Trout Fishing in North Carolina. 
Asheville, N. C., May i .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Trout fishing in the mountains of 
Western North Carolina promises to be better 
this year than for many years past. The old 
days when anyone could go into any stream and 
kill, by any method he preferred, any number 
of fish he desired have passed away. The pot- 
fisher, the market fisher, the dynamite fiend, the 
seine crank and all have had their day; with 
the result that many of the best streams were 
all but ruined. 
Corporations, hotels, private holders and clubs 
have banded together, secured reasonable laws, 
restocked the best streams and prohibited fish 
destruction, with the result that the fly-fisher 
can now safely count on filling a creel with good 
fish on streams that cannot be beaten for beauty 
of water and scenery. 
Originally there were no large standing bodies 
of water in the Southern Appalachians; due, our 
geological friends say, to the peculiar forma¬ 
tions. Private enterprise, however, has built 
dams on various streams, giving good water. To 
those who prefer lake fishing, where speckled 
trout up to three and four pounds can be had, 
the Sapphire section will offer the most attrac¬ 
tions. This section (Sapphire) now has three 
lakes—the larger sixteen miles around—all well 
stocked for years. The property belongs to a 
Northern company, has been developed as a 
pleasure resort and has a chain of good hotels, 
the Franklin, Fairfield Inn, Sapphire Inn, The 
Lodge (altitude 6,000 feet) and Toxoway Hotel. 
The latter is the most pretentious and is situated 
on the larger lake, seventy miles from Asheville 
by rail. 
The Sapphire section also offers among the 
best stream fishing in the State. The White 
Water or Tuckasegee, both reached by hack from 
Fairfield Inn or Toxoway Hotel, are streams to 
try the best. Joe Dunn’s cabin on the Tuckase¬ 
gee offers accommodations of a primitive sort. 
For three miles the stream is between precipi¬ 
tous walls, called the Devil’s Bend. Once started 
you go through or go back, no climbing out. 
This stream is often tried in wading boots, but 
the leg part of the boots are generally missing 
on the return. Good pools, rapids, waterfalls, 
mammoth boulders, water five feet deep at places 
to.be waded when stream is normal, will give 
one a day never to be forgotten. 
The best fishing on the White Water is be¬ 
tween the upper and lower falls. This part of 
the canon is about two miles long. It requires 
a i.ooo-foot cimb, amost vertical, to get down 
to the water. The getting out after a day s fish¬ 
ing deters the average fisher from going in, but 
insures one of fish. Fishing privileges go free 
to all guests at Sapphire hotels. 
The Vanderbilt estate, two miles from Ashe¬ 
ville and extending forty miles, covering close 
on to 200,000 acres, offers many good streams. 
The club which was arranged to lease this fish¬ 
ing was disbanded, the owner claiming he heH 
never authorized his agent to enter into such 
negotiations. Fishing these streams formerly 
cost one $5 a day with limit at twenty-five, but 
it was well worth it. The Vanderbilt streams 
will not be open this year to the public. 
The management of Battery Park Hotel at 
Asheville has secured an immense holding in 
the Buck Forest section—one day’s drive—has 
built a comfortable lodge, restocked some thirty 
miles of good water and now has good fishing 
and good accommodations in the woods to offer 
its guests. , 
Green River on the Spartanburg railway has 
in the past been a good stream. Being easily 
reached by railway, this water has been over¬ 
fished, but one can, by going up or down away 
from the railway, still get good trout. 
The headwaters of the Swannanoa, twenty-five 
miles from Asheville, are alive with good trout. 
This water is closed, as the section composes 
Asheville’s 10,000 acre watershed where not even 
trespassing is allowed. 
The Murphy railway, from thirty to one hun¬ 
dred miles out of Asheville, takes one to our 
best fishing ground. This section is not a fash¬ 
ionable hotel section, but such a country as de¬ 
lights a mountain stream fisher. There are prob¬ 
ably one hundred streams in this section rang¬ 
ing from ten to thirty miles in length, some ac¬ 
cessible and fished out, others inaccessible and 
therefore better. 
The Tuckasegee is said to furnish good black 
bass fishing. Have never tried it. 
