Down to join and swell the big river that into a huge water-way grow.”---Francis Duggan
The French Broad River is the ‘huge water-way’ of the Southeast. It is the flowing basin of a thousand gathered streams, carving its way through the mountain gorges of Western North Carolina into Tennessee. Prior to the Revolutionary War it was owned by the French, thus the name. The Cherokee Indians called it the Agiqua meaning ‘wide or broad’. It flows for over two-hundred miles before joining the great Tennessee River.
I started fishing the French Broad about the same time I began fishing the Big Laurel, but the target species was different. There is so much surface area on the French Broad that it heats up beyond the tolerances of any trout species. Its warmer waters are perfect, however, for the beautiful, bronze-colored, small-mouth bass. The big river bulges with these beautiful bass.
The French Broad is a special river to me for several reasons, the foremost of which is that I met my future wife there…well sort of. I had been working at a large retail store in training and personnel. Employees would come to my office to request time off and because I had a good rapport with them, they would often tell me their vacation plans. The store’s inventory manager was a young, attractive, smart, strong, and somewhat introverted lady named Melissa Smith. Eventually, she came in to request vacation. I asked her what her plans were. She said that she would spend most of her week in a deer stand in the woods. I asked who she would be hunting with. She said, “Just by myself.”
Now, if you are an outdoorsman and an attractive female reveals that she is also an avid outdoors-woman, it generates some powerful, deep-down, “I hope my face isn’t bright red…am I sweating?…I think I need some air,” kind of reactions. I held my composure and said something profound, along the lines of, “Awesome!” So, I had met Melissa, the inventory manager, but didn’t really get to know her until we decided to go fishing together on the French Broad River.
The French Broad River is the ‘huge water-way’ of the Southeast. It is the flowing basin of a thousand gathered streams, carving its way through the mountain gorges of Western North Carolina into Tennessee. Prior to the Revolutionary War it was owned by the French, thus the name. The Cherokee Indians called it the Agiqua meaning ‘wide or broad’. It flows for over two-hundred miles before joining the great Tennessee River.
I started fishing the French Broad about the same time I began fishing the Big Laurel, but the target species was different. There is so much surface area on the French Broad that it heats up beyond the tolerances of any trout species. Its warmer waters are perfect, however, for the beautiful, bronze-colored, small-mouth bass. The big river bulges with these beautiful bass.
The French Broad is a special river to me for several reasons, the foremost of which is that I met my future wife there…well sort of. I had been working at a large retail store in training and personnel. Employees would come to my office to request time off and because I had a good rapport with them, they would often tell me their vacation plans. The store’s inventory manager was a young, attractive, smart, strong, and somewhat introverted lady named Melissa Smith. Eventually, she came in to request vacation. I asked her what her plans were. She said that she would spend most of her week in a deer stand in the woods. I asked who she would be hunting with. She said, “Just by myself.”
Now, if you are an outdoorsman and an attractive female reveals that she is also an avid outdoors-woman, it generates some powerful, deep-down, “I hope my face isn’t bright red…am I sweating?…I think I need some air,” kind of reactions. I held my composure and said something profound, along the lines of, “Awesome!” So, I had met Melissa, the inventory manager, but didn’t really get to know her until we decided to go fishing together on the French Broad River.
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