Little Pigeon River
Flows ?
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
A business trip to Gatlinburg, TN allowed me a chance to fish in the Smokey Mountains! But...I spent all my time fishing in town!
I had originally intended to fish in town on Friday and spend Saturday in the park, but I missed a connecting flight in Houston, so Friday was shot.
I stopped by the local fly shop and asked for some advice. The first words out of his mouth was earthworms and powerbait. I was pretty surprised to hear that since I was in a fly shop!!!
After I told him I was fly fishing, he got a little more friendly and opened up about the park, and fishing through town. He circled a few spots on a map and recommended that I start around the aquarium.
I couldn't find any parking close, so I drove a little ways through town and I figured I would fish my way to the aquarium.
I parked next to the parking structure and started fishing at one of the bridges. Right away I was able to get into some fish!
I had a 3 fly rig with a price nymph, hare's ear, and a san juan.
He hit the san juan hard! The water was very clear and flowing very slowly so sight fishing was key. You could see the fish either take an interest in your flies, or get out of the way.
I ended up changing my flies to an orange stimulator, a red san juan and an orange egg after I had quite a few fish come up and hit my thingamabobber.
The stimulator was a great choice! I had lots of hits on it with many fish too small to take it, but quite a few that were big enough.
I made my way down to the aquarium and the fish size dropped...
Lots of these little guys were taking the san juan.
As I made my way back to my car, I bumped into quite a few people fishing conventional tackle with spinners and bait. I also noticed that EVERYBODY was keeping fish! I completely forgot that this is a put and take fishery. Hence, the many takes on the egg and the san juan!
The town actually closes down the river to fishing on Thursday and stocks it! By Saturday however, most of the fish have been taken and you need to move away from the stocking areas and upstream to get into the fish.
Lots of beautiful water that did hold fish!
Even though they were all stockers, it still was a nice chance to wet a line and get into some fish! Hot flies were stimulators, san juans, and egg patterns. I tried different egg colors and stimulator colors and it didn't matter...
I don't think you can go wrong fishing in town on a Friday or a Saturday!
I was a fun trip and I look foward to fishing in the park next time!
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