Hazel Creek Backcountry Campsite
Last week I had the pleasure of guiding father and son duo, Tad and Dave Y. from Virginia. We spent two days of fly fishing and camping in the backcountry on Hazel Creek. Located on the North Shore of Fontana Lake, Hazel Creek is one of the larger streams located inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
As a child and teenager I spent many days years hiking, camping and fishing up and down the Hazel Creek trail from Proctor to the Upper Cascades above Calhoun. This area of the Smokies was one of my grandfather’s favorite places to camp and fish and he would bring me there often, throughout the year.
Tad, Dave and I arrived to Proctor around mid morning on Tuesday. We quickly setup camp and hit the stream for a day of fly fishing. We made our way up to the Lower Cascades area, about a mile or so above the Proctor camp site. Soon after Tad and Dave hit the stream, the skies opened up and we had about a half hour downpour that quickly turned the stream into what looked like chocolate milk. They threw some large stonefly patterns with no luck. We decided to head back to camp and fish the area around the Calhoun House across from the Proctor campsite. Here Tad hooked into a nice 12-13″ rainbow but we couldn’t get him in the net. By this time there was a steady hatch of Yellow Stoneflies and Tad had several decent strikes on a Little Yellow Sally.
The second day proved to be more productive with much better weather. We headed back up to the Lower Cascades area and Tad quickly put several browns and rainbows in the net. Most fish were taken on a #14 Para Adams and #14 Light Cahills. After a decent day of fishing we headed back down to Proctor to breakdown camp and meet the boat for the trip back across the lake.
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