UPDATE: The Pisgah Ranger district of the Pisgah NF will open on Friday 10/18. This encompasses the N. Mills and Davidson River and many of their tributaries. The Appalachian and Grandfather districts of Pisgah remains closed for now, but I will do another update comment when they open.
I fished a Watauga County stream on Monday that I've fished for 40 + years, mainly just out of curiosity, just to see how the creek had changed and how trout population was affected. Long story short, plenty of trout,eager to eat a fly. N.C. mountain trout are strong and resilient, just like the mountain folk.
We had major flooding here in northern NH during June 2024. I found places that were formerly great are now terrible, but some places with huge pools that were created it made some of the best fly fishing ever. It'll take time for you to figure out your area, but the fish will find new places to thrive. I wish you well.
Bryson City, Cherokee, and Maggie Valley are all open and fishing trips are still being run. They are asking for visitors to help the tourism industry there. Avoid the really bad areas but far west NC is open. Thanks for the updates man!
Nice update, bugs making it through are more of an issue than trout making it through. Donations needed now are warm clothes, sleeping bags, blankets....We've already had four nights below freezing.
I’m in the Brevard area. You nailed your entire assessment. Bravo. That said, I haven’t been on the water in a while, but everything you said is very accurate. This is an opportunity for those of us who chase DH fish (myself included) to take things up a notch or two and learn the ways of the wilds.
I fished the weekend after Helene hit. I was helping build some of the 105 back two days after it hit. I caught 5 browns in less then half a mile up a stream. That’s a lot for me brand new to fly fishing. Love your stuff by the way
I think what people don’t understand is that trout-specifically wild trout-are genetically programmed to survive flood stage flows. Rivers have flooded since the beginning of time, and trout understand how to find soft spots/eddies/current breaks even in extreme flows. Personally, I would be more worried about spawning areas being impacted, but that is another discussion.
when the gov't did the huge release on the colorado through the grand canyon, they set up cameras to observe the fish. the fish literally stayed in their holes more or less. the flow at the bottom of the raging flood remained fairly calm in the nooks and crannies.
Having witnessed flooding on our favorite mountain river in WV., though not the devastating flood you endured from Helene, by no means. We went from incredible insect populations to a very sparse population. It took over ten years to witness most of the insect species return. I hope that the tiny tributaries still have good populations of aquatic insects to help re-establish the larger harder impacted waterways. Prayers sent from this fly angler to your wonderful waters, shops, guides, and good people of the hard hit areas. God bless.
thanks for the info brother! were heading up to the Thompson river above jocassee next week for a three day trip to see if our browns are up there still! so many people have been asking questions. not alot of info unless your on the ground. ill report back what we find in two weeks
I would have to imagine the insect population took it harder than the fish themselves. The hatches will probably be all screwed up next couple of years. Hope everyone can rebuild their lives. Good luck from Maine. 🤜🤙
You went right by a place me and my dad used to go trout fishing all the time that is devastated. The lower green river in Saluda is a fun place to fish
I’m from Yancey county and the south toe being my home water it took a pretty big hit along with the infrastructure of the whole county. Fishing along the south toe will be highly restricted and as someone who is currently rebuilding our roads the access will be even more restricted with roads and bridges completely gone. My biggest concern is our wild brook trout population as it has suffered from smaller floods in the past and just seamed it was starting to get a foot hold again. I also talk with game wardens who seemed to think all the stocked fish would come from Armstrong hatchery. Awesome video hope this help
First off, very sorry about your situation man we’re praying big time for everyone in Yancey and surrounding counties. We’ve seen a lot of stuff about how bad that particular area is and how the toe watershed got absolutely pounded. That’s interesting about Armstrong. We’ve seen some comments saying its stock was wiped out.
Really appreciate this video and the info on those three rivers. Those are probably my main spots in addition to the West Fork of the Pigeon. I know I'll be going after more native and wild trout in higher streams in the coming year (was already planning that with the Setzer improvements). But like you said, I'm also hopeful this will give us all a chance to go out and explore some new places, find some new holes, improve our techniques, and hopefully practice more catch and release overall.
