Delayed-harvest streams

Offer prime winter trout fishing action

If you want to catch high numbers of trout in the winter, head for a delayed-harvest stream. These streams are heavily stocked in October and November, and fishing remains good throughout the cold months.

With the addition of four new streams this year, North Carolina has 23 streams and two small lakes in the delayed-harvest program, approximately 59 miles of water spread over 15 western counties, from Macon County in the far west to Surry County in the north central part of the state.

The rules are simple: only artificial lures or flies with a single hook may be used, and all fish must be released. Stream sides are posted with black and white diamond-shaped signs.

Initiated in 1992 and patterned after a similar program in Pennsylvania, delayed-harvest is one of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s most-popular and most-successful programs. Counties that have delayed-harvest streams have enjoyed significant increases in tourism dollars. Guide services and outfitters have proliferated, and studies show that fly-fishers, especially those from surrounding states, spend significantly more money than traditional anglers.

The 1992 pilot program included four streams, and catch-and-release rules were in effect only in the spring. As popularity increased, the program was expanded. Streams now are under delayed-harvest rules from Oct. 1 until the first Saturday in June, offering eight months of prime fishing. During the summer, streams are regulated as hatchery-supported waters, meaning anglers can use live bait or artificial lures and keep up to seven fish per day with no size restrictions.

Most of the fish usually are caught the first two weeks of the catch-and-keep season. Concentrated numbers of fish likely would not survive during the hot months when the water warms up. Enough stragglers survive, however, to make productive fishing throughout the summer.

Guides especially like the delayed-harvest streams. These streams are ideal for learning to fly-fish, because even a novice can catch a trout or two, a luxury that few wild trout streams allow.

The Commission devotes approximately 50 percent of its annual trout production to the catch-and-release program. Equal numbers of brook and rainbow trout are stocked, along with lower numbers of brown trout in October, November, March, April and May. For example, the Tuckasegee River in Jackson County was stocked with 3,920 rainbow trout, 3,920 brook trout and 1,960 brown trout in October; it will get the same number of fish this month. That’s 19,600 trout spread over 5.5 miles of water. The majority of the stocked fish are at least 10 inches long; a smaller number of trout 14 inches and longer also are stocked. Few places exist with that density of trout.

Streams selected for delayed-harvest designation must be accessible and able to contain large numbers of trout. Biologists select and propose streams for the delayed-harvest designation. The proposed streams are presented at annual public hearings, and if they get a favorable reception, the proposals are sent to the Commission for approval. In most cases, streams proposed for inclusion in the program receive little or no opposition. Exceptions have occurred. Several years ago, a section of Snowbird Creek in Graham County was chosen for inclusion in the program. Local opposition was so intense that the proposal was quickly withdrawn. Only Jackson and Macon counties in the far west have the programs.

The newest additions to program are Spring Creek in Madison County, Ararat River in Surry County, Coffee Lake in Watauga County, and Elk Creek in Wilkes County. The longest stretch of stream in the program is an 8-mile section of Helton Creek in Ashe County. The delayed-harvest part begins at the Virginia state line and runs to the New River. The shortest section is a .70-mile stretch of Mill Creek in McDowell County from the U.S. 70 Bridge to the I-40 Bridge.

According to the Commission’s posted stocking schedule, the heaviest stocked waters are the Tuckasegee River in Jackson, between the bridge on NC 107 to the falls at Dillsboro; Wilson Creek in Caldwell County, the gameland section below Lost Cove Creek to Phillips Branch; and the Nantahala River in Macon County from Whiteoak Creek to the Nantahala hydropower discharge canal.

After the fall stocking, the Tuckasegee River will be stocked in March, April and May for a total of 49,000 trout, Wilson Creek will get 23,500 trout in five stockings, and the Nantahala River will get 16,500 fish in its fall and spring stockings. That’s plenty of trout for everyone.

As for fishing techniques and what to use, three area guides offered their suggestions.

Shane Buckner of Hunter Banks Co. in Asheville said stocked trout usually will not bite the first day or two after being stocked. “They’re thrown through the air into foreign territory, so it takes a day or two for them to get acclimated,” he said. suggesting egg patterns and girdlebug-type flies. “Anything with flash such as a Copper John will work really well.”

Other recommended flies are a Prince nymph and Woolly Booger.

Landon Lipke, a guide for Davidson River Outfitters in Transylvania County, also suggests rubber-legged patterns and bright attractor flies such as a San Juan Worm or flies with yellow in them.

“The trout usually congregate in the deeper pols and at the head of pools, so add split shot to get nymphs down to them.” Nymphs, he said, usually work better during the colder months when hatches are sparse.

Nick Roberts, a guide for Diamond Brand Co. in Skyland said it doesn’t much matter what you use early in the delayed-harvest season.

“They’ll hit about anything you throw at them,” he said. “After they’ve been in the stream a while and wise up, they get more selective.”

Roberts suggests using micro-egg patterns, Stimulators, Parachute Adams, Stone Fly and Dark Caddis during the fall and early winter portions of the season. Later on, he says small nymphs work best, especially those with extra weight.

For the purist trout fisher, delayed-harvest streams likely will be snubbed, but for the person who delights in catching trout and plenty of them, delayed-harvest is the way to go.