So proper earlier than Thanksgiving, I had a brief little journey with the higher half up within the Smokey Mountains up within the Gatlinburg – Pigeon Forge space. Fun little cities within the coronary heart of the Smokies within the jap a part of Tennessee. There’s a bunch of issues to do, sights to see, and locations to eat. And surprisingly rainbow trout to catch in the course of the cities. Both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge have stocked trout streams working all via them. These are for essentially the most half open for the general public to fish.
The metropolis of Gatlingburg actively advertises and promotes trout fishing across the metropolis. So don’t be shocked when in the event you’re strolling across the Margaritaville resort and see an angler with a stringer of rainbow trout. They even have an lively trout farm in Herbert Holt Park to ensure they by no means run out. They use the trout farm to maintain the rivers and streams round Gatlinburg stuffed with rainbow trout all 12 months spherical. Every Thursday they put the hatchery rainbow trout into the rivers, ensuring there are many fish for the weekend anglers. Because they’re stocking on Thursday to provide the fish an opportunity to acclimate to the rivers, all trout fishing is closed on Thursdays inside town limits.
There are some particular guidelines that do apply although due to this distinctive scenario. Gatlinburg itself has its personal fishing license that you just want even when you have a Tenessee Fishing license with a supplemental trout license. So to fish inside town limits as a resident of the state of Tenessee you want the next three licenses a Annual Hunting and Fishing Combination (Type 001) plus Annual Trout (Type 022) and a Gatlinburg Three-Day Trout Permit (Type 096) or Gatlinburg Trout-Daily (Type 099) For a non-resident of Tenessee, you want these a mixture of those two licenses. A Gatlinburg Trout-Daily (Type 099) or Gatlinburg 3-Day Trout (Type 096) plus any of the nonresident fishing licenses; 3-Day Fish All Species (Type 078), 10-Day Fish All Species (Type 080), or Annual Fish All Species (Type 081)
Or in the event you’re solely going to fish for a short time like I used to be you may simply purchase a Gatlinburg One-Day Trout Permit (Type 097) for about $14.50ish to fish the entire day. But this license solely is legitimate inside town limits, in the event you’re desirous to fish in Pigeon Forge of the National Park you want the opposite fishing licenses. Also for purchasing the fishing licenses you want, simply do it on-line in your telephone it’s a lot simpler that approach. Yeah, actually it’s much more difficult than I had anticipated after I first seemed into it.
The basic laws for trout fishing is a Catch and Release Season: December 1 via March 31 and Open Season: April 1 via November 30. During the open season, you may preserve as much as 5 trout a day, and may solely have 5 trout in your possession, so no storing a earlier days catch in your cooler within the automobile or one thing like that. During the closed season, you may’t use any scented or pure baits, so plastics and flys solely. Single hooks solely as properly together with the apparent all fish need to be launched again into the river. There are three Children’s streams inside town as properly the place solely children 12 years and youthful are allowed to fish.
- West Prong Little Pigeon River from the Herbert Holt Park entrance bridge downstream to the Gatlinburg By-Pass Bridge.
- Dudley Creek from the Highway 441 Bridge downstream to the West Prong Little Pigeon River.
- LeConte Creek from Painters Branch upstream to National Park Boundary.
Like I mentioned earlier, you may fish nearly wherever inside town limits besides the Children’s streams. For anybody who desires to take a peak on the trout hatchery, it’s in Herbert Holt Park I parked close to the Ole Smokey Moonshine Distillery and simply walked down the road to the Cliff Branch Stream. This is smack dab in the course of city, inside strolling distance from the primary parkway of city. But sadly for me, the geese had been preventing up and down the stream. The water was gin clear although, and from seeing on-line different anglers with extra time than me have had success there.
There was one other location that I had a tiny little bit of time to strive. We needed to cross again over the mountains earlier than sundown, and with the skies going overcast it put us on a time crunch. This spot is over on the north aspect of city proper close to town limits, Herbert Holt Park, and the Parkway Bypass. This location is about quarter-hour from the city heart with no visitors and is a totally totally different really feel from the primary location. Even although the park and metropolis are only a quarter mile upstream.
To entry this location you need to be driving southbound on 73, there’s a ramp that goes to the Parkway Bypass that you need to take. The gravel car parking zone is situated on that ramp on the correct. From there you may stroll down and fish the river from the south aspect of the Parkway Bypass bridge all the way down to town limits. If you’ve got the Tenessee all species fishing license with trout stamp you may simply preserve going downstream so far as you need.
We parked and began strolling down, I hoped to essentially put this new St. Croix Trout sequence rod to the check however, yeahhhhh it didn’t occur. I had about 25 minutes to fish and tried about 5 totally different lures from darters, spinners, and gentle plastics. Eventually breaking down and attempting some salmon eggs however no luck. To make issues even worse I noticed a good measurement rainbow come up and eat one thing off the highest proper within the eddy I used to be working.
I really feel like if I had one other day or two to essentially fish I may have had some outcomes contemplating these are stocker trout. But sadly, that wasn’t the case, and having an hour to fish between two spots simply wasn’t conducive for me to catch trout. I’ll have to return up there one other time and check out once more and hopefully do a Catch and Cook, particularly with how tasty trout are. For anybody inquisitive about going as much as Gatlinburg only for a visit I extremely suggest taking a trout combo with you, the trout are there. I simply suck at trout fishing. If you’ve got any questions while you go up the parents over at The Smokey Mountain Angler are tremendous useful and can level you in the correct route.
