Fall Flingin

The Feast was set in the majestic Smoky Mountains this year, very familar to my heart, providing endless opportunites to hit the water. It had been nearly 15 years since I had been to a Feast site that didnt have a beach, but I welcomed the chance to get on some Smoky waters in the Fall. Every year massive browns run up the Little River this time of year. We figured to be hitting the perfect time for the Gold Rush. I had heard and seen reports of 20 to 23 inchers willingly feasting on anglers flys. So we set off with the hope of landing one of these trophy treasures. After church it became standard procedure to hit the river after Amen. Our first chance was to the Little River. We managed to catch a couple bows, but the large browns we desired stayed out of site for this trip. The next day, with a shorter alottment of time he headed up to the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River. Both me and Mike did very well here. There wasn't much size to the fish, but pulling small fish out of every hole makes for a fun experience. Our next trip we dropped over the Gap to the NC side of the park, trying for browns that are running up the Oconaluftee River. It started out slow, but I manage to pull one brown in which was decent size, but he flopped out of the net while I was scrambling for my camera. Mike snatched a good rainbow on the dry just a couple of runs later. Rainbows in the park dont get very big, so this was a very nice fish. After a little more messin around we dropped over the Gap and tried for the trifecta. I caught a rainbow, but missed a couple opportunites at Brook Trout. The last day we had chance to fish, we decided to drop in the gorge of the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. We parked on the side of the road then dropped straight down the gorge. We had a larger number of people with us this time, which is fitting since if anything happens, nobody is going to find you down there. The river in the gorge is filled with massive boulders and perfect pools. We caught a number of fish down there, and I landed the first brook trout of the trip, completing the weekly trifecta of Brown, Bow, and Brook. Though missing the massive browns was dissappointing, the expeditions were fun as always. Certainly I will make my way back up in the next couple of weekends, to get one last shot at the massive browns for the year...til next time

-Dreamcatchers



View from the GAP, hard to capture the colors on camera, but they were vibrant to say the least

Newfound Gap

Another overlook

Mount LeConte in the Sun

Walking back to the truck on the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon

Searching for Browns on the Little River, Mike made his way back to the truck

Fishing the riffles

Mike working the Little River

Colorful Bow from Greenbriar

Brook from the gorge WPLP

Danny down in the gorge working a nice pool

Working up against the rock

Another nice run in the gorge

Rainbow from Middle Prong of the Little River

Another rainbow

Releasing a colorful friend

Mike working a pool at Greenbriar

Looking for fun

Gotcha

Here is the nice rainbow from the Luptee, hit the dry

Let him breath, you can see the colors a bit better on these two

Sending him home