November Fly Fishing Smoky Mountains

November is one month that most people tend to overlook when thinking about trout fishing, especially fly fishing. There’s no reason for this other than leaf season has passed and November is spent watching football and waiting on Thanksgiving to get here. What most folks may not realize is that fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains and surrounding region is amazing! This is the time of year we start to see much larger trout become increasingly active, and we have more Brown Trout caught in November than any other month of the year.

Where we are fishing;

The Tuckasegee River

The Tuckasegee River is the hottest destination in the South. By November 7th, the Tuckasegee will have 17,000 trout per mile! Fly Fishing the Smokies offers both Wade Trips and Float Trips on this fantastic river. We get into some incredible Brook Trout and Brown Trout on this fishery with November seeing some good dry fly action in the early afternoons. Float Trips are a great way to cover more water and cast to more fish without having to wade slippery river bottoms. Rainbow, Brown and Brook trout are all present in the river system along with Smallmouth Bass. Catching a Grand Slam of all four species is possible in a single day.

Cherokee Trophy Section

The Cherokee Tropy Section on the Raven Fork is absolutely on fire this month. The biggest, baddest, trout in the land call the Raven Fork home. True River Monsters in every sense of the word. These fish fight hard and provide a challenge for even the most skilled angler. The Raven Fork is where we see the Elk from the Smokies while fishing. It’s an awesome experience to fish the Raven Fork.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

November is a good time to fish the Great Smoky Mountains. The Brown and Brook trout inside the park will start to spawn as tempratures drop. We do not fish for actively spawning fish. However, before trout spawn they gorge themselves on anything that hits the water trying to pack on fat stores. Rainbow trout will also be eating as many calories as possible, getting ready for Winter. Warm weather will keep the action inside the Great Smoky Mountains very good for the entire month!

Nantahala River

The Nantahala River is an excellent choice for Fall Fly Fishing and fishes fabulous in November. The Nantahala is one of Trout Unlimited’s Top 100 Trout streams in the nation and is home to the state record Brown Trout. Its no secret that Fall is the best time to target monster Brown trout and the Nantahala river rarely disappoints. The Nantahala river is loaded with Brook, Brown and Rainbow trout.  We fish several different sections of the Nantahala River from the lower tailwater section, to its upper reaches above Standing Indian. The Nantahala has it all!

The Science of it

November marks a very important time in a trout’s life cycle where they must eat as many calories as possible for several reasons; One is winter is fast approaching and trout need to eat as many calories as possible to have some fat stores. The second is this time of year Brown trout and Brook trout start to spawn. Spawning burns up tons of energy and fat stores so trout need to replace these at a very rapid rate. In other words, Fish eat more in November!

We’ll see you on the water!

Faith, Family, and Fishing