05-18-2007
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The Great Smoky Mountains Fishing Trip 2007, Part One
While sitting around the campfire one night during the fishing trip I had to stop and ponder why, why did I pick this place to head off to and fish when there were dozens upon dozens of other places to choose from? As I sit here and try to begin explaining my trip down there and all that I experienced, I still wonder why there, what on earth ever processed me to pick that place to spend a week of fishing? Towing a travel trailer for eleven hours was nothing, except for the extra gasoline to get down and back. But, I do like my creature comforts and there is nothing like dragging your home along behind you. Maybe it was to store all the fishing gear, consideration for over packed clothing allowance, food, beer, and spirits that accompany every fishing trip the two of us ever went on together. Another regular member of this chat board had made a trip down to the Smokies just a few weeks prior to our departure. He sent along a link to his photos and fishing report of his trip and that only peaked my desire to get down there and experience what I had hoped to be a similar fishing trip experience. When we began planning this trip my longtime friend who accompanied me to the Smokies sends me an e-mail attached was a fly shop that had five guides in their service. Oh, I figured if they had five guides on staff then they had to be very, very good just to survive with that many on the payroll. But, I chose another guide service because in my research of the Smokies this one fellow had a couple of DVD’s and books to his credit. So I chose Ian Rutter to guide us on one of our days down there. I have hired many a guide, some very good and one very bad in my time and the rest some where in between. Ian Rutter I honestly have to say is in a class all by himself. We all expect our guide to work very hard to put us into a position to have a fair chance on a hookup, to be knowledgeable of the stream, fly patterns, casting techniques, positive reinforcement and coaching all the way until he is holding a trout on the palm of his hand waiting for you to photograph it. Ian was that and far more, he knew plants, trees, water hydraulics of this stream and other observations, where to find caddis hatching under streamside boulder just as he was emerging, and pointed out where dragon flies were eating the cased caddis in the slack water of the stream. He also watched his clients and used their skills to put us in the best position to have a shot at a fish. Easily said than done, but he made it happen. My knees are not what they use to be and climbing up and around boulders the size of mini vans is not easy to do. But, I picked the type of stream to fish and his help in doing so I safely made it up the mountain fishing and back down to the trail without having to be medevac’d out. No small feat on his part. When we start out on a fishing trip to a destination that we have never been to that we only read about, someone told you about it, or sent you photos of their experience, we all start out with the greatest of hope that the trip will be at least half of what you hoped it to be. I have to report that in this case our trip to The Great Smoky Mountains far exceed anything we ever hoped for as far as scenery, the quality of the streams and fish within them. From the ladies where we had breakfast in Cosby, whom without my translator along I would never been feed, to Harold & Nancy Thompson owner’s of The Smoky Mountain Angler Fly Shop in Gatlinburg, TN. who provided dead-on great advise and locations to get us into fish, and of course Ian Rutter, the most highly educated fly fishing guide of the Smokies. Bar none. Perhaps my real reason in dragging a travel trailer all the way down to The Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, for I knew we needed a large enough space to store all the laughs, good times and memories for the trip home. As always, still sitting here pondering just how lucky we were to pick The Great Smoky Mountains as our 2007 fly fishing destination. But the truth is, having a longtime great friend as a fishing partner catching one more fish than you. AK Skim
Last edited by AKSkim : 05-18-2007 at 09:35 PM.
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