The Ultimate Fly-Fishing Guide to the Smoky Mountains. Greg Ward
school English teacher, Donna Cantrell, and my English major wife, who’s always my first editor, have managed to drum into my stubborn head. Thanks to my daughters—Crystal, Lauren, and Sara—for being such great fishing and hunting buddies over the years. Thanks to my brother Don for teaching me how to fish with explosives. And many thanks to my Uncle Tom Norton for taking me fishing and hunting every chance he got after my dad passed away in 1976 (the keys to the Ranger bass boat and Toyota Land Cruiser helped a great deal as well!). I owe a lot to my late Uncle Gene Lawson and all those nights on Douglas Lake listening to whippoorwills. The many deer camps in Lower Alabama with Uncle Gary, Tommy Joe Norton, Taylor, and Uncle Tom have a special place in my heart.
Thanks to my great friends from the shop and all my fishing buddies, especially Chris Johnson; Brandon Ogle, who is the closest I ever got to having a son; Cory Smith and Jesse West for taking care of trips while I worked on this book; authors like H. Lea Lawrence, Wilma Dykeman, Dave Whitlock, Mel Krieger, and Tom Rosenbough. I always wanted to be Dave Whitlock when I grew up.
Special thanks to Don Kirk for his great stories, numerous phone calls, and hours on the water—and for trusting me for up-to-date knowledge and material. Kudos to Molly Merkle with Menasha Ridge Press and Keen Communications for putting up with me and my lack of computer know-how.
And last but not least, thanks to Jim and Chris Gray for such a perfect cover for a book on the Smokies.
THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON.
As I was loading a couple of suitcases into my SUV for a weekend over the mountain to celebrate my 22nd wedding anniversary, my cell phone rang. It was Don Kirk asking me to go look at some photographs of the Smokies and get permission to use one for the cover of our book. I was thinking of using a Jim Gray painting instead, which I must have thought out loud because within moments Don said, “Go to www.JimGrayGallery.com and pull up Sanctuary.” Sanctuary is a painting of two men doing what they love most: Chris Gray fly-fishing Ramsey Prong, and his dad, Jim, painting a picture of the beautiful scenery of the Smokies with his son in the middle of it. The Grays have been long-time friends of my family, and within minutes I emailed Chris to get permission to use his dad’s painting for the cover of the Ultimate Fly-fishing Guide to the Smoky Mountains. Jim said it would be an honor—and just like that Sanctuary became the cover of our book.
Things happen for a reason.
—GREG WARD
Introduction
THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL Park offers one of the last wild trout habitats in the eastern United States. Annually, millions of Americans visit this natural wonderland seeking recreation and a chance to enjoy the outdoors. Among these visitors are thousands of anglers eager to test their luck against the stream-bred trout of the park’s famed waters. Most of these anglers lack the needed information and are confused by the seemingly endless number of streams available.
Some time in the early 1970s when my children where young (as was I), the idea of writing a trout fishing guide to the streams of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park first crossed my mind. It took a few more years of fishing, then several years of work before that book was published in 1981. Since that time, Trout Fishing Guide To The Smokies has been a raving success that has been revised and reprinted many times. Few endeavors have netted me so many compliments as that little guidebook.
Many things have changed over the last three decades in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Regulations have changed radically, and fishing pressure on many streams has increased dramatically. Guide services available to anglers wishing to sample park waters were virtually nonexistent when my book was first written, as were fly-fishing shops within 50 miles of the park. That also has changed. Both the shops and guide services are now very common around the Smokies. The city of Gatlinburg even promotes fishing for trout, something that was unheard of only a few decades ago.
This book is designed to help both experienced and novice anglers select waters that suit their tastes and abilities. You will find a chapter on each of the major streams in the park. Listed with each stream are such valuable data as its location, fishing pressure, species of trout found in that particular watershed, both auto and trail access routes, campsite accommodations, and other information. Also included are chapters covering the early history of fly-fishing for trout in and near the park, information on the aquatic insects most abundant in the streams, proven dry and wet nymph patterns, tips on gear, and other aspects of fly-fishing.
In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we have some of the finest trout fishing anywhere. And although the trout are wary, even a beginner can expect to catch a few. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has long been one of the country’s most popular fly-fishing destinations. This book represents at least the sixth attempt by an ardent angler to provide fellow fishermen with information on how and where to catch trout from these streams. The first book written exclusively on fishing in the Smokies was penned in 1937 by then park ranger, Joe F. Manley. Manley, who was employed by the National Park Service for only two years before accepting employment in Gatlinburg as chief of their water works department, was an avid fisherman. His 80-page, hardbound book was vanity published once—3,000 copies, according to Manley, whom I spoke to last in 1990 at his home in Gatlinburg. This rare and little-known book is unknown to most anglers, but was brought to my attention in 1987 by noted Smoky Mountain angler Eddie George of Louisville, Tennessee, who could rightly be termed the best fly-fisherman to ever cast these streams. In fact, the copy of Manley’s book I have was given to me by George. According to Manley, shortly after his book, Fishing Guide to the Smokies, was printed, he agreed to guide an editor from either Field and Stream or Outdoor Life magazine (he could not recall precisely which). During the course of their fishing trips, Manley shared information on his book with the Northerner, who bought and took home his entire printing. Only a few dozen of these books were ever sold locally. Over two decades after talking with Manley, I discovered that the purchaser of his inventory of books was Ben East, legendary editor at Outdoor Life.
Manley’s book contains interesting information on the streams of the Smokies and is about equally split between trout and bass fishing. One of the most interesting photographs in the book depicts Manley at the Sinks on Little River holding up a stringer of smallmouth bass weighing between 3 and 5 pounds. His favorite fly rod “lure,” a Heddon-made Flaptail, can still be found at antique tackle shows at a cost of $40 to $80. Can you imagine how quickly most of us would climb a tree to retrieve one of these costly little jewels? If you can find a copy of Manley’s book for less than $200, do not hesitate to part with the cash. It is harder to find than eyebrows on a brook trout. Also worth noting is that Manley remained a well-known fisherman in the park as well as its adjacent waters. He was quite fond of catching big muskie in the then free-floating portions of the Little Tennessee River located to the south of the park.
The second book written on this subject was the effort of Jim Gasque, a somewhat prolific writer from western North Carolina. This title, Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smokies, was published by Alfred A. Knopf of New York, who at the same time published other well-known sporting titles such as Trout by Ray Bergman, Ruffed Grouse by John Alden Knight, and A Book of Duck Shooting by Van Campen Heilner. Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smokies and Jim Gasque’s other, better-known title, Bass Fishing, can still be found on book lists circulated among collectors of vintage fishing tackle and associated paraphernalia. Published in 1948, Gasque’s book was the first nationally distributed book on fishing in (and around) the Smokies, although Horace Kephart, who also was a great fan of angling these waters, often wrote about it as well as did Robert S. Mason. Gasque’s book immortalized the great western North Carolina angler, Mark Cathey. Unfortunately, I was born too late to ever meet Cathey. Written in the folksy, “me ’n’ Joe” style of outdoor writing common to the era, it provides more in the way entertainment than information, although the techniques and few flies noted in the book are as deadly on trout today as when the information was penned half a century ago. Gasque’s chapters on Cataloochee and Deep Creeks are extremely insightful. Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smokies is a gem worth the current asking price of $50 to $100.
The third book written on trout fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park