Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 17, 1991 TAG: 9103170009
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At age 81, he isn't certain. There could have been a year or two when he didn't show up at the Botetourt County stream because of illness, but he doesn't recall any.
He does know that he was there the year his company transferred him to Greensboro. And during the Second World War, when there were few trout for stocking, his son, Ron, got leave from the Air Force and the two of them shared opening day on North.
They were back again Saturday, reeling trout from the small Jefferson National Forest stream, watching the water weave images of nostalgia and nature as it moved through timber and time.
Jordan, who lives in Salem, says he has chosen North Creek all these years because it has the looks of a trout stream: riffles, waterfalls, bends, brushy banks, boulders, log jams, pools, runs, undercuts, mirror-clear water. He knows it well.
"I have fallen over every rock in North Creek."
He has stumbled through a lot of regulation changes, too.
Jordan can remember when the daily limit was 20.
"Later they turned it down to 15, then to 12, then to 10, and now to the present six."
He also recalls when opening day was synonymous with dogwood blooms, a bubbling song of spring, not the requiem to winter it can be during the uncertain days of mid-March.
"The season opened April 20. Then they put it back to April 15, then the first Saturday of April. Now it is [the third Saturday] in March."
More time; fewer trout.
And people everywhere.
Time was, if you saw another fisherman within 300 or 400 yards of you, he probably came with you. Now you are likely to land a trout under the scrutiny of 25 pairs of strange and covetous eyes.
"I think everyone southwest of Richmond goes to North Creek on opening day. And bring their cousins and uncles."
Trout season, though, has a way of turning back the clock, of embodying the spirit of wild places and of long ago times for anglers like Jordan. Add a few rainbows and brooks to a pool of mountain water and you have an incarnation of everything good and perfect in life.
Most everything, anyway. While trout live in the world's most pleasant places, at times they can attract some of world's most unpleasant people. Jordan has experienced the ode to opening day enough to know that sometimes it has little to do with fishing and a lot to do with other things.
"I remember one time, there was a favorite rock I used to like to sit on. The season didn't open until noon, and I would get there about 9 o'clock in the morning and get my favorite rock.
"I had sat there for three hours, watching this one hole. Every now and then you'd see a trout swimming around in there.
"Five minutes to 12 here came this guy about half drunk. He had a little, old short casting rod and he must of had a sinker that weighed a pound. He got on the rock to the upper side of me.
"Just about time to fish, he moved and fell off right down into the hole."
As a man who has pastored a number of churches since retiring from the meat business, Jordan said this probably wasn't what Christ had in mind when he told his followers they would be fishers of men.
Jordan began fishing North Creek during the era of split-bamboo rods, wicker creels and landing nets with wooden handles - and worms for bait.
"I don't believe they had any salmon eggs then. But I had a chicken yard out back of my house, and I would dig a can full of worms."
The season opened at midnight.
"We used to take a flashlight to find the creek."
You had to cross the James River at Arcadia on a hand-pulled ferry to reach North Creek. You also had to ford the creek and do some walking before the bridges were built.
"If you want to fish, you will get there," Jordan said Saturday. "People who say it is too cold, too hot or too far to walk, they don't want to fish."
A tall, slim man who catches much joy with his trout, Jordon landed five fish Saturday. His son got a limit of six.
"The limit isn't important to me anymore. Just to get out."
by CNB