TABLE ROCK STATE PARK, SOUTH CAROLINA

Carrick Creek in Table Rock State Park in Pickens County has been the beneficiary of the regionwide effort known as Back The Brookie. Basically that program has sought to inventory the range of brook trout in the eastern U.S. and then restore the fish to as much of their original range as possible. This small stream that empties into the park's Pinnacle Lake was discovered to have ideal brook trout habitat, but contained no trout of any kind.

 Fisheries managers have transplanted brook trout into the the 10-foot wide stream and the fish are thriving. The scenic and tumbling little mountain rivulet is parralleled along its course by the Carrick Creek Trail, offering easy access.

MEIGS CREEK BROOK TROUT

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, TENNESSEE

Back in the mid 1970s virtually all of the streams of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that had populations of native brook trout were closed to fishing to protect the declining species. For more than three decades these streams were untouched by anglers. Then, beginning in 2003 a three-year study comparing three of these streams that were opened to fishing to nearby unfished waters found the size and number of brookies in all the creeks to be identical. As a result in April of 2007 all the streams in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were opened to anglers..

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Among those was Meigs Creek, a feeder stream of the Little River in the southeast portion of the park. The mouth of the creek is visible from Little River Road that runs along the shores of the Little River in the park. The stream drops over Meigs Creek Falls, then rushes a short distance down to join the river. The brook trout water is located upstream of the waterfall. Unfortunately, to reach the upper creek requires more than a mile of hiking along the Meigs Creek Trail. This path begins at the the parking area for "The Sinks" on the Little River, just to the west of Meigs Creek Falls.

GEORGE PERRY'S WORLD RECORD LARGEMOUTH BASS

MONTGOMERY LAKE, GEORGIA

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Back in 2005 this photo surfaced on the desk of Jimmy Jacobs in the offices of Georgia Sportsman Magazine. After more than a 1 1/2 years of research, most experts on George Perry's world record largemouth bass now believe the picture is of that 22-pound, 4-ounce fish. The photo was shot on the grounds of the post office in Helena, Georgia where the bass was weighed (modern picture of those grounds on the right) and the man holding the fish is possibly Jack Page, who was fishing with Perry that day.

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Today Montgomery Lake, which gave up the fish, is but a shadow of itself. An oxbow off the Ocmulgee River in Telfair County, Georgia, recent drought conditions have turned it into little more than a stagnant mudhole. But if you choose to make the 3 mile drive down a sandy washboard road, then walk the final 1 1/4 miles to the old boat landing on its bank, you find the sign describing George Perry's famous catch on June 2, 1932.

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5/20/09