Smallmouth fishery an underrated resource

At each bridge over a creek or river, Scott Cunningham slowed his SUV and peered anxiously over the guardrail to check the water.
And after each peek, Cunningham sped up again, shaking his head at fishing partner Jeremy McClellan and quietly grumbling to himself.
Each subsequent inspection told the same story as the one before: The normally gin-clear waters of the timeless Blue Ridge streams were opaque with rust-colored silt from scattered but violent thunderstorms the evening before.
For fly fishermen hoping to catch some smallmouth bass on topwater poppers, these were not difficult conditions; they were virtually impossible.
But fishing guides - especially ones as dedicated to their craft as these guys - always seem to have another option.
In this case, Cunningham headed toward an out-of-the-way stretch just downstream from where the Toe and Cane rivers converge to form the Nolichucky.
There, Cunningham and McClellan surmised, we'd stand the best chance of finding some halfway decent water and outrunning the impending flood of red Carolina clay barreling down on us.
Even here, the water was heavily stained and barely fishable. I'd have had no chance - zero - of catching a smallie on my own. Despite a lifetime of spin fishing experience, I'm a novice fly caster. When Cunningham handed me his $700 Sage fly rod, he might as well have been a knight presenting a lowly stable hand with Excalibur.
And yet, when the 3 1/2-mile float trip (about half the usual distance) was over, we had boated a dozen or so small but feisty bronzebacks and missed a dozen more occasionally bombastic topwater strikes.
Granted, these weren't the 22- to 24-inch bass the boys from On The Fly Guide Service Inc. (Cunningham, McClellan and co-founder Chad Stevens) are used to catching, but under the circumstances, both were relatively pleased.
"I'm positive you would have caught 20 and probably had a shot at 20 more if the water had been clear," said McClellan shortly after we reached the take-out point.
I didn't doubt him. I've fished enough to realize the On The Fly guys - subjects of a recent feature story in North Carolina Sportsman magazine - know what they're talking about.
After all, they live for this stuff.
Cunningham, who recently left a full-time job in a machine shop where he had worked for more than 20 years, said the guide service has access to five float rivers and more than 250 wade-fishing trout streams in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.
Although trout are the more glamorous quarry and On The Fly books numerous trips for them each week, Cunningham said the area's burgeoning smallmouth fishery could soon become the top draw.
"Like everybody else, we started trout fishing," he said. "But in summertime, the trout fishing starts to slow down and you start looking at this big water. One of the things that triggered us was one summer I had knee surgery and couldn't wade fish. So I went and bought a raft so we could float the river. We needed water big enough to float a raft, and those rivers are big enough, (that) when they get warm, there's smallmouth rather than trout.
"There's a lot of smallmouth water. The state publishes maps to show where the trout water is at, but they never mention the smallmouth water."
Perhaps they should start.
Labeled by countless outdoor writers over the decades as the gamest fish in freshwater, smallmouth put up a tenacious fight, often leaping several feet out of the water in attempts to shake the hook. And battling smallies up to 5 pounds in fast-flowing water on fly gear is about as edge-of-your-seat exciting as freshwater fishing gets.
Cunningham and McClellan agreed there are other reasons to chase the pugnacious bass. Unlike rainbow and brown trout, smallmouth (like brook trout) are native to North Carolina and the population is self-sustaining.
"That, to me, means a lot; going after something that is where he's supposed to be," said Cunningham. "The state didn't have to come and put him in. Some guy didn't carry him in a bucket and put him in."
McClellan said the fish's unpredictable nature is another point in its favor; the largest bass of our trip came off an extremely shallow stretch of shoreline the guides usually don't even bother to fish.
"With trout fishing, you generally know whether you're going to catch an 8-inch fish because of the size of the water," McClellan said. "With smallmouth, you don't know. The first five seconds of the fight, you don't know if he's 10 inches or 20 inches. They've got so much fight."
Combine the repeated thrill of that fight with a pleasurable drift in an expertly handled boat and a delicious shore lunch, and you have the makings of a unique and memorable day on the water - even if it's the color of red Carolina clay.

Notes: On The Fly guide service conducts strictly catch-and-release trips...Cunningham said the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is currently conducting a study of the area's smallmouth population...Those interested in booking a trip can contact On The Fly at scott@nconthefly.com or call 659-0059...You can also visit the group's Web site at http://nconthefly.com.