ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9609300114
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
The Jackson River flows wide and cold out of Gathright Dam, rumbles down a rocky gorge, then meanders through a rural Alleghany County landscape that is just beginning to display the subtle colors of early fall.
Its rich, limestone water often is described as ``the best trout stream in the East.'' A few days ago, the Virginia Supreme Court added another descriptive term to that title: The best ``private'' trout stream in the East.
In a 5-2 ruling, the court affirmed the right of landowners along a three-mile stretch of the stream to control the fishing - even boat fishing - because of centuries-old grants from kings of England.
The ruling shocked many fishermen who enjoy wading or floating the stream to cast for colorful rainbow and handsomely marked brown trout with no intent of straying onto privately owned shoreline. It also sent the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which has stocked thousands of trout in the Jackson, scurrying to determine what the ruling means and where the agency goes from here.
For the landowners who hold the deeds to four parcels of property impacted by the decision, it was a sweet victory.
``I was delighted,'' said Robert ``Pete'' Loving, whose riverfront property includes more than 4,000 feet of some of the stream's finest trout habitat.
Loving turned 75 on Friday and is in ill health, but said he is contemplating his next move. His options including selling the property or leasing the fishing rights.
``I have put half my life on this thing and it has been nothing but out-go, out-go all along,'' he said. ``I would like the thing to pay off a little bit.''
The immediate impact, Loving said, is the landowners have a way to deal with trespassing.
``Now when we say we are going to call the game warden, we will mean it,'' he said.
For fishermen, the water remains muddy. Where can you fish without trespassing? Will the game and fish department continue managing the stream? And, the most troublesome question of all, will other landowners who hold ancient crown grants join the Jackson decision, not just on the Gathright tailrace, but on other streams?
Gary Martel, fish division chief of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said his department is awaiting guidance from the attorney general's office.
``We will have to pull all the information together before we can make good, sound recommendations as to where we are going,'' he said.
Terry Grimes, the Roanoke lawyer who has represented the interest of anglers, has a better idea where he is going: back to court.
``At the minimum, we are going to file a petition of rehearing with the supreme court,'' he said.
In the meanwhile, confusion among fishermen will be ``awful,'' Grimes said, with a hodgepodge of posted signs along the river, some of them on property not covered by grants.
``This thing is going to go on and on,'' he said.
What is certain is that the public does have the right to navigate the river by boat.
``We thought the decision would go our way because it was such a logical thing to do,'' said Bob Belton, chairman of the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited.
Virginians are blessed to have the Jackson tailrace water, he said. What is troublesome ``is having something in the public domain being controlled by a private interest, whatever their reason,'' Belton said.
Landowners say their rights have been trampled by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Trout Unlimited and the outdoor media, but Belton believes there remains a chance for what he called an ``equitable agreement.''
``This is not a situation that should continue,'' he said. ``I truly look forward to the day when I can stand side by side with those [landowners] and we can all happily, freely and legally catch a beautiful brown trout out of that extraordinary water.''
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB