GSMNP - As part of a native brook trout restoration project, Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have announced a temporary fishing event in a section of Bear Creek, located north of Fontana Lake in Swain County. This fishing experiment will begin Saturday, September 6, through Saturday, September 13, from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily, and will permit anglers to harvest an unlimited number of rainbow trout under certain restrictions to clear the way for restoration of 3.5 miles of Bear Creek to a pure native brook trout population. Following the weeklong fishing project, the area will be closed and the stream renovated for brook trout utilizing a fish toxin, Antimycin A, to remove any remaining non-native rainbow trout from that section of the creek, a tributary of Forney Creek. "Primarily the weeklong fishing project will give people a chance to harvest as much of the rainbow trout as possible before biologists apply the fish toxin," said Fisheries Biologist Steve Moore. The stream segment is located off the Bear Creek Trail between Forney Creek and Welch Ridge Trails. "Several rules and regulations will apply specifically to this stream segment and anglers must comply with these provisions," he continued. This type of fishing will only be allowed on the designated Bear Creek section. Anglers must check in at the workstation (located at the Bear Creek Trail junction with Forney Creek Trail) and temporarily surrender their fishing licenses (either Tennessee or North Carolina) to Park personnel for the day. The anglers will then be given a daily permit at no charge. The same rule will apply as throughout the Park in regard to using only artificial lures with single hook; any type of bait is prohibited. There is no size or creel limit on rainbow trout, but each rainbow caught no matter what size must be kept and taken to the workstation at the end of the fishing trip before 7:30 p.m. At that time, the fish will be weighed, measured, and returned along with the holder's state license. The creek clerk will retain the license of any angler who does not return by 7:30 p.m.

Beginning on September 14, the 5.9-mile Bear Creek Trail between Forney Creek and Welch Ridge Trails will be closed until September 21 or until the project is completed. This closure will affect backcountry campsite 75 located off Bear Creek Trail. Bear Creek will be closed to fishing after September 14 to aid the project in allowing brook trout to repopulate the stream. An environmental assessment (EA) on the proposed use of Antimycin A, an antibiotic toxic to fish, was conducted in March 2000 to determine its feasibility to remove non-native rainbow trout and restore brook trout to streams meeting certain criteria. Seven streams were identified in the EA for recovery, totaling approximately 40 miles. Biologists began this project on Sams Creek, a tributary in Tennessee, in September 2001 and two years of post monitoring has shown that a viable reproducing population of brook trout exists and aquatic insects have fully recovered. Park Biologist Moore commented that, "We are pleased with the results of Sams Creek which has shown to be an effective means of re-establishing displaced native brook trout populations, which historically has lost 75 percent of its range. This same type of method has been successfully used in other fishery management programs in Mid-West and Western states. The Park has had an active brook trout restoration program since 1987 and we have made great headway in our restoration program. To date, we have re-established nine streams (11 miles) exclusively to brook trout. And because of our efforts to successfully restore streams, we have been able to meet one of our objectives to provide opportunities for anglers once again to fish for brook trout. Last year we opened 8 streams, previously closed, to brook trout fishing for the first time in over 25 years."

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