Slow Fishing and High-Holed TR

[Phil]

I left late Tuesday afternoon for a getaway to the GSMNP. I had high hopes. The weather was great, the scenery even better, but the fishing was not so good. I had decided to bypass the main river (said to hold mostly rainbows and a few browns) and concentrate on two feeder prongs for brookies. Wednesday started out slow, but I caught some nice fish. Missed getting pics of most due to my clumsiness with the camera, rod, and fish juggling. I had to work for the fish. Water was high and difficult. Had a nice evening around the camp.
Thursday, I was ready for some more action. I hit the stream early and started fishing up. After a while, I began to wonder what was wrong. Very slow fishing. Caught a couple of real small ones. I was climbing up the bank to the trail to bypass a logjam when I ran into another fisherman coming down the trail. He had just fished all the water before me. Durn. High-holed. He had spooked the brookie stream. No wonder I wasn't doing so good. Oh, well.















A shy one before he flopped out of the net -- one of many to do so--















A nice couple of days in an area that is no secret.

[Dougfish]

Phil in da woods. 
I love a campfire.

I see you were fishing dries. Did you also fish a dropper?
The dropper will entice the shy ones, imho.

[Phil]

I tried the dropper rig for a while, Doug. No takers on the nymphs.

[Onslow]

Like

[Dee-Vo]

Making the best of it. Good shit, Phil.

[driver]

been a long time since I've been to that valley.  Don't really miss that drive    I need to solo camp again been a while. Goot chit!

[croaker]

Looks damn fine from here!

Ain't Life Grand!!!

croaker

[Big J]

Looks like a good time to me. Glad to see you got out in the woods

[Stone-Man]

Good stuff, Phil
I don't know how you caught all those fish without me to bird dog them for you   

  Stone-Man Back to Cave

[Jfey]

Well done Phil!

[itieuglyflies]

Let's see ....beautiful country, a stream with trouts, a nice camp and a roaring fire . Sounds pretty good to me. Plus no report of the wind from hell trying to blow you away at 2 AM. Glad you got out.

[hcrum87hc]

Looks like a good time to me.  I've been meaning to camp there for a couple of years now. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do so soon.

[Yallerhammer]

Excellent! You were in my back yard. BTW, the main creek fishes great early in the morning. There are some big browns in there.

[Phil]

Thanks for all the responses to a fairly mediocre trip (catching fish wise, that is). It's a beautiful area. Also the first camp/fish trip I've been on in years where it didn't rain, hail, snow, or tornado.

[BrookieHunter]

Looks like a good trip  and don't feel bad for not catching a ton of fish. You caught way more than I did on my last trip to that area.