Caught a young of the year smallmouth in the French Broad at Ledges Whitewater Park today 10/19. Bank was a wreck. Some new deep pools had formed with small runs connecting them to make some really complex habitats. It looked like some of the silt had washed away in the river. The water was pretty clear. The river gauge data on the French Broad shows that at least from a data perspective from Turbidity, Conductance, Dissolved Oxygen that the river is about or nearly better than it was before the hurricane. We haven't received rain since the Hurricane so will be interesting to see what runoff from the rivers look like now. Honestly the short term effects on all the new exposed rock in the stream beds and banks creates tons of aquatic invertebrate habitat. The Pigeon river which went through an event like this 3 years ago was recovering well and has had great trout fishing for the 3 years after.
Another talking point would be to explore other North Carolina fisheries in the downtime while the recover recovery efforts continue. Tons of big bull reds swimming in the inlets and just offshore easy to access even from the beach. It would be great to keep as much money in North Carolina as possible.
Thank you for that update. Here's an idea for TU clubs outside of the affected area: Someone buy a guided trip gift certificate from an outfitter up there and use it as an auction fundraiser at a club meeting. Use the proceeds to buy another certificate from another guide and auction it off. I wouldn't be able to go to an area farther away, but I sure could buy a certificate for a trip online and donate it to a TU club for someone else to use. It could bring business to several guides off of one initial purchase.
The fish know what to do. As soon as the rivers and streams start to rise, they swim upstream and find a place to get out of the main current. When the waters subside, they gradually return to places where they can survive. They have been doing this for tens of thousands of years years. We'll need to leave them alone for a while, but they'll make it.
Any updates on the NC delayed harvest stockings? Last I saw it had been delayed indefinitely. Fires Creek had not been stocked two weeks ago. Thanks for the updates
Thanks for the video. This is on my to do list today. I can’t figure out why my Tacoma isn’t running correctly. Idles fine but when I accelerate it dies. I replaced plugs, coil packs and fuel injectors. I have added fuel additives. I’m just throwing money at it now hoping this fixes it. Thank you for the video
Great, great update! So the short version is that my favorite place to fish is ok. It's a creek that feeds Fontana Lake. Assuming that the Fontana Marina is still running their "ferry" I may try to get up there in the next couple of weeks. How are the roads from say Asheville to Bryson City? Passable? I talked to the guys at DRO in Brevard and they are open for business as you stated. The guy also said that access to the Davidson above their shop is still closed but their private water is open.
I went out the 1 to the7 of October I plan a trip two months in advance to go visit my aunt and fish in Murphy after seeing the hurricane come through I took a lot less gear, only went out with one rod ultralight, spinning, set up hit up the Hiawassee river had a fun time got about 10 bass and two bluegill only fished one day did the tourist thing up there
The wild stuff might get a bit more crowded in the near term, but the work to access a lot of that water will deter a lot folks, particularly the ones who were typically keeping fish. I wouldn’t worry too much about it
Thank you so much for the update ! I drive in from S.C. over Caesars Head and then take East Fork Rd. to the river. Was East Fork Rd. washed out from Rosman to East Fork Church ?
Hey my friend, I was in Rosman on Tuesday. My friend at Headwaters told me not to fish East Fork right now. He redirected me to a smaller stream in the area where I caught a few rainbows. Nantahala and Pisgah are back open, so there's plenty of places to check out nearby.
@@NathanDominey Thanks Nathan, yea, I was worried that East Fork Rd. below the falls to Rosman may have been washed out , in places ! Over the years I've seen the East Fork silt in, from the farming , up stream.
“A one in a thousand year rain event” yeah sure interesting how south e fl had one of these freakish rain events in the middle of dry season just last year.
No but thought I saw something about gorges state park being closed. Not sure if that’s still the case but I would double check before you head out there
@@SlabDynasty I called up to devils for state park and they said that most of that are will be opening tomorrow ( the push from people wanting to hunt the public land across Jocassee helped) SCDNR doesn't want to loose out on any of the money from up there. She did say the Thompson river can be accessed from the NC side right now via the Thompson river falls trail. (however it's unsure if the trail has been effected) the Nantahala nation Forrest is almost fully reopened. Looking forward to chasing the bull browns on the move for spawn! Any recommendations on flys?
