If you prefer the old way of having a trout season with an opening day to the new way of having a continuous season, then Saturday, April 7, is your day. That’s when Trout Heritage Day will be held, which is an effort to recapture the spirit of opening day. Some 16 streams and impoundments will be reopened to trout fishing at 9 a.m. Saturday after being closed for stocking. Included in the program will be the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ three pay-fishing areas, Big Tumbling Creek, Crooked Creek and Douthat State Park Lake.
The waters that make up the Trout Heritage Day program, not including the pay areas, are:
- Beartree Lake, Washington County
- Bark Camp Lake, Scott County
- Cripple Creek (Ravens Cliff), Wythe County
- Jennings Creek, Botetourt County;
- Lake Witten and Lincolnshire Lake, Tazewell County
- Liberty Lake, Bedford County
- Middle Fork Holston River, Smyth County
- Passage Creek, Shenandoah County
- Pedlar River (upper), Amherst County
- Pigg River, Franklin County
- Rose River, Madison County
- Tinker Creek, Roanoke City
The special one-day permit required of anglers who fish the pay areas has increased in price from $3.50 to $6.50. Concessionaires will no longer be available to sell the permits at Big Tumbling (the Clinch Mountain Wildlife Area) in Washington County and at Crooked Creek in Carroll County. They can be purchased at the nearly 600 license agents across the state, through the DGIF
Web site or by phone, 1-866-721-6911 (from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.).
Permits still can be purchased at the Douthat Sate Park office near Clifton Forge, but to avoid having to stand in line anglers might want to purchase them ahead of time at any license agent, the Internet or via the phone.
Money collected at the fee areas is used to fund frequent stocking.
Detailed information on the fee areas can be found in the Freshwater Fishing in Virginia booklet available from license agents.