"Conan The Librarian" wrote in message
oups.com...

We haven't picked out a place to stay yet, so it's possible we might
even be on the Tennessee side of the park, but I'm definitely planning
to hit the NC side for some of the fishing. Also, if you have any
suggestions about lodging on the Tennessee side of the park, I'd be
happy to hear them. (I know how awful Gatlinburg is; we used to drive
to the park almost every fall, and it was horrible back then (in the
sixties/seventies). But I'm not sure it's any more depressing than
Cherokee.)

The North Carolina side of the park gets all the press on ROFF, and Hazel is
a special place but the fishing is not neccesarily better on the NC side,
there is just more streams with wild fish in the national forests outside
the park then there is in TN.

As to the starting point for everything on this trip, think Townsend TN at
the southern TN entrance to the park. There was a great little country Inn
my wife and I used to stay at when we lived in Atlanta. It's grown up a
little in the past decade but nothing like Gatlinburg or Cherokee. Plus
there's probably the best fly shop in the south not located in Morganton,
Asheville, or Atlanta right on the Little River before you go into the park.