A flood of this magnatude, will take many years to recover, it's really up to the state of NC to make this fish recovery come back! Because in Tennessee the 100 year 1990 flooding that hit copper Hill Tenn and then flooded all waterways down stream to chicamuaga lake washed all our top notch trout fishing away and Tennessee wildlife resources agency decided not to touch nothing and restore it is still the same today in 2024
I spent the 2 weeks after the storm along the Cane and Toe Rivers with the National Guard. They are a mess and should be avoided for now but I did see fish. Edit: thank you for the info. I guess I only saw the worst parts. I assumed the rest of the mountains looked the way Yancey County does.
i've seen rivers and creeks blown out and transformed in colorado for 30 years. the trout has been on this planet in the same form as now for almost 2 million years. they've managed every type catastrophe just fine. humans, in just 165,000 years, not so much.
They’ve been tough to talk to about it. The guides communicate with them regularly and have been unable to get solid answers yet. All we know is the delayed harvest program and all stocking is suspended indefinitely
I don't fish much but as far as the ecology, I'd imagine most trout were able to weather the storm and would be marginally affected, but I'd imagine that it would be months until they'd stock from any hatchery, local or otherwise. There are tons of toxins that have been released into the water and cleaning up debris in some of the larger rivers will take weeks. At that point they'll probably start thorough testing. Until that check points cleared, I can't imagine them wanting to add any fish since they can potentially spread the toxins up the food chain
I think that’s true for the rivers in the heavily affected areas, but I’d say there’s plenty of DH water west of Asheville that’s ready to be stocked if they acquired fish from somewhere
Yes they're blow out. Green river,pacolet river have 0 fish. . The whole river system is gone. O bugs,0 fish. Some rivers got lucky but for fact,these 2 rivers in Polk County are dead.
Hi everyone, I’ve been trying to get a status report on Wilson Creek as far as fly fishing for trout, especially delayed harvest. So far I have found no data at all on Wilson Creek. Hope someone out there has some info that you could share. Thanks.
I heard the road has work trucks on it for several days making travel difficult if not blocked. There's a WilsonCreekFacebookGroup that will have more information as it becomes available.
Pisgah natl forest pisgah district is supposed to reopen tomorrow 10/17/2024 but the grandfather district which wilsons creek is apart of is still closed for the time being. Most of the road from the harper creek falls bridge was destroyed. The section of road just below Betsys store was literally a boulder field until a few days after. It's in pretty bad shape at the moment I'd say it'll be a good while before it's repaired and reopened completely.
The French broad, pigeon, little Tennessee, and nolichucky are all great smallmouth fisheries. But those are all large watersheds that received a ton of the water and debris wash-down from the storm. Likely lots of debris, chemicals, and massive siltation and bank erosion. I would give those larger rivers some time or go help with cleanup on them before considering fishing them.
@SlabDynasty thanks! I can't wait for those rivers to rebound as I plan to spend the majority of my retirement fishing for smallies. I thoroughly enjoy your videos as I love seeing young down to earth guys like you get outside...basically getting shit done whether fishing or life in general. It gives me hope for the future. Anyway I hope to run into you guys one day. Love the channel, keep up the positivity as it shines through in all your videos!
Send off some water samples to private labs and get back to us bud! You cannot begin to imagine the amount of pollution that has been washed into our rivers and streams! From irradiated material from power plants to entire waste water treatment plants to dead bodies of animals and humans to god knows what kind of chemicals from pvc manufacturing plant etc. etc. etc. It would take an absolute fool to eat a fish out of ANY stream in western North Carolina anytime in the foreseeable future! So before you drive by a river take a Quick Look and tell the world that it’s ready to be fished, you really need to understand the massive level of various toxins heavy metals and bad bacteria these fish are living in right now. I totally understand that we need business back in wnc but no stream in the entire area is safe for any human to wade in much less eat the fish!
