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Fly fishing in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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TOWNSEND, Tenn. – Two visitors emerged from the rhododendron, surveyed the landscape, consulted in whispers and planned their approach.
 
They were on the Middle Prong of Little River in a postcard-pretty slice of Great Smoky Mountains National Park known locally as “Tremont.”
 
This particular pool, turquoise in the slanting, late afternoon sunlight that sliced through the forest and lighted the woods with a salt-and-pepper effect, was guarded by a downed tree. It was just downstream from a towering cascade that serves as a natural barrier separating the creek’s rainbow and brook trout populations. A few brook trout can be found below the cascade, but the waterfall prevents rainbows from moving up into restored brookie habitat.
 
Guide Rob Fightmaster, of Fightmaster Fly Fishing, and his fisherman studied the pool for a full minute, which is a long time to watch water and not cast. The guide pointed, then raised his arm a few inches and pointed again. Trout.
 
James Dotson, an engineer whose globe-trotting work currently has him stationed in Ukraine, stepped into the stream. Two side steps and he was knee-deep in the pulsing current. He turned slightly to improve his footing and get a better casting angle. Facing upstream, wielding an 8-foot fly rod and bent slightly at the waist, he made a sidearm cast, then mended his line so the fly would float freely.
 
A moment passed before the splash. Dotson set the hook and for an electrifying instant man and fish were connected. Then the line fell slack.
 
He cast again, flipped the rod tip to mend the line and waited. Another splash. This time the hook held. After a spirited fight Dotson brought a wild, 9-inch rainbow trout to hand.
 
“This is my third year of fishing in the park,” Dotson said. “I love it here. It’s one of the most beautiful places to be. It’s one of my favorite spots.”
 
It’s easy to understand why.
 
A recovery to celebrate
 
The 522,427-acre Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a woodland jewel, rising to a pinnacle of 6,643 feet above sea level, with 16 peaks above 6,000 feet, laced with about 2,900 miles of creeks and streams.
 
Today the park pulses with natural wonders and wildlife, thanks in part to four decades of work restoring much of its pristine brook habitat, work that in some ways has capped a long-term recovery.
 
A century ago, the lush Great Smoky Mountains National Park landscape that visitors enjoy today did not exist. The land had been ravaged and with it most of the clear, cold, vein-like streams that threaded this piece of the Appalachian spine and harbored the region’s only native salmonid: Southern Appalachian brook trout.
 
“Prior to the development of the park about two-thirds of what is currently Great Smoky Mountains National Park was completely clear-cut,” said park fishery technician Caleb Abramson. “In doing that there was a lot of direct sunlight and a lot of erosion, so the brook trout lost about 75% of its native range.”
 
When the park was established on June 15, 1937, wildlife restoration was not a linchpin of the management scheme. To improve the fishing, some locals began bringing in rainbow trout by rail from California. Those non-natives found the park’s high-gradient, well-oxygenated waters to their liking. They picked up the moniker “California trout.”
 
“Native species restoration wasn’t on everybody’s mind at that time,” Abramson explained. “The goal at that time was to increase visitor enjoyment. The rainbow trout did well and took up the spaces where brook trout had been lost by logging.”
 
A few native brook trout did survive but were confined to the park’s highest, most rugged ridges and slopes.
 
Rainbow and later limited brown trout stockings continued until the 1970s, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service began evaluating brook trout within GSMNP. The Park Service decided that native species should be preserved and, in 1975, the handful of streams that still held brook trout were closed to fishing. All trout stockings stopped. The park’s native trout waters were identified and the labor-intensive restoration work began. Non-native species were removed above cascades and other natural barriers in historic brook trout waters, and some of the native fish still swimming in the park were transplanted into those areas.
 
Abramson said efforts were made to ensure that when brook trout were moved they remained within the same watershed. Brookie populations have been restored in 27.6 miles of 11 streams, and additional work is planned on two miles of Anthony Creek this year.
 
