Custom trip plan

Winter trout in the Smokies, from Townsend

Townsend, Tennessee. 2 days, February 25 to February 26, 2027. 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Shore or bank; Wading. Alone, while the family sightsees.

A sample plan. Written as a real plan for these dates, to the same standard as a paid one, so you can see exactly what you get. The trip has not happened yet and is still beyond the reach of the forecast, so the daylight below is already fixed and the weather and grades arrive as the date approaches. It was written for a first visit in late winter, fishing alone while the family sightsees, so it sets the park’s own rules, roads and parking beside the water. How to get one for your own trip.

Which fish to go after

Fish for rainbow trout, and take a brown as a bonus if one comes. The park stopped stocking trout for recreation in 1975, so the rainbow or brown you catch is a wild fish, the first you came for.

The rainbow is the right first target for February because of the water. Late-winter water in these valleys is cold, and the model gives the rainbow a comfortable range that starts lower than the brown’s, so the same cold morning costs a brown more than a rainbow. It also treats late winter as the run-up to the rainbow’s spring spawn, when the fish are feeding rather than on gravel.

A brown is a real possibility and a fine story, and the plan does not chase it at the rainbow’s expense. The model carries browns as dusk feeders and your day ends long before dusk, so the hours you have are the brown’s quiet ones. A Woolly Bugger worked slowly through the deepest pool you can reach is how a brown would come to you, and you already carry them.

The park’s native fish is the brook trout, and its limits treat it like the other two. It is not a target on this trip, and nothing here sends you looking for one.

Rainbow Trout

primaryengine range 45 to 65°F, ideal 55°F

For it: Wild, like every trout in the park: the park stocked trout for recreation until 1975 and has not since.
A spring spawner in the model, so late February is the run-up to the spawn rather than the spawn itself, and the model prices it as such rather than as a fish locked up for winter.
The model gives the rainbow a comfortable water range that starts lower than the brown’s, which is the difference that matters in February.
Against it: A dawn feeder in the model, and a 10:00 AM start misses dawn. The outlook explains why, in winter, the water itself points the other way.
Cold water slows every trout in the park. The Townsend fly shop’s advice after a cold night is to wait for the water to warm before fishing.

Brown Trout

opportunisticengine range 50 to 70°F, ideal 58°F

For it: A fall spawner in the model, so by late February it is past the spawn and feeding through the winter.
In judgment rather than from any source: a brown in cold water comes to a slow streamer or a big nymph close to the bottom of a deep pool, which is a Woolly Bugger you already carry.
Against it: A dusk feeder in the model, and your window ends hours before dusk.
The model’s comfortable range for a brown starts higher than a rainbow’s, so cold water costs it more.

On the morning

Park: Little River at the Townsend Wye. Directions to the parking
Gate: Open at all hours.
Safety: The park warns that its rivers can rise fast after rain far upstream that you never felt, that rocks along the banks are slick with algae, and that cold water brings on hypothermia in minutes. Stay off the rock faces above the river, which the park closes to climbing here.
Leave it if: High, muddy water after rain. The river here has just taken in the Middle Prong, so it carries the runoff of both, and a fast, rising river is one to watch from the bank rather than wade.
Instead: Little River at Metcalf Bottoms. Directions
Buy before you go: A Tennessee or North Carolina license, valid anywhere in the park
Which Tennessee license: the three-day nonresident licenses

A guide, not a guarantee. These dates are past the reach of the weather forecast, so there is no grade yet. The weather for Thursday, February 25 appears on this page from Wednesday, February 10, 15 days ahead, so that is the day to start checking back, and every day of the trip has it by Thursday, February 11. The daylight planning below is already fixed, because it is astronomy rather than forecasting.

Your two days

Thursday, February 25

Moon major
Moon minor
Your hours

No grade yet: the weather for this day appears here from Wednesday, February 10. The light and the moon above are not forecasts though, they are astronomy, and they will not change.

