An annual children's fishing day attracts families to the Blacksburg Ranger District in early May. Call for exact dates. Below Pandapas Pond, Poverty Creek threads its way southwest through the mountain pass to the New River. On the other side of US 460, Craig Creek takes off for the James River. Both streams are stocked by the state with feisty rainbow, brook, and brown trout from an area hatchery. In summer, the water level in the two streams gets low, and stocking is suspended until the creeks refill.
Trout fishing is best in late fall, winter, and early to late spring.
On these streams, morning fog hangs in the treetops like a gossamer canopy. Even in summer, an occasional leftover trout and several minnows flash in the gin-clear water. Outside the cool dimness created by overarching hemlocks, fish dart for cover beneath undercut banks. Poverty Creek below the pond leads to an old logging road, and along the path are beaver cuttings where the secretive animals have dammed the stream to form more wetlands. Wildflowers and moisture-loving plants thrive here.