I'll also mention (having fished the Smoky mountains in three different states and the Rocky mountains in CO) that Smoky mountain trout fishing is nowhere near what it is in the Rockies. The lower elevations and warmer water temperatures are just not as conducive to growing good numbers of decent sized trout. State game commissions stock the waters to check the box, provide a tourist attraction, and a local trout fishery, but it's sort of like fishing for specks in South Carolina rather than Louisiana. There are not nearly as many fish, and they don't grow as fast. It is rare to catch a stocked trout that survived a year after stocking, and it is rare to catch a stocked trout in the smokies over 12-14" long.
Contrast that with Colorado, where even an inexperienced trout angler like me learned to quickly catch a limit almost every time. And the growing conditions in the Rockies are excellent with fish stocked in the spring typically reaching 16" and 2 lbs by the following September and routinely tipping the scales over 4 lbs the following spring. The only exceptions were in some reservoirs where the trout have reproduced naturally in such large numbers that they have overpopulated their food supply and grow a bit slower.
But even in Colorado waters, the waters above 7000 ft in elevation are much more productive than the lower elevation waters. The higher metabolic demands and lower oxygen of the lower waters reduces growth rates and trout productivity for a given amount of available forage. The existence of small mouth bass and pike and other species that thrive more in the warmer waters also tips the competitive balance away from the trout.
As much as I hate Colorado due to some civil rights issues and their weed induced folly, the trout fishing is unmatched by anything in the Smoky mountains.
|