Friday, February 26

Moon major
Moon minor
Your hours

No grade yet: the weather for this day appears here from Thursday, February 11. The light and the moon above are not forecasts though, they are astronomy, and they will not change.

Fresh water, so no tide. The moon and the light above are exact at any range; the hourly conditions line arrives with the forecast.

The outlook

Fish the Little River at the Townsend Wye, seven minutes from Townsend, from late morning into the afternoon, with two nymphs drifted slowly along the bottom of the deeper, slower water. Expect a winter day measured in a few fish rather than many, and expect the warmest hours to be the best ones. That is the short version, and the rest of this page is why.

Why the middle of the day. The Townsend fly shop’s standing advice for the Smokies is that in winter and early spring the water is warmer in the lower-elevation streams, and that during the cold months you will probably do better in the middle of the day, when the water is warmest. Its mid-October report said the same about a cold autumn morning: falling water temperatures slow the fishing, so wait and go later, probably after noon. The Wye is the last stretch of the Little River before it leaves the park, which is why it is the start, and the end of your window that can move is worth moving: if the day is cold, stay until 4:30.

What is different about fishing a national park, in four rules. First, a Tennessee or a North Carolina license is valid anywhere in the park and no trout stamp is needed; the park sells none, so buy it online before you come. Second, only artificial flies and lures with a single hook are allowed, up to two flies on a leader, and the park bans even carrying a double or treble hook; check the spinners in your bag before you leave the cabin and change any treble for a single hook. Third, one rod in hand at a time, so the spinning rod stays in the car until you swap. Fourth, the car needs a parking tag to stay more than fifteen minutes anywhere in the park; a tag is not a license, and a license is not a tag.

The roads in February. The park closes a set of its secondary roads for the winter and opens others and shuts them again with the weather. All three marks sit on roads the park names as open year-round, weather permitting: Little River Road, which runs from the Wye past Metcalf Bottoms, and Newfound Gap Road at Sugarlands. The one water near Townsend left out for its road is the upper Middle Prong, because the park lists Upper Tremont Road among the roads it closes to cars for the season. Snow or ice can still close any road for a day, so read the park’s conditions page before you leave the cabin.

Thursday is the day to know about. Your first day is a Thursday, and if you fish near Gatlinburg on the day the family is there, the Gatlinburg Trail behind the Sugarlands Visitor Center follows the river inside the park, where the park’s rules apply every day. Where the trail reaches the town, the river becomes Gatlinburg city water, which takes a separate city permit and is closed to fishing on Thursdays. Turn back before the town.

On your own, in cold water, with a knee to look after. The park warns that wading drains body heat, that cold water brings on hypothermia in minutes, and that its rivers rise fast after rain you may never have felt. So every mark in this plan has a parking lot within a short walk of the water, and none asks you to cross. Fish from the bank and the edges, keep the hip waders for the shallows, and get out the moment your feet go numb.

How the model sees this trip, honestly. Your dates are past the sixteen-day forecast horizon, so the day cards show no grade yet; they fill in about two weeks out. When they do, two things are worth knowing. The model carries the rainbow as a dawn feeder and knows nothing about a winter river warming through the afternoon, so its hourly curve may favor the start of your window on a day when the thermometer says to wait; on a cold day, believe the thermometer. And the water temperature on the card at the two Little River marks comes from the gauge on the Little River above Townsend, the same water: measured for the day itself, projected from that reading further out; at Metcalf its flow figure is read below the Middle Prong joins, so it counts more water than passes the picnic area. At Sugarlands the West Prong’s own gauge measures flow but not temperature, so the card’s water temperature there is that same Little River gauge, on a different river, and the card will not say so: the model cannot tell “Little River” from “West Prong Little Pigeon River” by name. Read that figure as the Little River’s.

