Fly Fishing North Carolina

This was our first trip to North Carolina, and we were pleasantly surprised. The region of Western North Carolina near the Smoky Mountains is a real gem for trout fishing. In the area we found a mix of mountain freestone streams with wild trout and tailwaters with larger stocked trout. In late February the weather here was great. We had t shirt weather and hatches during the day which was perfect for nymphing in the morning and dry fly fishing in the afternoon. We spent our first day on the Nantahala tight line nymphing. The water was high and there was some whitewater but we still found some nice inside seams, pools, and tailouts to fish. The fishing was slow, but we found some success with a couple of small brown trout until I threw upstream into a seam beneth a partially submerged bush and got a solid take.  The fish immediatly ran down stream and with a three weight I had give chase. After following the fish nearly 100 feet downstream through a small whitewater riffle I landed a beautifyl 18 inch brown trout in a slower pocket. That turned out to be one of the nicest fish of the trip. The next couple of days we fished the Tuckasegee River near the town of Bryson City. The Tuckasegee is a stocked tailwater with Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout that can exceed 20 inches. We again were tight line nymphing and having a lot of luck with Brook Trout and the occasional Rainbow Trout. Fishing the Tuckasegee River was interesting for us because the river bottom was different than most other rivers we have fished. The riverbed consisted of large flat rocks that form little canyons and pools below small dropoffs. The canyons and dropoffs had a green water tint and the fish were stacked in these areas. This river is very popular so movement up and down the river was limited and stocked brook trout was not quite the experience we were looking for. The next day we decided to explore what the Smoky Mountain National Park had to offer. We hiked up Deep Creek, a picturesque mountain stream in search of some small stream dry fly fishing for wild trout.  We were told that Indian Creek, a smaller tributary of Deep Creek, might be a good spot, but we found it to be too small in most spots for us to fish. Indian Creek did have a nice waterfall which held small fish in the pool at the base, but we decided to go further up Deep Creek in search of fish. We found some crystal clear pools and pocket water that looked very fishy. We drifted small black elk hair caddis flies through the soft spots and found some very strong wild brown trout. The casting area was compact and the fishing was technical but we enjoyed the challenge very much, and the scenery the Smoky Mountains provided was spectacular. After another day of exploring the Nantahala River with moderate success we spent our last day floating the Tuckasegee River. Our goal for the last day was to strip streamers in search of larger fish. The streamer fishing turned out to be pretty slow with a couple of follows from large fish and a couple of smaller ones including one smallmouth bass on the swing. The highlight of the day tuned out to be phenomenal dry fly fishing where we landed a plethora of decent 14 to 16 inch brown trout. While we only scratch the surface of what this region has to offer. We thought it was a great place for trout fishing and intend to spend much more time in the area every chance we get.