By Ken Kastorff
The summer of 2019 was a tough year for the Nantahala River though it started out as a great year, with good numbers of trout caught on each float. All was well until July, when Duke Energy had a breakdown in their Nantahala Power plant. In order to ensure water for recreational releases and to maintain lake levels, Duke Energy released water from the penstocks at Nantahala Lake. This release resulted in 70-degree water pouring into the river. Obviously, this was not good for the trout, which are accustomed to 50-degree water. To add to this perfect storm, the NC Wildlife Commission had released 4000 trout into the river the day before the power outage event so it wasn’t long before we started seeing dead trout floating in the river. There were people catching trout by hand and trying to buy nets to catch even more. A bad situation was made even worse when news reports inflated an already difficult situation into the appearance of a complete disaster by implying that there were thousands of dead fish floating down the river. This was sensationalized news reporting at its worst. After a few days, Duke Energy was able to get the power plant back on line and cold water returned to the river.
Looking back at this event, there are several things to take into consideration. Number one is obvious, Duke Energy should not have continuously released warm water from the lake for the duration of the power outage. In their defense, they were trying to avoid a county wide economic disaster and it backfired on them. Protocols that were put in place during the FERC re-licensing weren’t strictly followed and this was the result. This issue has since been addressed and I am sure we will never see an extended warm water release again into the Nantahala. Number two has to do with the newspaper report implying that there were thousands of trout floating down the river. I was interviewed by the author of that article and was never quoted on any of the information I gave her. My perspective of what happened was not what she wanted to hear. Her intention was to make Duke Energy look as bad as possible, period! While there were definitely fish killed in this event, one has to wonder how many of them were stocked fish that had been put into the river 24 hours prior to the warm water release. There were reports of wild fish being killed in large numbers. First of all, most people can’t tell the difference between a wild trout and a stocked trout. Even guides have a hard time, especially if that trout has been in the river for a while. Oft’ times there are some brook trout put into the river when it’s stocked, these definitely would not survive the temperatures we saw. It is possible most of the stocked fish may not have survived or were washed into the lake. If they did make it to the lake then they could have found cooler deep water. As a side note it is estimated that upwards of 80 percent of the fish stocked in the Nantahala are caught within the first two weeks after being stocked. Number three has to do with the Wildlife Commission, which is ultimately responsible for managing the rivers and streams in North Carolina. While Duke Energy had their fish biologists doing some monitoring, the final responsibility falls upon the Wildlife Commission to determine what the power company can and can’t do. As far as I know, no one from the Wildlife Commission was on site monitoring the situation.
A few weeks after the warm water release, the Nantahala took another hard hit. There was a microburst of rain above the area around the quarry. Four inches of rain fell in one hour in one area. This produced four large landslides that completely blocked the river with sediment and trees. It took a week and eight track hoes to clear everything out of the river and bring it back to being navigable again. While water temperatures in the river were well below what trout need to survive, there was a week of 24 hours a day of muddy water flowing down the river.
Finally, after the river was cleaned out and cold water was released back into the Nantahala, things returned to normal. A few days later, I invited a long time guest and friend of mine to come over and float the river with me to assess the conditions in the river. He is one of the best tight-line nymph anglers I have ever had the pleasure of guiding. I have to say, I was a bit worried about what we would find but my mind was put at ease as we proceeded down the river. We started the day out with several nice fish in the first hole below Patton’s Run, including a nice 18-20 inch brown. He continued to catch good healthy looking browns and rainbows all the way down the river. While it is hard to conclusively determine if all were wild trout, it appeared as though they were. Many were the little spectacular colorful rainbows the Nantahala is known for. Two days later, we gave a half-day trip to a young lad from the big brothers program. He had never fly fished before. After a little practice time at the beginning of the river, in two hours, he proceeded to catch and release 12 nice trout, not including several others that were hooked and managed to escape. It was a relief to see the Nantahala had survived!
It is amazing how resilient this mountain stream is. I am not a fish biologist and do not profess to be one but in almost 50 years, I have spent more time on the Nantahala than almost anyone. With that said, there are things that I believe could be done to enhance and protect the wild fish population. It is amazing to me that the fishing regulations are the same now as they were when I arrived here almost a half a century ago. With the increased popularity in the sport and better technics and equipment, it would seem it is time to review those regulations. The Nantahala has always been known for its large brown trout and beautiful wild rainbows. It amazes me that, as a stream that is considered to be one of the top 100 trout streams in the United States, it doesn’t have a slot system to protect the good wild fish gene pool. My last observation has to do with spawning. Many of our good fish head upstream in the fall of the year to spawn. That means they swim into the delayed harvest section of the upper Nantahala. This couldn’t be a worse place for them to try to spawn with people wading all over the stream stepping into reds and tearing the fish up with barbed hooks. That is another one of my pet peeves. Why have sections of catch and release water and then still allow barbed hooks? I believe it would be much better if the delayed harvest section of the Nantahala River were moved above the cascades of the upper Nantahala to Junaluska Road. There is the same mileage of streambed, easier wading, and no traffic. And more importantly, close off the section now used as delayed harvest for spawning.
Ken Kastorff is a Guide and the Owner of Endless River Adventures. To book a guided trip near The Nantahala Gorge or the Cheoah River, give him a call at 1-(800) 224-7238 or look him up at www.nantahalariverflyfishing.com.