A Tale of Three Rivers: by Matthew Dickerson

Author:Matthew Dickerson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

Less than fifteen miles away from Robbinsville is a small stream called Snowbird Creek in the Nantahala National Forrest. My brother had never been there, but Scott wanted to show us the stream. Perhaps he was feeling guilty about Telula Creek and wanted to redeem himself. Leaving Robbinsville behind, we drove to Snowbird. It is one of the most beautiful and pristine small mountain trout streams I have ever visited: small, clear, and cool. We had only a few minutes to drive alongside the stream, and to get out and look around at one pull-off, before we had to leave and drive back to Asheville to get Scott to some meeting. We had time to cast in just one pool, but not time enough to actually get out and explore much; not enough time to catch any of the trout that were certainly still sluggish on a brisk February day. Still, just to stand beside Snowbird Creek in the midst of a national forest and listen to the tumble of water over gravel did much to rinse away the sadness of the morning.

My brother has since returned to Snowbird in warmer months and found that it is indeed home to abundant trout—not imported rainbows, nor European browns, but Appalachian brook trout: salvelinus fontinalis. I would later visit Santeetlah Creek, another of the tributaries of Santeetlah Lake, which also flows out of public land in the Nantaha National Forest. On a sunny May afternoon I have cast small mayflies under overhanging branches and landed many trout on the Santeetlah, while watching butterflies as well as aquatic insects flutter along a riverbank lined with trees rather than rusting appliances. And in both February and May I have fished the Cheoah River and Little Tennessee River below Santeetlah Lake with my brother, my nephews, and my friend Dave O’Hara. I have caught brook trout and rainbow trout in both those waters in both months. And I have been refreshed by these waters.

Still, many years later, that experience of Telula Creek haunts my memory.

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