New on MidCurrent: Fly Fishing the Southern Appalachians

The closest many of us have ever come to trout fishing in the “deep south” was watching Burt Reynolds break his coccyx and develop hillbilly paranoia while canoeing down James Dickey’s fictional Cahulawassee River. But accidental visitors are more likely to be surprised by the fabulous fly fishing for both small-stream brookies and spring creek bruisers at the southern end of the Appalachians. Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, especially, provide constant variety and terrific fishing, especially in winter.
This week James Buice takes us on a tour of the winter-blues-shaking options — including big rivers, tailwaters and tiny off-the-map creeks — that are part of fly fishing the southern Appalachians.