Gatlinburg Fishing?

[DJD]

I'm headed there next weekend (8/11-8/) and was hoping someone had a recommendation on where i could take my girlfriend and catch some fish? I'm hoping to hit a creek or stream and catch some trout or smallmouth if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated . Thanks in advance...

[MrSplitshot]

Don,

The last time I went down there, we drove through the National Park over to Cherokee, NC...I bought a day pass and went wading in a creek with an ultralight...caught a few trout...but doggone if it rains up in those hills, a slug of water comes down the river that looks like something out of Splash Mountain. I was downstream from the truck (dumb), got knocked down and took a swim. LOL!! It was kind of neat though...I met a Native American fellow who was out supervising his kids as they were tubing down the river. I wasn't real happy that they decided to stop and swim right where I was fishing, but I was respectful that it was his home and started chatting with the guy...kinda cool.

There are places on the Little Pigeon on the Pigeon Forge side where you can wade and fish. I don't think that access is real tough.

First thing I'd do, when I got there, is....go to one of those tourist trap shops with all the tee-shirts and what-nots. Buy you a coffee mug with a black bear on it and a wooden hillbilly back scratcher...Just get it over with. You go in one, you've gone in them all, and girlie won't bug you about shopping after that. Make sure to disctract her as you're going past those outlet malls...I prefer accidently dropping M&Ms in the floor and asking her to pick them up so that you don't wreck in traffic. About 70% of the time, it works everytime. LMAO!!!!

[stoner]

You can fish the little pigion river with an ultralite and and some bread balls from last nights dinner just roll em tight. Trout will burn em up. Try to avoid hooking the ducks.
Have a good time I always love going there.
Stoner

[MsgMills]

Ah Splitshot,
The old drop the m&M's trick...yes I have resulted to that tactic as well...But the area has grown so much in the last 4 years, it's hard to keep her occupied for long.... Just too many shops and outlet Malls for sure. I haven't fished that creek running along Pigeon Forge yet, but plan on it on my next trip back. While on our last trip we bought into a Time Share at the Westgate Resorts. Just a totally awesome place to stay for 1 to 3 weeks at a time.

There are pull off spots all along the creek so that you can fish or swim whichever you want. Enjoy the area, cause it sure is a nice place to stay awhile....

[Tim_T]

Finding a place to fish is not a problem at all. There are over 800 miles of trout streams in the park alone. Two of my favorites are Abrams Creek in the Cades Cove area and the Occunaluftee (sp) River. It is the river that runs along side the main road once you cross New Found Gap into North Carolina. Some pretty big browns come out of there.

BTW, you can fish anywhere in the park with either a Tenn or NC license, so you only have to buy one. Good luck and try not to get eaten by a bear lol.

[troutcrazy]

Fished there last year. I went to the smokey mt. fishing store in Gatlinburg. Guy knew his stuff. I fished out off of hwy 401 10 or so miles from Gatbrg. I was told that you can only use single hook lulres, so most of my lures were useless. I bought a ton there at his shop which made me think that he might not have been all that truthful about the single hook thing, but I did catch a ton of trout and ran into some nice folks along the way.

[DJD]

That's guy's, some great ideas here i really appreciate it we will have a blast.
Troutcrazy,
Is that shop pretty easy to find? I have never been to Gatlinburg.

[Tim_T]

Fished there last year. I went to the smokey mt. fishing store in Gatlinburg. Guy knew his stuff. I fished out off of hwy 401 10 or so miles from Gatbrg. I was told that you can only use single hook lulres, so most of my lures were useless. I bought a ton there at his shop which made me think that he might not have been all that truthful about the single hook thing, but I did catch a ton of trout and ran into some nice folks along the way.

The guy wasn't pulling your leg, anywhere in the national park is restricted to single hooks.

BTW, the best fly shop is in Townsend, TN. The folks at Little River Outfitters are an awesome bunch and I always go out of my way to stop there when I am down that way. Here is their web site: http://littleriveroutfitters.com/

[Moose1am]

Little River Camp Ground in Townsend is where I use to camp. Townsend is the quiet side of the area. It's closer to Cades Cove too. And there are no outlet malls in Townsend. LOL So you can eat all you M&M and won't have to drop them on the floor.

Gatlinburg, TN, Pigeon Forge, TN and Townsend are my favorite vacation spots.

I might add that the hooks have to be single hooks and BARBLESS. Also no fish attractor scents are allowed on the baits. Now this is inside the park.