We’re very aware of the pollution in some of the rivers and wouldn’t encourage anyone to eat any fish out of any WNC rivers right now to be honest. We are 99% catch and release anglers anyways so it didn’t even occur to me to mention it, but it’s a great point thanks for bringing it up. The point of this video though is there’s plenty of water that was not as heavily affected or polluted and should absolutely fine for wading right now.
@SlabDynasty I love these waters here in Mitchell Co. But there is no telling how many thousands of gallons of fuel oil alone was spilled in the river system but it does not seem to be affecting the waterways. But as much water flowed, that's not to surprising
More than half of NC mountain counties the residents need workers, elbow grease and volunteers to feed, house, shelter, cleanup, rebuilding their homes and lives more than they need travel tourism at the moment. Not sure how good you can really feel about yourself driving past or through destroyed communities and past homeless folks to go have a fun day fishing anyway. Give it time, things will return to normal eventually, but the scale and scope this natural disaster it will take a while.
Understand where you’re coming from, but I’m not sure I can agree with that logic at this point. I would have agreed a couple weeks ago in the immediate aftermath and would have definitely discouraged anyone go up there for anything but direct help/donations. But many areas are now transitioning back into normal day to day life and the people there need business. Obviously if you have the time and resources to help those heavily affected, I would encourage anyone to do so. But I wouldn’t discourage someone from going up there to be a tourist right now in areas that need tourism just because there’s this moral dilemma that you’re proposing. By that logic, should everyone drop everything they’re doing right now and immediately go help the homeless and the poor across the globe before doing anything fun? It’s a good thought but it’s not practical or realistic. There are a lot of volunteers out there right now and a lot of people encouraging more people to go volunteer. I’ve seen a lot less people encouraging tourism, presumably because e they’re afraid to get preached to or bashed. Tourism, while maybe less of an impact, has a positive impact for those affected by the storm.
My moral compass directs me right through these areas to fish. Maybe stop at the fly shop, get some gas, eat lunch. That’s how I’m helping and how I’d want to be helped. Not a handout. I feel for a lot of people that lost everything but beyond that it’s not my responsibility. We all have enough to worry about and don’t need to be shamed for getting out to have some fun. The tourism money is needed to support the economy and small businesses that need it more now than ever. How long do you think the state will continue to support trout fishing in WNC if there’s no tourism generated from it. Do you think the stocking programs are here for our benefit? No, they bring tourists and tourism money. If that goes then the funding for the hatcheries will follow. A lot of people don’t seem to want to accept that reality. If we don’t support our local guides and fly shops, now, then we’ll end up like Tenn with the state using hatchery money elsewhere and it won’t be the same, ever. It’s not a hard sell for a politician to take money from natural resources and use it for something else right now. So let’s support the local fishing community so they can continue to bring tourism to their counties. That will save trout fishing in WNC.
The brown trout are sterile in NC waters so idk about there being native browns in NC. Only the brook trout is native to NC. Greetings from Wilkes county.
Browns are not “native”, but there are wild, reproducing browns in many of the rivers of WNC. Only the stocked fish are sterile. Tuck and Nantahala both harbor wild brown populations to my knowledge
@@AdamMiharaFishing they genetically modified the eggs at the hatchery to have a missing part of the chromosome I believe. They definitely do this for all 3 species of trout they release.
All fish stocked by WRC are sterile. There are plenty of wild browns in our rivers that were brought in during the early 1900s and they thrive here so reproduction has been successful for over a hundred years. Plenty of wild rainbows as well. I live in Canton and if you get away from the areas that are stocked all the fish are wild. Plenty of rivers and streams have all three species that are reproducing naturally with no stocking and you can get the trifecta of wild fish on the right day
UPDATE: The Pisgah Ranger district of the Pisgah NF will open on Friday 10/18. This encompasses the N. Mills and Davidson River and many of their tributaries. The Appalachian and Grandfather districts of Pisgah remains closed for now, but I will do another update comment when they open.
I fished a Watauga County stream on Monday that I've fished for 40 + years, mainly just out of curiosity, just to see how the creek had changed and how trout population was affected.
Long story short, plenty of trout,eager to eat a fly.
N.C. mountain trout are strong and resilient, just like the mountain folk.
That’s awesome to hear!
