Fly Fishing the Smokies

The Little Tennessee River, the Little T to the guides who work it, is fished by Fly Fishing the Smokies as a smallmouth river, and the outfit rates it as an angler’s best shot at a truly citation-sized smallmouth on the fly. It wades well: the currents are slow and gentle, the bottom is medium-sized rock broken by shelves and ledges, and when rain has not stirred it the water runs from emerald green to a tannic clear. Beds of grass growing in the stream bed give the bass ambush lanes to work a fly past, and old swinging bridges make crossing to the far bank straightforward. Days here are sold either as wade trips or as float trips down the river, the guides fishing from drift boats and rafts that take two anglers apiece.