Wayne Knight wrote:

Not so much to report. The weather was wet until Late Sat morning when
the sun came out finally. I would think it would have been none too
pleasant even in a good tent. No real downpours or much thunder but a
constant steady rain and it got cool at times too. Especially on
Friday when I walked up high and there was a cloud/mist line I walked
into, brrrrr. Then after pulling the fleece and raincoat out of the
day pack and fishing what should have been brookie water, I caught
several rainbows and only one brookie.

I was reading another forum about fishing in that area, and someone
else reported a similar experience (finding rainbows up higher than
expected). I wonder if that's the result of the low water of last year
(fish moving up high).

I think I could have survived the weather OK. My camping setup is
pretty much waterproof (right, Wolf and Jeffie?), but it could have
gotten old after the first 3 or 4 days.

Correspondingly the fishing got better Sat afternoon too. Until then
it was tough going, even in the brookie waters though some fish were
caught every day. Fished Parson's, Abrahams, a couple of Prongs of the
Little River, and a few other esoteric creeks just trying to find
something happening.

What, no Hazel? :-) Sounds like fun anyway. Even with bad
weather, I really missed the trip.

Besides the Little and maybe Bradley Fork on the NC side, I had
planned to spend some time on Lynn Camp, as I really fell in love with
that stream last year (my first GSMNP brookies were caught there), and
they are going to be shutting it down as a restoration project after a
"fish out" later this year.

And of course, if last year was any indication, I could have counted
on catching the biggest fish of the trip right within sight of my tent
in Elkmont. On a Pass Lake. :-)

See ya next year I hope.

I hope so, too. I already have it penciled in on my schedule. Two
weekends before Memorial Day.


Chuck Vance (though I'm tempted to try to fit a fall trip in
sometime)