If you can get a means to float, I've heard some great reports from those who have floated from Laurel Run down and even further into Phipps Bend. Otherwise, try wading around in the North Fork when the water warms up a bit. May usually brings a lot of previously nesting bass to be caught on topwater ( or so I've been told). In summer time, when the water gets a little murky, you can wear them out on Rebel crawdads all over that river (N.Fork) in the deeper holes.
We ran into a couple in the lower Watauga river where it empties into Boone accidentally while casting for stripers(which we never found). The few random smallies caught were FAT females still full of eggs---caught on storm lures and other baitfish patterns.
Travis