You are being both oddly chilled, and experiencing the sensation of getting wet simultaneously, without any actual cold or moisture touching your skin. The suction effect of the heft of the water as it surrounds your neoprene-encased legs is as strange a feeling as is each tenuous step of your felt-bottomed boot as you begin to appreciate the river’s rush. It’s soothing and stimulating at once, and you understand why it is that this river runs through the hearts and dreams of many a fisherman (or woman).
The Chattooga River begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains in southern North Carolina and forms the border between South Carolina and Georgia. The main tributary of the Tugaloo River, the Chattooga is stocked by the Walhalla Hatchery with rainbow, brook, and brown trout. While just being there among the rhododendrons and ballet-slipper-pink mountain laurel that fringe the banks of the cold, clear Chattooga is a Walden Pond moment, to make a real day of it, book a half- or full-day guided fly-fishing wade trip. You’ll emerge dry in your gear, if not victorious in your casting efforts.
Your best asset, which even your guide or tackle box cannot give you, is patience.
The Chattooga River Fly Shop in Mountain Rest couldn’t make it easier for the novice or pro alike by providing waterproof waders so you’re one with the water, and not just near it; a pair of felt-bottomed boots to prevent you from slipping on the mossy river rocks; fly rods and reels; and all the flies. Not to mention instruction on how to maximize your casts.
“There’s a rhythm to it,” is how Brad Tarbet, one of the guides from the Fly Shop, explains fly-fishing. First there is the cast, then the “mend”—the quick flick of the wrist to loop your line back in order to get it behind the fly—and then line management, which preps you, hopefully, for the gleeful calls of ‘fish on!’” Even so, your best asset, which even your guide or tackle box cannot give you, is patience.
Chattooga River Fly Shop, 6832-A Highlands Hwy, Mountain Rest, SC; chattoogariverflyshop.com; half-day trip for two people, $325; full-day for two people, $450
SIDE WAYS
Stumphouse Tunnel
In a secluded corner of Oconee County, near Walhalla, South Carolina, Stumphouse Tunnel cuts through 1,617 feet of blue granite under Stumphouse Mountain. Construction began in 1853 on what was to be a nearly 6,000-foot-long tunnel for the Blue Ridge Railroad, intended to connect Charleston with the Midwest, but that project ran out of steam with the advent of the Civil War, and the tunnel was never completed. In 1951, Clemson University bought the tunnel and used it to age the first of its now-famous blue cheese. Today Stumphouse Tunnel is open to visitors as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. Stumphouse Tunnel Rd, off Hwy 28, Walhalla, SC; visitoconeesc.com/stumphouse-park
Watery Fun in Oconee County
Taking its name from the Cherokee village, Aconnee (Ae-quo-nee), meaning “land beside water,” Oconee County encompasses the shimmering jewels of lakes Keowee, Hartwell, and Jocassee. But the area’s plentiful waterfalls—22, in fact, and all within a short drive—are also worth discovering. Take the easy 0.3-mile Issaqueena Falls hike, which is next to Stumphouse Tunnel in Sumter National Forest. As you gaze at the frothy chute, imagine the legend of the Native American maiden for whom the falls are named. According to Cherokee lore, Issaqueena jumped into the cascade to escape her tribesmen, who felt betrayed by her love for David Francis, a white trader who lived in what is now the town of Ninety Six. visitoconeesc.com
