Watauga Democrat

IZAAK WALTON LEAGUE TAKES OVER THREE TROUT STREAMS IN WATAUGA
Meat Camp, Norris' Fork and Howards Creek to Be Stocked this Fall. Patrolmen to Be Hired. Smathers States This Is a Real Beginning Toward Restocking Depleted Fishing Waters of County.

Mr. C. E. Smathers, superintendent of the Rutherwood Fish Hatchery and prominent member of the Izaak Walton League, tells The Democrat that an arrangement has been perfected between the sportsmen's organization and the several landowners affected, whereby the League owns the fishing rights of Meat Camp Creek, Howards Creek and Norris' Fork, three of the choicest trout streams of the county. Seventy-five thousand trout of seven-inch length will be placed in these waters next week. These fish will have developed to a length of perhaps nine inches by spring and it is the purpose of the organization, says Mr. Smathers, to restock the three streams twice yearly, so that there may be no shortage of the speckled beauties.

Under the plan which the Waltonians have worked out, patrolmen will be hired to keep close watch over these waters, and a permit will be issued for one dollar a day to fishermen to defray the expenses incurred. No season permits will be sold to anyone. Landowners and members of their immediate families will be the only anglers permitted free, and they must confine their casting to their own premises. Mr. Smathers believes that under this arrangement, there will be at least three streams in this county that will provide really good sport, and thinks that no amount of casting with rod and line could destroy the fish. He further states that the step taken is the most important one for the protection and propagation of the finny tribe, since conservation work started here.

The streams will be closed for 30 days the last of May of each year for restocking, and in this way tourists and amateur anglers from other points will be sure of a catch, and thus advertise the county as a mecca for sportsmen. The seven-inch trout released in the spring come within the legal size to be taken.

The Izaak Walton League meets each first Thursday at 7:30 at the Daniel Boone Hotel, and all sportsmen, whether members or not, are urgently requested to attend and lend their co-operation to this important work. A number of new members are expected to come in and help do something really worth while along conservation lines.