Camping and fly fishing in the Smokies

We got back from the Smokies last night at about 1am. We didn't fish much- probably about 2 hours total in 3 different streams. I caught and released a nice rainbow and my buddy almost landed a good, football-shaped hog rainbow. We had a great time hiking, driving to see the sights, sitting around the fire and eating some good food. My girlfriend Kasie and her sister had a great time, but couldn't quite finish the hike. We stayed from Thursday morning til Sunday morning and then spent Sunday evening and night at Beale Street in Memphis and heard some great music, ate some good ribs, and had a great time. I don't have any pics of Beale Street because I didn't want to worry about the camera. Anyways, here are a few of the pictures that I took. Only a few are fishing pictures while the rest are of the scenery.

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Me with my rainbow. Caught from the Pigeon River, about 100 yards into North Carolina. He was a hard pulling little rainbow, 13-14 inches, caught on a #16 bead head pheasant tail below a parachute Adams.

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Zac with his broken TFO. The rod broke in two places when he got his fat rainbow near the bank. When we were walking back to camp from hiking/fishing the first day, he accidentally touched the rod tip on the ground, jamming it and weakening the blank. The strain of the fight of that fat, football-shaped rainbow caused it to break. And he lost the fish when it happened. Note the look of disgust on his face.

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Pigeon River

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Pigeon River

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Me with some weird looking little fish that bit the dropper. This took place at the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. No trout caught but a bunch of these little fellas. They were an olive color with red blotches on their cheeks.

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West Prong of the Little Pigeon River

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Me playing with those fish at the Little Pigeon.

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Finally, we tried to catch Appalachian brook trout in Cosby Creek near camp, with no success.

The next 2 pictures are of Cosby Creek. We hiked Low Gap Trail, which is near the creek for a long ways. There was this cool bridge that crossed the creek in one spot.

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"Aintry!? This river don't go anywhere near Aintry."

Nice pics.

$25 will get your buddy a nice, new TFO.

Very Nice. My brother-in law and I tried fishing that area a couple of years ago. We didn't catch anything, but truly beautiful scenery.

Jiggy - Your pictures sure brought back memories of my hiking days in early 1970's when I hiked most of the "AT" in the smokies. I returned 1 winter and hiked from Clingman's Dome to some place long forgotten and got stuck in an ice storm,lost the trail and returned to Clingman's after dark. Thanks for the pictures. I have fished and bathed in the Pigeon Rver before you were born and it appears to not have changed.

Nice pictures. Glad you had a good time. I would like to try that trip sometime. By the way, I broke a TFO last week. My second one to break in two years. No fault of the rod but I am glad I bought the TFO for the warranty that Disco mentioned. Thanks for sharing your vacation pictures and story.