The rules are different in the areas outside the park. Might want to check with the bait shops or park rangers to find out for sure.

I purchased a book on the mountain streams and still have it.

Cades cove is the most fertile stream in the entire park. There is a limestone bed that the creek runs though and this helps to raise the water's pH. Acid rain has lowered a lot of the streams pH and aquatic insects don't do well in water with low pH. Acid water that is. The limestone bedrock in Abrams creek allows the water to be more neutral and there is abundant aquatic insect life in this stream. That's why there are big fish in Abrams Creek. Most of the mountain is granite and granite won't neutralize the acid rainfall.

If you go up above a certain elevation you may run into some Brook Trout. Not sure what the regs are these days or how the Brook trout are doing. But they were off limits back in the early 1990's when I last fished in the park.

Little Pigeon River and Pigeon River along little pigeon River road has a lot of spots where you can pull over and climb down to the stream and fish.

And look out for the bears or the wild pigs. I only saw a few bears and they were all in the parks picnic area. The bears like to come down and run the people away from their food and then eat anything that they can find. Most people don't argue with the bears. LOL

I have smelled what I though was a bear along the trail but never ran across one while I was out hiking or fishing in the streams.

Stay for a week or more and put a few days aside for the wife to go shopping and then a few days for you to fish. That makes the wife happy.

Seems like every time I fished the streams the water levels were very low. I caught a few small rainbow trout using a fly rod and a cadis fly nymph.

The park ranger checked my bait and was looking at the hook to make sure if was barb-less and didn't have any attractant on the bait. I was fishing just downstream from the ELKMONT Ranger Station and campground. I saw huge trout in the deeper parts of this stream right by the main road going into the campground. There is a steep drop from the road to the stream that's lined with rip rap. There is a deep pool there that you can see from the roadway. It's about 15 ft deep or so and you can see the huge boulders on the bottom as the water is so clear. I think that's my favorite spot in the entire park. But the trout would not touch my baits. They would look at them and just move aside and then sip something from the surface film. What ever they were eating was too small for my old tired eyes to see. Those trout are educated and hard to fool The ranger told me to fish the rapids and that I had a better chance to catch a trout in the rapids or turbulent water.

Get some dry stocking foot waders and wade in the streams with a fly rod.

The guy wasn't pulling your leg, anywhere in the national park is restricted to single hooks.

BTW, the best fly shop is in Townsend, TN. The folks at Little River Outfitters are an awesome bunch and I always go out of my way to stop there when I am down that way. Here is their web site: http://littleriveroutfitters.com/

[DJD]

Don,

The last time I went down there, we drove through the National Park over to Cherokee, NC...I bought a day pass and went wading in a creek with an ultralight...caught a few trout...but doggone if it rains up in those hills, a slug of water comes down the river that looks like something out of Splash Mountain. I was downstream from the truck (dumb), got knocked down and took a swim. LOL!! It was kind of neat though...I met a Native American fellow who was out supervising his kids as they were tubing down the river. I wasn't real happy that they decided to stop and swim right where I was fishing, but I was respectful that it was his home and started chatting with the guy...kinda cool.

There are places on the Little Pigeon on the Pigeon Forge side where you can wade and fish. I don't think that access is real tough.

First thing I'd do, when I got there, is....go to one of those tourist trap shops with all the tee-shirts and what-nots. Buy you a coffee mug with a black bear on it and a wooden hillbilly back scratcher...Just get it over with. You go in one, you've gone in them all, and girlie won't bug you about shopping after that. Make sure to disctract her as you're going past those outlet malls...I prefer accidently dropping M&Ms in the floor and asking her to pick them up so that you don't wreck in traffic. About 70% of the time, it works everytime. LMAO!!!!

That's funny stuff right there! LOL

[Cajun78]

Last time I went, we rented a house called the 'Summer Breeze' on Douglas Lake outside Sevierville. Took the boat, house had a private dock and ramp right next to it. It was beautiful, with the smokies looking down on me each morning. One side was shallow flats with brush/grass, one side was rocky and deep. Plenty of creeks and islands. I caught a bunch of nice bass that week and only fished like 5am to 9am each day til girls woke up. Afternoons, we'd roll in to G'burg. It was a great trip.

[gar]

I'll be there Dec.23-28. I'm the only one in the group that likes to fish, the rest of them are late sleepers and shoppers. Someone please rescue me and give me some fishing tips and places to keep me out of those shopping excursions!!!!