Smokies Trout
Brook trout, or “spec,” are a glimpse of nature at her best. Their colorful delicacy is a sharp contrast to the mountains’ mass. The three-toned fins most easily distinguish it from other species while it swims. A mountaineer here once paid the local dentist 200 trout—caught in a morning—for some dental work, as attested by account books. Park regulations now prohibit catching the brook trout because it has lost so much of its original territory that its numbers have been severely reduced.
Brown trout, a European fish, has entered the park recently. It inhabits the park’s lower waters, which provide the warmer, slower conditions it prefers. It will eat its own young as well as those of competing rainbow and brook trout.
Rainbow trout were introduced from the West during the logging era via milk cans to improve fishing. They are larger and more aggressive than brookies.
The streams and rivers of the Smokies are famous for their purity. All who come to these mountains are impressed by the beauty of the waterways that have carved their way into the lush wilderness. More than 300 streams flow throughout the park. To many of us these streams mean only one thing, trout. Actually, more than 70 species of fish have been collected in the park, such as chubs, shiners, minnows, dace, catfish, suckers, sculpins, darters, and even lamprey.
Trout live in fast-flowing water where their streamlined bodies enable them to maintain themselves in the current, often close to the stream bottom. Brookies, especially, require such pure water that they are often considered a clean water “index.”
This little creature is known as a mayfly, one of the five insects most widely imitated by artificial fly patterns. The imitations seek to simulate, as dry, wet, or nymph patterns, the insects’ larval and adult stages and their aquatic habits.
Male Adams
Dark Cahill
Olive Caddis
Leadwing Coachman
Yellow Hammer (antique gold)
Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear
Adams Variant
Royal Wulff
Light Cahill
Secret Weapon
Yellow Hammer (peacock)
Muskrat Nymph
Yellow Forney Creek
Humpy or Guffus Bug
Grey Hackle Peacock
Yellow Wooly Worm
Light Cahill Nymph
Tellico Nymph
To rile up trout anglers just assert that one fly pattern is the best. But in fly fishing areas such as the Smokies, a few patterns inevitably emerge as favorites. Here as elsewhere, most artificial flies imitate five varieties of insects common to most waters: mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, alderflies, and ants. There are, in all, about 5,000 sorts of human-tied flies in existence. Does that sound overwhelming? Well, there are probably hundreds of thousands of varieties of insects which trout may feed upon at one time or another. The following advice will help you narrow your choice.
Dry Flies Mayfly imitations: Light Cahill, Quill Gordon, Royal Coachman, Dark Hendrickson. Caddis imitations: Henryville Special. Ant imitations: Black Ant, Red Ant.
Wet Fly and Nymphs Black Woolly Worm, Hendrickson, Light Cahill, Hare’s Ear, March Brown.
Streamers Olive Mateuka, Muddler Minnow (imitates grasshopper or sculpin).
Watch out for low-hanging branches!
Female Adams
① Head ② Wing ③ Body ④ Tail ⑤ Hackle
Choosing a pattern may challenge today’s trout angler in the Smokies, but choosing your bait does not. Fishing is confined to artificial lures only. No bait is allowed. Pictured here is Mrs. Clem Enloe. She was 84 years old and lived on Tight Run Branch when Joseph S. Hall took this photo. She was the last person—and the only one in her own day, in fact—allowed to use worms as bait in the park. She was also allowed to fish here any season of the year because she flat refused to obey the new park’s newly-instituted fishing regulations. Park rangers didn’t have the heart to throw the book at her. “I was told that if I took her a box of snuff, she would let me take her picture,” photographer Hall said. That’s the snuff in her blouse. Someone later suggested that the rangers should have tried snuff too.
We ask that you, however, please follow all fishing regulations!