The S. Toe got absolutely clobbered. It'll be interesting to see if fish made it.
We had major flooding here in northern NH during June 2024. I found places that were formerly great are now terrible, but some places with huge pools that were created it made some of the best fly fishing ever. It'll take time for you to figure out your area, but the fish will find new places to thrive. I wish you well.
🏞 💯 👍
Bryson City, Cherokee, and Maggie Valley are all open and fishing trips are still being run. They are asking for visitors to help the tourism industry there. Avoid the really bad areas but far west NC is open. Thanks for the updates man!
My wife just said she wanted to go to the mountains for this reason. Take the kids to see the leaves go fly fishing.
Plus Sylva
Nice update, bugs making it through are more of an issue than trout making it through.
Donations needed now are warm clothes, sleeping bags, blankets....We've already had four nights below freezing.
I’m in the Brevard area. You nailed your entire assessment. Bravo.
That said, I haven’t been on the water in a while, but everything you said is very accurate.
This is an opportunity for those of us who chase DH fish (myself included) to take things up a notch or two and learn the ways of the wilds.
I fished the weekend after Helene hit. I was helping build some of the 105 back two days after it hit. I caught 5 browns in less then half a mile up a stream. That’s a lot for me brand new to fly fishing. Love your stuff by the way
I think what people don’t understand is that trout-specifically wild trout-are genetically programmed to survive flood stage flows. Rivers have flooded since the beginning of time, and trout understand how to find soft spots/eddies/current breaks even in extreme flows. Personally, I would be more worried about spawning areas being impacted, but that is another discussion.
Good points thanks man
@@SlabDynasty absolutely my man. Sending prayers down your way from up here in Maine.
when the gov't did the huge release on the colorado through the grand canyon, they set up cameras to observe the fish. the fish literally stayed in their holes more or less. the flow at the bottom of the raging flood remained fairly calm in the nooks and crannies.
Great report…….and done with sympathy and grace. Thanks for posting this………..
Thanks for the feedback, we’re happy to do it!
Thanks for the detailed update!
Great info, thank you for posting this!
This is exactly what I wanted to know. Great video man. Thank you.
No problem, glad it was helpful
Having witnessed flooding on our favorite mountain river in WV., though not the devastating flood you endured from Helene, by no means. We went from incredible insect populations to a very sparse population. It took over ten years to witness most of the insect species return. I hope that the tiny tributaries still have good populations of aquatic insects to help re-establish the larger harder impacted waterways. Prayers sent from this fly angler to your wonderful waters, shops, guides, and good people of the hard hit areas. God bless.
Thanks for the info. Need to book a trip ASAP to help support the fly shops/guides
thanks for the info brother! were heading up to the Thompson river above jocassee next week for a three day trip to see if our browns are up there still! so many people have been asking questions. not alot of info unless your on the ground. ill report back what we find in two weeks
Replied to your other comment, but if you’re able to go then definitely let us know how it goes
I would have to imagine the insect population took it harder than the fish themselves. The hatches will probably be all screwed up next couple of years. Hope everyone can rebuild their lives. Good luck from Maine. 🤜🤙
Life always finds a way. Thanks man
The hatches are massive right now. I've been seeing pictures of sides of houses covered by insect hatches. All that water
You went right by a place me and my dad used to go trout fishing all the time that is devastated. The lower green river in Saluda is a fun place to fish
Thank you for doing this vid!!
I’m from Yancey county and the south toe being my home water it took a pretty big hit along with the infrastructure of the whole county. Fishing along the south toe will be highly restricted and as someone who is currently rebuilding our roads the access will be even more restricted with roads and bridges completely gone. My biggest concern is our wild brook trout population as it has suffered from smaller floods in the past and just seamed it was starting to get a foot hold again. I also talk with game wardens who seemed to think all the stocked fish would come from Armstrong hatchery. Awesome video hope this help
The blue ridge parkway is also shut down until further notice as some of the pictures I’ve seen from park rangers it was hit terrible
First off, very sorry about your situation man we’re praying big time for everyone in Yancey and surrounding counties. We’ve seen a lot of stuff about how bad that particular area is and how the toe watershed got absolutely pounded. That’s interesting about Armstrong. We’ve seen some comments saying its stock was wiped out.
