Stream Dreams

North Carolina has plenty of great smallmouth streams between the New River at the state’s northwest corner and the high country’s fabled Tuck.

Although I cut my fishing teeth casting for trout at small Appalachian high-country creeks, there’s something about bronzebacks that lurk in moving water which always has been enchanting.

Many anglers share the sense of the magical streams smallmouths provide.

At times these sleek, aggressive fish can take surface lures in spectacular fashion, and whether they chase a buzzbait, slam a jig, hammer a crankbait or react to a fly fisherman’s streamer, once hooked they’re something special.

Among freshwater species they are, as my Grandpa Joe used to say when I followed him to the banks of the Tuckasegee River, “the fightingest of fish.”

The patron saint of bass literature, Dr. James Henshall, suggested pretty much the same thing when he wrote that “inch for inch, and pound for pound,” they are the “gamest fish that swims.”

But no one has done a finer job of capturing the sporting nature of smallies, especially when hooked in moving water while using a fly rod, than a prominent novelist from neighboring Tennessee, Caroline Gordon. In her book, “Aleck Maury, Sportsman,” which is loosely based on the life of her father, she describes a smallmouth which has just felt the bite of a hook as “chicken hawk and chain lightning.”

Thankfully, the high country of North Carolina is home to a number of rivers where it’s possible to fish for smallmouths. Better yet, these streams don’t receive the pressure focused on mountain lakes that hold bronzebacks.

“The species, and least when found in Tar Heel rivers, has to be one of the state’s best-kept fishing secrets,” said Dave Duffy, a fly tier, dedicated float fisherman and smallmouth guru,

Duffy, who is head of the Southeastern Conclave of the Federation of Fly Fishers, prefers going after smallies with the long rod and whistling line (his business card reads “Smallmouths on flies preferred”). But he readily acknowledges they make a wonderful quarry for the ultra-light spin-fisherman as well.

With that in mind, here’s a peek at some of the state’s top moving water destinations for bronzebacks.

Most lend themselves to floating in a canoe or raft equipped with a rowing frame, but don’t overlook the virtues of stopping along the way and wading so you can put more emphasis (a lot more casts) on particularly promising spots.

Don’t forget that almost any major river in the up country, and even the lower reaches of their major feeders can contain smallmouth bass.

Tuckasegee

From Sylva downstream to Bryson City and on to where it enters Fontana Lake, the “Tuck” is a smallmouth fisherman’s dream.

It carries plenty of water for canoe traffic, yet has many stretches of shoals where you can wade and work the water with care. The stream is a wonderful comeback story, having made the transition from being terribly polluted (when a Mead plant in Sylva dumped its effluent into the river) to being clean and pristine.

Smallmouths thrive, as do other species, and while it features anglers aplenty in the delayed-harvest trout water a bit farther upstream, the water from the dam at Dillsboro downstream gets relatively little pressure.

The Tuck offers many put-in and take-out spots (the float from Dillsboro the way to Bryson City is too long for a single day), and anglers will find everything in between — long runs, deep pools, rocky shoals and other preferred bronzeback habitat.

This happens to be my “home water,” since I grew up along its shores in the town of Bryson City, and years ago the late Frank Young revealed some of its delights to me.

Young and I often met at the Deep Creek trail during the summers of our youth and together we fished this fine trout stream. “I’ve got to confess I like to catch smallmouth bass as much as I do trout, and since they cleaned up the Tuckasegee, it’s full of them,” he said one day.

Young was a master at working the shoal areas downstream from Bryson City, wading where he could and using a home-made flat-bottom boat at deeper areas. He said anglers always could catch some fish in late summer if they had some spring lizards or crayfish to use as bait.

Little Tennessee

From the town of Franklin downstream to where it enters Fontana Lake, the Little Tennessee is an absolutely lovely mountain river.

Most of its flow is through remote land, much of it part of the Nantahala National Forest, and it affords a choice of water.

The first half of the flow, from Franklin past Lost Bridge, is relatively slow moving. At the Needmore section, downstream from where Tellico and Burningtown Creeks join its flow, the stream picks up pace and shows more rocks and shoals (which many anglers believe is its prime smallmouth section).

