The day after my last post NCWRC stocked Jonathan Creek again. My dad, who has never met a trout he wouldn't eat, really enjoys a newly stocked creek. He met me after work the next day at Parham Memorial Park, right beside the Moody Farm Road bridge. He had caught a limit of stocked brook trout from the hole above the bridge last month, so that's where he started. I fished the deep run up against the bank right under the bridge with a stone fly nymph and caught this big stocked rainbow.

My mom baked this one in the oven, and according to her it was five-star restaurant good. From there we went to the stretch downstream from Mehaffey Road, where Pop caught a few small stockers for the frying pan. Contrary to what some catch-and-release disciples believe, you will not go to Hell for killing and eating a trout. My personal opinion on the issue is that I will not kill a wild trout unless I am on a back-country trip and that is the plan for dinner. Maybe twice a season, I will keep 2-3 stocked trout that I will go home and grill the same evening. NCWRC says that the trout they stock these days cannot reproduce (don't even get me started on that one!), so wild trout in hatchery-supported streams like Jonathan Creek represent the future of the stream, and in my opinion should be released unharmed.