The boss gave you an extra day off. You had a vacation day to spare. Now, you've got a long, long weekend ahead -- or maybe a week of vacation. Ah, the perfect setup for a nice, extended fishing trip, maybe even for you and the kids.

Where do you go? To a certain extent, that depends a lot on how good a fisherman you are, what kind of fish you prefer to target, and whether or not you're going with the boys from work or the boys and girls whose bedrooms are down the hall from yours.

You can aim to do anything from dap tiny dry flies in the tiniest of mountain streams for the most wary of all wild trout, or you can anchor an aluminum johnboat up in a little cove, open a container of chicken livers and set out a half-dozen rods in hopes of catching a dinner of channel catfish.

On the saltwater end of things, you can dunk bloodworms from a pier or bridge in hopes of running into spots, croakers or sea mullet, or you can stalk wary puppy drum in 18 inches of water with a spinning outfit and artificial lures.

It's all about how you want your fishing vacation to go. With that in mind, here are a handful of places -- jumping-off points -- where a variety of fishing opportunities are within a half-hour's drive.

NORTH WILKESBORO
If the first things you thought of when you read "North Wilkesboro" were Junior Johnson and moonshine, you're forgiven. Deep in the heart of NASCAR country, the foothills around Wilkes County have given birth to a number of great stock-car racers, including Johnson and Harry Gant. And Wilkes County will never shed its title as the moonshine capital of North Carolina.

However, the chamber of commerce should be promoting Wilkes County as the gateway to Northwest North Carolina. Perched in the Brushy Mountains, North Wilkesboro is a perfect spot for fishermen to use as their home base for a number of different excursions -- none of which are more than 30 minutes away.

First and foremost is W. Kerr Scott Reservoir, a 1,750-acre lake in Wilkes County. Impounded on the upper end of the Yadkin River, W. Kerr Scott is a deep, clear lake that is part mountain lake, part Piedmont reservoir.

For bass fishermen, summertime isn't the greatest time to show up, because W. Kerr Scott has been known more as a great cold-weather lake -- tremendous fishing from December through March.

But the summer can be a great time to fish for the lake's abundant population of channel catfish, and W. Kerr Scott has always produced its share of monster slab crappie -- if not tremendous numbers.