Fly fishing for trout in the south

It comes as a surprise to some, but the Southeast has a relatively large and healthy trout fishery. Long thought of mostly as the land of the brawling bass, the Appalchian Mountains, running down the spine of the South, from Virginia down into Alabama, provides a productive, cold water habitat for the various members of the trout family.

But fishermen traveling down here from the more traditional trout waters of the Northeast and the West may be in for a shock when they try to catch our trout down here. Souhern trout fishing has some important differences.

There are very few big sprawling rivers in our mountains and Southern streams are, for the most part, small, and heavily overgrown. There are exceptions of course, North Carolina's French Broad River comes to mind, but a typical southern trout stream will be scarcely fifty feet wide, if that.

Trout fishing in the South means you are after rainbow, browns and brook trout, more or less in that order. I understand that my home state of North Carolina has had stockings of golden trout, cutthroats and kokanee salmon, but can't confirm this. In the early years of the twentieth century, trout fishing in the South meant brook trout, period. But the brook trouts requirments for the coolest, cleanest water worked against it as the mountains were developed. The loss of habitat and the continuing pollution meant less trout every year. Almost too late, laws were passed and enforced to try and save the brookie, and today, although by far the least common of the three major species, the brook is at least holding its own. The "regional" record, as far as I can find out, is a five pound, five ounce catch in Georgia.

All of the above also applies, if with lesser force, to the brown trout. The brown can handle water too warm even for the rainbow and have the reputation for being the most difficut trout to catch. Known as a dry fly fish, even the most hard core purists admit that bigger fish can taken with streamers. Tennesse gets the southern record again, with a twenty-six pound,two ounce whopper. (I should point out that these listings are pretty old, and made have been easily broken since.)

The biggest change that awaits the northern trout fisherman come south, is to forget about "fishing the hatches". With very few exceptions, southern trout waters just don't provide the large hatches some of the more famous trout streams do. If you sit on the bank waiting for a hatch to begin, you will likely be sitting there a very long time. This means, for a fisherman, that the southern trout is a more opportunistic feeder than you may be used to. If a trout waits for a major hatch, he is likely to starve to death, so they are constantly watching the surface for feeding opportunites. If this sounds like the southern trout is a push-over, think again. He is still a trout and no one seems more aware of how many creatures like at trout dinner, than the trout itself.

You can forget those long casts as well. Trouting in the south means short and accurate, twenty to thirty feet is not unusual. In many streams. you will find yourself fishing in sort of a tunnel, with willows and laurel waiting to grab every cast you attempt. Get the rust off your sidearm casts, since you will be using it a lot down here and the same thing will apply to the roll cast. You will find, in fact, that a great deal of southern trout fishing is done with no casts at all. You fish with just your leader and foot or two of line hanging from your rod tip, "swishing" or "flipping" the fly into likely looking pockets. There will be times you will be on the bank, behind an almost solid wall of greenery and simply poking your rod through a hole, (or making one), and dropping the fly onto the water.

Your fly selection will be a bit different as well. Each region, each stream, has its own local favorites, of course, and a visit to a local tackle shop can be helpful there, but some "standards" you should make sure you have with you include the Adams, Quill Gordon, Black Gnat, Mosquito, Light Cahill, and a good selection of Elk Hair Caddis. Make sure you have plenty of terrestials. These last are particularly important down here, since so much of the southern trouts diet is made up of land-based insects. If you have any particular favorites, (I feel naked without a good supply of Wooly Worms in my fly box, for an example), be sure to bring them, since confidence in the fly you are fishing is often half the battle. As for spin fisherman, I have found absolutely nothing more effective than the small Panther Martin spinners, One eighth ounce and smaller..) in gold (brass) color.

Another fly alteration you will need to make is the size. The really small flies, size 18 and smaller just aren't needed. Almost all the local fisherman carry a few 10's, mostly 12's and 14's, and maybe a few 16's. In something like thirty years prowling around NC's trout streams, I don't think I have even seen someone carrying anything smaller than a 16.

Yes, southern trout fishing is differnet, but does share one trait with all other trout fishing, it is fun and a great way to spend a day. Our streams down here are, for the most part, except on opening day, uncrowded, pretty, and productive. Unlike some of our other natives, southern trout do not seem to have a thing against Yankees...come on down and see for yourself.