Smith's Today

[fwhitaker]

Anyone fishing smith's today

[S.Trutta]

I fished it on Wednesday and couldn't believe how slow it was. The past few weeks there have been phenomenal, yet I fished for 5 hrs and only landed 3 fish!!! Everyone I talked to had that many or less, everyone was shocked by how down the fish were. About 11am i saw quite a few fish looking up for some small caddis that were coming off, couldnt get any on the adults, hooked and lost 2 on emergers.

Rich

[Tuck]

I fished from 12:00 - 4:00 yesterdy and managed to catch 7. I spoke to a gentleman who was leaving and he said he had caught 24. I must not have been doing something right :)

BTW, all of my fish were caught on Y2K's.

Allen

[fwhitaker]

I fished up around the dam then fished below the new bridge and aorund the bamboo. I think I tied on everything i had in my box. in fact I actually threw my box at them. they never even moved. I threw every nymph, y2k, san juan worm and combonation of the three I could for nothing...the first time I've been skunked in ages. I didn't get out to the water until 4:45, that could have a lot to do with it.

I did see a bunch of turkey in the bamboo! Clucking away

[huntfish]

I fished up around the dam then fished below the new bridge and aorund the bamboo. I think I tied on everything i had in my box. in fact I actually threw my box at them. they never even moved. I threw every nymph, y2k, san juan worm and combonation of the three I could for nothing...the first time I've been skunked in ages. I didn't get out to the water until 4:45, that could have a lot to do with it.

I did see a bunch of turkey in the bamboo! Clucking away
You didn't even come close to fishing the better water. Next time, walk about a half mile further and then fish upstream. Most folks who fish Smith never get past the retention pond and your discription with the bamboo tells me that you did not too.

[huntfish]

I fished from 12:00 - 4:00 yesterdy and managed to catch 7. I spoke to a gentleman who was leaving and he said he had caught 24. I must not have been doing something right :)

BTW, all of my fish were caught on Y2K's.

Allen
I'll bet that they were not favoring the Y2K. :D

[just lloyd]

I decided to give myself an early birthday present Thursday and took advantage of the very warm weather. I made the two hour drive from north Atlanta and made it streamside about 1:00. I was not there five minutes before I heard the ATV coming and the pellets hit the water before I could even get a hook in the stream. I was at the waste facility and starting fishing that water, picking little pockets and short shutes with a pellet fly.
For some reason I had never used such a fly. But I had stopped at Unicoi Outfitters on the way up and bought two on a lark. Well they worked but it was tough going with bright sun and fast water. I picked up two and then nothing for the next hour. I made my way back up to just below the dam and the wind was picking up. I tied a 16 yellow humpy to a short stiff leader and started working the obvious lies. The next dozen casts brought six to hand with three or four long distance releases. It had been some time since I had really worked a stream with decent results and I felt very satisfied when I left an hour later. Still daylight and I decided to take a shot at the river in
Helen. I parked at the Elvis theater and fished that long slot down to the
big rock and deeper pool and caught one more on a Y2K, the rod bending heavily in the swift current. For me, it was a great way to kickoff the birthday weekend. I will have to make the long walk down below the retention pond next time. You all have a great weekend.

[Tuck]

huntfish,

I tried 5 or 6 other flies without as much as a strike. I'm afraid without the Y2K my total would have been 0 :yikes:

[Chuck Morris]

Old man with beard, chest pack with Naval Aviator wings and a Penn St8 patch. That be me. I caught 24 yesterday at Smith's.
The vast majority were caught below the pond. My rig for the day was a 16-18 hare's ear type on a Mustad 3906B as my top fly. My dropper was an18 -22 wire wrap on a scud hook. Red, black and chartruse all worked with chartruse being the top producer. This fly also had a couple of short strands of krystal flash and a peacock herl head. The dropper was from 12 to 18 inches below the top fly. I had a fairly heavy weight about 6 to 8 inches above the top fly and a small weight about 6 to 8 inches above the dropper. I usually don't use an indicator.
From the dam down to about the second foot bridge there seems to ba a lot of algae on the bottom and the rigs were picking it up quite readily. I was cleaning everything after every cast. The few fish that I caught in that area hit almost as soon as the rig got to bottom and before it had a chance to pick up debris.
I also tried other flies. Y2k's, San Juan's etc. but with no success. This just happened to be the rig that I tied on and it worked. So from what everyone has said, I guess that I just hit it lucky.
Chuck

[Granddad]

I don't think it's all luck! You're certainly a far better fisherman than I. Sometime, I'd like to meet you on Smith's and let you show me how to fish it!
Bill

[Chuck Morris]

Granddad
I doubt the statement about me being a better fisherman, but I may have more experience. I've only been fly fishing since l953 or 1954 and hopefully I learn something new or remember something old every time out. It seems as though as I get older it's the remembering that I'm having trouble with Be glad to meet up with you sometime.
Chuck

[Granddad]

It seems as though as I get older it's the remembering that I'm having trouble with Be glad to meet up with you sometime.
Chuck[/QUOTE]

Oh can I ever relate to trouble remembering! I'll be at my cabin in north Georgia tomorrow through Friday morning and could meet you on Smith's anytime Monday through Thursday. I'll pm you my number.
Bill

[B Kar Ma]

Grandad - All Chuck catches is chubs - that's how he gets his numbers high! And he been using the Grizz methodology for counting - he starts at 20.......
Hey, Chuck - see ya Thursday!

