JONATHAN CREEK -- MAGGIE VALLEY, HAYWOOD COUNTY
It was actually a visit to Maggie Valley for its annual Trout & Heritage Festival this past year that suggested this story to me, never mind the fact that I had been fishing urban streams for decades. I arrived a day before other writers who had been invited to the event and spent a full and wonderful day working the waters of Jonathan Creek. Never more than a couple 100 yards from a road (usually much less), I nonetheless caught dozens of trout, almost all of them stream-bred, and never saw another angler other than two small boys dunking worms.

Tumbling down from its headwaters under Soco Gap, Jonathan Creek enters Maggie Valley as a brawling little mountain creek and then slows appreciably as the land flattens out in the area of this mountain town where tourism is king. From the parking area for Ghost Town downstream through the town, past the Maggie Valley Country Club and beyond, Jonathan Creek stays fairly close to U.S. Highway 19, and there are plenty of spots, often in parking lots, where you can gain ready access to the stream. In the above-mentioned trip, I caught a mixture of browns and rainbows, with the latter predominating. It’s pretty tight quarters for the most part, and I found the areas of the stream with plenty of fly-grabbing canopy to be the most productive. For details on food, lodging, and other information, visit www.maggievalley. org.

DEEP CREEK -- BRYSON CITY, SWAIN COUNTY
Most of Deep Creek’s drainage lies in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but its final two miles of flow before joining the Tuckasegee River immediately above Bryson City are readily accessible state waters. There are roads paralleling either side of the stream from the bridge at its mouth up to the park line, but the road on the east side offers the easiest access. There are a couple of pullout points where you can park on the roadside, and the parking lot of the Deep Creek Baptist Church, about halfway on the two-mile stretch, is another possibility any day but Sunday.

This is the stream where I learned to fish, and I’m always amazed at how little pressure Deep Creek gets other than at times when word gets out that a stocking has taken place. One major drawback, especially in the heart of the summer, is that this is a favorite stream for folks riding inner tubes. They actually don’t seem to affect the trout much, probably because there’s so much tube traffic and also thanks to many of the best fishing spots being tight against the banks rather than in the stream’s main current, but aesthetically they are a nightmare. My answer is simple -- fish in the dawn hours (that’s the best time in the heart of summer anyway) or at times of the year when there is little or no tubing activity.

Deep Creek in its lower reaches is a medium-large stream by mountain standards, with a fine mixture of long, rather deep runs and pocket water. It flows through a mixture of campgrounds, pasture land, streamside summer homes and permanent homes. I’m primarily a flyfisherman, but for the big browns that haunt these waters, there’s probably nothing better than a spring lizard drifted through a big pool after a hard shower has given a bit of color to the water. You will find information on local places to stay and eat at GreatSmokies.com.