What a good day looks like. A first wild trout in February is a fair goal, and nothing on this page promises one. Expect the fish to be in the slower, deeper water, expect a missed take or two before you learn the drift, and expect one of your two days to be the better one for reasons the weather decides.

Where to fish

Start here: Little River at the Townsend Wye

Townsend, about 7 minutes

Directions to the parking

The Little River at the park’s Townsend entrance, just below where the Middle Prong joins it, beside the parking lots at the Wye.

The nearest park water to your cabin, and the last stretch of the Little River before it leaves the park. In winter the Townsend shop sends anglers to the lower-elevation water because it is warmer.
A row of paved parking lots beside the river and a parking-tag machine on site, so the walk to the water is short and the parking question is answered before you start.
The park itself names fishing among the uses of the river at the Wye.
Big enough to fish for a whole day without moving, which matters when the best hours are the warm ones in the middle.

Wants: No tide. The thermometer is the clock: fish it once the water has warmed from the night, which in February means the middle of the day.
Out of play in: High, muddy water after rain. The river here has just taken in the Middle Prong, so it carries the runoff of both, and a fast, rising river is one to watch from the bank rather than wade.

Safety. The park warns that its rivers can rise fast after rain far upstream that you never felt, that rocks along the banks are slick with algae, and that cold water brings on hypothermia in minutes. Stay off the rock faces above the river, which the park closes to climbing here.

Public access. The park’s compendium describes the Townsend Wye as a heavily used area for water-related recreation and names swimming, tubing and fishing in the river there; it bans climbing on or jumping from the rock faces and cliffs above it. The park lists the Townsend Wye among its parking-tag machine locations. National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 2026 Superintendent’s Compendium, read 2026-10-18.

Before you go. The park is open around the clock and posts no gate hours for the Wye; the limit that applies is the fishing hours, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, so a 10:00 AM start has the whole morning in hand. A parking tag is needed to leave the car for more than 15 minutes, and the machine here takes a credit card but not tap-to-pay. The entrance road from Townsend and Little River Road meet here, and the park names Little River Road among the primary roads it keeps open year-round, weather permitting.

Backup: Little River at Metcalf Bottoms

Little River Road, between Townsend and Gatlinburg, about 21 minutes

Directions to the parking

A picnic area on the Little River at about 1,680 feet, which the park itself calls a popular fishing location.

The second Little River mark, for the second day or for a busy Wye. The park calls the picnic area a popular fishing location and keeps part of it open all year.
The park describes several waterside picnic sites here, so the flat walk your knee wants is the walk the park built.
On Little River Road, which the park keeps open year-round, and on the way to Gatlinburg if the family day is there.

Wants: No tide. The same as the Wye: the warm hours, and the slower, deeper water below the riffles.
Out of play in: High water after rain, as at the Wye. The picnic area closes at sunset, which is long after your day ends.

Opens 7:11 AM, closes 6:27 PM. Your 10:00 AM start is inside that.

Safety. The same rising water, slick rock and cold the park warns of everywhere. The picnic area’s banks are the easy ones; do not follow the river downstream to the Sinks, where the park says visitors have drowned.

Public access. The National Park Service describes Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area as sitting along the Little River, "a popular fishing location (fishing license required)", partially open year-round from sunrise to sunset. The park lists Metcalf Bottoms among its parking-tag machine locations. National Park Service, Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area, read 2026-10-18.

Before you go. In winter only part of the picnic area is open: the north loop, the pavilion and part of the south loop open mid-April to late October, and the rest of the south loop stays open all year. Dumpsters are removed from late October to late March, so carry out everything. The Metcalf bridge has a 10-ton limit and no trailers, which a family car does not notice. Little River Road, which serves it from Townsend, is one of the primary roads the park keeps open year-round, weather permitting.

Backup: West Prong Little Pigeon River at Sugarlands

Gatlinburg, about 42 minutes

Directions to the parking

The West Prong of the Little Pigeon River behind the park’s Sugarlands Visitor Center, followed by the Gatlinburg Trail toward the town.

