So this year when the kids are on spring vacation, I plan on booking a cabin on the water somewhere down in the Virginia/Western North Carolina/eastern Tennessee area where the lakes are thawed and the weather is nice. We're in kayaks so a smaller lake would be nice so we can cover a decent percentage of it. Finally, if the cabin has water access so we can launch directly from our site that would be ideal too, as that means I can come back, make dinner and go back out easily etc.

 

Wondering if anyone knows of a good spot.  Also any tips on what to expect for cover, structure, what works is appreciated as well.

Shew, I think the possibilities are endless! The hangup might be the cabin, there’s a lot of good spots without any cabins directly on the water. Also there aren’t any real “lakes” like you are used to, everything we’ve got is dammed up flowing water or just flowing water. You might be able to stay on a river instead of a “lake.” 
 

I don’t know too much about Virginia  but in East TN and western NC, the main thing you will notice is no vegetation in the water. There is some here and there on certain bodies of water but most lakes are almost completely void of it. The rivers have a decent amount but not in the spring time. What you’ll find mostly as far as cover is rocks and logs, and lots of them. I fish mostly plastic worms and tubes but most anything will catch bass. The one thing that always seems different to me about waters up north is how flat and shallow they are, so be prepared for some steep drop offs. 
 

SW Virginia is the only part I’m familiar with in that state, but the rest of the area you mentioned I’ve got a decent handle on (most of the water in western NC comes right through the Appalachians into TN). The main rivers flowing from VA and NC into TN are the holston, the clinch, the French broad, and the little TN. And to each of these rivers there are countless tributaries. Watauga, tuckaseege, oconoluftee, nolichucky, nantahala, Powell, pigeon, just to name a few. Several of these rivers and their tribs have dams on them, which can be good and/or bad depending on conditions. Sometimes the reservoirs can be super deep and tricky compared to the rivers. Other days the rivers are just raging from dam flows, making fishing difficult. 
 

are you after specific species? Lots of bites for the kids? Lakes like watauga and south holston have trophy smallies but are typically windy and in spring time might be snowy. Cherokee and Douglas are good for any fishing but are pretty huge. You could rent a massive home on either of these lakes and live the life of luxury. Norris lake is similar to Cherokee, deep and clear and loaded with smallies. There are even a few smaller lakes on creeks that flow into Norris that have camping and maybe cabins, big ridge state park and cove lake state park. Fort loudoun/tellico is considered  maybe not quite as good of fishing, but closer to cities and mostly good cell service. The fort loudoun portion is much shallower and swifter than all the tributary lakes mentioned earlier, and always a little muddier. Fontana is remote, no cell service, bordered mainly by National park and national forest but is one of the prettiest places on earth. 10-12 foot water visibly with a depth of about 400 feet at the dam.  The only cabins I can think of  there are floating on the water. Dale hollow is similar to Fontana, deep and clear and remote but I’ve never fished it (world record SMB lake). You probably won’t find any cell service here either. For a chance at double digit size fish, chickamauga is where you’d want to try. Watts bar is the lake above chickamauga and has some pretty big bass of the green and brown kind. For trophy spotted bass, try parksville lake and go whitewater rafting on the ocoee one day. 
 

I don’t even know If I’m going down the right track, I just started typing stuff about the water around here. Like I said the possibilities are endless, I haven’t even gotten into the rivers and tailwaters ! You’ll need two cars or a shuttle service to float several of them but it’s not too hard to figure out, just pull a Burt Reynolds and pay two locals $40 to drive your truck down to Aintry……….

Somebody needs a job with the TN dept of Tourism

Awesome write up!!

Bit of a stretch, Dale Hollow. Several marina's w/cabins on the water. The slough's are big enough to fish all week, and not be bored. Examples Horse Creek, Star Point, stayed at both, plus others

I used to drive from Plattsburgh, NY to Dale Hollow every spring, towed my boat sometimes. Long drive,  about 2500 miles round trip, but worth it. If I remember correctly, three of the four largest smallmouth came out of this lake.

I would fish tubes, hair jig with U-2 pork trailer, small plastic baits, .ie. mini lizard, topwater and smaller crankbaits.

Weather could be a wild card. Went from snow on Monday to t shirt by Friday one year, others just nice all week. Just pack for possible swings.

22 minutes ago, BassNJake said:

Somebody needs a job with the TN dept of Tourism

Awesome write up!!

