I grew up fishing the creeks in Middle Tennessee for smallies. A lot of people would look at these creeks and think there wouldn't be a bass in them the creeks are so small. The creeks in my area drain into Old Hickory on the Cumberland river which isn't a smallmouth reservoir by any stretch, so the largest smallies I ever caught in our creeks are in the 3 lb range about 4-6 miles upstream from the Cumberland. The main reason TN has such a great smallmouth fishery in the deep, cold reservoirs is that we are at the southern end of the smallie range, so ours enjoy a long growing season for a smallie.
