Recently purchased some local flies from Big T. Great quality and the trout just loved them. I…read morecaught over twenty trout fishing a few hours over three days. My best was a 16" Brown. It's been many years since I've fly fished and now that I'm retired fish on! Big T gets a Hugh and his hand tied flies were a big reason for my successful return. Thanks a bunch Big T.

We came here to find some information on where we can fly fish and get some flies. They provided…read moreseveral different options for us. They have plenty of flies and other equipment to choose from. You can also buy supplies so you can tie your own flies. They were so incredibly kind and helpful. We will definitely be coming back here and going on a chartered trip next time.

My son and I went tent camping in Aug before his school started. Didn't realize how busy this…read moreplace was, but did manage to get one of the last two spots one week prior. The place met all our expectations, however one thing I didn't think about was how close the main road is to the campsites. So, being in a tent, you can easily hear all the traffic. The place seems to be more suited to RV campers since it's so close to the main road. But, at least the restrooms were never busy. The location is convenient to Hemlock Falls, but be aware walking there involves a trek just to get to the parking lot at Hemlock Falls. We opted to drive there, even though it's just across the street. We got spotty cell coverage at the campsite and could sometimes get one bar of signal. Though there is wifi at the office, its range is limited and is slow. Park is kept clean and restrooms are acceptable. The office maintains a stock of various supplies and prices are reasonable. Park is relatively small, but there are a number of things to do: playground, volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, kayak, canoe, paddle board, and fishing. Swimming is not really allowed. Highlight of our trip was laying on the dock at midnight and watching the shooting stars in the clear night.

A very nice place to stop This was along the route as we…read moredrove through the mountains looking for the change of leaves and the best place to view them. The road (SR 197) travels across or along several fingers of Lake Burton on its route to the mountains to connect up with I-76 on the north end. This campground is along the east side of the road and across from the Hemlock Falls trailhead entrance. It is situated along the lake with a beautiful view. The office is right up front on the right as you drive into the grounds. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The office is not very big. The park advertises that it sits on 32 Acres and has 53 tent, trailer & RV campsites, a boat Dock and ramp, a wildlife observation tower, a fishing Pier -- ADA accessible, and a playground. The office is a good place to check in for the campgrounds or to get a parking pass for seeing the falls. The grounds were well maintained and there was a large open-air pavilion situated right along the lake. Overall, it is s nice place to stop, seems a nice place to camp, and is convenient for those seeking to hike to Hemlock Falls.

Great place to bring young kids to fish and ensure they catch something. The adults running the…read moreplace are unpleasant and unfriendly, specially the adult woman . The teenagers helping run the place are at least somewhat pleasant. A bit pricey though at $6.50 a pound .

Alway fun to visit! I'm too old to really fish the streams anymore. When we Rv in the area Andy's…read moreis on the menu! It's fun to catch and cook your dinner in the wilds! Fish you catch and cook are always better tasting! Like most fish farms Andy's provides all the equipment you need. They weigh and clean your fish and put them on ice. They also require to keep any fish you "land".This causes a dilemma; you could catch enough fish for an army in 20 minutes. If you want to take home 4 nice trout for dinner however,your fishing time would be extremely limited.....Huh...what to do? I solved this problem by bringing an extremely light Temkara rod used to fish small streams. I also tied on barbless hooks and viola problem solved. You can extend your fighting times. If they don't throw the hook,"landing" those slippery little buggers with arthritic fingers makes it almost impossible to "land" any fish at all! I was lucky to catch those 4 rainbows for dinner. Lots of fun ....if you close your eyes you are in Montana again!

I booked an afternoon trip for the East Fork of the French Broad River which is 30 minutes from…read morewhere I'm staying in Saphire, NC. My guide sends me instructions the night before to meet him 1:45 minutes away in the Nantahala Gorge. I now have to coordinate a different location because the East Fork is too far for him. So we settle on the Tuckaseegee River in Webster. The morning of the trip, he texts me and says his truck broke down and has to cancel the trip. I called Gordon who tells me he thinks he has another guide who can take me, and he'll call me one way or the other within 30-45 minutes. An hour later, I still don't hear from him but reach the guide who says he can meet a bit later. Gordon finally calls and gives me excuses as to why he didn't call me. But due to all the drama caused between coordinating with his guide the day before and the day of the trip, I was no longer in a happy frame of mind. So Gordon cancelled the trip. Birthday trip ruined. Don't use this company. It's too much hassle coordinating a trip. And Gordon has no idea how to handle a bad situation.

