Fall Browns

Posted by Doug

Ah, the rustle of leaves and the beautiful colors of the mountains in fall!  It makes me think of many things, but most dear to my heart is fall browns – Brown Trout, that is.  Matt and I made a trip in late October to one of my favorite cities in the country, Asheville, North Carolina to chase the eager fall browns.  And, man did they deliver.

Asheville is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina at the confluence of the Swannanoa River and the French Broad River.  The Blue Ridge Parkway runs right through the town with a regional population of about 500,000.  It is home to the famous Biltmore Estate and an eclectic wealth of visual and performing artists and artisans and odd characters of all sorts.  But, the greatest attraction for me is that within an hour drive of Asheville, you can access 3,000 miles of trout streams offering both stocked and wild fish.  And, when the fishing is done, you can sit down to an exceptional meal and some of the best microbrews in the country. 

Our guide service for this trip was the Hunter Banks flyshop, established in 1985.  We started the trip without a guide on the SheltonLaurel River just outside of Madison NC, northwest of Asheville.  All of the trout water in the area is classified in different ways.  The Shelton Laurel has a Late Harvest section, which means that it is stocked in early October.  Shane Buckner, the store manager, told me that’s where he takes his son and that “she ain’t the prettiest girl at the dance, but she can move.”  I took that to mean that a couple of not so great fly guys could probably hook up.  And we did.  The Late Harvest Section is only about three miles long and has very easy access by road that runs along the river.  The water was low for most of the run, but we found a deep section where a side channel joined the main flow.  After gearing up and jumping in, both of us hooked up several nice browns.  It was a good warm up for the next two days.

Our guide for the next two days was Forrest Marshall - Head Guide & Trout Psychologist.  We lucked out getting Forrest.  He is a native of western North Carolina and has been with Hunter Banks since graduating from UNCA. He spends about 200 days a year on the water - he say's he pursuing a master's degree in trout psychology. 

The first day, we floated the Watauga River in eastern Tennessee.  This is reputed to be one of the best fisheries east of the Mississippi. The river has a relatively large fish-per-mile ratio reportedly around 5,000.  On our last trip to Utah, we fished the Provo River with about 3,000 fish per mile and had a great day.  So, the Watauga held promise.  The river is a tail water, part of the Tennessee Valley Authority and as such is fed cold water from the bottom of the reservoir above.  There are three major sections that fish a little differently depending on the season.  We fished the lower section also know as the "Trophy Section" not so much for the size of the fish, but for the regulations.  Trophy section rivers are mostly no-take waters allowing fish to grow and hold over to become, well, trophies.  We fished nymphs all day and landed somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 fish.  We saw one other boat, briefly, all day.  It was pretty much a perfect day.

Next it was on to the South Holston, also in Tennessee, for a day of wade fishing.  The South Holston River near Bluff City, starts at the bottom of the South Holston Dam, the largest earthen dam at its time of construction. From there it flows southwest to eventually empty into Boone Lake.  The only problem with the South Holston is the flow control.  The TVA has scheduled releases of water and on this day it was around mid-day.  With about a two-hour delay in reaching us, we had until around 2:30 to fish.  Forrest had his spot in mind – Boy’s Island.  

The Weaver Pike Bridge crosses the river just above the island and this section closes the first of November to allow the trout to spawn.  The aquatic insect population is prolific and so are the fish.  Forrest put us at opposite ends of a run no more than 100 feet long and we both landed one fish after another.  The most second most exciting moment of the day was when I hooked up a small rainbow, about 6 inches, and while I was stripping in the fish, an enormous brown – I mean huge – decided the bow looked pretty tasty.  

The brown made several passes at the struggling bow, but missed and gave up.  That would have been the experience of a lifetime – a 30 inch brown taking a 6 inch bow that took a tiny nymph on 4 pound tippet.  I can’t say that I would every have landed the brown, but it would have been fun trying.  In all, we landed about 25 fish in our half day on the water.  Pretty good haul, I’d say.

The most exciting moment of the day, and Forrest is going to hate me for saying this, is when he asked me for the time and I said, “2:30.”  His response was, “get out of the water, now.”  We were fishing a quiet side current on the other side of Boy’s Island at the time.  Forrest doesn't wear a watch and lost track of the time.  Seems the flow from the dam was upon us and there was no way we were going to cross the river back to the truck without getting swept away and guides really hate it when that happens to guests.  But, there was the Weaver Pike Bridge.  So, we scaled the near vertical bank to the bridge, crossed the river, and scaled back down to the truck.  Honestly, I think it would have been safer crossing the river.  But, we made it.

I love Asheville and this was about as perfect a fishing trip as one can have.  The fish were average, not giant, but they were plentiful.  The mix was about half wild and half stockers, about two thirds browns and the rest bows.  The weather was perfect, the food was good and the beer was great.  I highly recommend a trip to Asheville – even if you don’t fish.