On Top of Old Smoky

[whitetailfreak]

Between the pop up storms the last few days, I managed to squeeze in a little fishin'.

As always, the day starts with biscuits and gravy on Mamaw's front porch.


I like fishing higher elevation streams this time of year, and was greeted with colorful fat fish that were full of spunk







I think I'll have fresh wild trout for supper


Hate these things


The temperature and views along the divide made me want to not come down.


I was getting tired, so fortunately there were seven old Sisters who were kind enough to let me rest on their front porch.

 

[trad bow]

Thanks for pictures. Brings back a lot of good times I had back up above Hanging Dog with my father and uncles in the 60’s and 70’s. Could ride thru the back pasture and walk in to the park to fish some very remote streams. Always brought back some lizards to fish the middle Georgia dairy farm ponds. Them bass just had to pick that lizard up.

 

[whitetailfreak]

There is something magical about a plunge pool at 5000 ft.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Looks like a fine, fine way to spend a day. You're quite the "Walker." Why is it that the best creeks to fish are always the most overgrown with stinging nettles? You should have seen my buddy from SC the first time he encountered them and was trying to figure out what in the world was happening to him.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I had to come back and look at the colors on those fish again. Seems to me like the higher up you get, the more colorful the specks get. That first rainbow has some great coloration, too, don't see many like that. He must have been in a deep, dark chughole?

There are a couple creeks around here where the rainbows often have red/orange cut marks on their throats like cutthroat trout. After spending a lot of time looking it up, I read somewhere that there is a specific strain of rainbows from northern California that have that trait. I haven't seen it hardly anywhere else.

 

[northgeorgiasportsman]

If I can get away tomorrow, I'm heading back up in the high country myself.

You throwing a Yellow Palmer with a Green Weenie dropper?

 

[NCHillbilly]

I'm gonna try to get there Monday. Tis inchworm and hopper season, ain't it?

 

[whitetailfreak]

I had to come back and look at the colors on those fish again. Seems to me like the higher up you get, the more colorful the specks get. That first rainbow has some great coloration, too, don't see many like that. He must have been in a deep, dark chughole?

There are a couple creeks around here where the rainbows often have red/orange cut marks on their throats like cutthroat trout. After spending a lot of time looking it up, I read somewhere that there is a specific strain of rainbows from northern California that have that trait. I haven't seen it hardly anywhere else.

That first Rainbow came out from a undercut bank in a deep hole to inhale my inchworm dropper at around 5000 ft. I've noticed the red throat on some Rainbows over the years, but never put a lot of thought into it.

 

[whitetailfreak]

If I can get away tomorrow, I'm heading back up in the high country myself.

You throwing a Yellow Palmer with a Green Weenie dropper?

That's correct. Yellow Palmer, Smoky Mountain Candy, Thunderhead, with Green or Pink Weenie dropper was all I threw both days.

 

[whitetailfreak]

I'm gonna try to get there Monday. Tis inchworm and hopper season, ain't it?

I've got to get in on the hopper action. I've never thrown one.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I've got to get in on the hopper action. I've never thrown one.

They can work really well at times. It's fun to watch a brown come plumb out of the water blowing up on one like a largemouth hitting a jitterbug. They usually either attack it like a berserker, or flee in terror from it, one or the other.

I've caught some good fish on them right through the middle of the day. Just a big about #12 Stimulator with rubber legs makes a pretty good hopper imitation. I like to tie some foam-bodied ones, too-you can't sink the things and you can use a pretty heavy nymph as a dropper.