Larry L wrote:
Just a thought. The picture of Santeetlah Creek strongly reminded me of a
Sierra Creek I used to fish that has a rare population of wild Lahontan
Cutthroats ( Two Headed Rattlesnake Creek, in Bad Bear Gulch, with an
approach via Dead Man Cliffs ) This is the place where I first learned to
really appreciate traditional soft hackle flies.

Try about a 14 yellow and partridge ( gray phase ) fished exactly like you
would a dry, upstream, but allowed to sink an inch or two. 99% of the
casts you can see it the whole drift, but those spooky thin water trout will
take it much better than a dry. If you tie the soft hackles with real
Persall's silk thread and fish a bamboo rod, you can pretty much remove any
guilt you might otherwise have over not fishing dry flies G Seriously,
give it a try especially at little yaller sally time

Well, guilt aside ;-), in those Smokies headwaters I fish with
a little bamboo rod the best characteristic a fly can have is
to be a good high floater. In fact, once a fly gets slimed or
water-logged and sinks below the surface it won't catch a fish
at all. The difference, I think, is that you're talking about
thin, slick, flat, clear water and where I find trout is mostly
turbulent, fast pockets. The technique is not so much casting
and watching the whole drift, the whole drift might last like
two seconds at most, but more like "dapping", just putting the
fly on the spot. If you're standing up, making long casts and
watching the whole drift, you ain't catchin' no fish high up
in the Smokies. You could tie on a nymph I suppose and dredge
up some trout that way, but hell if you're gonna sink that low
you might as well just use a worm. ;-)

--
Ken Fortenberry