Still, most of the park’s trout waters hold rainbows, naturally reproducing descendants of early stockers and fish that are now part of the landscape and welcomed by the Park Service.
 
Trout, beautiful but elusive
 
Estimates vary as to how many trout park waters hold, but the general consensus ranges upward of 2,000 fish per mile.
 
One thing everyone does agree on: Great Smoky Mountains National Park trout are not pushovers.
 
Daniel Drake is manager and part owner of Little River Outfitters in Townsend, Tenn., one of the park’s gateway mountain towns. Drake probably knows as much about fishing in GSMNP as anyone. He wants people to catch fish and is generous with advice.
 
He’s also refreshingly honest.
 
“It’s not easy fishing,” he said. “Of course, they’re all wild trout. Fishing up in the park can be difficult until you get it figured out.”
 
Drake, matchstick thin and soft spoken, doesn’t guide but is a skilled angler.
 
“Presentation is really more important than fly patterns or really anything else,” he said. “Try to stay out of the water as much as possible. You want to make short, accurate casts.”
 
He also suggested first-time anglers and those inexperienced with the challenges of park waters work with a local guide.
 
“We can show people where to go,” he said. “That’s easy. There’s really no bad place to fish in the Smokies. But the guides can show you how to catch fish. They are going to help make the difference between catching fish and not catching fish.”
 
Of the 2,900 miles of waters flowing through the park, approximately 750 harbor brook, rainbow or brown trout. A few smallmouth and rock bass can be found in some of the lower-elevation streams.
 
Estimates vary on how many of the park’s 10 million annual visitors fish.
 
“It’s likely between 200,000 and 800,000,” said Matt Kulp, the supervisory fishery biologist for GSMNP and a 22-year veteran of helping manage park waters. “But my guess it’s closer to the higher number.”
 
Kulp agrees with Drake that stealth is the key to fishing success.
 
“These things are wild. They are attuned to what’s going on around them. If you put your fly in front of them they usually eat it, but they’re not going to eat it if you’ve already scared them.”
 
Fishing in GSMNP is restricted to artificial flies or lures, single hook. No live or scented baits are allowed.
 
The GSMNP daily creel limit is five fish — any combination of brook, rainbow or brown trout or smallmouth bass. Anglers, however, have a negligible impact on fish numbers. Most GSMNP trout are victims of floods or droughts. Annual natural fish mortality hovers between 55% and 70%. A 3-year-old Smoky Mountain trout is a senior citizen.
 
“We encourage catch-and-release, but we don’t discourage keeping fish,” Kulp said. “Fishermen aren’t going to put a dent in what’s out there.”
 
Fishing can also offer visitors some solitude — a rare commodity in America’s most popular national park.
 
“If a person is willing to put a little sweat equity into it, even on the busiest days of the year you can find a place where nobody is fishing,” Abramson said.
 
If you go
 
What: Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
 
Where: Tennessee/North Carolina. Open year-round, weather permitting.
 
Annual visitors: 10.7 million. America’s most visited national park. (Grand Canyon is second with about 5.5 million).
 
Entry fee: None.
 
Lodging: The only commercial lodging inside GSMNP is LeConte Lodge, atop 6,593-foot LeConte Mountain and accessible only by foot. Open from late March through mid-November. Reservations required at lecontelodge.com or 865-429-5704. Ten developed campgrounds with more than 1,000 sites. Fees vary by amenities. Reservations strongly recommended. Backcountry camping available. Commercial lodging options abound outside the park.
 
What to do: Wildlife watching, photography, sightseeing, hiking, biking, horseback riding, camping, fishing.
 
Park information: nps.gov/grsm, 865-436-1200, or GSMNP, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, Tenn., 37738.
 
Area information: mypigeonforge.com,visitmysmokies.com, visitcherokeenc.com.
 
About bears
 
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to about 1,500 black bears.
 
Bears are large, wild, powerful animals that can display stunning speed over a short distance and should be left alone.
 
Park officials have specific advice about what to do and what not to do if you encounter a bear at nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/black-bears.htm.
 
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