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We were in the Unicoi Mountains in East Tennessee, a neighboring range of the Smoky Mountains, which are in turn part of the Appalachians that stretch from northern Georgia through northern Maine and roughly comprise the native range of brook trout in what is now the United States. More specifically, we were fishing for trout in some of the branches of the Tellico River at elevations of 2,000 to 3,000 feet in dense mixed forests of tulip poplar, hemlock, white pine, beech, oak, gum, maple, rhododendron, mountain laurel, flame azalea and so on. These are verdant, ancient, round-shouldered mountains thousands of feet lower than the Rockies and 10 times older, with forests that are a riot of species diversity and the humid climate that makes them prone to the same morning mist that gave the Smokies their name.

I've lived virtually all of my adult life in Colorado, where  read more >> Read more – offline – from the current issue; subscribe to FRR.