[Rocketroy]

Chuck, Boy do I hate to reply to your wondering how I did on Smith Fri.! In order to maintain my overblown and wildly out of control reputation,here goes a feeble day,s effort on what used to be: My Home Beat! As a preface to discrediting your totals: Any living soul can score big numbers using the right combination of fly selection,water reading,presentation,and finally take detection! The real skill comes in going brain dead on ALL these minor factors and still score an average of two trout per hour! To the math challenged, that equates to nine "stinkin" trout for me,on that rain free Fri.! Mine were bigger though,averaging 21 inches{ OOP,s,correction:read the tapes upside down!}........more like slightly south of 12 in.! Did do one of my favorite thangs on the water,by schooling a newbie,by demoeing a dropper rig,{HIS} below a colorful weighted Wolly booger, high sticked over a pod......even hooked one up while schooling.......cool, real cool! Visited with B.J.Meadors, of the famous Meadors Pottery familly.......who was with the unicoi lodge,when Smith became DH........he was into the mid twenties on wed.,but was happy to chat,since he too was having a slow day.......making your success count,chuck even more disgustingly boastful! Stopped for a three hour lunch on the creek bank......which I,m sure you no doubt cast thru.,thus adding one more excuse to my litany of reasons for my lack of success! Sooooooooo,if you deduct the long and wonderful sharing of my highly developed FF skills spent as a kindnees,the long and sophisticated catered lunch on the creek, several potty breaks and finally a long slow depressing walk out.......my total reads 9 trout per hour! Top that,Chuck!

[Chuck Morris]

:D OK guys I'll fess up.
I don't use the Grizz method of counting, I use my own. My own method starts at zero and uses inches as it counters. In my system one inch equals one trout. BTW chubs are fish also, but they don't count for inches, and Mark, see if I ever back up your claim of a hooking a big rainbow again. :p
Roy, sounds like you had a good day. Maybe you didn't catch the numbers but you probably had a great time showing a newbie the ropes. Throw in a leisurely lunch, good friends, good conversation, a few trout and what more could you ask for.
Chuck
Mark: You better believe that I'll see you Thursday.

[huntfish]

Chuck, Boy do I hate to reply to your wondering how I did on Smith Fri.! In order to maintain my overblown and wildly out of control reputation,here goes a feeble day,s effort on what used to be: My Home Beat! As a preface to discrediting your totals: Any living soul can score big numbers using the right combination of fly selection,water reading,presentation,and finally take detection! The real skill comes in going brain dead on ALL these minor factors and still score an average of two trout per hour! To the math challenged, that equates to nine "stinkin" trout for me,on that rain free Fri.! Mine were bigger though,averaging 21 inches{ OOP,s,correction:read the tapes upside down!}........more like slightly south of 12 in.! Did do one of my favorite thangs on the water,by schooling a newbie,by demoeing a dropper rig,{HIS} below a colorful weighted Wolly booger, high sticked over a pod......even hooked one up while schooling.......cool, real cool! Visited with B.J.Meadors, of the famous Meadors Pottery familly.......who was with the unicoi lodge,when Smith became DH........he was into the mid twenties on wed.,but was happy to chat,since he too was having a slow day.......making your success count,chuck even more disgustingly boastful! Stopped for a three hour lunch on the creek bank......which I,m sure you no doubt cast thru.,thus adding one more excuse to my litany of reasons for my lack of success! Sooooooooo,if you deduct the long and wonderful sharing of my highly developed FF skills spent as a kindnees,the long and sophisticated catered lunch on the creek, several potty breaks and finally a long slow depressing walk out.......my total reads 9 trout per hour! Top that,Chuck!
Well said Rocket, and folks who haven't met Roy, this man has forgotten more about flyfishing than most of us will ever learn. Lead the way Rocket Roy Lowe! :)

[Jimmy Harris]

I just wanted to give a confirmation to Chuck's report on fishing Smith Creek. So many anglers came by the shop this weekend with poor fishing reports from Smith and, yet, we were have good days on our private water and reports from some of our regulars from Dukes that were pretty good. This evening I got confirmation from the "Dredger" that the fishing was challenging but very good on Smith this afternoon. In less than three hours he brought well over a dozen fish to the net and LDR'd about that many more. Most were caught on size 16 or smaller partridge and green soft hackles or pheasant tails; no junk food. Weighted well enough to get the fly down near the bottom. 5X tippet was plenty but strikes were subtle and lightning quick. The key, as most always is the case, was getting that drag free drift. High sticking the rod to assist in getting that good drift was critical. This is typical winter fishing and just requires spending time learning the technique.

[dblhaul]

Jimmy..Are you fishing your soft hackles with shot? Thanks..

[Jimmy Harris]

Add shot until you're down on the bottom. I prefer to add the shot above my first fly but some folks put it between the top fly and the dropper.

[dblhaul]

I've always tied sh's with a bead-head or without- depending on what part of the water column. I love soft hackles. However, I think am not fishing them to their potential. Thanks again.