Looking for a challenge? This place will certainly challenge you. If you're taking a trip to Montauk or the Current River and are looking for a side trip, run over and check this place out. It's a charming little creek that just may cause you to pull your hair out!
Take Highway 19 South from Salem, turn left on Hwy A and keep left. You'll drive into, then out of, and then back into the Sunklands Conservation Area. You'll cross Barren Fork once before you reach the fishable water. If you peek down into the creek as you drive over it, you might just turn around before you get there, because it is just a bit above a trickle -- if there's any water there at all. Keep going until you see the turn off for Twin Springs. Pull in and park. The trout-holding portion of the creek extends all the way to Sinking Creek, but the accessible area of the trout waters only extend downstream from the springs for about a mile -- the boundary of the Sunklands Conservation Area. If you can make it through the brush, walk down the to the boundary and work your way back up to the spring.
These trout are very spooky, and there are not a huge number of them. But, if you can approach quietly and make a good presentation without hooking a tree or a bush or yourself, you'll find that these fish are not too picky about the fly. The only rule of thumb is to fish fairly small on nymphs and fairly large on dries. At times, ant patterns can also tear them up.
FYI: Sinking Creek is an outstanding smallmouth bass creek, so you might bring some big wooly buggers, just in case you get bored looking for that wild rainbow.
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