Smokie mountain trip report

Last spring a few friends and I went backpacking in the smokies for spring break. Here is the report I'm being lazy and just copying and pasting it from another site.

I'm back from my backpacking trip to the Smokies.

Overall the trip was pretty good. We had rain the first 4 days or so and the fishing was just bad. Oh and before I forget if you plan to travel somewhere and the locals say bring waders...do it... We froze wet wading but it cut the weight down for our long hikes.

We arrived around noon friday to set up camp and get settled in and ready for our first hike. The next day we hike to the infamous Abrams Falls of Abrams Creek. We did some fishingbut not so much as a nibble and it rained all day. Did I mention the tent I was borrowing leaked.

Some Photos

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me not knowing a photo was being taken while I was rigging up.

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Kirk giving it a shot

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some amphibian eggs

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view from the trail head

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We hiked back and stayed at the same campsite that night and prepared for our first backpacking hike along Deep Creek. Oh and It rained some more.

A Trib cascading down into Deep Creek

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again

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I finally caught a fish here one afternoon when the sun decided to pop out. I should state now that these fish have horrible aim. We all missed a lot of fish that just didn't get the fly.

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Some black caddis

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next morning I woke early and got moving to get some time on the water in but all I got were failed slashes at my fly so that day's hike began.

Our home for the night

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This was the view just upstream but no one was home or willing to eat.

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Blue Quill I believe

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my fly box had gotten wet with all the rain so I decided to take some shots of it

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I broke off

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Bear bagging made easy in the smokies

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Like I said it was wet the first few days

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But hope rose one morning

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These views made me miss my summers in CT with my grandparents and fishing all the time.

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These next two were taken while driving at some point

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The hike out of Deep was a nice sunny uphill with a very long downhill which found it fit to give me some blisters on my feet.

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Lots of small blue butterflies on the hike out of Deep

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Next we camped at a front range site in North Carolina (Deep was also in NC) and fished that afternoon and morning. My roommate Shane managed a nice brownie but there is no photo. The next morning I got up at the crack of dawn like I always do while camping and missed a bunch of fish including what I think was a nice one while I was mending over a stick in the water.

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Next was twenty mile creek in NC as well.

nice and sunny

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There was trout working the water there but couldnt get a good shot of her.

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a familiar sight

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this spot was naughty and nice to me. there was a large fallen tree pretty much above my head where this photo was taken that claimed several flies

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...but this beauty came out to play.

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caught on this

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Next morning I got up and headed downstream with a prince tied on.

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Went back to camp to pack for the hike out and caught this little guy along the way. My last fish of the smokies

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They were rising like crazy that last morning....to midges which none of us had so we could occasionally get a slash at a fly but again horrible aim on the fishes' part.

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we went rock climbing for a day or so in Kentucky afterward I'm not going to give a play by play but all of my pictures from the trip can be found here

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v247/ ... 09%20SMNP/

Great pics. I hear there are a lot of small streams in the smokies. Sounds like paradise.

A nice Read, on that area, I,m sure any more posts of the area would be welcome, by me for a start. Haven,t seen that much, on the smokies

Thanks.

I fished the park several times. Beautiful place. There is a saying that goes... any fly will work in the Smokies, as long as it is yellow. I have found that to be very true. Everytime I go back I stock a ton of yellow humpies.

I love the pics of rainbows with red slash on their side. Beautiful!
Thank you for posting.

nice pics. i really liked some of the scenics of the river and the rhododendrons. makes me wish i was there. brings back good memories of trips there too.

Abrams creek is where I caught my first trout when I was 10 years old,it was 14 inches long and fell prey to a Eagle claw hook baited with a kernal of corn.In 1994 I caught an 18 3/4 inch Rainbow in the first pool right above the falls,and talked to a lady that helped with an electro-shocking survey on Abrams that shocked up a Brown trout that was over 27 inches long right where Mill creek joins in near the parking lot.The Browns have disappeared from Abrams creek and nobody knows why,but it is still one of the best places in the park to hook a large Rainbow,or watch the otters frolic.