For the Gatlinburg day. The family is in town, and the West Prong behind the Sugarlands Visitor Center is park water a short drive from them, with the park’s rules and no city permit.
The Gatlinburg Trail follows the river from the visitor center, wide and well graded once past the maintenance area in the park’s own description, so you can walk the bank and pick the water.
A different river from the Little River, if the Wye and Metcalf are both crowded or both high.
Forty-two minutes from Townsend, inside your limit, and the farthest mark in the plan.

Wants: No tide. Stay inside the park: the river becomes Gatlinburg city water at the town, closed on Thursdays and under a city permit every other day.
Out of play in: High water after heavy rain, as everywhere here. And the trail’s first stretch runs on sidewalk and beside the road, where the river is below a bank, so walk on until the path reaches the woods before you look for a way down.

Hours. Nobody official publishes opening hours for this access, so this plan cannot tell you when the gate is unlocked. Ask before you rely on an early start.

Safety. The first stretch of the trail runs on sidewalk and beside the road, so the river is below a bank there; the park describes the path beyond the maintenance area as wide with a couple of steeper sections. Pick a place where the bank is a walk down, not a climb.

Public access. The National Park Service describes the Gatlinburg Trail as a riverside stroll of about two miles each way from the Sugarlands Visitor Center to River Road in Gatlinburg, sidewalk and roadside near the visitor center and then a wide, well-graded dirt path with a couple of steeper sections, and says to park at the visitor center. The park lists the Sugarlands Visitor Center among its parking-tag machine locations. National Park Service, Hike the Gatlinburg Trail, read 2026-10-18.

Before you go. The trail ends where the park does, at River Road in Gatlinburg. Past that line the river is Gatlinburg city water, which takes a city permit and is closed to fishing every Thursday, so turn back before the town. Newfound Gap Road, which serves the visitor center, is one of the primary roads the park keeps open year-round, weather permitting. The park publishes no hours for the visitor center parking lot. The fishing hours, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, apply on top of whatever the lot keeps.

Considered and ruled out

5 places were looked at and left out. What settled each one is underneath it.

The Gatlinburg city streams, including the West Prong through the town. Outside the park the river belongs to the city of Gatlinburg, which needs its own Gatlinburg permit and is closed to fishing every Thursday, your first day. The park’s rules end and the city’s begin at the park boundary, at the far end of the Gatlinburg Trail. Stay on the park side. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee Trout Regulations, Gatlinburg Trout Fishing.
The Little River through Townsend, outside the park. The river runs straight out of the park and through the town, and you said the park is the trip. Outside the boundary the park’s rules stop and the state’s apply, which is a different rulebook from the one this plan is written to. National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fishing.
The upper Middle Prong, on Upper Tremont Road. The Middle Prong is one of the waters the Townsend shop names as warmer in winter, and it joins the Little River at the Wye, the start mark. But the park lists Upper Tremont Road among the roads it closes to cars for the season and publishes no dates for it, and no park page found says where on the lower road a visitor may park to fish. A February plan has to work without a phone call, so the Middle Prong is fished here only where it meets the Little River. National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 2026 Superintendent’s Compendium.
Elkmont and the Little River Trail. Higher up the same river, and the Townsend shop’s winter advice for an angler at Elkmont in cold water is to move down to warmer water, which is where the start mark already is. Little River Outfitters, Townsend, Smokies fishing tips.
The Sinks. A waterfall on the Little River about a mile below Metcalf Bottoms, with a small parking lot of its own. The park says visitors have drowned there and asks people to stay at the viewing area. Not a place to fish alone in cold water. National Park Service, The Sinks.

How to fish it

Late morning, as the water comes off its night lowTwo nymphs on the 5-weight: a Pheasant Tail with a Prince or a Hare’s Ear, under an indicator, weighted to touch bottom

The park allows two flies on one leader, each on a single hook. Drift them through the slower, deeper runs and the tails of pools rather than the fast riffles, and set the indicator so the flies tick the bottom now and then. In cold water the fish will not move far for food, so the drift has to reach them.

