![]() ![]() We look forward to seeing our clients again in March. We learned a ton and caught some trophy smallmouth on both rivers. The smallmouth fishing on the French Broad and Nolichucky Rivers was excellent this year. The lower water temperatures will slowly shut down the bite unless you want to fish a few hours in the afternoon which provides the warmest part of the day. ![]() We are wrapping up our smallmouth season since tomorrow we have a freeze warning here in Asheville. Our normal hardbaits that we throw in the fall wasn’t possible because every cast they would grab big chunks of grass but we were able to trick some big fall smallmouth into eating some non traditional baits. The challenge came from the grass that was present in the French Broad. The smallmouth fishing was challenging this fall, but also really good. If there are a lot of orange, red, and yellow leaves floating through then try fishing a white or black pattern that shows up better to the fish in the array of colors. Most of the leaves stay right below the surface since that’s where the fastest current is. I also like to throw weighted buggers this time of year on the bigger rivers to get down into the slower moving water where there isn’t much leaves. This is a great time to fish heavier nymphs such as pats rubber legs or beadhead eggs that punch through the leaves better than your smaller nymphs. The leaves are quickly falling and this can make fishing challenging as they float through our systems. Paying attention to the small subtle clues that the fish and bugs give you go a long way. I say all this to say always be ready to adjust based on what you’re seeing on the water. Below is one of the many we picked off top. After throwing crawfish patterns all day my clients were happy to see some topwater action. The fish were feeding on blue wings nonstop one afternoon. We were recently on the French Broad near Hot Springs and we got into some awesome dry fly fishing for smallmouth. I’ll always have a dry fly rod and streamer rod in the boat because of all the different water types you encounter on floats. Stocked fish will eat dry flies! It’s cool teaching clients something other than nymphing on our trout floats. The Tuckaseegee has been fishing well and we’ve seen some decent dry fly fishing in the afternoon. If you want to fish these rivers then it would be best to wait till we get some rainfall. We’ve been over there because the Catawba and the North Toe Rivers are just too low to successfully float fish right now. The best float fishing has been on the Tuckaseegee. Some of my favorite indicator flies to drift nymphs under are parachute caddis, chubby chernobyls, and hoppers.ĭoing these three things in low water conditions will up your chances at catching fish. Using smaller dry flies as indicators have been great because indicators make a huge splat on the water which spooks fish before you have even given yourself a chance at catching them. Any fray in your tippet is a recipe for a missed fish. The key is to check your line after snags or a landed fish. The 3 pound fluorocarbon is plenty strong enough to hold bigger fish. I’ve recently been using nothing but 6x tippet on all trips for my droppers. When you are wade fishing, position yourself where you can cast in front of the fish without them seeing your fly line. The advantage is getting your flies out in front of the fish without them seeing your fly line. Once you get familiar with fishing a longer leader you won’t ever go back to fishing the common 9 foot leaders. The key to success was lengthening the leader. We both walked away satisfied with the success of being able to trick those fish into eating our flies in tough conditions. The fishing was technical, but not impossible. ![]() I extended the leader to 16 feet and we threw a size 14 parachute caddis as the indicator and small midge as the dropper and hooked three trophy fish. I told the client I was going to lengthen the leader and they were shocked because we were already fishing a 12 foot long leader. This is typical of any wild trout but in low water conditions it is more heightened. If you get up on the hole then those fish will immediately spook. I recently guided a client on a wild trout stream here in McDowell County and there is a long flat where some bigger wild rainbow trout post up. The top things you can do that will help you catch fish in low water is to use longer leaders, downsize your tippet, and take off the heavy indicators. The low water has been challenging, but there some things you can do to give yourself the best chance at catching fish. There are a lot of wild trout streams outside of Asheville that I never seen as low as they are right now. ![]() Western North Carolina is in a moderate drought without any rainfall in the 10 day forecast. ![]()
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