Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream
Freestone
Species
Rainbow Trout
Brown Creek
Brook Trout
(Wild)
Size
Small
Location
Great Smoky Mountains National
Park
Nearest Towns
Cherokee, North Carolina
Bryson City, North Carolina
Season
Year-round
Access:
Good
Special Regulations
None
Non-Resident License
Either the State of Tennessee or the
State of North Carolina
Weather
National Weather Service Link
Season:
Fly fishing Noland Creek is good year-round.
Spring:
Like most other streams in the Great Smoky Mountains,
the springtime is usually the best time to fish Noland
Creek.
Summer:
The lower part of Noland probably gets too warm for
good fishing on the hottest summer days. The middle
and higher sections should be fine all summer long.
Fall:
Autumn is a great time to fish Noland. It is some anglers
preference.
Winter:
Trout can be caught on all but the coldest days of
Winter.
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
4, 5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 to 12 ft., 5 or 6X Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Supreme Four, Superb Five
or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 4/5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2016 James Marsh
Fly Fishing Noland Creek North Carolina
Noland Creek is a medium size stream by Great Smoky Mountains National Park standards. It’s located near Bryson City, North Carolina. The North Shore Road
takes you to the stream from Bryson City. The Noland Creek trailhead is near the Noland Creek Bridge on the North Shore Road. The trail follows the stream most of the way. Access is relatively easy at that point but to access it anywhere else would require hiking in. The North Shore Road dead ends.
Noland Creek has only a few very small tributary streams. Bearpen Branch is a very small steam with a good population of rainbow trout. It is located about two miles upsteam from the Noland Creek Trailhead. Campsite # 65 is nearby.
Mill Creek is another small tributary stream of Noland Creek. It is about four miles upstream of the trailhead. The trout in the lower section of the stream are rainbows. Brook trout can be found in its upper reaches. It has a tributary steam – Springhouse Branch. Access can be gained at some points to Mill Creek and Springhouse Branch via the Springhouse Branch Trail. Campsite # 64 is near this confluence
.Fly Fishing Guide to Noland Creek
As with most all the streams in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Noland should be fished primarily using short, upstream presentations
Noland Creek is a great little Smoky Mountains trout stream that is usually passed up by
anglers for other streams in the same general area of the park. Noland empties into the
Tuckaseegee arm of Fontana Lake. It passes through Noland Creek Valley. It is near Deep
Creek, one of the park’s larger and most popular streams. That is probably what keeps the
pressure off of Noland. Although its lower section is easy to access, most of the other
sections of the stream are not easy to access. I doubt its headwaters get any pressure at all. This stream has some brown trout but the majority of the trout are small rainbow trout. The headwaters and small tributaries have some native brook trout. The access from the Noland Creek Bridge is a steep trail that leads down to the stream. In the lowest section the area is heavily wooded and navigating up the stream is fairly easy. It is a beautiful little stream with plenty of trout.
We have only fished the stream on three occasions, but should more often because we
have always done very well there and we have yet to see another angler fishing the stream, although I am certain it is fished quite often by others. The stream seems to be moderately inclined but it is fairly steep in some places. The headwaters are mostly steeply inclined. In the lower sections there are several long runs and some fairly deep ones. It is mostly shallow riffles and short runs, but every run seems to have some trout.
We fished the stream twice during the fall season thinking there may be some lake run
spawning brown trout, but we have not seen or caught any. Most likely its gets some spring runs of rainbows from the lake, but we have not heard any reports of anglers catching them. Cherokee Lake is stocked with trout.
If you enjoy fishing small, fairly remote mountain freestone streams, Noland is a good one.
One of the young guys that writes for us occasionally has camped and fished most of the
stream’s length and reported some very good catches.
Additional Information:
Fly Fishing Smoky Mountains