you happen to be visiting my back yard. first, forget mackeys creek. it is not worth the time or effort. a great place to start would be curtis creek. there is around 2 miles in the lower section, on the paved road. it will be under general regulations until october. It has not been stocked in a while, but you might be able to pull a holdover or two out. you will see the pulloffs, the ones that are legal will be the ones without 8 posted signs on any given tree! if you want to do some dapping for little natives, go farther up. the section that is not posted will start about 1/2 mile after you cross a small bridge near an old mill. this starts the single hook/artificial only and it does get hammered by the campers. for a little better fishing, follow the gravel road to the top, cross over the parkway and fish neals creek or the headwatwaters of the south toe river. this will be flyfishing only and it is small stream(jungle combat) fishing. My only gripe about this area is that nobody really follows the rules and there is not as many fish as there once was. I learned to flyfish on the small creeks in this area 25 years ago, and it anoys me to see somebody keep a wild fish. most of the fish in this part of the south toe will be within sight of the campground waiting for bread or other handouts. as for buck creek and mill creek, 85% is on private property. most of buck creek belongs to lake tahoma, and they have their own little rent a cops who will get you. mill creek is fishable near the andrews geyser area, but they rarely stock it. one thing about buck creek, if I can remember right, follow the road through the lake tahoma development and towards the top, you will cross into some nc gamelands. It has been a while since I have been in that area, though. as for being public water if it has a wrc sign on it, that is not always the case. be careful