The first Saturday in April is traditionally considered opening day for trout fishing here in North Carolina. This essentially means very little to me, since most streams are open all year. The exception is the Hatchery Supported streams, which are closed only for the month of March. Oh, yeah, it does means that a Hatchery Supported trout stream is the last place you're going to find me on Opening Day.
So, instead, we headed to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for some fly fishing on Chasteen Creek and Bradley Fork. Chasteen Creek is a tributary of Bradley Fork, which, in turn, is a tributary of the Oconaluftee River. All three of these streamsheds come together in the Smokemont Campground area of the national park.
The weather was windy all day, with air temperatures in the 50's to around 60. Water temperatures were in the mid to upper 40's. The trout fishing was slow in the morning and early afternoon (I had a little action on nymphs), until there were some hatches of Blue Quills and Little Brown Stoneflies. Then, the dry fly fishing improved dramatically, as I approached the falls on Chasteen Creek, as if someone flipped the switch. After fishing a little above the Chasteen Creek falls, I headed over to Bradley Fork for 45 minutes or so. I finished the day with 8 or 10 trout, the largest being a 14" wild Bradley Fork brown trout. The video below shows information on fishing these streams, plus most of the action I had that day. Not a bad start to the trout fishing season.