Fisheries biologists Bud LaRoche (right) and Scott Smith use electroshock sampling gear to collect fish from Glade Creek in the summer of 2005. A group of conservationists thinks Glade Creek could be a good venue for a stream restoration effort that could benefit fish and wildlife.

State fisheries biologist Scott Smith (right) shows Orvis employee Tom Brown a 20-inch-long wild brown trout collected during an electroshock sampling effort in 2005 on Glade Creek near Bonsack. A group of conservationists are hoping to undertake a restoration project on the small spring-fed creek, from which wild trout such as this have all but disappeared.

When your fishing gear is an electrical generator that sends a fish-jolting current into the water, it takes a special specimen to really get your attention.

A fish like the one Bud LaRoche shocked up more than a decade ago while on a survey of Glade Creek where the stream runs along U.S. 460 near Bonsack.

"I thought it was a carp," said LaRoche, a regional fisheries biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

But it wasn't.

It was a huge brown trout, a wild fish that had lived its whole life in the tiny creek.

While LaRoche was impressed, he wasn't really too surprised. He knew that Glade Creek held wild trout, and some good ones.

While the upper reaches of Glade Creek heat up in the summer, springs that feed the creek in the Coyner Springs area help keep roughly 6 miles of water downstream cold enough to support trout year round.

The creek is also full of the kind of aquatic insects and forage fish on which predatory browns can gorge. And, with its undercut banks and logjam-choked holes, the mostly private creek also provides plenty of hiding spots for wary trophy trout.

At first appearance, the Glade Creek of today doesn't look much different from the one that LaRoche and his team were sampling that day.

But the wild trout are pretty much gone.

On his most recent sampling venture in the summer of 2005, LaRoche found a few trout leftover from cold-season put-and-take stocking at Vinton's Vineyard Park, but only one wild brown trout.

No one can be sure why the wild trout vanished, but a diverse collection of conservation-minded groups and individuals has started exploring the idea of injecting new life into Glade Creek.

The project's primary goal would not be to create a new fishing opportunity, but the possibility of creating a year-round trout fishery in the Roanoke Valley is intriguing to some of those involved in the movement.

"Imagine living in urban setting and being able to drive five minutes to a trout stream," said Mike Rigney, who oversees the Orvis distribution operation not far from Glade Creek and who is one of the drivers of the Glade Creek restoration concept. "It really improves quality of life."

Rigney and other Orvis staffers, along with the Roanoke chapter of Trout Unlimited, have been looking at Glade Creek as a potential restoration project for more than a year.

The group also considered a couple of other streams but decided that Glade Creek presented the best opportunities in large part because it already possesses the key element of cold water.

Rigney said as the idea took shape, he noticed something.

"What I picked up on is there is a lot of enthusiasm about this," he said.

So much enthusiasm that a Tuesday afternoon meeting to discuss the subject drew nearly two dozen people from as far away as Richmond to the Orvis distribution center, where for two hours Rigney ran through a PowerPoint presentation introducing the project's potential opportunities, and its potential obstacles.

"I think it's a great project," said attendee C.J. Mitchem, chairman of the Upper Roanoke River Roundtable. "This is just the kind of grass roots project we've been trying to spur."

Rigney noted as opportunities the chance to restore and improve fish and wildlife habitat, the potential of engaging local businesses in a hands-on conservation effort, and improving water quality and quality of life.

He pointed out that while the efforts may be focused on Glade Creek, the impacts could literally trickle downstream to Tinker Creek and the Roanoke River.

But the watershed has in recent times seen heavy commercial and residential development that may be impacting the stream.

The stream's scores through monitoring by the Save our Streams group have typically been fair to good, but some conditions have been less encouraging.

"I see siltation as the biggest problem," said LaRoche, who noted that heavy siltation could have contributed to the lack of spawning success among trout.

Because the stream passes mostly through private property, landowner cooperation will be a key on everything from conducting a detailed evaluation of the stream and its needs, to undertaking actual restoration work, which could include repairing eroded banks and planting trees to improve shade.

Because the stream passes through multiple localities, cooperation among government officials will also be needed.

The mention of that subject drew hearty laughter from Monday's group, which included representatives from Vinton, Botetourt County and Roanoke County.

Also, while Orvis is interested in helping pay for any project, other funding will be needed.

Grants may be available to help with some aspects of the effort, but with no formal Glade Creek restoration group having been formed, it's unclear who would pursue the grants.

Rigney said his early goals are to complete a detailed map identifying streamside landowners.

In initiating a dialog with landowners, something that could be accomplished through letters or possibly even a public meeting, Rigney said it will be important to send the right message.

"We don't want to give them the impression that we want to cross their land to go fishing," Rigney said.

Not that precedence doesn't exist for such a fishery.

Virginia's best example is probably Mossy Creek near Harrisonburg, where landowners, Trout Unlimited and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have partnered to create one of the state's best trophy trout fisheries.

At Mossy Creek, landowners along one section of the creek have agreed to allow public fishing access to anglers who obtain special free permits.

Because siltation limits natural reproduction, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries annually stocks fingerling brown trout which can quickly reach trophy size in the fertile waters.

However, Mossy Creek runs through farmland and has relatively few streamside landowners, unlike Glade Creek, where obtaining such an arrangement is considered unlikely.

The 1-mile section of Glade Creek that runs through Vineyard Park -- a section of stream sorely in need of bank repair -- could be converted from a put-and-take water to a special regulations water as part of a restoration effort.

However, that shift is not without its potential pitfalls.

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is often hesitant to remove waters from the popular put-and-take program, especially in high-demand areas such as Roanoke.

However, adding another put-and-take stream in the area, or expanding an existing fishery, could help make such a move more palatable among put-and-take anglers.

The 3-mile section of the Roanoke River between Carilion Roanoke Memorial and 13th street, where access has been improved by the Roanoke River Greenway, has been mentioned as one potentially sensible addition to the put-and-take program.

While LaRoche didn't want to speculate on Glade Creek's public fishing possibilities, he did leave Tuesday's meeting with a relatively good feeling.

"I like it," he said of the project's concept. "But it's got a lot of hurdles."

If those can be cleared, maybe carp-sized trout will once again swim in Glade Creek's chilly waters.