While every year is different, most winters allow some good fishing opportunities in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Timing is everything, but those trout still need to eat. Even on days with very cold water temperatures, at least a few fish can be found. If we get a mid winter warm up, then the fishing can be truly special.
Last week, I hosted my other guides for a Trout Zone Anglers guide get together to debrief from 2025. It involved some fishing time as well, which ended up being perfect as far as timing is concerned. It just so happened to coincide with one of those winter warm spells that makes the birds think spring has arrived. With the sounds of spring, we went hunting wild trout in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I expected to see a few midges and winter stoneflies, but was pleasantly surprised to find little black caddis also hatching. Once that hatch gets started, quill gordon and blue quill activity is not far behind.
We strung up one of my favorites, a 1 weight old Orvis Superfine from when they still made rods that looked cool. It is well documented on this blog how I love those old Superfines, and I was excited to let my guides have a go at it as well.
It didn't take long for them to discover the downside to these rods. The soft action and full flex makes setting the hook tough on fast little wild trout. Still, everyone quickly got the hang of it and soon we were catching fish on a variety of small dry flies and midge patterns. The fish were clearly hungry and their metabolisms were starting to hum right along in the warming water. Just a few days later, that water temperature would crash and put a long pause on the bug activity, but for the moment, the fish were feeding just like it was spring.
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| "TZA guide Chris Bean fishes while Pat Tully looks on." ©2026 David Knapp Photography |
My favorite fish of the morning happened in one of the better pools. I expected a fish in this hole faster than it ended up happening, but it did eventually happen. The small parachute Adams combined with a Zebra midge was proving deadly. You had to really pay attention to see the little dry fly on the water, but the fish didn't seem to have any problems finding it. Even more found the tiny midge in the fast currents of a Smoky Mountain stream.
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| "Midge eater." Photo Courtesy of Chris Bean ©2026 |
We fished for a couple of hours, talking fishing, business, guiding, and just enjoying the day. The air got warmer and warmer and the bugs and fish were really going strong. I almost regretted stopping for lunch, but the plan was to head over to the Peaceful Side Social in Townsend, and there was no way I was missing out on that. I like pizza more than I should, and they have an excellent Margherita pizza that I try to enjoy a handful of times each year. Over lunch, we discussed areas we could improve as guides and also improve our overall business operations. Once that meeting ended, however, I had a little time left to kill and wanted to fish some more. So, back out I went.
I just kept fishing the same rod from the morning session. The only change I might have made was to switch from a 7' 6" 1 weight rod to a 6' 6" 2 weight, so it wasn't worth the hassle of breaking one rod down and assembling another. I decided to hit a section of water that I hadn't fished for maybe 20 years. Not that it isn't a good section, there are definitely fish in there, I just hadn't fished it for a long time.
The afternoon section was a little tougher, and it wasn't until I noticed a few wet spots on rocks that I realized someone else had already fished the section. Not to be deterred, I decided to stick it out as my time was starting to run out. In the end, I caught a few fish, enough to keep me interested, and enjoyed some water I rarely fish.
My best fish in the afternoon hit the dry fly so hard it almost made me jump. I had worked through an obvious big deep beautiful pool without much action. This was about the time I was realizing I was on used water. Then, fishing the head, I tossed my rig into some fast water. As soon as the dry fly hit the pillow in front of a rock, this rainbow rocketed out of the depths to eat it.
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| "Dry fly eater in January." ©2026 David Knapp Photography |
After releasing the pretty little rainbow, I was reminded of an important point on releasing fish in the Smokies. Fish will often crawl under a rock and feel sorry for themselves a while after being caught. I don't know why they do this, but this is very common behavior for the wild trout in our mountain streams and even with our native brook trout. The lesson to take here is that fish will often mistake your wading boots for a nice safe rock and crawl under them. I can't count the number of times I feel a fish immediately burrow under my boot when standing in a stream after I release them. This is an easy moment to severely injure or kill fish, but the solution is also fairly simple. First, pay close attention to where the fish goes after you release it. With luck, it will jet out into the stream and avoid problems in the first place, However, if it crawls under a rock or you don't actually know where it went, be VERY careful backing out of the spot to not accidentally crush the fish. I'll try to make one single step out onto dry rocks if at all possible. Don't step into loose leaf piles (another favorite hiding spot) and don't step onto rocks with obvious hiding spots under them.
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| "Rainbow hiding under a rock after the release." ©2026 David Knapp Photography |
Over the last few years, I've been trying to do more things out of the ordinary. That generally means fishing places I don't fish all that often. That could be sections of river I don't hit very often, or it could be fishing new streams all together. On this particular day, it was hitting a piece of water I hadn't fished in a long time. Moving forward, as I head into the late winter and early spring, it will hopefully take me to some more pieces of water that are new or at least rarely visited.
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| "West Prong. Have you fished here?" ©2026 David Knapp Photography |
