Railroad Trout in High Mountains of WV

High in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, deep in the heart of the Monongahela National Forest, Shavers Fork winds a ribbon through the hills. The stream is the main waterway flowing north off Snowshoe Mountain.

Snaking through the picturesque terrain the stream is both attractive and forbidden. Access in some of its most remote reaches isn’t easy, but the DNR each year rewards those who make the effort.

"We stock these stretches to give people a remote fishing experience," said DNR Assistant Chief of Coldwater Fisheries Tom Oldham.

Even depositing hatchery raised trout in the stream is no easy feat. The upper reaches of Shavers Fork are stocked by the only legitimate access available; the railroad.

"We stock a variety of species," Oldham said. "There a mix of brown, rainbow, and brook trout in varying sizes."

Oldham with the help of DNR personnel and a small group of hand-picked volunteers traverse into the region via forest service roads to Lannan, an abandoned coal mining site where the rail sidling provides a good staging area. There fish are loaded into a pair of aerated wells riding along a retrofitted flatbed rail cart. Towed behind a pickup truck fitted with rail wheels the crew rides along picking and choosing spots every few hundred yards to deposit fish.

"You need to find a spot where there’s enough water, this spring has been tough because there just hasn’t been much rain," Oldham said. "You also like to put them into a riffle area if you can to try and disperse them, but you also need a spot where it’s easiest to get from the truck to the water."

Along some of the stops volunteers form a "bucket brigade" and pass nets full of trout from the rails to the water. Other areas further from the track require carrying the fish literally in a bucket and dumping them into the water.

Along the way, you’ll run into an occasional fisherman or two. The anglers will come if the trout are stocked. They generally have a mile or two to walk to get to the spot. However, the exercise is rewarded by not only a fishing opportunity, but seclusion and isolation found in few other places in the east.

The "Catch and Release" section generally holds fish longer because of the unique regulations. The lower end of the restricted area is marked by a cable crossing the waterway. On this particular day, the crew stocked from the cable to the trestle upstream from Bemis–the last point within stocking distance of the water. Along the way the scenery his highlighted by High Falls an area seen by few West Virginians unless they’ve taken a scenic railroad trip or have made the hike in from the closest roadway or Bemis.

The rail stockings happen twice during the season on the stretch on Shavers Fork. The upper reaches of the stream to the old town of Spruce this year have been cancelled due to stream restoration work. Other railroad stockings in the state include the Railroad Grade on West Fork of the Greenbrier and a section of the Buckhannon River. The rails are owned by the state Rail Authority after their abandonment by CSX years ago. A private vendor maintains the railroad today for a tourist train and occasional haulage of natural resource products.

"It’s a beautiful place," said Oldham. "I have a pretty good view from my office."

No doubt about it.