My wife and I were excited to reserve Gordon for a 4 hour wading guided fly fishing tour…read more Unfortunately, we were sourced another guide who was nice enough, but was unable to put us on fish. Staying in Highlands, Gordon was transparent that we might be required to drive ~45 min to the fishing location, which we agreed too. I was not contacted by our new guide until 5pm the day before the trip. We spoke briefly, and he mentioned we should commute to Cherokee to fish. We agreed to the hour and a half drive. Our guide was convinced an early start was not necessary. After arriving at the fishing spot, we noticed there were fishermen already there, and walked about a mile and a half from the vehicle down stream to a different location. After getting in the water, and after a couple nibbles, my wife finally landed a couple (2) trout within the first hour and a half. Moments later, we were abruptly disrupted by a river attendant throwing net after net full of trout over a 3 story bank into the rock bed below. Half the fish hit the water hard, the other half hit the rocks....Clearly stocking the river and cruelly traumatizing and killing fish, our guide went on to comment that this specific fishing spot he would not eat the fish out of, as the trout are farm raised. This was a major turn off for my wife and I, needless to say. We did not catch a fish the rest of the trip. 2 fish across 4 hours is unacceptable. Our guide was a great guy, and certainly helped us with some technique and tying the flys, but I will never return to this specific spot to fish, let alone pay any guide to bring me there. I called Gordon and explained the situation. He was unfazed and did not offer any remedy.

I came here on a very hot summer day with the plans to see some waterfalls. We got here around…read more8:30am which I believe is when the park opens. We took the South Rim (At least I think it was the South Rim) and went to all 5 viewing points which is a flat walk and a round trip of about 1.5 miles. Then we went down into the Gorge which includes 1,099 steps (actual staircase) to the bottom and of course that many steps back up. You can't go all the way to the Gorge floor without a permit but that just means you can only walk down 1,089 steps to a platform. There are plenty of places to stop including a very cool suspension bridge that overlooks Hurricane Falls. This was pretty tough for a 50-year-old fat boy like me but it's doable if you can simply climb stairs. The views are amazing and worth the quads burning for the next 3 days. The visitor's center is really nice. There is of course a gift shop. a huge display of taxidermy of all the local wildlife and a very nice museum that goes through the history of the region. The most important part is they have air conditioning. Suck it up, take the stairs and buy the t-shirt saying you did it when you are done.

The visitor center is phenomenal! Movie was down for some reason. The gift shop has loads to choose…read morefrom and the rest rooms were clean and there were many stalls available. There is almost a museum quality to the taxidermy animal scene they have in the middle of the room and along the walls. Truly a special visit! The hike to see the inspirational point and the swinging bridge wasn't too strenuous for my 4 or 5 year old for people's reference when considering it. We are an active family who hikes etc. There were a lot of warnings but we found it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Beautiful park to walk, run, hold events or go to their events. They have a fitness trail type…read moresetup. Lots of gorgeous scenery to take photos of. Parking was easy. No charge to visit. Seems like a popular place, which I can understand after visiting. There is a really cool old historical water wheel. Sometimes it's running. Sometimes not. Apparently people hide painted rocks here on occasion as well. No pets allowed though sadly.

Found a few good shots of flowers and mushrooms at Meeks Park that I had previously taken.read more

There's a big lake…read more There are mountains. There are rocks. There are trees. Most importantly, it's dog-friendly. I highly recommend stopping here if you're passing through Western North Carolina.

Lake Chatuge is a beautiful lake located in Hiawassee, Georgia within the Appalachian Mountains…read more The lake like all lakes in Georgia is a man made and was created in 1942 with the Chatuge Dam. The name comes from the Cherokee village that was once located there. The total lake covers over almost 11 square miles and has a maxium depth of 144 feet. The most common fish here are the spotted bass, channel catfish, black crappies and large and small mouth bass. If you have children a great place to take them is the Towns County Recreational Beach located at 525 US-76. They have a playground there and a beach for the kids to swim and play in. They also have bathrooms, picnic tables, bathrooms and showers at the beach. For those who plan to come to Lake Chatuge beware that during holidays, like Memorial Day weekend the lake is extremely packed, which makes it almost impossible to fish off the shore with the heavy traffic causing too much wake. [Review #542] (22nd Review Of 2018)

Great place! The guy at the visitors center was really nice and gave us information about the…read moretrails! The trails are very nice, and you can see lots of things along the way! 10/10

Venue Smithgall Woods State Park ( Smithgall Cottages) 5 out of 5 stars…read more After copious amounts of research and several venue tours, we decided on Smithgall Woods state park, and more specifically the cottages as the venue for our wedding on June 8th. We just have to say we loved the team we worked with at Smithgall, mainly Todd, Patty, and Art. Todd at Guestservices was simply fantastic! As he will be quick to mention "the venue sells itself", however having him as our man on the inside was a pretty huge selling point on its own. He was with us every step of the way to answer our plethora of questions, work with vendors, and generally keep our minds at ease. Honestly, I doubt the wedding weekend would have gone as smoothly and been as much of a success had it not been for Todd's guidance and cooperation. The venue is magical. I know how that sounds, but it's the truth. It's tucked away deep in the beautiful North Georgia mountains, surrounded by a lush forest teaming with wildlife. This majestic property consists of five "cottages", in quotations because they are more like log cabin style mansions. The two largest being; the expansive 4 bedroom 4.5 bathroom cottage called the Smithgall Cottage, and the even larger 5 bedroom 5 bathroom Dover cottage. The Creekside Cottage is 3 bedrooms, and The Laurel and Garden cottages are one bedroom cottages with hot tubs on secluded side porches. All the cottages were clean, modern, and a huge hit with our guests. We were able to house both our families, close friends and wedding party all on the same property. Which saved us a great deal on lodging. Which after factoring in the cost of rooms made this one of the more affordable wedding venues out there. Also you get it for the whole weekend!!! We used the Smithgall Cottage for our wedding location due to the large wrap around porch and decks, and also due to the picturesque, covered foot bridge under which flows a gorgeous champion trout stream. We had some difficulty deciding where on this property to hold our ceremony because it is simply lovely all over. Unfortunately, the record rainfall that weekend made the decision for us. Even though the storms limited our use of the enormous field in front of the Dover cottage, and the gardens next to Smithgall we still were able to comfortably host our 50 or so guests and dozen vendors, at the Smithgall Cottage and our ceremony and reception went along wonderfully. We would highly recommend this venue to anyone wishing to have a once in a lifetime event at a once in a lifetime location.

Look at this view! Do I need to convince you why you should go visit? It's so peaceful and…read morebeautiful.

Another beautiful Georgia State Park, we spent most of the day exploring this park, it's another…read moreexample of what the people of Georgia can be so proud of. The ammenties here are nothing less than outstanding with beautifully maintained hiking trails and meticulous maintained common areas. We spent a week in the area and only sampled a small part of what's offer here but it definitely checks all the boxes for a return trip. The staff here was so gracious and was quick to answer all our questions and provided some helpful tips to make our visit enjoyable and was eager to share the history of the area. The landscape is a drastic change from what we experience in our home state of Florida with the higher elevations and moderate temperatures and humidity which made this visit special and a real treat I can't wait to return...

This was definitely a different landscape for us and we loved it. We were happy we had a four wheel…read moredrive because the drive here is not paved at has steep hills. When you get here there is no signage at all. You just drive and look for it. There is really no parking except for parking on the side of the creek. There are areas for people to camp but they are not defined. We drove as high as we could and someone else driving down. They told us to follow them to one of the falls, but there was not much of a fall bc of the lack of rain. We had also parked at the spot they pointed to us for a break from the uphill steep drive. We went down more and parked by the creek and went down to see the water. When we got there, we looked up and saw the fall, but it was a bit of a distance for us to drive back to, plus we would have to walk over rocks to get to it. I didn't get to take a pic but it was pretty. We did like this trip, but I think I wished I could have seen more. The day before we went to the Edge of the World in Dahlonega and enjoyed that more.

Place was beautiful, but it kinda sucked that the upper falls are closed due to some construction…read moreto the trails. It really doesn't tell you anywhere either, you just find out when you get there. Place is so amazing though!