ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS: BIG, BROWN BASS AVAILABLE IN LITTLE RIVERS

The upper West Prong of the Little Pigeon River is trout water that yields to brown bass downstream.

When the throngs of visitors to the Smoky Mountains area think fishing, they focus on trout -- and consequently overlook one of the richest stream-stalking options of the Appalachians.

With a bit of downstream adjustment to angling direction, smallmouth bass in small, swift rivers offers some of the finest fishing in the region.

The clear streams that race down from the highlands in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, indeed, are fine trout waters. As they flatten and meander, however, they also become home to current-slashing smallmouth bass. A short stretch down from waters that feature six-to-12-inch trout are gurgling riffles and pools that are home to tackle-straining smallmouth of trophy proportions -- fish bigger than the intimate setting of the small rivers would suggest.

"I expect the next world record smallmouth to come from one of these rivers," said Gred Ward, owner of Rocky Top Outfitters in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

Inasmuch as the 40-year-old record for the brown bass species is 11 pounds, 15 ounces, that's a bold statement. But Ward positively glows with the trophy possibilities of the West and Middle Prongs of the Little Pigeon River and the Little Pigeon proper below the confluence of the two forks.

Ward has caught smallmouth from these waters into the eight-pound class and has flirted with larger ones.

"I've hooked two smallmouth in the 30-inch class that took off with 100 yards of line -- fish that were so big that I thought they were carp...until they jumped," he said.

Rocky Top Outfitters offers trophy stream smallmouth trips for clients, and while none of the guided anglers have threatened the world record yet, they've enjoyed their share of whopper smallmouth.

"This year our clients have caught and released 60 fish from five to eight and a half pounds," Ward said. "They've had 86 fish over four pounds, and four pounds is a trophy smallmouth anywhere.

"The key is that we release the fish, and the rivers keep getting better, so we should have a banner year in 1996."

Big smallmouth from a stream that measures only perhaps 70-feet wide at its largest point seem out of place, but an explanation lies downstream. Below the Little Pigeon River is the larger French Broad River. This stream is unrunnable in large fishing boats, so fishing pressure is limited there, but it serves as a source for smallmouth that migrate into the Little Pigeon and its forks during the spring spawn, the peak time for whopper bass.

The migrating bass as well as the year-round little Pigeon residents can be caught with the right tactics for anglers both wading and afloat in small, shallow-draft boats.

Don Ward, brother of the Rocky Top Outfitters owner and chief guide for the operation, said April and May are the ideal times to catch big Pigeon River smallmouth, although some heavyweights are available from early spring through fall. Along with those, scads of smaller fish are up for grabs, too.

"How we fish just depends on what the client wants," he said. "We can fish with smaller lures and bait and catch more fish, but if somebody is set on a trophy smallmouth, we'll fish with bigger baits. We won't catch as many fish that way, but what we do catch will be good ones."

Through the year, certain lures are reliable smallmouth producers in predictable patterns, Don Ward said. During the pre-spawn, jig and pork combinations are tops, followed by salty, soft plastic crawfish during the spawn. Just after the spawn, Beetle Spins and plastic grubs on light leadheads are good, he said. During the heat of summer, small Rapala minnows are a wise choice.

"Live minnows are the most effective, though," Ward said. "And river minnows always beat store-bought minnows. I seine the bait that we use."

Reluctant to divulge the specific baitfish as a trade secret, Ward did say that the native river minnows that are best on trophy smallmouth are substantial in size. When seeking the largest of bass, the bait often tops six inches in length.

Spinning tackle is the way of life on the smallmouth streams. Using medium-weight rods, the Wards spool up with 6-pound low-visibility green monofilament early in the season, but bulk up to 8-and-10-pound line as the spawn sets in and bigger fish are more abundant.

"Six-pound line just doesn't cut it on big fish," Don Ward said. "They'll break you off.

"I really started catching the bigger smallmouth -- five pounds and above -- only back in 1990. I think we started catching the big fish because we disregarded what you always read about smallmouth and started experimenting. We started using some bigger baits than what usually get fished in streams."

One key to big fish is territoriality, Ward said. Big fish -- migrators during the spawn and homebody fish throughout the year -- occupy certain small areas most of the time. A big bass essentially may live in the shade of a single large rock or a particular eddy pocket in the stream.

"There are some places they prefer because there's more oxygen in the water there," Ward said.

Also highly specific, certain fish seem to have well-defined feeding periods of about 45 minutes at a whack. During the rest of the day, they'll ignore offerings, Ward said.

Combining these factors, Ward said the secret to catching a particular big fish is to put the right bait or lure into a specific small area during the narrow time window of the active feeding period.

"I've fished the rivers enough that I've learned where we need to be at certain times to catch fish," he said.

While catching big smallmouth anywhere, anytime is a joy for most anglers, catching them in a small stream environment with a high level of Smoky Mountain aesthetics is an added pleasure. Most fish are taken in very shallow water in the rocky streams.

"They spawn in water that's knee deep," Ward said. "You can see most of the fish. You get to see them hit the bait."

Some of the fishing is done from plastic-hulled, flat-bottomed boats. The Leisure Craft boats used by Rocky top guides are light, but stable and more stealthy quiet than aluminum, especially when powered by electric motors.

A larger part of the fishing is done, however, by wading -- slipping up on prime holes on foot and tossing in a lure or floating down a live minnow on a slack line weighted only by a single lead splitshot. The wading option allows more water to be covered. Guides and anglers shuttle by land vehicle from one choice hole to another.

"We've got great trout fishing here," said Greg Ward. "There's wild trout in the national park, and stocked trout in the area outside the park, but we do two-to-one more guided trips on smallmouth than trout. The smallmouth fishing here is just world class."

More information on Smoky Mountain smallmouth is available from Rocky Top Outfitters, 2721 Parkway, Pigeon Forge, Tenn. 37863, phone 615-429-3474.

~Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor of the Paducah Sun.