Tellico/Citico Trout

[Crow Terminator]

It has been nearly 20 years since I have fished those waters on a regular basis. It got too crowded for my liking at one time.

This year I kinda got the hankering to head back up that way and do some fishing. Have been 3x...twice through the week and went up real early this Saturday to get a good hole.

Kinda bummed out...have been catching fish but everything has been small. Way back when I fished all the time, a limit of stocker sized trout in Citico and Tellico would average over 12 inches. Sometimes you got what they called a Tellico Trophy that they stocked, that could go 5+ lbs. These that I have been catching this year are 7, maybe 8 inches long. The majority of fishermen I have been seeing and talking to, have said it has been like this the last few years at least. Instead of carrying fish on stringers, I have actually saw guys carrying around 1 gallon size ziplock bags and putting their whole trout in the bag...that's how small the trout are. I had been throwing those back.

On a side note...I don't think they are stocking Citico as heavy as Tellico. There used to be some of the stocking holes on Citico that they'd put 3 or 4 limits of trout in those. I drove up there early Sat morning hoping to get on one of those spots and managed to do so. I was the only one there as a matter of fact...which was highly unusual. It soon revealed itself as to why...I only caught 1 fish out of that spot. They either didn't stock it or stocked it very poorly. I saw maybe 6 vehicles up on that side too...which tells me something is bad wrong. I used to get Facebook updates from the hatchery but haven't saw one of those in a LONG time. Any of you guys have any insight as to any changes they might have made? If they just aren't stocking as heavy as they use to or what? I took off 4 hrs of work to get up there. Wish I would have gone crappie fishing instead.

 

[Crow Terminator]

Went back to Tellico Monday morning with a buddy. We were the only 2 up there. Unreal how peaceful it is on a Monday. Caught our limits pretty quick and with pretty good size to some of them. No more Saturday fishing for me up there...Monday & Tuesday it shall be.

 

[WTM]

do you ever see any river otters up around where you fish? i was looking at some youtube videos on Deep creek in NC and the guy was saying the river otters had done some damage to the populations.

 

[Shanman]

It can absolutely be a circus up there at times, especially on holidays. Spent alot of time in those mountains back when the jeep trails were open, then got out of four wheeling and didn't go back until about 6yrs ago. Started flyfishing up there a few times a year just to enjoy the environment. Got a camper last year and really enjoy camping up there, but I won't fish the main river at daylight. I have never seen so many greedy people, all over a stocked trout. What I saw the first time we took the camper up just blew me away. Hour and half before daylight the vehicles started rolling through, when I drove up the river I was thinking "You've got to be kidding!" Guys were actually putting lanterns and chairs in the pull offs up stream and down stream of them....like 150yds worth! When I did find a spot, some teenager walked down to me and went down the bank in front of the truck, then turned down stream and ended up on a rock right beside me shining his light in the water. He stayed there for about 10min then climbed the bank right up to my truck door....literally 12" from my door, had to almost hold onto my side mirror to walk around my truck!!! Later on I took my wife out to flyfish and here comes the same kid with his uncle, dad, somebody. The older fellar walks right down to our spot and cast a rooster tail across my wife's flatline! I lost it then, my wife grabbed my arm but the words already had left my mouth. I turned to the kid an explained that he didn't have the best example teaching him how to fish around others and that respect for others mattered more than any dang fish. It always seems to be the locals that have this attitude, and the trash they leave in such a gorgeous place is a crying shame! I have also run into plenty of friendly fisherman that showed respect. So Crow Terminator.....I get what you mean about going during the week.
River otters, only thing I'll say about them is that trappers sometimes call them "Water Wolves", they come by it honestly. Dang killing machine, have decimated some stream inside and out of the park. They are everywhere in Tn.

 

[CATCHDAWG]

There's a reason I like to fish the wild streams. I rarely see another soul or sign of one in the places I catch trout.

 

[Shanman]

I hear ya CATCHDAWG, I grew up on stocked trout and spin gear, as a kid the Little Pigeon was a big adventure. I love seeing the smiles on my wife and stepson's face when they hook into a 12"-14" stocker, you would think they were fighting a 25lb rockfish. I'll take the fight of a lively 6" wild trout anyday, some of those holdovers can be dandy fighters though! If the darn rain would let up and the streams would calm down I'd about pass on the turkeys, water temps have really came up this week.

 

[Crow Terminator]

I have taken a long break from fishing. In the early 2000 range, I was going up there about every weekend. I worked 2nd shift and would get off work around midnight on Friday and head straight up to the mtns after work...get on a good stocking hole and sit up the rest of the night waiting on legal fishing time. At first, if you were already parked on a good spot, people would drive by and let you be. Then it got to the point where it didn't matter...people would come and stand about on the same rock that you were on. Got tired of it and burned out. But back then, yes I do remember seeing the otters. The times I've been up there so far this year, I've not seen any. I actually made that comment to my buddy, asking where the otters had gone. I figured TWRA must have trapped them out from the area they liked to stay in (around the hatchery).

There were a lot of out of state fisherman up there Saturday...and surprisingly, there were also quite a few from west TN counties. I would have thought there would be better trout fishing streams than Tellico/Citico close to where they are. Monday...there was nobody. T-Storms were 100% in the forecast that day, so maybe that had something to do with it. It only rained on us about 3 mins straight and then quit. I didn't catch a single fish on spinners, corn, or powerbait. I tried. I swapped over to what my buddy was using and had my limit about 30 mins later.