The middle of the day, the warmest waterThe same nymphs, and an Adams ready on a second leader

Keep nymphing, and watch the water. If small mayflies start coming off and fish rise to them, put on the Adams and cast just above the rise. The Townsend shop’s October report put dry flies after the water had warmed, so do not start with one.

A bright, cold day, or a pool too deep to nymphA dark Woolly Bugger

Cast across and let it sink, then bring it back slowly in short pulls along the bottom of the deepest pool you can reach from the bank. This is the brown trout’s fly as much as the rainbow’s.

If the fly is not working, the spinning rodA small inline spinner with a single hook in place of the treble

Cast across the current and let it sink a moment before you start the retrieve, then reel just fast enough to turn the blade, so it swings close to the bottom. One rod at a time: put the fly rod in the car before you fish this one.

Change the hooks before you go. The park bans using or carrying a double, treble or gang hook, so any spinner in your bag that came with a treble needs a single hook in its place, or it stays in the cabin.
The park encourages barbless hooks. Pinching the barbs makes the release faster, and you are releasing everything.
Keep a fish in the water as much as you can, handle it with wet hands, back the hook out with pliers, and cut the line if it is deep, which is the park’s own advice.
Clean and dry your boots and waders before you move from one river to another. The park asks anglers to take precautions between waters so didymo, an invasive alga, does not spread.
Leave the rocks where they are. The park makes it illegal to move stones to build channels or dams.

What should make you change

If	Then
The USGS gauge on the Little River above Townsend, which the park links to, shows the river high and rising after rain	No wading. Fish the edges from the bank at the Wye or Metcalf, or move to the other day. The park warns that its rivers rise fast and that wading in rising water is how people are hurt.
Snow or ice overnight	Read the park’s conditions page before you leave. The roads to all three marks are open year-round, weather permitting, which means a winter storm can close them for a day.
A clear, frosty morning after a cold night	Start later, not earlier. The Townsend shop’s advice for falling water temperatures is to wait and fish after noon, and your end can move to 4:30.
The family is in Gatlinburg	Fish the West Prong from the Sugarlands Visitor Center, inside the park, and turn back before the trail reaches the town. City water needs a city permit, and on Thursday it is closed.
The Wye is crowded	Drive on up Little River Road to Metcalf Bottoms, on the same river.
Your feet go numb, or you start to shiver	Out of the water and into the car with the heater on. The park warns that cold water brings on hypothermia in minutes, and you are on your own.

What people have been reporting

The only report from inside the last month is the Townsend shop’s daily report for 18 October, written about a cold autumn morning four months before your dates, on a page that is replaced every day. Its advice about cold water agrees with the shop’s standing winter advice above. No February report from a past year could be read: the shop keeps no archive, and the archived copies of its February reports could not be reached from where this plan was written. This plan is refreshed in the two weeks before your dates.

Little River Outfitters, The Fishing Report, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and East Tennessee · Byron Begley, Little River Outfitters (fly shop and school in Townsend) · 18 October 2026

A cold, foggy October morning after a warm spell, with the shop watching water temperatures fall at the USGS gauges and expecting the fishing to slow until the water warmed. Its advice: wait and go later, probably after noon; nymphs or weighted nymph rigs, naming a Tellico, a bead-head Pheasant Tail, a Prince and a Hare’s Ear; dry flies perhaps, once the water warms in the afternoon. The shop opens at 9 every morning.

A fly shop that sells the flies it names, writing about an autumn morning four months before your dates. The report is replaced on the same page every day, so this citation is expected to stop resolving to these words.

