Fly Fishing Western North Carolina

By Frank Yaun

“Trout don’t live in ugly places”. I’m pretty sure whoever first said that was standing in a stream in Western North Carolina (WNC), or at least they could have been. There are literally thousands of miles of streams and rivers here in WNC that have fishable trout populations, from small high mountain streams teeming with Southern Appalachian Brook Trout (true native), to larger, more well known superb fisheries like the Davidson or Nantahala Rivers. If you like to fly fish for Rainbow, Brown, and Brook trout, and like to be able to breath in the serenity and beauty of the Appalachian Mountains, then WNC is your huckleberry.

Let’s first start with a little history lesson. Trout first showed up in WNC about 10,000 years ago, when Joe Biden was running for POTUS for the first time. The last ice age was happening, and these ancestors of modern day Arctic Char were trapped in mountain watersheds in the Southern Appalachians as the glaciers began to recede. This fish evolved into the modern day brook trout, but their habitat was greatly reduced by the post War of Northern Aggression logging, that stripped the land and almost wiped out the existing brook trout populations, but hey, at least we introduced grits to our friends up North. At some point around 1900-ish, non-native Rainbow and German Brown trout were introduced to WNC, which are generally slightly more tolerating of warmer water temps, which is what happens when you remove the tree canopies from streams (logging). Since then, the world began to realize we were killing off our environment by polluting our waterways, and began to be more conscious of the importance of clean waterways, and the trout populations in WNC (and other areas) began to thrive. About 30 years ago, the biologists with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission began what’s now known as the Delayed Harvest (DH) program, in which certain streams are stocked heavily every month from October thru May, and during that time period, it’s all catch and release, which has been a great attractor of people throughout the world to come to this area to not only enjoy the natural beauty of WNC, but to try their hand at catching Rainbow, Brown, and Brook trout on a fly, and the odds are dramatically increased with the delayed harvest program!

There’s a variety of areas to fish to fish here in WNC, and the NCWRC does a good job of managing the various fisheries. I’ll elucidate a bit on each:

DH - as explained earlier, these streams are stocked heavy each month from October thru May, all catch & release during this time period. Great place to learn to fly fish & catch fish while doing so. Many if not most of these DH streams have some degree of wild trout.

Hatchery Supported (HS) - stocked monthly, good place for folks to go that want to keep a trout or two for the pan, though I personally release them all, TLM! (Trout Lives Matter).

Wild Trout Streams - There are several different designations of streams with naturally sustained trout populations, hence the “wild” moniker. Some are fly fish / release only, some you can keep a few, some are exclusively Brook trout, and some have all 3 species that naturally reproduce. These fish are usually quite receptive to the fly, IF you’re stealthy & present the fly correctly. To practice your stealth, try sneaking up on family members & scaring them. If you survive, you’ll be ready to sneak up on trout. Maybe. We use a variety of different techniques to teach folks to fish with:

1. Euro or Tight Line Nymphing - don’t be turned off by the word Euro, you DO NOT have to wear skinny jeans, a fanny pack, and have

Continued, see FLY FISHING WESTERN NC Page 29 baits at surface to 20 ft. depths.

If walleyes are what you’re after, the spawning is about done, so red clay banks with live crawlers is your ticket. Bass should be wide open, right on the bank, both with minnows or minnow-looking artificial baits. I like Keitechs and flukes but have caught well on plastic worms and spinner baits.

No matter what your style is, this is gonna be your time, so grab the kids and head to the water for some warm temperatures and hot fishing. No better time to get them hooked than right now. Maybe you will see my little fishing buddy, Coy, and me, pictured in the photo.

We o er both full and half day trips with the most competitive rates available. All tackle and supplies you will need while you are on your trip is covered by our listed price.

Hey folks, I hope winter is about over. I’m ready for spring flowers, turkeys gobblin’, and fish-feeding frenzies.

This marks the best time of year to catch multiple species of fish. The crappie are scattered, getting on with the spawning process. Tactics and tackle vary from angler to angler. Almost all will produce when the bite is on, but my favorite is slow trolling live and artificial