Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Reaching among the submerged branches of a tree that stretches across a remote mountain stream, an angler breaks off the deepest branch he can reach and lifts it for examination. To his delight, the branch contains a gold-mine of "stickbait" -- all he'll need for at least a couple of hours. So he pulls a small container from his fishing vest and begins carefully collecting treasures.

Stickbait, in traditional Southern Appalachian lingo, refers to caddis fly nymphs, complete with the little stick-like cases they build and inhabit. Old-time flyfishermen often tipped nymphs with stickbait or fished the same baits alone on tiny hooks, but still with the use of a fly rod to deliver the offering.

Not many mountain anglers drift stickbait anymore, and regulations probably have played some part in that change. Most tumbling high-country creeks, where stickbait fishing once was popular, are now managed under wild trout regulations, which do not allow the use of natural offerings. Several western North Carolina streams, however -- 19 to be exact -- fall under a special designation of "wild trout/natural bait," allowing anglers to probe wild trout waters with natural offerings.

The streams were given this designation about a decade ago, as part of a broad-based reclassification of trout streams by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The NCWRC did not want to completely upend the way anglers were accustomed to fishing on many streams, according to Scott Loftis, the fisheries biologist over District 9, where all 19 streams under this designation are located.

The designation blends wild trout regulations, which include a four-fish limit, a 7-inch minimum size and an allowance of only a single hook, with hatchery-supported regulations that permit the use of natural bait. It allows anglers who favor bait, to fish backcountry streams for wild trout.

Wild trout/natural bait waters tend to get overlooked by anglers, but they include several outstanding streams. Brown, rainbow and brook trout are all part of the mix in the streams, which are spread over eight western North Carolina counties. The streams also vary dramatically in size and character.

Following the special designation of these streams and other changes in the 1990s, the NCWRC conducted electrofishing and creel surveys in several watersheds for five years to measure impact. They found that angler pressure and harvest had virtually no effect on stream populations in remote wild trout streams, even with the use of live bait, Loftis said.

Because the wild trout/natural bait streams vary so much in character and in the makeup of trout populations, the best stream depends largely on an angler's specific preferences. Loftis pointed toward the Chattooga River, the North Fork of the French Broad River, Big Creek, Kimsey Creek and Buck Creek as some of the streams that offer the best opportunities for fishermen.

The Chattooga River, a National Wild & Scenic River beginning in the lower end of its North Carolina run, is best known for its world-class whitewater offerings along the Georgia/ South Carolina border and to a lesser extent for its trout fishing farther up the same border. Through North Carolina, an outstanding population of wild brown trout, including some large fish, gets minimal attention from anglers because of the stream's remoteness and ruggedness.

Shocking surveys on the Chattooga, conducted from 1992 to 1996, consistently showed high numbers of first-year fish, which indicated that good conditions for natural reproduction exist here. The surveys also turned up plenty of adult fish in the stream. Most adult fish were in the 6- to 12-inch range, but stream surveyors would sometimes bring up fish up to 16 inches.

Bull Pen Bridge crosses the Chattooga a couple miles upstream of the North Carolina/South Carolina/ Georgia border. Upstream or downstream, all access is by wading (sometimes difficult wading) or by hiking one of a couple of trails, each three miles or more in length that lead to the river near the border.

The most effective way to fish the Chattooga is to backpack into the Ellicott Rock Wilderness by one of the trails and spend a couple of days fishing, ideally with a Georgia or South Carolina license in addition to a North Carolina license. Live crawfish dropped to the bottoms of big boulder-strewn pools on gray days offer the best prospects for enticing hefty brown trout.