Dillsboro, North Carolina
On The Fly Freshwater
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July 2024
Article and photos by Jimmy Jacobs.
Mention North Carolina’s Tuckaseegee River and the first thing that comes to mind is trout fishing. That’s a reasonable connection since this flow is the most heavily stocked trout water in the Old North State. In just over 25 miles of water, the Tuck is slated to receive a bit shy of 60,000 trout in 2024. Along that course the stream features two delayed-harvest sections.
Based on those statistics, it is little wonder that trout dominate the conversations about the river. However, rainbows, browns and brookies are not the entire story of the Tuck’s fishery.
Back in the spring of 2023, the On The Fly South crew was staying at the Dillsboro Inn, while targeting the trout on the Tuck. During a conversation with innkeeper TJ Walker, he mentioned that once the trout action tailed off in the summer, smallmouth bass would show up in the waters around his inn.
The Tuck is loaded with smaller resident bass like this one that ate the Kreelex fly.
That led to a bit of research on those fish in regard to the Tuckaseegee. Turns out there are resident smallies in the river even in the upper delayed-harvest waters around Dillsboro. Those smallmouths are joined in the summer months by more and bigger fish moving up from Lake Fontana. The migrants generally reach Dillsboro in the month of July, staying until the cold fall water sends them back to the lake.
So, near the start of July this year found the crew back in Dillsboro, looking to target smallmouth bass on the Tuckaseegee. To make that happen, TJ connected us with Hookers Fly Shop in the nearby town of Sylva to set up a float trip on the Tuck with one of their guides.
Thus, we met Jason Cole, who has been guiding the river for 21 seasons, at the Whittier Access Area early in the morning. The plan was to leave our shuttle car there, head back up to the Barker’s Creek Access Area and do a full day float down the Tuck. The Barker’s Creek site is about 3 miles downstream of Dillsboro, while the access in the community of Whittier is roughly another 8 miles farther down the river.
With the preliminaries out of the way, Jason launched his raft and we got settled in for the float. On average the Tuckaseegee is perhaps 150 to 200 feet wide along this course and composed of mild riffles separated by either shallow flats or deeper bend pools.
Jason Cole preparing the gear before shoving off.
As it turned out, the day featured a clear, blue-bird sky, Additionally, Jason pointed out that the migrant fish had not yet moved upriver in numbers. All of that meant the fishing would be slower than usual. That did not mean there were no smallmouths to catch, just that we could expect to work a bit harder for them and they likely would not be lunkers.
The tactic for the day was to concentrate our casts along the shore, particularly in areas with rocks or downed trees in the water. Both of those were plentiful along the float. Additionally, any of those areas that were shaded by the trees along the bank were of particular interest. Although we found fish in water as shallow as a foot or two, any deeper spots downstream of rocks or wood breaking the current seemed to hold more and bigger fish.
Casting to rocky shorelines was a good tactic.
The first several bites quickly required an adjustment with regard to hooking the fish. Reacting by quickly raising the rod at the strike just snatched the fly away from the bass. A short strip-strike worked better. As expected, most of the bass were on the smaller sizes.
The two fly patterns that worked best were a small sponge popping bug and, even better, a Kraft’s Kreelex Minnow. That latter fly was created by legendary Virginia fly tier Chuck Kraft in the 1990s. It is a streamer designed to mimic a Panther Martin inline spinner. The best hue for the Kreelex this day was in a copper color scheme.
As the day wore on, and especially in the afternoon, the size of the fish encountered improved. Still, these were likely resident fish and not the big boys and girls from Lake Fontana. Yet, the weather was great and the action steady enough to make the float a good one.
The size of the fish improved as the day wore on.
When you add in the nearby wadable portions of the Little Tennessee River that also features smallmouths, the bass action presents an additional three months to the fishing calendar in the Dillsboro-to-Bryson City section of the Tuckaseegee River.
Hookers Fly Shop in Sylva can arrange half, 3/4 or full day wade or float trips for smallmouth bass in the Dillsboro area. They also offer trout trips in the fall through spring. Presently their fly shop is online only.
Don’t write off the angling on the Tuckaseegee River just because the trout action slumps in the hotter months. The smallmouth bass are more than willing to fill that void!
