Trout season makes splash at Stone Mountain

Varied streams and regular fish stocking make state park a haven for freshwater anglers

ROARING FORK -- Only a few weeks remain before trout-fishing hysteria breaks out at Stone Mountain State Park.

"It's a zoo," fly fishing guide Marty Shaffner said. "People are lined up at the gates."

Shaffner lives in the nearby town of Elkin, so he usually takes a pass on that first Saturday in June when trout season opens in full force.

"That's just too much for me," he said.

From now and until then, though, the chance remains to beat the crowds on the state park's "delayed harvest waters," where fishing is strictly catch-and-release until that Saturday, which this year falls on June 3.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission stocks brook, rainbow and brown trout throughout the year in the East Prong of the Roaring River as well as in Stone Mountain Creek.

"They'll stock tomorrow," Shaffner said during a recent outing. "Today is probably the toughest day of the month to fish."

The stocking schedule is generally first of the month from March to May and then again in July, August, October and November. Anglers can keep fish only from the first Saturday in June to the end of September.

Diehards such as Shaffner usually practice catch-and-release anyway.

"It's hard for me to keep 'em," he said. "They're sort of my business partners."

For the beginner

From a nearby overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway, grand views of Stone Mountain's bald face are to be had.

As fine a sight as it is from up there, what's lost in the view are the 17 miles of designated trout streams hidden beneath the flora below.

Trout anglers have to look a little closer once they get inside the park's boundaries -- there are four trout-stream designations inside the park.

The delayed harvest waters are just the place for beginner anglers. These waters have easy access from the park's road system, which generally follows two streams: the East Prong of the Roaring River and Stone Mountain Creek.

Below one bridge crossing on the East Prong, Shaffner worked the surface and the depths, casting a yellow stone fly (a dry fly) and, on a 3-foot leader attached to the hook, a nymph, which sinks.

Large brown trout lurked, visible to anglers.

"There's some big ones down there," Shaffner said. "Getting him to snatch that hook is a different story."

But Shaffner fooled and netted a handful of trout from that deeper hole under the bridge.

"We're looking for deeper, slower pockets," Shaffner, 41, said.

They aren't hard to find. Stone Mountain's streams are generally crystal clear. Even after a heavy rain, it takes only a day or two before the streams have cleared enough to be fishable.

The clear streams also offer good trout habitat -- undercut banks, a rocky gradient that gives way to little waterfalls, mossy stones and a sandy, gravel bottom.

With lots of rhododendron around and a thick understory to avoid, using a shorter -- perhaps 8 1/2-foot -- five-weight rod is advisable.

A little solitude

Garden, Widow's, Big Sandy and Stone Mountain creeks carry the "wild and native" designation.

Along Widow's Creek, a little more than a mile from the road, are six backcountry campsites next to some of the better brook trout water. These stretches, because they're not as easily accessible, get less fishing pressure as well.

An ongoing debate is whether or not any native brook trout exist there. Rainbow and brown trout aren't native to North Carolina, but the state stocks all three species in the park.

Shaffner is of the opinion that wild trout are swimming the park's waters. Wild trout live on a diet consisting of mostly insects, as opposed to the hatchery-raised trout's diet of processed trout pellets that look like cat food.