Source

Little River Outfitters, Smokies fishing tips · Little River Outfitters (fly shop and school in Townsend) · Undated; read 18 October 2026

The shop’s standing advice: trout feed less in water near 40 degrees; in winter and early spring the lower-elevation streams are warmer than the high ones; fish sunny spots; and in the cold months fish the middle of the day. It names the first spring hatches as Quill Gordons, Blue Quills and Blue-winged Olives.

Evergreen advice from a shop that sells flies, not a report on any one day.

Source

Reports read 2026-10-18.

What is measured, what is not

A plan like this mixes four very different kinds of claim, and they are not equally reliable. They are separated here so you can weigh them yourself.

Every grade, tide time, wind figure and water temperature on this page is computed when you open it, so the page sharpens as the trip approaches rather than going stale. The strategy, the marks, the regulations and the fishing reports are written once and carry the date they were written. Water temperature is held at low confidence more than two days out whatever its source, which matters because it is the largest single factor in the grade.

Measured

Sunrise, moonrise and the solunar periods, which are astronomy and exact at any range. A streamflow or water-temperature reading taken at a gauge, where the day card names one.

Forecast or projected

Wind, pressure, cloud and precipitation, from the weather model and firming as the date approaches. Water temperature too, from whichever source the day card names beside the figure; the label there says whether it was measured, modeled or projected.

Reported by others

The fishing reports above. Dated, attributed, anecdotal, and in some cases advertising. The most recent predates your trip, so treat it as the last known position of the fish rather than a forecast of where they will be.

Angler judgment

Which mark to start at, which lure, how to retrieve it, and every threshold in the change table. Inference from the conditions and from how this species behaves, not output from the engine.

A worked example of the difference, on a winter river

That a treble hook is illegal to carry in the park is the National Park Service’s regulation, quoted here and read on a stated date. The water temperature on the Wye’s day card for today or tomorrow is the USGS gauge on the Little River above Townsend, the same water, measured that morning; further out the card projects it from that reading and says so. That the rainbow trout is a dawn feeder is the engine’s profile, compared with a window that starts at ten. And that the Wye is where to begin on a cold February morning is judgment, built on the Townsend shop’s advice that lower water is warmer in winter. Four kinds of claim, and only the gauge reading is a measurement.

A guide, not a guarantee

What this page promises is narrow and it is kept. Every gate time, fee, rule, closure and report named here points at the page it came from and the date somebody read it. Every number about conditions is computed when you open it, from the sources named beside it. Anything that is neither is marked as judgment, above.

What it does not promise is a fish. Agencies change rules between seasons and do not always announce it, gates get locked for reasons nobody publishes, rivers come up overnight, and a well-read day on well-read water still blanks often enough that anybody telling you otherwise is selling something. Check the regulations and the access yourself before you drive, treat the hazard notes as the serious part of this document, and take the rest as a sourced opinion about where to start.

Regulations and license

The rule most likely to catch you is the hook rule: the park allows only single-hook artificial flies and lures, and bans even carrying a double or treble hook, so check the spinners in your bag before you leave the cabin. The second is that the park, not Tennessee, writes the rules on its water, and either state’s license is valid there. Everything here was read on 2026-10-18. Check it again before you drive: these change, and the consequences of being wrong are yours.

A Tennessee or North Carolina license, valid anywhere in the park

Everyone 16 and older needs a fishing license from either state, and either one is valid throughout the park. No trout stamp is required. Licenses are not sold inside the park, so buy one online before you arrive.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fishing

Which Tennessee license: the three-day nonresident licenses

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency sells a nonresident 3-Day Fishing license in two kinds: No Trout, at $20, and All Species, including Trout, at $40, plus a processing fee, through GoOutdoorsTennessee. TWRA’s own pages do not say which one the park accepts for trout; the next entry is the Townsend shop’s reading. The $40 license is the one nobody can question.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, License Structure and Fees

The Townsend shop says the No Trout license covers trout inside the park

Little River Outfitters writes that the nonresident No Trout licenses allow trout fishing inside the park, and not in the state’s designated trout water outside it, which includes the Little River through Townsend. That is a shop’s reading rather than the agency’s, and it fits the park’s statement that no trout stamp is required. If you want the cheaper license, that is the basis for it.

