High-Country Heaven

Noland Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a special destination for trout anglers.

Noland Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Swain County is typical of hundreds of prime trout streams that crisscross the park — remote, scenic and full of trout.

The creek’s headwaters form high in the Smokies near Clingmans Dome, and the creek flows south for approximately 10 miles to the Tuckasegee River arm of Fontana Reservoir near Bryson City. As with most park streams, Noland has a mix of rainbow, brown and brook trout.

Rainbows dominate the middle section and upper sections, and browns are limited mostly to the lower section. Brook trout inhabit the headwaters.

Noland isn’t known as a lunker stream, although a few big browns and rainbows have been caught in the mile-long stretch from the Noland Creek trailhead to Fontana Reservoir.

Steve Moore, chief fishery biologist for the park, said he knows of at least one 20-inch brown trout that was caught at the lower section near the lake. However, the majority of the big browns and rainbows caught in the lower section have been between 12 and 15 inches

“Most of the rainbows in Noland run 10 to 11 inches, which is a pretty good rainbow for the park,” Moore said. “In 20 years of sampling park streams, I’ve seen only seven rainbow trout that exceeded 14 inches.”

No trout samplings have been made at Noland Creek in the 20 years Moore has worked for the Park Service.

“We just never felt a need to sample the stream,” he said.

Judging from angler interviews and similarities to other park streams, Moore said he believes the stream does have a good population of trout.

Eugene Shuler, a fishing guide who operates out of Cherokee, agrees with Moore’s assessment.

“On a scale of one to five, I’d give the lower section a rating of 3 and the upper section a rating of 4,” he said.

The lower section, he said, gets the majority of fishing pressure because of its easy access from Fontana Reservoir and the Noland Creek Trail.

“It’s not a high-production stream, but it is consistent,” he said.

Shuler said he seldom fishes the lower section. Instead, he hikes to Mill Creek, about 3 miles from the trailhead, before he begins fishing. An old road bed with a gentle grade offers easy walking.

In one aspect, Noland is different from most streams Shuler fishes.

“It’s one of the few streams in the area that has better fishing in the summer than in the spring,” he said.

The stream, he said, remains relatively cool during the summer, a factor he attributes to the heavy canopy and high elevation in the upper sections.

“The best fishing is June through August,” he said.

Shuler said Noland Creek trout are “very flighty” at the higher elevations of the creek, and it’s easy to get skunked during an outing.

“I use long leaders,” he said, “anything from 9 ½ feet to 11 feet or longer with a 4X tippet. Presentation is very important.

“I also wear drab clothing, anything that blends with the surroundings.”

One of Shuler’s favorite and most effective flies for the upper section is a Blue Ridge Wulff, which he originated.

“Instead of a red band, I tie it with a blue band,” he said.

Insect hatches at Noland are much the same as hatches at any park stream. During early spring, Quill Gordon, Blue-Winged Olive, Blue Dun, Caddis, Hendrickson, March Brown, and Dark Stone are excellent patterns for top-water fishing.

During May, yellow patterns are effective, particularly Little Yellow Stone, Golden Stone, Yellow Mayfly, Yellow Palmer, Yellow Humpy, as well as Light Cahill, female Adams, and Pink Lady.

Suggested spring nymph patterns include My Pet, Pheasant Tail, Hare’s Ear, Zug Bug, Stick Bait, Secret Weapon, Tellico, Stick Bait, Dark Stone, and Yellowhammer.

Terrestrials are the preferred patterns of early and late summer. Patterns include inchworm, various beetles, black and ginger ants, grasshopper, and caterpillar.

Winter hatches mainly are limited to Blue-Winged Olives, midges and some caddises. Nymph fishing usually is better during winter than spring or summer.

At the lower section, which has less cover and larger pools, spinner fishing is the preferred method for catching some of the bigger browns and rainbows. The Mepps Squirrel Tail, black Rooster Tail, and yellow Panther Martin with black dots work well.

One of the bonuses of fishing the upper section of Noland Creek is access to several tributaries that have good populations of brook and rainbow trout. Some of these streams have only brook trout.

Tributaries include Mill Creek, which has rainbow trout in the lower part and brook trout in the upper part; Springhouse Branch, which contains only rainbow trout; Bald Branch, Salola Branch, and Clingmans Creek, which are brook trout streams.

Bald Branch, Salola Branch, Clingmans Creek, and a host of other brook streams once were closed to fishing in an effort to protect what biologists believed were declining brook trout populations. After years of study, the Park Service recently relaxed its rules on brook trout, and fishers now may catch and keep brook trout in all but a handful of streams. The off-limit streams are primarily streams that have had brook trout populations restored.

The catch is that a harvested brook trout, or any other trout, must be at least 7 inches. Few brook trout at the higher-elevation streams reach that size. Still, catching a brook trout of any size is always a thrill. Big or small, they are feisty fish.

While the fishing is good, the scenery is even better. The creek is bounded by the high peaks of Forney Ridge and Noland Divide, both exceeding 4,000 feet. As with most forests in the southern Appalachians, the Noland Creek area was heavily logged beginning in the late 1850s and continuing until the early 1900s. Because some of the high-elevation areas were too steep to log, stands of virgin forest line ridge tops, particularly around Noland Divide, which has one peak, Roundtop Knob, with an elevation of 5,120 feet.

Noland Creek, Noland Divide and the town of Noland all were named for Andrew Noland, the first white settler in the area. The old town site is now underneath Fontana Reservoir.

Foundations and ruins of old homesteads are visible all along the trail to Salola Valley, which once was a thriving community. Noland is not just a fishing destination, it’s a glimpse into the past and a satisfying affirmation that nature does heal itself, if given a chance.

The area has large stands of beech, oak, giant hemlocks, groves of tall white pines, sycamore, yellow birch, Fraser magnolia and a plethora wild flowers and flowering bushes.

Six back-country camping sites are at the Noland Creek Trail, beginning at the Noland Creek embayment at Fontana Reservoir to Bald Creek, about 8 miles north of the lake. From Bald Creek to the headwaters, fishing pressure is light. All camping in the back country is restricted to designated camp sites, all of which are prominently marked and numbered. Back-country camping permits are required for overnight stays in the park. Because the Noland Creek Trail is popular with hikers and horseback riders, camping sites usually are full during summer and fall weekends.

Campsite locations are as follows:

— Site No. 66, 1 mile south on the Noland Creek Trail at the backwaters of Fontana Reservoir, a site popular with boaters, fishers, and horseback riders.

— Site No. 65 is 1.3 miles north of the trailhead at Bearpen Branch, near the ruins of an old school.

— Site No. 64 is 4.2 miles north at Mill Creek, a popular horse camp.

— Site No. 63 is 5.6 miles north at Jerry Flats, another heavily used horse camp.

— Site No. 62 is 6.8 miles north at Upper Ripshin.

— Site No. 61 is 8.3 miles north at Bald Creek, one of the more scenic campsites on trail situated between the junction of Noland Creek and Bald Creek.

Noland Creek has two access points, one easy and one difficult. The easy route is off Lakeview Drive, 8 miles northwest of Bryson City. A parking area just above the Noland Creek bridge has a path that drops down to the Noland Creek Trail, which is 1 mile from the lake. The hard way to reach the creek is to hike 2.7 miles from Clingmans Dome Road to the headwaters.

Park fishing rules are slightly different than regulations for N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission-managed streams. Fishing is limited to artificial flies or lures with a single hook.

The limit is five fish per day, and the minimum size is 7 inches.

A basic North Carolina or Tennessee fishing license is valid throughout the park. Special trout-fishing licenses aren’t needed.