re: Anyone here live in the Raleigh/Durham area?

It's mostly bass fishing locally. We have a place out in the western part of the state where I'll go out and fly fish for trout. At least try to anyway, I'm pretty new at fly fishing. The closest spot for trout from Raleigh is probably the Mitchell River in Surry County, up near Elkin. It's just under 2.5 hours away.

You can always hit the coast and fish as well. That's a lot of fun and you can catch some pretty fun stuff. I know folks who fly fish out at the coast for Mackerel.

There are a few spots here where the water is cold enough year-round that you can fish for Muskie and some other fish that you can usually only find near the great lakes. Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak in the eastern US at nearly 7,000ft. We were there this past weekend and it was still in the 30's up there as opposed to the high 60's down the mountain.

If you're looking into skiing, the best spot will likely be at Snowshoe in WV. It's about 5-5.5 hours away and actually has some nice slopes. A couple of them are over a mile long. Personally, I think it's the best east coast skiing spot. I've been to most of the bigger New England resorts and really don't like the conditions up there. It's no Breckenridge, but it'll scratch the itch without having to fly.