Destination Smokies

This time tomorrow, I'll be knee deep in the Nantahala River, hopefully releasing yet another trout. We'll arrive early in the afternoon, and hopefully the catching will commence in a hurry. The highly familiar four miles of delayed harvest waters on the Nantahala tend to produce very well during April. High numbers of rainbows, brook trout and browns get stocked in these waters, and all fishing is catch-and-release with single-hook artificial lures this time of year.

I typically visit the Nantahala a couple of times during the "delay" period, and I've been doing so for close to 20 years. Therefore it's runs and pools and the behavior of its trout have gotten fairly familiar. Not quite predictable. They still baffle me sometimes. Familar, though. It's a favored photo destination because it's easy to get in and out of the river in a lot of places and the habitat ranges from gentle riffles to long runs to crashing rapids with big plunge pools beneath them.

We'll also spend a day fishing on Fontana Lake on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and will be staying at Fontana Village Resort. I've fished Fontana a handful of times over the years, but it has been several years, so I'm really looking forward to spending time there. I'm not sure yet whether we'll be fishing for smallmouths, walleyes or something else, but on a lake as pretty as Fontana, there really aren't any bad options.

On Thursday we'll hit the river again before starting toward home. At least that's the plan right now. The weatherman says there's a 90 percent chance of rain on Thursday, so I suppose plans will depend on what time the rain sets in (if at all) and how heavy it is. Either way, we'll fish a day on the river and a day on the lake, so keep an eye out for reports.