By November when stocked again that number swells to 17,000 trout per mile. We’re talking Rainbow, Brown and Brook trout with fish averaging 12-28 inches. Not too shabby! The action on the Tuck right now is phenomenal. We’re catching trout on dries, nymphs, and streamers. Pretty much anything you want to throw will catch a trout. Wading has been good on the Tuckasegee as the water levels are low even during generation it hasn’t been too high to wade. Float Trips from our drift boats have been good too. We can get to the deeper sections of water and fish where most folks can’t get.

The streams inside the Smokies saw some rain over the weekend. Hurricane Matthew which ripped through the east coast and brought a little rain to the mountains. Stream levels came up on several Smokies streams, although water is dropping out of most of them now.

Dry fly action continues to be strong in the national park. Good hatches of October Caddis and Cinnamon Caddis have kept the trout on the surface and feeding aggressively. Terrestrial patterns have also worked well, especially the last couple of days with the high winds which have knocked inch worms, ants, and beetles into the water.

We have a cooler start to the week with overnight lows dropping to around 40 degrees in Gatlinburg and Bryson City. Temps in the high country of the Smokies will certainly hit mid 30’s. Day time highs will reach low 70’s in the valley floors and low 60’s in the back country. It’s really going to feel like Fall here now and should turn the fish on even more.

Fall colors are awesome in the high elevations. Newfound Gap was beautiful over the weekend with lots of bright yellows contrasting with clear blue skies. It was an awesome sight to see! The cooler temps are going to cause even more leaves to turn at a rapid rate, so visitors this week should be in a for a visual treat.

Its going to be a dry week and perfect tempratures for getting out on the streams and trails. If you are in the area we hope you enjoy your time here in our mountains!

Faith, Family, and Fishing!