May and June Bucket List Creeks!
- Ray Sugg
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
I caught trout in eight new creeks since my last post, including four from my bucket list. I also fished some home water and old favorites, and I got to spend time with some fishing buddies. Full disclosure - this post has a lot of pictures.
May 9 - North Shore adventure with Ben Wilson
We took Ben's drift boat across Fontana to get Chambers Creek off my bucket list, and we also got the North and West Forks of Chambers Creek and Pilkey Creek. There was more hog sign than human sign, and we caught only wild rainbows in all four creeks.
May 16 - Madison County with Bill Carney
Very low water and skittish trout in Madison County, but we did catch a few.
May 30 - Maggie Valley with Tristan Caldwell
Much needed rain had Jonathan Creek running high, but it had the normally low water of Campbell Creek at a great level for fishing.
June 15 - Squally Creek with Ben and Steve Wilson
South Fork Squally Creek has been on my bucket list since it showed up in NCWRC fishing regulations as a wild trout stream. Squally Creek and Little Buffalo Creek come together to form West Buffalo Creek in Graham County, and I had fished all of those near that confluence several times, but I had never been up the private road that follows Squally Creek to the headwaters. This day, all we caught were specs.
June 16 - Graham County with Bryan Craig
On our annual Snowbird camping trip, Bryan wanted to fish some new wild trout water, so we went to Little Santeetlah Creek and the headwaters of West Buffalo Creek. Bryan caught trout in Little Santeetlah, West Buffalo and Squally Creeks.
June 24 - Palmer Creek headwaters in Cataloochee Valley
I hiked up Palmer Creek to get Falling Rock Creek and Beech Creek off my bucket list. I had to fish hard to get three tiny specs in Falling Rock Creek, and then I had a blast catching several specs in Beech Creek. On the way up I had crossed Davidson Branch, and even though I knew Bobby Kilby had caught rainbows in it, it looked pretty skinny. On the way back down, I decided to try it anyway. It is not a creek I will go back to, but I did catch some tiny specs. I spent the remaining daylight hours fishing old favorite Rough Fork. I think the elk restoration project is great, but the downside is the number of people that discovered what used to be the forgotten corner of the park. Because of damage done by Hurricane Helene, the road is now gated at the bridge over Palmer Creek, and the upper elk fields have not been mowed, reducing the number of visitors. This day I had Rough Fork to myself, and I caught a dozen specs, two rainbows and one brown on a Hazel Creek dry fly for a hat trick! Some people call that a Smoky Mountain slam, but a grand slam involves four bases. I guess adding a smallmouth bass would make it a slam. As an added bonus, the only other person I saw walking back down the road to the car was a guy photographing birds.
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