FOREST AND STREAM 
505 
Trout Fishing in North Carolina 
Going home from the base-ball game one day 
last summer I shared a seat in the car with the 
bishop of this diocese. After discussing the 
game, and criticising Smith for throwing to first 
instead of to the plate, thereby allowing Brown to 
score—and win the game for our opponents— we 
got to talking “fish.” For the bishop is a fine 
all-around outdoor man, and by no means con¬ 
fines his fishing to “men”! “Bishop,” said I, 
“how long really was that rainbow trout you 
caught in Linville river?” The bishop leaned 
forward and reached for the back pocket of his 
Episcopal trousers. Unfolding the dainty little 
six-inch rule that he found there, he pointed to a 
screw in the brass strip edging the back of the 
seat in front of us. “Put your finger there!” 
I did so. “Six inches, twelve, eighteen, and five 
more— twenty-three inches. There !” My! but 
that looked like a long distance between the 
bishop’s finger and mine! And I wanted to quit 
watching base-ball games then and there and go 
right after another rainbow of like size. “What 
did he weigh?” I asked. “I never have believed 
that the scales that man had were correct,” he 
replied, “as they made my fish weigh only three 
and a half pounds. I firmly believe he weighed 
four, at least. And I can prove it by Doctor 
Battle (naming another experienced and ardent 
angler well known to me) if you don’t believe 
me.” As if I would doubt the word of a bishop 
on the size of a fish caught by himself! Perish 
the thought! 
But if you go to the North Carolina mountains 
for the trout fishing you must expect to creel 
many and many just-over-the-limit size before 
you ever have to open the lid of the creel to 
crowd in a three or four-pounder. 
All the same, there is quite a good mileage of 
fishable trout streams in the mountain (western) 
part of the state, nearly the whole of this mileage 
being above two thousand feet elevation, and a 
good deal of it being above the twenty-five hun¬ 
dred foot contour line. And the fish run about 
as one would expect. With a five or six-inch 
minimum limit—where any limit at all prevails— 
one may consider eight or nine-inch fish as of 
satisfactory size, with an occasional ten or 
twelve-inch specimen to give the thrills that prop¬ 
erly belong. I should say, taking our streams by 
and large, that any speckled trout above twelve 
inches, or rainbow above fifteen, are fish to be 
talked about, thought about, and—perhaps—lied 
about! 
The following are some of o'ur principal trout 
streams, though the list is far from a complete 
one: 
Eagle Creek, Hazel Creek and Snowbird 
Creek, in Graham county. These are all tribu¬ 
taries of the Little Tennessee River, and they, 
with others in the same region, contain a good 
many trout. 
The upper waters of the Nantahala River, in 
Macon county, contain some pretty good rainbow 
trout, with Acquone as the best center to work 
from, perhaps. 
By H. H. Brimley. 
Cataloochee Creek—a tributary of Pigeon 
River and the east and west forks of the Pigeon, 
are good trouting waters, though I have heard 
recently that saw-mills have done injury to the 
fishing in the river. Both rainbow and brook 
trout occur in these streams. 
The Green River, and the Henderson county 
bered that it was here that the bishop caught his 
twenty-three-inch rainbow. 
Accessible from Edgemont, on the C. & N. W. 
Railway, are Lost Cove and Big Wilson Creeks, 
tributaries of Johns River, which is a tributary of 
the Catawba. They are mostly speckled up there 
and the fishing is said to be pretty good at times. 
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XL i : 
Just About the Size 
region in general, I will pass over with a mere 
mention. Mr. Ernest L. Ewbank, of Plenderson- 
ville, a true sportsman with both gun and rod, has 
covered this region so thoroughly and entertain¬ 
ingly in the pages of Forest and Stream that is 
would be the greatest presumption on my part 
to add anything to his work. 
The Toxaway country has been well planted 
with fish, and well preserved, and should be one 
of the very best trout fishing localities in the 
state. 
Mr. F. W. Bicknell, of Linville Falls, has 
treated of the Linville River and Linville Gorge 
country in these columns on various occasions, so 
I will refrain from trespassing on his domain, 
except to state that this is one of the best trout¬ 
ing regions in the state, both rainbow and brook 
being in evidence there. Also, it must be remem- 
of Your Favorite Brook. 
North from Marion, on the Southern Railway, 
are Buck Creek, and other tributaries of the 
north fork of the Catawba. There are trout there, 
but I do not know much about that country. 
The upper waters of Cane River, on the lower 
slopes of Mount Mitchell, contained lots of good 
trout a few years back, but I do not know the con¬ 
ditions there now since the Murchison boundary 
has been sold and a logging road run in. 
On the Wautauga River, in the county of the 
same name, there is an open season from May 1st 
to June 30th, I understand. In most other locali¬ 
ties the season (where there is any closed time 
at all) opens on May 1st. And one may count on 
the fishing being good up to the last of October, 
as a general thing. I have known of pretty good 
bags being made in March—but it was not this 
March! 
The above information is submitted with the 