Hey man I included NC too haha

I have heard good reports about Kerr Lake in NC. It’s more North / Central than Western, but May be an option. Haven’t gotten there myself yet but the wife has researched a few VRBO places there. High Rock lake is good too but again, not really western part of NC. Everything is West of us seeing as we live on the coast… haha

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I don’t know too much about Virginia  but in East TN and western NC, the main thing you will notice is no vegetation in the water. There is some here and there on certain bodies of water but most lakes are almost completely void of it. The rivers have a decent amount but not in the spring time. What you’ll find mostly as far as cover is rocks and logs, and lots of them. I fish mostly plastic worms and tubes but most anything will catch bass. The one thing that always seems different to me about waters up north is how flat and shallow they are, so be prepared for some steep drop offs. 

 

Wow, first thanks for the reply. The only place I've really looked at extensively are Lake Norman which might be decent although I won't be able to cover much of the lake there, and Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, which honestly looks amazing except it seems like it might still be a bit cold there. I looked a little bit at Fontana Lake and Dale Hollow and both look amazing, but at the same time I have to be able to drive there and drive home and it's about 15 hours vs 10-12.

 

But your general description does sound right at home for me. While we do have a lot of shallow, flat weedy lakes. Once they get up to around 400 acres or so, the weeds become situational, and in some cases they can be a whole lot thicker though. We do have some lakes with minimal weeds and steep drop offs. My favorite lakes are like this.

 

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

are you after specific species? Lots of bites for the kids?

 

No real preference to be honest. I'll be happy to get to go kayaking in April. I just want to be able to fish when it's colder outside. It might be nice to catch my first spotted bass while I'm down there.

26 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

 

Wow, first thanks for the reply. The only place I've really looked at extensively are Lake Norman which might be decent although I won't be able to cover much of the lake there, and Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, which honestly looks amazing except it seems like it might still be a bit cold there. I looked a little bit at Fontana Lake and Dale Hollow and both look amazing, but at the same time I have to be able to drive there and drive home and it's about 15 hours vs 10-12.

 

But your general description does sound right at home for me. While we do have a lot of shallow, flat weedy lakes. Once they get up to around 400 acres or so, the weeds become situational, and in some cases they can be a whole lot thicker though. We do have some lakes with minimal weeds and steep drop offs. My favorite lakes are like this.

 

 

No real preference to be honest. I'll be happy to get to go kayaking in April. I just want to be able to fish when it's colder outside. It might be nice to catch my first spotted bass while I'm down there.

Smith mountain and Norman are both quite popular so you should be able to find tons of information. I think both of them are tough according to tournament results but big fish are a possibility at both. @lo n slo would be the guy to ask about Norman, it’s definitely loaded with spotted bass. I’ve heard about excessive boat traffic on both lakes but It shouldn’t be amped up to maximum levels by April

 

watauga might be in your wheelhouse but it’s craZy windy. It’s dangerously close to NC and VA. Also the holston river should be pretty awesome in April and several stretches,  especially in Kingsport

 

18 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

watauga might be in your wheelhouse but it’s craZy windy. It’s dangerously close to NC and VA

Watauga is a maneagable drive. In fact, if I can book a cabin for a night, I can offset my drive a little bit too if I really wanted to hit Fontana.

13 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

Watauga is a maneagable drive. In fact, if I can book a cabin for a night, I can offset my drive a little bit too if I really wanted to hit Fontana.

Fontana is kind of overrun with little spotted bass but there have to be some good ones in there somewhere. I’ve caught some 2-3 lb smallies 

3 hours ago, Holetail said:

I have heard good reports about Kerr Lake in NC. It’s more North / Central than Western, but May be an option.

 

 

That's definitely an option. I'd be open to central North Carolina too, although when I last went to North Carolina, I drove home from Raleigh and what I want to avoid is having to drive on busy 5 lane interstates, especially with a kayak trailer. Driving in, I went to Ashville and drove over the Blue Ridge Parkway until Grandfather mountain which was closed, but that was nice. So basically I want to avoid the coast which has cities.

 

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Fontana is kind of overrun with little spotted bass but there have to be some good ones in there somewhere. I’ve caught some 2-3 lb smallies 

Fontana is some of the most beautiful blue-green tinted water I have ever seen as well. I have seen enough people recommend it.

Wife and I stayed at a cheap motel close to Watauga a few years ago.  We had kayaks with us and fished one day.  Gorgeous lake.  I think it was summertime....just a few small spots, but it was quite enjoyable.   We also put the yaks in on Douglas a couple days, but it was near town and big marinas....like the lake, but felt we should have been in a boat.