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Post by mspaddler on Mar 19, 2016 15:11:56 GMT
Ok guys & gals here is another option in the USA which gets very little press here in the UK - The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Park is located in East Tennessee and North Carolina. This area has something for everyone and especially if you are travelling with children, the entertainment/resort area around Gatlinburg will keep the kids busy for a week. But let's get to the main event - fishing. Now this really has everything for the angler, mountain streams, large dam fed rivers and lakes for bass fishing. My preference is for the mountain streams but I have fished the Clinch River which is an easy wading big river which is stocked by the state of Tennessee. There is no stocking in the 2500 miles of rivers and streams in the National Park. There are 3 species of trout in the Park Rainbow, Brown and Brook, only the Brook Trout is native the others were introduced by sporting clubs going back to the 19th Century. Recently the Park authorities have completed an eradication process of Brown and Rainbow trout in some high elevation streams to allow the native Brookies the thrive without competition from incomers. Here are a few photos of the Water:
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Post by mspaddler on Mar 19, 2016 15:29:17 GMT
As mentioned above the Park has Brook, Brown and Rainbow trout all naturally reproducing. The Brookies tend to be less than 8 inches the Rainbows and Browns can get to good sizes but mostly less than 1 lb. Dry and dropper (klink and dink) is often the choice of anglers in the area but there is also excellent hatches of various invertebrates when dry fly fishing is the order of the day. Here are examples of all 3 species of the fish I caught last year, not the biggest just ones I managed to photograph:
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Post by mspaddler on Mar 19, 2016 15:55:49 GMT
Finally the Admin of a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Getting there: The airport closest to the Smokies is Knoxville, TN (TYS) and the largest hub is Atlanta (ATL) again a very big airport perhaps the largest in the USA so immigration can take a while! An alternative routeing is through Charlotte, North Carolina there are international flights from the UK to CLT with American Airlines. Accommodation: Traditionally when in the Smokies folks stay in a log cabin, but there are tons of hotels in the Gatlinburg area if you prefer. We always stay in cabins which allow you to live a normal life, cooking some of your meals and with washers & dryers so less need to carry an excessive amount of clothes and more room for fishing gear! I use the internet to find cabins, usually VRBO.com or Homeaway.com there is also Airbnb.com but I have found that Airbnb tends to be more expensive as they charge an admin fee for booking. We will be in the Smokies again in April on my way back to the UK. The cost of cabins are very reasonable especially out of the peak season, the cabin we have rented this April works out at $700 for the week. Here are a few cabins we have rented previously:
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Post by paul on Mar 19, 2016 20:14:27 GMT
Hope that 'finally' is just the one chapter! Although if you pause for breath I might the time enough to actually go for one of your options! Any other takers?
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Post by Pete Tyjas on Mar 20, 2016 7:49:28 GMT
Thanks for posting MSP, have you fished the White in Akansas?
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Post by mspaddler on Mar 20, 2016 14:51:50 GMT
Yes Pete White River in Arkansas was the first place I caught a trout, that was the Summer of 2008. However, not fly fishing but sweet corn on a spinning rod guided by an old man of the river. The daily bag limit for trout in Arkansas is 5 and my wife and I ended up with 10 for the pot. In mitigation all rainbow trout in the rivers of Arkansas are hatchery raised, but it was also the last time that I took a trout I caught for the pot. It was this experience which was partly instrumental in me thinking about Fly Fishing as a retirement project and although I never went back to the White River I did fish two other rivers (Little Red and Spring) in Arkansas on several occasions. I was working for FedEx in Memphis, TN and Arkansas has the nearest fly fishing water. The White along with the Norfolk and Little Red rivers in Arkansas are dam release rivers, the dams being used to generate electricity. Wade fishing is highly dependent on when the generators are running and it can be iffy to say the least if you are the wrong side of the river when the water starts to rise. They do publish generating schedules but they are not always accurate. As an aside the current world record for Brown Trout is 42 lbs and was caught in New Zealand in 2013 prior to that two 41+ lb were the joint records from Wisconsin & Michigan and before that the record was 40 lbs caught on the Little Red River in Arkansas. Photos:
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Post by mspaddler on Mar 20, 2016 18:58:49 GMT
I have just found out that VRBO/Homeaway started charging a service fee from the end of February this year on a 'sliding scale' between 4% and 9%. Annoying!
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Post by Pete Tyjas on Mar 20, 2016 19:40:58 GMT
Wow, thanks for posting MSP, The White is a place I have always wanted to fish, one day....
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Post by robmason on Mar 22, 2016 0:06:36 GMT
Ok guys & gals here is another option in the USA which gets very little press here in the UK - The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Park is located in East Tennessee and North Carolina. This area has something for everyone and especially if you are travelling with children, the entertainment/resort area around Gatlinburg will keep the kids busy for a week. But let's get to the main event - fishing. Now this really has everything for the angler, mountain streams, large dam fed rivers and lakes for bass fishing. My preference is for the mountain streams but I have fished the Clinch River which is an easy wading big river which is stocked by the state of Tennessee. There is no stocking in the 2500 miles of rivers and streams in the National Park. There are 3 species of trout in the Park Rainbow, Brown and Brook, only the Brook Trout is native the others were introduced by sporting clubs going back to the 19th Century. Recently the Park authorities have completed an eradication process of Brown and Rainbow trout in some high elevation streams to allow the native Brookies the thrive without competition from incomers. Here are a few photos of the Water: View AttachmentView AttachmentView AttachmentI spent 1 month in North Carolina during 2003. The week I had in the Great Smoky Mountains will live with me for a long time. Thanks for posting.
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