Photo by Ron Sinfelt

By Jeff Samsel

Pizza, steak or angel-food cake? I like them all, but would have a hard time picking my favorite among them because they are so different. Similarly, Tennessee trout waters are all fun to fish, but their characters vary tremendously.

Of course, there may be no need to pick among types of trout fishing. A better approach may be to appreciate the amazing diversity of cold-water opportunities that the Volunteer State offers and then enjoy some of the best offerings of various sorts. With that thought in mind, we spoke with Frank Fiss, statewide stream biologist for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and got his thoughts on which waters should offer the best prospects for the season ahead.

Fiss noted that all predictions for trout waters are heavily contingent on rainfall amounts. He pointed toward last year's fishing on the Center Hill and Cherokee tailwaters as an example. High water that persisted pretty much throughout the season kept these waters unfishable much of the time - and when they could be accessed, the action was generally poor. In fact, water conditions were sufficiently poor that rainbow numbers faltered.

However, the same rains provided a much-needed boost to wild trout waters, which have suffered from drought conditions in recent years.

Trout fishing opportunities actually extend through much of Tennessee, as some streams on Fort Campbell and in Kentucky Lake's watershed receive stockings of trout during spring and early summer.

Of course, the core Tennessee trout waters clearly are concentrated in the eastern half of the state, and most of the best waters are either atop Cumberland Plateau or in the mountains of East Tennessee.

Approximately 75 Volunteer streams and small lakes get stocked annually with more than 300,000 9- to 12-inch trout each. In addition, the TWRA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service join forces to stock more than 1 million trout per year in 13 different tailwaters, with catchable-sized trout and fingerling fish included in the stocking mix. Tailwaters are spread from Tims Ford in the south-central part of the state to South Holston in extreme upper East Tennessee.

Finally, TWRA stocks trout in a handful of major impoundments that are capable of sustaining coldwater fisheries. Rainbow, brown and even lake trout are part of the reservoir plan, although brown trout reservoir stockings may be skipped this year due to low production of browns from the hatcheries.

Beyond being diverse in character, Tennessee trout-fishing opportunities extend throughout the year. While the bulk of the catchable-sized trout are stocked during spring and early summer, several tailwaters get trout throughout the year and a handful of rivers that run too warm for trout through the summer are stocked only during the winter. Tailwaters provide some of the best all-season opportunities because they don't ever reach the hot or cold extremes of some free-flowing rivers.

The biggest change this year in Tennessee trout fishing is the new regulations for two tailwater sections, both stemming from results of angler-input surveys on tailwaters. Surveys conducted on several tailwaters decisively showed that anglers favored the potential for quality fish over catching numbers of fish, and that they would accept length limits to enhance trophy trout potential.

"The surveys showed that anglers were four times more interested in catching a 14-inch trout than they were in catching more trout," Fiss said.

New regulations include an 18-inch minimum size and two-fish limit for brown trout in the Caney Fork River below Center Hill Dam and a 14-inch minimum size and two-fish limit for brown trout through the entire Apalachia tailwater on the Hiwassee River. The Hiwassee's three-mile trophy section, where only artificial lures may be used and a two-fish limit and 14-inch minimum size for all trout apply, remains unchanged.

Brown trout were selected for the special trophy regulations for a couple major reasons, Fiss said. First, brown trout have been proven more apt to reach large sizes if they are not harvested in Southeastern streams. In addition, brown trout are less sensitive to marginal water conditions than are rainbow trout.

Let's dig into a few specific waterways that promise better-than-average trout fishing for the year ahead.

Fiss pointed specifically to Laurel and Beaverdam creeks, which flow north out through the Tennessee mountains toward the South Holston River in Virginia and to Laurel Fork and the Doe River, both tributaries of the Watauga River. However, numerous small tributaries that rise in the northeastern mountains offer very good prospects for wild trout on public lands.

Of the streams Fiss suggested, only the Doe River does not flow through significant public-land holdings. Laurel Creek offers the least public access of the others, with only the last mile or so of its Tennessee waters flowing through the Cherokee National Forest. Several miles of Laurel Fork and Beaverdam Creek are on Forest Service land, and road access to both creeks is good.

Recent creel surveys conducted on wild trout streams throughout this region showed TWRA biologists that anglers keep very few trout in these streams.

"We had always suspected there wasn't much harvest, but we really had no way of knowing for certain. Too much harvest could really impact those streams," Fiss said.

During spring, Tellico nymphs or small beadhead Hare's Ears are tough to beat on these waters. As the days warm, small attractor dry flies will draw a lot of strikes from opportunistic trout. A good spring strategy is to fish a small nymph as a dropper behind a Humpy or a Royal Wulff that is just large enough to drift nicely with the dropper dragging behind it.

One of Tennessee's oldest tailwaters, the Clinch may still be the best. It supports high numbers of rainbows and browns and produces some very large trout every year. In fact, Tennessee's biggest brown trout ever, which tipped the scales to an impressive 28 pounds, 12 ounces, came from the cold waters beneath Norris Dam.

The Clinch offers good wade-fishing on low water and float-fishing with one generator turning, with the latter condition producing more large fish. On high water, anglers typically throw minnow-imitating plugs or spoons or strip big streamers on sink-tip fly lines. If both generators are turning, the river pretty much gets washed out from a fishing standpoint. Last year, the floodgates were often open, in addition to both generators being on.

The Clinch River gets stocked annually with close to half a million trout, a large portion of which is fingerlings. An emphasis on fingerling stockings, the number and ratio of which have been increased over the past couple years, creates a population of fish that look and act a lot like wild trout. Rainbows predominate, but browns attract headlines because they are the most likely trout to reach multi-pound proportions.

The best wading access to the Clinch is in the first couple miles downstream of Norris Dam from an access area maintained by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Vast gravel beds and shoals in this area provide anglers with plenty of room to spread out and fish.