Really appreciate this video and the info on those three rivers. Those are probably my main spots in addition to the West Fork of the Pigeon. I know I'll be going after more native and wild trout in higher streams in the coming year (was already planning that with the Setzer improvements). But like you said, I'm also hopeful this will give us all a chance to go out and explore some new places, find some new holes, improve our techniques, and hopefully practice more catch and release overall.
Absolutely man, we're hoping everyone can adopt that mindset and keep the trout fishing industry alive and well in WNC for the next little while
Caught a young of the year smallmouth in the French Broad at Ledges Whitewater Park today 10/19. Bank was a wreck. Some new deep pools had formed with small runs connecting them to make some really complex habitats. It looked like some of the silt had washed away in the river. The water was pretty clear. The river gauge data on the French Broad shows that at least from a data perspective from Turbidity, Conductance, Dissolved Oxygen that the river is about or nearly better than it was before the hurricane. We haven't received rain since the Hurricane so will be interesting to see what runoff from the rivers look like now. Honestly the short term effects on all the new exposed rock in the stream beds and banks creates tons of aquatic invertebrate habitat. The Pigeon river which went through an event like this 3 years ago was recovering well and has had great trout fishing for the 3 years after.
Thanks for the update
Fished a stream in Ashe county 2 days ago and caught 6 nice browns smallest 10 or 12 in. And then 2 small Speckled trout
Hell yes slab boys. I literally just had that thought. Where did the fish go when it floods that bad? Nice video guys
Another talking point would be to explore other North Carolina fisheries in the downtime while the recover recovery efforts continue. Tons of big bull reds swimming in the inlets and just offshore easy to access even from the beach. It would be great to keep as much money in North Carolina as possible.
Thank you for that update. Here's an idea for TU clubs outside of the affected area: Someone buy a guided trip gift certificate from an outfitter up there and use it as an auction fundraiser at a club meeting. Use the proceeds to buy another certificate from another guide and auction it off. I wouldn't be able to go to an area farther away, but I sure could buy a certificate for a trip online and donate it to a TU club for someone else to use. It could bring business to several guides off of one initial purchase.
The fish know what to do. As soon as the rivers and streams start to rise, they swim upstream and find a place to get out of the main current. When the waters subside, they gradually return to places where they can survive. They have been doing this for tens of thousands of years years. We'll need to leave them alone for a while, but they'll make it.
Really appreciate this video
Any updates on the NC delayed harvest stockings? Last I saw it had been delayed indefinitely. Fires Creek had not been stocked two weeks ago. Thanks for the updates
Very respectful, and yes, tourism dollars is a way to give back. The fish will be there.
Thanks for the video. This is on my to do list today. I can’t figure out why my Tacoma isn’t running correctly. Idles fine but when I accelerate it dies. I replaced plugs, coil packs and fuel injectors. I have added fuel additives. I’m just throwing money at it now hoping this fixes it. Thank you for the video
Maggie valley fly shop is open and running trips and getting on some good fish
Thanks, good to hear
Great, great update! So the short version is that my favorite place to fish is ok. It's a creek that feeds Fontana Lake. Assuming that the Fontana Marina is still running their "ferry" I may try to get up there in the next couple of weeks. How are the roads from say Asheville to Bryson City? Passable? I talked to the guys at DRO in Brevard and they are open for business as you stated. The guy also said that access to the Davidson above their shop is still closed but their private water is open.
We did not head towards Bryson city from Asheville, but it should be fine, not seeing any major road closures out that way on the NCDOT map
Also, access to the Davidson above their shop should be open now since pisgah just opened up today
I went out the 1 to the7 of October I plan a trip two months in advance to go visit my aunt and fish in Murphy after seeing the hurricane come through I took a lot less gear, only went out with one rod ultralight, spinning, set up hit up the Hiawassee river had a fun time got about 10 bass and two bluegill only fished one day did the tourist thing up there
I like the stocking because the vast majority of people fish the stocked rivers which left the wild ones to myself.
