With my tires spinning down a gravel road that took me along a steep ridge into the heart of Appalachia, it was hard not to imagine my grandfather and his peers running moonshine up and down this same ridge. We were in the heart of shine country after all and the evidence was everywhere, if you knew where to look. Most of the high elevation creeks in Stone Mountain State Park still had remnants of moonshine stills, old vehicles and glass jars (some still intact) littered alon

It was hard not to smile as I walked up the narrow footpath, slowly scaling the steep ridge, in between the thick swaths of rhododendron. I stopped to wipe the sweat off my forehead and peered through the mountain laurel, about 150 yards down a steep hill, where the stream was roaring below. Endless plunge pools, car sized boulders and a large waterfall were all visible from the old logging path. My mind was filled with memories from over a decade ago, almost two decades at t

Fisheries biologists in North Carolina are broken out into districts based on certain counties across the state. District 7, which encompasses the counties of Wilkes, Alleghany, Surry, Ashe, and Watauga, is the most peculiar of them all. These counties have robust native and wild trout populations, but incredibly limited public angling access. Unlike the majority of other portions of western NC, these counties have little to no National Forest access. The lower elevations, sm

Ramey Creek sits along the eastern escarpment in a quiet, overlooked portion of our North Carolina Mountains. Situated between Saddle Mountain, The Devotion Estate, and Cumberland Knob, the creek is an idyllic setting in an area that is rich with history. But today’s story starts in the very near past, and it doesn’t invoke fond memories, but rather is a lesson of how one man’s actions can decimate a population that has genetically been present for over a million years. In la

Like most anglers who enjoy fishing for native brook trout in small, remote Southern Appalachian streams, the exploration and setting provides more than enough fulfillment. With that said, there's not much that gets me more excited than a monster, Southern Appalachian Brook Trout. From a statistical standpoint, the chances of a true SABT growing to 12' are incredibly low; everything has to go right for a fish that lives 3 years max, in small, isolated, nutrient-barren headwat

Driving down a forest service road in late May of 2025, I had my sights set on a tiny headwater tributary that flows down the eastern continental divide into a much larger river. I had hiked over this tributary a few years prior on a camping trip, but my rod was packed away and it had already been a long day of fishing. I hadn’t wet a line, but I made a mental—and later physical—note to return. It was a pleasant day in western North Carolina, and a slight breeze picked up a

On a crisp fall morning last October, I left my apartment in Asheville and headed west toward the large tract of southern Nantahala. It was only a few weeks removed from the storm that devastated areas of western NC and, for an angler like myself, drastically changed many places I frequented. Thankfully, farther west of Buncombe County, toward Swain, Haywood, Macon, etc., all was more or less fine from a fishing perspective. As I got farther away from Asheville, some sense of