Holidays!

Well, back from the USA, and what a fantastic place to fish! sadly, didn't have quite enough time, or catch many fish, but really enjoyed it.

I was based in the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, near Gatlinburg. The 3 day licence for the Smokey Mountains national park cost 30 dollars, and for it I needed to state my hair and eye colour, weight and height!

I dropped in at the Smokey Mountain Angler in Gatlinburg to get my licence and some flies, both of which were forthcoming, along with plenty of advice - really genuine friendly set up here. If you are ever visiting - drop in! www.smokymountainangler.com

The first trip out I went to the greenbriar part of the park, and the middle prong of the little pigeon river. I was after a brook trout. I didn't catch one. I did get a small rainbow, caught on a PTN. The setting and the water was fantastic - I didn't have my waders so my access was limited.

Balancing on rocks - didn't have my waders!

Throwing the 4wt

Hmm - not sure where or what I was casting to here!

Lovely clear water

Beautiful autumnal colours and lovely "pocket water"

I fished for an hour or so and had a number of takes, but only landed one small wild rainbow.

After fishing here for a while, we moved slightly downriver to a slower run and pool, where we could see fish rising and taking from the surface - what they were taking, don't know - there was no hatch to see so it must have been insects in the surface film.

I fished a duo for a while, missed a few takes then switched to a yellow bodied attractor floating fly, which produced a few more takes, but I didn't connect with any of them. Mrs S-O-T-F was having a go a fishing too, and her casting was more based on the western whip-crack technique - not the best for spooky wild mountain trout!

Perfect fly fishing (and imperfect casting!)

Again, beautifully clear water

The following day I managed to sneak an hours fishing in on the way back from a day trip out, and caught 1 small minnow like fish. I would love to spend a week here in fine weather fishing, it really is a beautiful place and there is soo much fishing to be had, for really reasonable prices.

This is roadside fishing at its best - and there are 10s of miles of it!

So, whilst not a productive trip fish-wise, was fantastic fishing in a fantastic place - can't recommend it highly enough!

The rest of the holiday was engaged with a family wedding and a bit of a road trip to Nashville - I won't bore you with all the pictures on here, but boy, do they like their country music!!

Back to the don this week I think.....