Abrams Creek - Best Kept Secret to Great Fishing

Many hikers and visitors to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park are familiar with the Abrams Creek area before it goes over Abrams Falls and drops downhill past Abrams Campground almost 500 feet and 7 miles to the Chilhowee Lake. That 7 mile stretch is isolated and hard to reach and usually too shallow to traverse easily in a canoe without having to drag it long distances over slippery, moss-covered rocks and trees. Ah ha, the reason then is obvious as to why the secret of good fishing here has been divulged at last. Very few float, fish and camp afionados are comfortable with the added verb "drag" being thrown into their day of relaxation, and we now know it takes a special breed of sportsman to attempt this 7 mile drop to Chilhowee Lake.

Gerry Dickens, son Zack and friends Billy Fly and Bob Hodge, are the avid fisherman/sportsmen/athletes who are willing to take the chances, watch the weather and keep their fingers crossed for a good spate of rain. They also have the patience to wait for the murky creek to settle before using the skills and energy needed to traverse the downed trees and mossy covered rocks in the creek, and to lug the canoes when they reach a dry patch.They also have a better than normal chance of finding the pools of fish along the creek. The water here is too warm for trout, but the small mouth bass and redeye bass catches can be awesome. For instance, in just two days of intermittent fishing, three of the guys pulled out over 150 over-the-size-limit small mouth using a white tube jig with one-sixteenth-ounce heads. I said three guys because Bob Hodge, who also writes for the News Sentinel, was supposed to go along on the trip but ran late and told the three to go on ahead of him. He would "catch up" to them as soon as he could.

After reading Bob's article in the Sunday section of the Sentinel, it makes me wonder if he had ever traveled the same footage required of his "catch up", as it was a harrowing trip even without having to drag along a canoe. He met a poisonous Copperhead on top of one of the rocks and a northern water snake who "thinks they are" poisonous as well, and he had to keep picking himself up after a continuous series of walk-slip-falls, walk-slip-falls, etc. He admits to coming very well equipped with plenty of food in case something went wrong. "I had a compass, first aid kit, two flashlights with extra batteries, a sleeping bag and my best I'm lost-an-over-here whistle. I also had my backpack, fishing rod, a micro tackle box and a pair of exstra shoes. Unfortunately, I also brought along my 44 year old legs," Bob said with a chuckle. I guess this accounts for the walk-slip-falls portion of his ordeal.

Anyway, he was constantly in and out of the water, trying to push through thick rhododendron which didn't work and back into the water to slide some more. He continues, "it was while I was crawling over a big pine that my hand slipped...and when I looked at my pinky it was pointing in three directions, the skin was twisted and it was already swelling."

After continuing another 150 yards, Bob realized he was staring trouble in the face and he turned back retracing "my steps to the car. I didn't even wet a hook."

The doctor deadened his hand so he could pop my finger back into place. "My pinky was dislocated and broke all at once, but after some pulling, followed by snapping and crackling, it was whole again", he added. However, when he learned from Gerry that they had caught over 100 smallmouth, Bob admitted that, "I don't know what hurts more."