Finally, I get it! The iconic pictures in magazines, guys with small (to tiny) trout and salmon, wading around in big rubber boots and smiling at the camera with obvious joy and accomplishment. The whispy rods with tiny reels and miniscule hand-tyed bait. And the unspeakable concept of ‘catch and release’ has always been a concept of fishing too removed from reality after a life of fishing with attractors and live bait considerably larger than most trout. I always assumed ‘these guys just don’t have access to “real fishing”.In the area of the world where I have been blessed to live, fish are plentiful. Big fish and lots of them. We fish to eat as well as for the sport of fishing. Only in the last few years have the locals been obliged to follow size and limit regulations to any degree.Through a lifetime of fishing the Gulf, bays, sounds, bayous and rivers around Pensacola Florida this fly fishing thing has always been out there like a moving shadow on the periphery. I have owned fly rods and fly fished for bass and bream. I really enjoyed the casting, topwater strikes and even the awkwardhandline-reel-handline retrieve of the hooked fish. It was always fun but never really gave me a hint of what could cause all of the industry, passion and literature I have seen surrounding ‘fly fishing for trout’.This past Thanksgiving gave me the opportunity to stay in Gatlinburg Tennessee, meeting with my grown daughters for a holiday gathering. As my daughters were raised around fishing it was decided we would try fly fishing for trout.I began to read up on the smokey mountain area. Learned the regulations and called the fly shop in Gatlinburg for fly fishing info and seasonal fly selection. The people at Smoky Mountain Angler were very helpful. I stated I wanted to fish native trout if possible. They stressed the need for ‘stealth’ fishing tactics (for a trout?) and I curiously began to get more excited!Now I know Tennessee is not the ‘Mecca’ for most fly fishers but it was a start for me.Not wanting to fish in ‘town’, I got directions for a hike-in spot on the Little Pigeon River, east of Gatlinburg. After loading up on #18 pheasant-tail nymphs and learning how to tie them on as a dropper with 5x tippet I was ready to set off into the mountains and bring back my five allowed trout. Sources say there are 2-3 thousand trout per mile of stream. It all sounded quite simple.I started fishing the lower waters in the Greenbrier area as a warmup before hiking up to Ramsey Cascades Trail for ‘real’ trout fishing. I quickly learned that knots are very hard to tie with 5x tippet (twelve pound test is ‘light’ line where I come from). What kind of superhuman eyesight and dexterity does someone need to tie 8x tippet? I quickly learned that my long-cast practice had been a waste of time and that rocks in streams are not easy to stand on. The idylic magazine photos of gear-covered fly fishermen waist deep in fast flowing streams with long sections of line poised overhead were now seen with a totally new respect!First impression; the Little Pigeon area is truly beautiful, even with little or no fall color left. I could hardly stop staring to cast. Second impression; there are no fish here! The water is crystal clear but nothing moves…anywhere!Remembering what the fly shop owner had told me I started ‘sneaking’ up on likely pools (something I would be utterly embarrassed to be seen doing at home). The slightest sound, movement and even poking my rod out over the small water, obviously sent the fish running. I bit the bullett and started wading (no waders and it’s late november) to get better casts into the pockets and to avoid hanging any more flies in the branches overhead. I was good for about 30 minutes in the water before going completely numb. Still no fish! Frustration was setting in and possibly hypothermia.Then, on a noticeably good delivery above a small chute, the indicator slid into a small pool and made an irregular jolt against the flow. I lifted gently and felt the fish! He immediately made a textbook jump and dove back toward the rock overhang.By my reaction, you would think I had just set the hook on a 50 pound wahoo. The fight was over in mere seconds but I stood holding the most beautiful fish I have ever seen. A 7″ mountain stream rainbow trout and my first reaction was (amazedly) to get him back into the water. Releasing the fish showed me why I couldn’t see fish in the water. They look exactly like the stone covered bottoms! No camera for a photo but the sight of the fish is etched into my mind forever. My first trout! I fished the Little Pigeon with a vengeance for two more days, hiking into the wilder areas where paths are far from the stream. Enduring numbing wades from pool to pool, suffering multiple sprained ankles, falling and sliding ungracefully down moss covered slopes and leaving a trail of nymphs and indicators in the trees and rocks. I left the area without sight of another fish. It was the best 3 days of fishing I can remember. I am hooked!Next trip I will be better prepared. I will hire a guide for a half day. I will match gear better to the terrain. I will have waders! I’m even convinced I can tye my own flies (an economic necessity)! I am already looking to the Arkansas area for more trout within driving range. Though I’ve started late in life…I want to grow up to be a ‘trout bum’.
glovercc,
That was a great read. I’m glad you had a good time and let the little fella go. Sounds like you are hooked for life.
