By Ken Kastorff
Spring is just around the corner and after a relatively mild winter of great trout fishing, delayed harvest streams will be restocked at the beginning of March, April and May. Anglers can check the North Carolina Wildlife website to check on the stocking dates for all of the DH sections of rivers here in North Carolina.
For those anglers looking to find quality trout fishing escapes with more solitude, head into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and fish the upper reaches of Deep Creek or boat into Noland Creek, Forney Creek, Hazel Creek or Eagle Creek on Lake Fontana. These are just a few of the 800+ miles of wild trout waters available to the trout angler not afraid to do some hiking.
There is one other exceptional river to check out for quality trout fishing in our area, and that is the Nantahala River. The three mile Bypass section of the Nantahala was the first DH section that was initiated in North Carolina and is still one of the best wade fishing streams available. Wayah road follows the river here, making it easy to access the river.
The tailwater section of the Nantahala River is eight miles long and starts in Macon County, below the powerhouse, and ends at Lake Fontana in Swain County. The river here drops almost 30 feet per mile, which is much more than most tailwater streams. If you are planning to fish it during a generation period, definitely remember your supply of split shot or tie some special weighted flies. This is nymph-fishing paradise. It is challenging to fish the Nantahala during power generation releases unless you do a float trip via raft or driftboat. This is by far my favorite guide trip as it gives me an opportunity to show both new and experienced fly anglers different techniques on how to fish this unique kind of river. The consistent, 50-degree year round water temperatures makes the Nantahala River the best summer trout fishery in the area as well and has been referred to as one of the top 100 trout steams in the United States. The only month that is not open to fishing is March. It has a great population of both native and stocked rainbows and browns with a population nearing thousands of trout per mile. Two state record brown trout have come from its waters. Three years ago, a guest caught a brown trout that would have easily been another state record if we had kept and registered the fish. This 34 inch beautiful female brown was returned to the river and I hope she will produce many more just like her.
The Nantahala River has a fixed release schedule for each day of the week. Normally, early mornings and late afternoon/evening, river levels are perfect to wade fish. On normal days, depending on the time of the year, Duke Energy will be releasing water from the Nantahala Power Plant from 10:00 AM through 3:00 PM starting in March and 9:00 AM through 5:00 PM during the summer months. When generating, the river normally will have too much flow in it for most anglers to wade safely but this is prime fishing time! Typically, more fish and bigger fish are caught during the power generation releases. Hands down, the best way to fish the river at that time is to do a float trip, which gives the angler the opportunity to fish the entire eight miles of the tailrace section. There are Forest Service licensed outfitters that offer float trips on the Nantahala River. Outfitters must have a permit in order to legally offer float trips on the Nantahala River. This helps ensure there are not too many boats fishing the river on a given day, thus providing a much better quality trip for guests. Guides also have to have a minimum number of trips on the river and must have first aid, CPR training, and carry insurance.
While the Nantahala is a popular rafting river during the summer months, don’t let that discourage you, with a good guide at the oars, you will not have any trouble catching a memorable day’s worth of beautiful rainbows including the occasional monster brown. The trout are so accustomed to the river traffic that it is not unusual to catch fish out from under a passing raft; nor is it unusual to have a morning of great nymph fishing and follow up with an afternoon of outstanding dry fly fishing. Book your trip early if you plan to do a float trip. Tight lines.
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.