I am taking a family vacation this July where I'm driving from MO through Tennessee and stopping in Bryson City, NC. I think I'll be traveling and stopping in Nashville, The Smokey Mountains area, and then through the Chattanooga area on my way back. For those of you with experience or live in this part of the country what are some must visits for me and my two boys to fish? I know about Chickamauga, but I always hear about how pressured it is, etc. Might be able to afford a guide for one place, but the rest of the time I'd most likely be either shore fishing or wading or floating creeks.

Get a guide and fish Chick.

Bryson city? Fish Fontana! I camped there this weekend, they only wanted poppers. Chickamauga is a zoo 

On 6/22/2021 at 5:09 AM, TnRiver46 said:

Bryson city? Fish Fontana! I camped there this weekend, they only wanted poppers. Chickamauga is a zoo 

So I looked into this, and I had read by July all the bass will be super duper deep, but perhaps I'm misreading the situation. While Chick is on my bucket list, the logistics of my trip make it so fishing the creeks around Bryson City and fishing at Fontana much easier. Man I love a popper bite...

Were you kayaking when you caught that spot?
 

On 6/21/2021 at 7:18 PM, roadwarrior said:

Get a guide and fish Chick.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a guide? One other problem is that I've dragged my feet and I only have a short window of time I can probably make it out onto Chick, I'm betting a lot of them are booked up.

4 minutes ago, PotatoLake said:

So I looked into this, and I had read by July all the bass will be super duper deep, but perhaps I'm misreading the situation. While Chick is on my bucket list, the logistics of my trip make it so fishing the creeks around Bryson City and fishing at Fontana much easier. Man I love a popper bite...

Were you kayaking when you caught that spot?
 

No we took my boat across and camped in the GSMNP at a backcountry site that my friends had hiked to  but there were people that kayaked to the same campsite. I was fishing off my boat and I’m sure there are fish deep but there were plenty cruising around busting shad on top. Last year I only got to fish there for like 30 minutes and got a 19” meanmouth down about 12-15 feet with a rage menace . The lake is like 400 feet deep at the dam, literally. So you can fish very very very deep while still having your boat 10 feet off the bank 

22 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

No we took my boat across and camped in the GSMNP at a backcountry site that my friends had hiked to  but there were people that kayaked to the same campsite. I was fishing off my boat and I’m sure there are fish deep but there were plenty cruising around busting shad on top. Last year I only got to fish there for like 30 minutes and got a 19” meanmouth down about 12-15 feet with a rage menace . The lake is like 400 feet deep at the dam, literally. So you can fish very very very deep while still having your boat 10 feet off the bank 

Awesome, this intrigues me. I appreciate the info. We don't get to fish for meanmouth, smallmouth and spots very often over in my part of Mo, so that would be a good time for my boys for sure.

1 minute ago, PotatoLake said:

Awesome, this intrigues me. I appreciate the info. We don't get to fish for meanmouth, smallmouth and spots very often over in my part of Mo, so that would be a good time for my boys for sure.

The rivers flowing into the lake could be very good for summertime smallies as well, I think there’s some whitewater around Bryson city (kind of crazy but I’ve never been there, I think it’s like 50 miles from Knoxville, even shorter if you’re a crow)