“Tennessee, Tennessee, there ain’t no place I’d rather be” -J. Garcia
Congratulations on you new found passion. There are times when experiences just resonate inside you and first wild trout on the fly is definately one of those. There is nothing so perfect than a small trout on a fly rod. The food, the water, and the fish all fit perfectly into the Normal Rockwell type picture we all have in our minds when we think of fly fishing. You just made me miss spring and my 2 weight.
That was great! I love that feeling, for me, it’s the first day of trout season it is like fly fishing for the first time, it’s almost a rebirth. It is great to know you had a good time, I fish with a friend and if he isn’t catchin fish constantly he just gives up. That one fish is all it took for you and I am very glad to here that, sometimes its the quality, that beautiful trout, not the quanity. Thanks for sharing and please, keep it up.
Thanks for the story and bringing me and everyone else back to our first trout through your story of your first trout. I’m glad you loved it and look forward to more tales of the hunt for trout.
It is a lofty ambition to aspire to be a Trout bum but a worthy asperation. Sounds like your on the way to that place in time and space we all search for, focus on the seams.
I spent four years fishing TN, NC, and VA extensively and can honestly say that it is some of, if not the, finest trout fishing on the east coast. The region is dotted with amazing fisheries with tons of natural reproduction taking place. The Southern tailwaters produce streamborn browns and bows that regularly exceed 5lbs and the isolation of the Appalachins has protected numerous native brooktrout streams from “progress.” The tailwaters will make you to become a good fly fisherman. I strongly reccomend you fish the South Holston River when you have the chance. You will not be dissapointed.
That is an engaging story. It hasn’t been that many years since a caught my first little trout that I couldn’t vividly remember what an excitement it was.Your story, joy of catch and release and you finding a passion sounds very familiar. If you do grow up to be a ‘Trout Bum”, fish your way up to Maine waters, too.
Great story.
That was a nice story. My first fish on a dry fly was a 12″ brook trout. I’ll remember it alway. Thank’s for sharing.
glovercc:
I enjoyed reading your fishtale. It reminded me of sweet memories of fly fishing firsts for me as well… my two first trout (First one when I was about 18 years old and the the 2nd First one about 34 years later). Both were within 10 miles of each other at a place 1500 miles from where I live now. Additionally, I am reminded of my first (and quite recent) redfish and my similar (although inverted) transition between freshwater and saltwater that also occurred later in life.
There are a lot of different people hooked on this site, with different fish targets and different locations… but I think that we all share the excitement of the hookup so much that flyfishing has become a devotion.
Congratulations, you have started a journey that is certain to last a very long time! Enjoy the journey. The destination is less clear, constantly changing and in many respects, unimportant. It is for the journey that we continue.
Dave
ya know, i was envious reading your fish-tale …. i remembered when i got my first fly rod .. had no waders and flies that i bought based soley on their size (the bigger the better) and their pretty colors … remembered being amazed to see trout feeding and totally ignoring my offerings .. i remembered how everything was fresh and new and every bend around every river was like a new page in a book … and i remember how long it took me to start feeling confident catching trout …. and now that i feel a bit “confident”, it comes with a cost .. and that cost is losing the freshness, the wonderment and amazement that i felt during those early years ….
and for me … that is why, i have no interest in every becoming an “expert” because that would surely be the death of my fly fishing hobby … i enjoy constantly putting myself in places that i am unfamiliar with, fishing for species that provide me with the same sense of wonderment, bewilderment and sense of “oh man, i just gotta catch one of these.” …. i like playing and learning music too … and nothing bores me more than playing the same mozart piece or beethoven piece perfectly over and over again .. what a freaking drag… i like playing new music and constantly improvising and constanstly forcing myself to learn new things … because i find no comfort in the things i know, just pure boredom…..
so – thanks for your fish-tale .. because your enthusiasm and passion was obvious .. and that enthusiasm and passion is, in my opinion, a byproduct of the “newness” of it all … …… and that confirms for me the importantance of not falling into the realms of habit and relying on the things i already know … and to keep that same sense of passion and wonderment alive by always being a learner ….
so – you will come to find, that there will be no lack of fly fisherman out there in the world eager to give you advice on casting, flies, and how to do this or that …. my advice to you is simply … cherish how you feel about fly fishing right now and don’t ever lose that feeling …….. because, the rivers and waters of this earth are full of “experts” ……. and that is boring.
Great story! I think anyone who fly fishes can relate.
If you haven’t gotten into tying yet you might want to think twice about doing it for economic reasons. It will be whole new addiction! There is always a new material that you’ll have to have (usually in at least three colors), or a new tool that will make tying easier.
If you get the chance try sneaking up on some carp with a fly rod!
great story,
i’ve been flyfishing for 12+ years now and was bitten by the fever in the Bitterroots of Montana. my prizes were native cutts all about 8-10 inches in length. i live in missouri now and i have access to some productive tailwater fisheries in the area. i don’t know of any better way to spend my time. my first fish though was a cutt that i “caught” in Glacier Park about 32 years ago on a gold hook, a length of line, and a strong stick. My dad was proud and I fell in love.