The paper pulp mill ($3,000,000 plant) is ruin¬ 
ing the Pidgeon River below Canton. Deep 
Creek produced the best results last summer. 
Permission must be obtained from the Harris 
Woodbury Lumber Company at Whittier, 
N. C. 
Ocone Lufty—a beautiful stream, formerly one 
of our best on the Cherokee Indian reservation 
—has been ruined by the Indians, who are said 
to practice placing a decoction of walnut leaves 
in the pools to stupefy the fish, the Indians 
catching the fish as they float down the stream. 
Forney Creek is good; address G. Meredith 
for accommodations, at Forney, N. C. 
Hazel Creek, up to one year ago, has been one 
of the hard places to reach, requiring an all-day 
ride on a mule after leaving the railway. There 
is now a new railroad building down the Little 
Tennessee River which lands one at the mouth 
of the creek. Eight miles up stream is a good 
mountain home stopping place. Address Joshua 
Calhoun. Medlin, N. C., who will meet you with 
hack. The headwaters of the Hazel are wild 
and broken. Plenty of fish, but small after ten 
miles up. The stream can be waded with boots; 
a rocky wild stream, few pot holes. By the way, 
there were twelve black bears killed at the head 
of this stream last fall. Every winter produces 
from six to ten. The Calhoun boys have a log 
hunting shack at the top of the mountain over 
6,000 feet up. A trip up is worth while in June. 
The whole country is a mass of red rhododen¬ 
dron and laurel—a beautiful sight. Further west 
and further back in the mountains are the Snow¬ 
bird and Santeetla. Do not try to go there un¬ 
less you want something rough; something like 
that which you have never seen before; unless 
you are willing to leave most of your clothes 
and a lot of sjcin in the woods; unless you can 
live on fish, go wet all day, sleep anywhere; un¬ 
less you know how to live where nobody lives. 
If you do go, you will go again. 
The Little River Lumber Company boundary 
on the Tennessee side offers good fishing. Per¬ 
mission must be had from Mr. Townsend, of 
Townsend, Tenn. A great trip is to fish up 
Hazel Creek from the Little Tennessee River, 
cross over the divide (6,300 feet) and then down 
to Townsend. There is a trail up Hazel Creek, 
but you will think you are sure lost before you 
see a face on the Tennessee side. 
The 30,000 Mucchesin boundary—forty mdes 
from Asheville—described in Forest and Stream 
of April 23, is closed to the public. A permit 
can be had if one works it right. Fish? Well, 
I guess so; that is, what the bears have left. 
There is most anything in the game line on that 
boundary—fish, bears, deer, turkeys, pheasants 
and all kinds of cats. Better keep out if you 
have no permit. 
One could go on and refer to the Toe River 
section, now reached by the new Clinchfield rail¬ 
way building from the coal fields to the sea, the 
Linnville section and many others, similar. All 
it means is—get away from the railroad, put on 
your old clothes, do not be afraid of wetting 
your feet or the seat of your trousers, and you 
will get fish all right. 
Procure a geological sheet map of the sections 
from the Commissioner of Documents, Wash¬ 
ington, D. C.; cost ten cents. They show every 
road, stream, trail and farm house. 
C. P. Ambler. 
Shad and Carp. 
Albany, N. Y., April 26.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: One of the interesting things in con¬ 
nection with the fisheries branch of the Forest, 
Fish and Game Commission of this State is the 
work of rearing shad. It is believed not many 
are aware of the fact that this department is 
producing at least 500,000 worth of fry and fin- 
gerling fish each year and distributing them in 
State waters. 
A hatchery has been erected at Linlithgo, near 
the city of Hudson, primarily for the purpose 
of rearing fingerling shad to restock the Hudson 
River. As a secondary matter it is producing 
small-mouth black bass, striped bass, perch and 
this year 500,000 trout fry. 
“Rearing shad in this State is a new business,’’ 
says the commissioner. “They are a very deli¬ 
cate fish to handle; in fact, to actually handle 
them kills them. They hatch quickly and grow 
rapidly. Our experience thus far has not been 
altogether satisfactory. We feel sure far better 
results will be obtained in the future. Our men 
have learned something about the rearing of 
shad. It is plain now the secret is to have very 
large ponds and not too many shad in each. 
Millions of small trout may be crowded together 