Little River Outfitters, License Info and Regulations

Open all year, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset

Fishing is allowed year-round in open waters, during those hours, and the park allows fishing in all its streams. Your whole window sits inside them.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fishing

Artificial flies and lures with a single hook only, and up to two flies

Only artificial flies or lures with a single hook may be used; a dropper fly is allowed, up to two flies on a leader. Any bait or liquid scent is banned on or along a park stream while you have fishing tackle with you.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fishing

No double or treble hooks, even in your bag

Using or possessing a double, treble or gang hook is prohibited, so a spinner with a treble is illegal to carry in the park, fished or not. Change the hook or leave the lure behind.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fishing

One rod in hand

Fishing is permitted only with one hand-held rod. Bring both rods if you like, but fish one at a time.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fishing

Five trout a day, seven inches minimum, if you ever keep one

Five brook, rainbow or brown trout or smallmouth bass in combination, each at least seven inches, and you stop fishing once you have them. You are releasing everything, so this is the rule the people around you are under.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fishing

A parking tag for any stop longer than fifteen minutes

A tag is required to park anywhere in the park for more than fifteen minutes: $5 a day or $15 a week, one vehicle each, with its license plate on it, and it must be a printed tag on the dashboard rather than a phone screen. Buy it online at recreation.gov and print it, at the Great Smokies Welcome Center in Townsend, or from the machines at the Townsend Wye, Metcalf Bottoms and Sugarlands, which take a credit card but not tap-to-pay. Every car the family parks in the park needs its own.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Fees and Passes

The roads to all three marks stay open in winter, weather permitting

Newfound Gap Road, Little River Road and the Cades Cove Loop Road are open year-round, weather permitting; a set of secondary roads close for the season. The Cades Cove Loop is open sunrise to sunset, which is worth knowing for the family’s day there.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Seasonal Road Schedule

The river gauge the park points you to, at Townsend

The park points visitors to the USGS gauge on the Little River near Townsend, which measures flow, river height and water temperature, and it is the gauge this plan’s Little River marks are read from. Check it the evening before and the morning of.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Current Conditions

Cold water, alone

Not a regulation but the park’s own warning, and the one that matters most to somebody wading alone in February: exposure to cold water can lead to hypothermia in minutes, and the park says most drownings come from a leg or ankle caught under a rock ledge or between boulders.

National Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Water Safety

The brief this was built from

Goal.: My first wild trout, in the Smokies, on a fly if I can. I've only ever caught stocked fish. A big brown would be a story, but I'll be happy with any wild trout. I know February is cold, so I'd like an honest idea of my chances and where to stand.
Method.: Shore or bank; Wading. Alone, while the family sightsees, within 45 minutes of Townsend, Tennessee. Intermediate; first visit to the park and first wild trout.
Style.: Fly. Spinning rod in the car if the fly isn't working.

Gear this plan assumes

8 1/2 ft 5-weight fly rod, floating line, 5X tippet
Woolly Buggers, Pheasant Tails, Hare's Ears and Prince nymphs; a few Adams and Elk Hair Caddis
6 ft ultralight spinning rod, 4 lb line, Rooster Tails and Panther Martins
Hip waders and felt-soled boots
A minivan, paved roads only

Constraints respected

Fishing alone both days: the family is in Cades Cove one day and Gatlinburg the other
Public water only, and parking that will not draw a ticket
Tell me which license, and what is different about fishing in a national park
Catch-and-release is fine if that's the rule
Knee surgery two years ago: a flat trail is fine, no steep banks or boulder-hopping, no wading past the knee, no crossing the river
Up to 45 minutes of driving and half a mile on foot; the end of the day can move to 4:30 PM