Youth Day for turkey hunters was tough at the state’s northwest corner because of high winds, temperatures that dropped overnight into the 30s and included the threat of snow.
But no such problems existed for Ashe County anglers during opening day of mountain trout season, especially at high-elevation streams such as Helton Creek.
The South Fork of the New River near Jefferson roiled brown after another influx of heavy rains, but feeder streams ran cold, clear and bubbly, except where the bottom was disturbed by the marching feet of hundreds of trout chasers who’d made the annual pilgrimage from towns, cities, hamlets and farms scattered from the Blue Ridge to the Charlotte skyline.
“We come up here every year,” said Ronnie Goforth of Concord, smiling as he released a rainbow trout into the cold waters of Helton Creek. Helton flows south out of Virginia near Mouth of Wilson and joins the North Fork of the New River. “We’ve had good luck today; caught a lot of trout — rainbows, browns, brookies..”
Goforth was joined by a half-dozen of his friends, all wielding ultra-light spinning rods and reels and using 3-inch-long artificial worms that resembled red wigglers but in an assortment of colors (pink, yellow, red, chartreuse, orange). The standard rig had one or two split shots pinched on the line 18 inches above the lure and a single hook. Anglers also used fly tackle at Helton and at other western N.C. streams.
A week earlier, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission stocked several thousand hatchery-raised trout, ranging from 7-inchers to 5-pounders, into Helton Creek. The agency adds trout to thousands of miles of mountain public streams before the season opens each spring.
Helton Creek is part of the WRC’s delayed-harvest system. Anglers may fish only with artificial lures with a single hook (no natural baits) between Oct. 1, 2008 and June, 5, 2009. At 6 a.m., June 6, 2009, delayed-harvest waters will be open to youths 16-under and ruled under Hatchery-Supported regs (any bait, no minimum length, seven-trout-per-day) until noon that day, then the creek opens for all anglers under the same rule.
Other trout streams are classified as Catch-and-Release/Artificial Flies Only; Catch-and-Release/Artificial Lures Only; Delayed Harvest; or Wild Trout/Natural Bait. Each type of stream is marked by special signs nailed to trees with regulations listed.
The WRC defines “artificial lures” as lures that haven’t been treated with any substance that attracts fish by taste or smell. Natural bait is “any living or dead organism (plant or animal) or parts or prepared substances designed to attract fish by taste or smell.”
Anglers at Helton Creek used Berkley Power Bait worms. But the doughy, unmolded Power Bait that can be made into any shape (legal in Virginia) is illegal in North Carolina.
For more information, consult a N.C. Fishing, Hunting, Trapping digest or visit www.ncwildlife.org.
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