Two FATC brothers headed to eastern TN on an adventure that would take them to the small mountain streams of the Smoky Mountain National Park to the fellowship of volunteering at the “Reading The Waters of Life” Altar Fly Fishing retreat on the South Holston River in eastern TN.
Dave Komor, Mike Bisaga and Sterling Short volunteered to help out on the Altar retreat on the South Holston River in TN the week of June 3rd-8th.
Wait..didn’t you say TWO FATC brothers headed to TN? Correct… Three of us were scheduled, however, Sterling had an unfortunate accident about 9pm the night before we were leaving that took him out of the picture. We missed him, but since we were committed to help with the retreat, there was no turning back. Plus, I had all the food to feed 18 people for 4 days. While of course we missed Sterlings great sense of humor and company; it did not go unnoticed that he was also going to: bring us steak and lobster for dinner one night, a griddle that I was going to use to cook breakfast for the group, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire, and had done all the research of where to fish in the Smoky mountains. We missed him dearly, and didn’t let him forget it.
With 1 man down, Mike and Dave headed out at 5am on Saturday for our 10 hour drive to Townsend TN. We had a very nice VRBO there with a fire pit, huge deck, an outdoor kitchen/bar and outdoor pool table on a large screened in porch. We were about 10 minutes to the Park entrance and about 5 minutes to the nearest Fly Shop, Little River Outfitters(https://littleriveroutfitters.com/). If you are ever in the area, this is a great fly shop. They have a wide selection and VERY helpful staff. We probably talked to at least 5 different guys there and they were all very helpful.
Since all our fishing intel was still in St Louis, our first stop was the fly shop to get the scoop. After talking and spending a little/a lot of money, we had what we needed.
Sunday morning, we set our sites on the Middle Prong of the LIttle River near Tremont. We found a pull off on the side of the road that looked good and started fishing a very fishy looking river. Mike pulles a couple Rainbows out at that location. We were off to a good start. Our next stop was a few miles up the road to the Middle Prong Trail Trailhead. From here, we hiked up the well developed Middle Prong Trail roughly 2 miles and started working our way downstream fishing the Lynn Camp Prong. There were lots of waterfalls along the way, since there was recent rain, including a few very large ones. River access and “wading” were a little difficult as this is very small water. Fishing the pockets was the way to go, so we had our ESN rods with us. Armed with flies the fly shop had suggested, we were each able fool a few small wild Brookies. I never thought that catching little fish would be my thing, but it really is something great when you can catch a wild trout out of a small stream. It was awesome.
Monday morning came and we decided to head to a different location to start. We fished Laurel Creek, just south of the Townsend entrance towards Cades Cove. We had a few hits, but no takers at that location, so we moved on. Decided to go back to the Trailhead from the day before, but head out on a different trail. After having some lunch, we headed up the not so developed Thunderhead Prong Trail a little over a mile and fished the VERY small waters of the upper Thunderhead Prong. Here, we again found a few wild Brookies, and complete solitude. This location stressed that if fishing these streams, you should not do so alone. If something were to happen, and you are alone, you may be there for a while. Very little traffic and no cell service.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable get away. We saw some new things and fished streams and locations that are nothing like what we see here in Missouri.
Tuesday morning, we packed up, and headed out on our 2 hr drive to the Tailwater Lodge on the South Holston(https://tailwaterslodge.com/)
Trip report continued… Continued