For the most part, the float’s an easy one, with plenty of places where anglers can wade. But only expert canoeists should attempt the last portion of the Little Tennessee before it enters Fontana Lake. This section, at least when the lake isn’t full, has Class III and even some Class IV rapids.

Otherwise, drift, pick your casts, and cling to the realistic hope that behind every rock and beneath every log there is a bronzeback awaiting your lure.

French Broad

The French Broad is the largest of N.C.’s smallmouth streams, and from the Brevard area downstream through Asheville into Madison County and eventually into Tennessee, it has plenty of prime habitat in the form of lots of rocks, shoals, long gravel bars, and sand bars. Plenty of deep pools form the basic ingredients needed to grow big smallmouth.

Of all N.C. streams, this is the one where anglers are most likely to catch a 4-pounds-plus bronzeback.

While it features areas that can be waded, especially upstream toward Brevard, the French Broad is for the most part a float-and-fish proposition.

Portions of the stream, especially the Hot Springs area, demand more canoe expertise than many fishermen possess. For most anglers, a raft equipped with a rowing frame probably will be a better choice of fishing vessel at this river.

New River

More than a half century ago in a book (Jim Gasque’s “Hunting & Fishing in the Great Smokies”) that has since become a collector’s item, he author quoted one of his friends who described the New River as “the best (smallmouth) stream this side of the Rockies.”

That was likely a bit of overstatement then and would be so today. Yet there’s no denying that the New is a dandy destination for the smallmouth fisherman. Its Virginia and West Virginia stretches get more publicity, but from where its two forks unite in northwestern North Carolina and the stream winds back and forth across the N.C.-Va. line before squaring its shoulders for the long run north, it is unquestionably fine smallmouth water.

Late last summer, in the withering heat of August’s “dog days,” Judson Conway of Elk Creek Outfitters floated a section of the New River.

A Tar Heel who attended Appalachian State University at nearby Boone and fell so deeply in love with fishing he chose it as a career, Conway revealed the New River at its sparkling best.

He worried about an overnight thunderstorm and the possibility it would cloud the stream too much, but those concerns proved unfounded. We enjoyed a day that provided the sort of raw material from which angling dreams are crafted.

Using a fly rod and never switching from a Sneaky Pete popper, his guest caught upwards of 40 bronzebacks in the course of a day float that included a streamside lunch of freshly cooked crab cakes, salad and a refreshing soda. At least a dozen of the fish Conway’s angler boated were in the 1½- to 3-pound class—really fine fish as far as stream smallmouths go.

Overlooked water

Sometimes bronzebacks show up at the most unlikely places.

For example, when the weather gets really hot and streams low during August’s dog days, bronzebacks often move out of lakes into waters anglers generally associate with trout.

Indeed, the lower end of many streams generally thought of as trout fisheries, often hold smallmouth bass as well.

For example, anglers can find them in Big Wilson Creek, the lower reaches of the Nantahala River (my father caught a whopper in this tailwater years ago), some of the big pools at lower Hazel Creek in the Great Smokies National Park, and in the lower Oconaluftee River (most of the Luftee is inside the Cherokee Indian Reservation boundary, but a mile or so below the old dam at Ela is state water).

But here’s a real tip about an overlooked bronzeback stream, although it comes with a caveat. Try the Cheoah River in Graham County.

It is, as my good buddy from Robbinsville, Marty Maxwell, said: “Flat out full of smallmouth bass, but the Cheoah is snaky as sin.”

So if you don’t mind the possibility of an encounter with a timber rattler or copperhead, to be duly offset by the potential for lots of tight lines, give it a try. It’s a stream too small to float, but the Cheoah is ideally suited for wade fishing. But those who accept the Cheoh challenge should be prepared to watch their steps.

The Hiwassee River in Clay County also is full of small bronzebacks and occasional bigger fish; it’s also is a redeye haven.

Fairly sedate through most of its flow, the Hiwassee can be a bit problematic in terms of access since much of it flows through private property.