Fishing smoky mountain national park

Hike two miles toward abrams falls. Fish the horseshoe where it leaves the trail. Fish it upstream back to the trail. These are the largest and most abundant trout in the park. It’s not Colorado but it’s the best fishing in the park IMO.
Abrams creek is very slippery and if you fish the whole horseshoe it will take you all day. Be careful..
You will need to get a map of the trail and the stream. Park visitor center has good trail maps

As long as you are in the park, you only need a TN or NC fishing license - no trout stamp needed. Regs in general are single-hook artificial only, but you can fish a two-fly rig. Local shops can put you on the right flies but basic nymphs are probably the ticket right now. I almost always fish hopper-dropper rig.

I know the NC side of the park best, but in general get beyond any easy-access area from trailheads and the fishing picks up. You might have to put in a mile or so on the trail at some of the most popular areas (Deep Creek, Bradleys Fork in NC for example - not sure what that may equate to on the TN side).

It has been very dry here, so the creeks are likely very low and clear - and the trout easy to spook. Good luck!

I agree, Abrhams Creek is a great stream with plenty of decent fish.

Another good option is Panther Creek. I believe it's off the Middle Prong river and you should be able to find the panther creek trailhead on google. Small stream full of native brook trout. My only advice is hike well past the cascades until you see the "panther creek" wooden sign. And keep going a bit further, the farther up the creek you go the better the fishing.

Good luck!

Seconded on Panther Creek. There’s a small footbridge over some wet area on the trail…usually I don’t put a line in until this point. Trail is an old logging railroad so it’s pretty flat and slopes gently upward.

Not in Tennessee but just south of Cherokee NC there is a cable bridge across the Tuckasegee River. This is a very popular area for those coming from Cherokee and headed south, the bridge is almost a must stop and see type situation. What is not so well known is that there are some MONSTER hold over browns in that stretch of river, particularly in January and February. I imagine it may not be legal now and may not have been when we were doing it regularly but we would catch a bucket full of suckers, slide a 12 foot jon boat down the bank at that bridge and float down the river to the downstream side of the island that the bridge connects to both banks. Where the water comes back together after splitting around that island there is a hole about 20 feet deep...probably the deepest hole in the entirety of that river. We would flat line a 6-10" sucker unweighted unless the water was high from the bank to the far end of that hold and catch MONSTER browns and some nice rainbows as well. We would make bait during the day, get to the island around 3-4 PM and stay out there as long as we could stand it past dark, usually around midnight...and wear the damn fish OUT.

When we were done we would drag the boat to the upstream side of the island and float back down to the bridge. I have tried to do this in the summer and caught fish but not as many and not as big. I have no idea where those big browns go in the summer but they are probably in that deep hole and just not feeding like they do in late winter / early spring.

We used to do nearly the exact same thing on the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta and north of Lake Lanier when I was a kid....except we could catch big browns and nice rainbows year round on the 'hooch. I am not sure you can flat line a bait fish for trout on the hooch anymore but it was legal in 80's because we would get checked at least once on every trip.

There is a reason fly fishing is preferred for trout fishing...its because the damned things are EASY to catch with anything other than a fly rod LOL...they are not overly selective nor very smart. The wilder they are makes them a little more difficult to catch but flat line a night crawler out west and you will load a drift boat while the long rod will catch 15 or so a day. Flat line whatever native bait fish they are feeding on and they don't hesitate to chow down....

If you cant catch a trout on a olive wooly booger you can't catch

quote:

---

In the park itself it is preferred because bait fishing is not allowed, and if the park rangers catch you with bait, it's a pretty sizeable federal fine. Have to use artificial tackle and there are rules on the tackle as well.

---

The Tuckasegee is not in the park in the area of the swinging bridge and according to the NC Fishing and Trout Waters page there are no restrictions on that stretch of river. I may give it a go after the first of the year and see if those big browns are still holed up downstream of that island....

quote:

---

Yeah outside the park still see tons of people fishing with corn and worms for trout. They line up right next to the stocking trucks when they let them out. Just don't see the fun in that.

---

Its fun for kids and a good opportunity for folks who ain't done it to catch some dinner. Catching several 5-10 pound browns that have held over and 3 pound Rainbows, on the other hand, is fun I don't care how many trout I have caught. There may not be any holdover fish in the river but there used to be and they were a blast to catch.

My favorite thing about the Chattooga River bordering GA and SC is it is stocked by helicopter by the SCDNR so the hillbillies can't just follow the stocking truck around. And the river is always good to fish, with plenty of holdovers.