mysticm
Well-known member
Hi Everyone,
Over the last week-end, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the NC side of the Smoky Mountains and spend a couple of days fishing the waters there. Saturday was spent on one of the larger rivers with lots of success. Both of us went into the double digits with Rainbows & Brookies. The fish ranged in size from 9 - 14in but they fought like they were much larger
The weather and fall colors were absolutely perfect & it was a trip to remember. I was surprised to see how aggressively the Brookies were hitting the flies.
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Sunday was spent hiking in the national park and hitting some of the streams for native brookies. Only caught a few small ones since the temps had dropped below freezing over night. However, it was great being out in the woods by ourselves with just the burbling sounds from the stream.
Some lessons from this trip-
1) My new Simms Headwaters boots worked superbly – both in and out of the water. The studded Vibram soles were perfect, not on instance of slipping
2) I learnt that one does not need to cast > 30ft in these waters to catch fish. All the fish I caught were with less than 20 foot casts.
3) My Sage Z axis (4wt) performed worse than my Scott A3 (4wt) in this type of fishing. It was so much easier to load the Scott with the short amount of line out. The rigs we were casting on the larger river involved – multiple flies with an indicator and split shot. Plus the wind was approx 20-25mph all day. Even in those conditions, the Scott outshone the Z-axis.
4) Its easier to ignore the frigid water temps once you start catching fish
Overall, a magical trip and many sweet memories to bring home.
Over the last week-end, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the NC side of the Smoky Mountains and spend a couple of days fishing the waters there. Saturday was spent on one of the larger rivers with lots of success. Both of us went into the double digits with Rainbows & Brookies. The fish ranged in size from 9 - 14in but they fought like they were much larger
The weather and fall colors were absolutely perfect & it was a trip to remember. I was surprised to see how aggressively the Brookies were hitting the flies.
Sunday was spent hiking in the national park and hitting some of the streams for native brookies. Only caught a few small ones since the temps had dropped below freezing over night. However, it was great being out in the woods by ourselves with just the burbling sounds from the stream.
Some lessons from this trip-
1) My new Simms Headwaters boots worked superbly – both in and out of the water. The studded Vibram soles were perfect, not on instance of slipping
2) I learnt that one does not need to cast > 30ft in these waters to catch fish. All the fish I caught were with less than 20 foot casts.
3) My Sage Z axis (4wt) performed worse than my Scott A3 (4wt) in this type of fishing. It was so much easier to load the Scott with the short amount of line out. The rigs we were casting on the larger river involved – multiple flies with an indicator and split shot. Plus the wind was approx 20-25mph all day. Even in those conditions, the Scott outshone the Z-axis.
4) Its easier to ignore the frigid water temps once you start catching fish
Overall, a magical trip and many sweet memories to bring home.