North river flyfishing 8/20

[ranman]

after all of the flyfishing talk this week and watching flyfishing masters on OLN I got the urge to go cast the long rod this weekend.
I started at the end of north river where it runs into the tellico at a little pool where you can get into the water easy and started fishing upstream.North river is not much of a "river" this time of year as you can pretty much step across it at any point (by the way,anyone know the difference between a creek and a river?)The lack of water this time of year makes this river a challenge because the trout are super spooky so you have to be very carefull how you fish it(Which I have fogotten how to do and as a result I saw alot of trout swimming very fast away from me)but I did manage a few nice fat little wild rainbows on a dry fly and completely lost track of time for about 4 hours till my belly told me to make my way back to the Jeep!I also had the entire place to myself which is always nice! I didn't see anything in the way of a hatch going on but North river trout aren't a very picky fish and are almost always willing to rise for a dry fly presented properly, so all of them came on a parachute adams size 14 for all of you who may be wondering.I didn't fish tellico on the way out like I normally do in the winter because I'm to cheap to by a permit,but it looked like some rain would do it some good.The entire watershed was just a little to "un-crowded" for this time of year,I only saw a handfull of other fishermen and maybe three people camping and zero 4x4's.Is tellico not as popular as it used to be or is it the calm before the labor day storm?

 

[Bprice]

Thanks for the report!

Last year we camped way out in Holly Flats, and I did notice that Tellico isn't as popular as it used to be... and i've been going for 17 years now! I think alot of it has to do with the miserable 4X4s that have taken away my favorite campsite, the State Line site.

We need to hook up and head up there when there is water!

 

[jon the fisherman]

I used to love going to citico and camping, But the fishing is pretty much shooting fish in a barrel up there. I have never camped or fished the Tellico side, but I may have to this fall. It is a beautiful area up there.

 

[ranman]

They have re-done or are re-doing all of the campsites all along the river.New fire pits,lantern polls, gravel,and "boundaries" at each of them.I did notice that the fee is $10 per night now! When did that happen?I remember when you could camp for free pretty much anywhere along the river that you wanted to!You would not recognize the state-line campground now! totally different but alot nicer than it was,also there is a new covered bridge across the river down below "tellico beach"where the old river crossing used to be years ago that got washed away.And the old beer joint on the left going up just past the beach has been sold and is in the proccess of being re-done.