AN EXCERPT FROM THE ANGLING REPORT
NOVEMBER 2002
(EDITOR NOTE: If you’re looking for a fun, productive float trip that you can enjoy on a quick getaway, then subscriber Eric Shea may have found the trip for you. It’s for rainbow trout and smallmouth bass with an outfitter who guides on numerous rivers in Appalachia. We think its such a find, that we’re adding Shea to our Subscriber Honor Roll and sending him a cap for sharing it with us.)
I had been itching to wet my fly line somewhere within a day’s drive of my New Jersey home, when I got a call from Cory Tumolo, suggesting I come down to North Carolina and fish with him for trout and smallmouth bass. I had fished with Tumolo two years prior in Dillon, Montana, and he proved to be quite competent as a guide, so I decided to take him up on his offer and booked two float trips with Elk Creek Outfitters in Boone, North Carolina. Boone has developed a reputation among lovers of the outdoors as a great base from which to fly fish, hike, mountain climb, kayak, and even ski. If you have never been to Boone, you will find it to be a charming and lively college town with decent restaurants, pubs and an array of good hotels and bed and breakfast establishments. I knew I would have a good time, but my expectations for the actual fishing were moderate. I was correct on the first count, but wrong on the second. The fishing was superb.
Elk Creek Outfitters (ECO) is owned by Judson Conway and Mark Gould, both very experienced fly fishing guides and natives of the area. Besides having extensive knowledge and experience of their home territory, they have guided in Montana, Alaska, and Chile, just to name a few places. All the guides at ECO are experienced, possess a wealth of knowledge and are extremely enthusiastic. It is a pure pleasure as a customer to see real enthusiasm in a guide. It happens, but not as often as it should. My son and I fished with Tumolo as our guide with our trip consisting of a smallmouth float down Tennessee’s Watauga River.
In my insatiable quest to fish as much trout water as possible, I had forgotten how fun fishing for smallmouth could be. While on the New River, we fished almost exclusively with small popping bugs and caught a lot of bass in the on- to two-pound range, a few in the three-pound range and one over five pounds. It was great fun, and the fish were feisty. The New River is virtually unpopulated, and I felt as if I were on a float trip somewhere out West. We floated eight miles of river and did not see one angler the entire day.
The river also has many, quite large muskie, and we tried to coax a few of them to bite by sight casting, using some big lures from time to time, but we only had some follows. This is a tough fish to catch, although a few anglers have landed some big ones with ECO. For those who enjoy spin fishing for bass, fishing with rubber worms can be incredibly productive here as well.
After an action-packed day of bassing, fishing for trout on the Watauga was a nice change of pace. The Watauga holds a small native population of brown trout, but is jammed packed with good-quality stocked rainbows. Most of the Watauga’s water is textbook dry fly water. We fished exclusively with #18 elk hair caddis with a bead head dropper on 6X tippet using a five-weight rod. The upper part of the river produced many smaller rainbows – 10 to 14 inches on average. We must have caught 30 or so trout in the first few hours of fishing. Floating this river also gives you the opportunity to nymph, if you wish. Nymphing can produce good action – and is the only way to go when you float over the “brooders” on the lower river.
The lower part of the river holds some very large rainbows – 19 to 22 inches on average. You can see them in the crystal clear water, and we spent a good part of our time trying to lure these monsters to our flies. This river is incredibly beautiful and offers every opportunity to catch many good-looking, strong fish. We fished a Saturday and thus experienced some traffic on the river. The river was not crowded, however. It was very tolerable for even the most discriminating angler.
While I did not have the opportunity to fish the South Holston, my son did, and this river holds large trophy trout, with two-pound fish common. Again, this is a picturesque river, and it offers more challenging/technical fishing, much like some of the larger rivers out West. These are difficult fish to catch but well worth the effort. Other fisheries in Southern Appalachia include the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, the New River in Virginia/North Carolina and the Holston proper in Tennessee. These are mostly smallmouth rivers, but they also host populations of trout when water temperatures are right.
ECO offers full- and half-day walk-and-wade trips for $250 and $125 respectively, and full-day float trips at $275 for one person and $350 for two persons. Everything the angler needs is supplied, from flies to sunglasses. Only licenses and gratuities are not included. They supply an excellent lunch, including crab cakes, and offer an overnight package, which is two full days of fishing and one night of camping, with two lunches, a gourmet dinner of steaks etc., and full breakfast for $425 per person. All in all, it is an excellent value, and I give it very high marks.
—Eric Shea