/LNGLING ON LITTLE PIGEON RIVER, GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS 

 NATIONAL PARK, 19 53 



The growing importance of trout fishing in the Great S'noky Mountains 

 National Park has made it necessary for the National Park Service to main- 

 tain constant appraisal of the quantity and quality of fishing in streams 

 under its jurisdiction. The Fish and Wildlife Service has been called 

 upon t o conduct a thorough investigation of the fishery resources of the 

 Park and to make recommendations for their management. The investigation 

 has been in progress for 1 year, and this creel census oroject on the Little 

 Pigeon River was undertaken as a necessary part of the research program. 



There is no previous record of creel-survey work on the Little Pigeon 

 River watershed, although measurements of productivity have been made on 

 other Park streams by previous observers. King and Currier (1°50) reported 

 on angling returns from Little River in 1950, the first such study in the 

 Park since 19^0 (King 19U2) . The last general survey of the Park fishery 

 was performed by Smith (19U7) . Since that time there have been a number of 

 changes in the fishing situation: regulations pertaining to angling have 

 been altered; fishing pressure has undoubtedly increased; shifts in fish 

 species densities and distribution have occurred owing to natural and man- 

 made factors. 



The Little Pigeon River was chosen for a creel census because the main- 

 stream and its tributaries (table 1) have a history of good fishing and they 

 have long been subjected to a heavy fishing pressure. The watershed con- 

 tains about 20 miles of fishable waters, both large and small, each with its 

 individual potentialities. The largest tributary, Porters Creek, suffered 

 severe flood damage in September 1951, and it was generally assumed that its 

 fish population was destroyed; hence it was a matter of interest and impor- 

 tance to determine the recovery of this stream in t erms of angling results. 

 Parts of the drainage are planted with legal-size brook and rainbow trout 

 each year, and the contribution these fish make to the creel could be esti- 

 mated and compared with the yields of wild trout from the same and adjacent 

 waters. Finally, some of the best waters in the Little Pigeon area are 

 available only to those fishermen who are willing to walk considerable dis- 

 tances, thereby making possible an analysis of the distribution of fishing 

 pressure in terms of stream accessibility. 



The creel-checking station consisted of a small shelter and appro- 

 priate sign. It was located at the junction of the Porters Creek and 

 Middle Prong truck roads at Greenbrier Cove , close to the mouth of 

 Porters Creek and the Greenbrier Ranger Station (fig. 1) . This point is 

 about 3 miles from the Park boundary line where the truck road meets 

 Tennessee Highway 73. Whereas it would appear desirable to have established 

 the creel station at or near the Park boundary, no entirely suitable sites 

 were available. Further, a boundary site would have been too distant from 

 the campground, 2 miles upstream, to ensure complete daily reports from the 



