Was talking to a buddy about some spring break ideas, and he mentioned going to the smokey mountain national park and backpacking from stream to stream. Has anyone ever done this before? Any suggestions?
I’d love to help but I’m going up there for the first time for my spring break. Renting a cabin on the tuck and gonna venture out into the park and Ty my hand at a few streams like deep creek and ravens fork. Also hit up the cherokee waters. They stock those house Donaldson trout in some of there waters and is not to expensive to fish the day. I think $7 or $10. And they stock over 40000 trout a year plus the state stocking above and below the tribal water
I grew up fishing many streams in N. GA, Tenn and NC. I do most my camping-hike-fish in GA- the Tacoa River headwaters (Chattahoochie WMA)are awesome and lots of camping and Cohutta WMA(Conasauga River and Jacks river are awesome) which has high elevation 3000+ft streams great for brookies but rugged remote terrain. Also the App. Trail starts near and crosses Noontootla Creek(3441.2’N 84 11.64’W) and many more can be accessed from here. Most my experience is in these areas PM me if you need details.
I can advise on these:
http://blueridgemountains.com/surrounded_by_forests.html
Hazel Creek is an excellent trip. I’ve also heard of a nice hike down to deep creek from the top of the Park.
I live up here and learned to flyfish in the park. Its a great idea and based on where in the park you go you will have options outside of the park as well. Good idea to know up front that the park can be a difficult place to fish and there are some tactics that you should check in on before coming. Around here, and in several park books, the typical sentiment is that somewhere betweeen 75-90% of those who wet a line don’t catch squat. From the zillion of hours I have logged in there I have seen a lot of folks whos tactics support that. There is a ton of water that can be accesssed by car as well, and the campgrounds don’t offer showers etc…if thats important to you. Good place to test your skills though, remember the clothes you wear and how you wade are higher on the priority list that the patterns you toss.
If it swims throw a fly at it!