The wild stuff might get a bit more crowded in the near term, but the work to access a lot of that water will deter a lot folks, particularly the ones who were typically keeping fish. I wouldn’t worry too much about it
I live in Columbia on the congaree. Water has cleared up by now but fishing is slower than usual.
I fished every river and creek in western North Carolina.
Reems Creek in Weaverville appears to be all sand bottoms at my favorite spots. Is that a problem?
Thank you so much for the update ! I drive in from S.C. over Caesars Head and then take East Fork Rd. to the river. Was East Fork Rd. washed out from Rosman to East Fork Church ?
Hey my friend, I was in Rosman on Tuesday. My friend at Headwaters told me not to fish East Fork right now. He redirected me to a smaller stream in the area where I caught a few rainbows. Nantahala and Pisgah are back open, so there's plenty of places to check out nearby.
@@NathanDominey Thanks Nathan, yea, I was worried that East Fork Rd. below the falls to Rosman may have been washed out , in places ! Over the years I've seen the East Fork silt in, from the farming , up stream.
Cane river. It’s a barren boulder field now. Trees removed from banks. I worry about fish loss and future water temperatures.
“A one in a thousand year rain event” yeah sure interesting how south e fl had one of these freakish rain events in the middle of dry season just last year.
The feeder creeks on the river where i live are doin good, so i think im fishing next week
Great to hear, you mind sharing what rough area or county you’re in?
@@SlabDynasty collettsville north carolina USA where hurricane helene came through
Any word on the headwaters of Jocassee? Whitewater river and the Thompson river?
No but thought I saw something about gorges state park being closed. Not sure if that’s still the case but I would double check before you head out there
Also not sure if gorges encompasses Thompson, but I know it’s close
@@SlabDynasty I called up to devils for state park and they said that most of that are will be opening tomorrow ( the push from people wanting to hunt the public land across Jocassee helped) SCDNR doesn't want to loose out on any of the money from up there. She did say the Thompson river can be accessed from the NC side right now via the Thompson river falls trail. (however it's unsure if the trail has been effected) the Nantahala nation Forrest is almost fully reopened. Looking forward to chasing the bull browns on the move for spawn! Any recommendations on flys?
the fish will be fine, they always are. There's just some new habitat and new water to learn...
I'd like to know how Wilson's Creek is doing. I used to live in Lenoir and I went to Wilson's lots of times. I hope the people and the fish are okay.
A flood of this magnatude, will take many years to recover, it's really up to the state of NC to make this fish recovery come back! Because in Tennessee the 100 year 1990 flooding that hit copper Hill Tenn and then flooded all waterways down stream to chicamuaga lake washed all our top notch trout fishing away and Tennessee wildlife resources agency decided not to touch nothing and restore it is still the same today in 2024
Blowing Rock is needing tourists . Plan a trip now!
I spent the 2 weeks after the storm along the Cane and Toe Rivers with the National Guard. They are a mess and should be avoided for now but I did see fish.
Edit: thank you for the info. I guess I only saw the worst parts. I assumed the rest of the mountains looked the way Yancey County does.
Good to know thanks, been wondering how those rivers look. Seen some pretty bad images of the toe
Be a generation at best before all the debris and trash is gone from the river systems. Seen the Toe in Avery all the way to the Catawba in McDowell.
Im not sure the Nanty and Tuck are getting stocked now.
Trout survive floods don't know how but they do!
i've seen rivers and creeks blown out and transformed in colorado for 30 years. the trout has been on this planet in the same form as now for almost 2 million years. they've managed every type catastrophe just fine. humans, in just 165,000 years, not so much.
I would assume most fish would be washed downstream to next main lake?
Can you interview your local DNR to find out their assessments and plan?
They’ve been tough to talk to about it. The guides communicate with them regularly and have been unable to get solid answers yet. All we know is the delayed harvest program and all stocking is suspended indefinitely
Any intel on west fork pigeon dh? Or Wilson?
No intel on Wilson, but west fork pigeon is apparently ok and fishing well right now
Armstrong was blown out.
Have heard this but wasn’t sure, thanks Mike
I don't fish much but as far as the ecology, I'd imagine most trout were able to weather the storm and would be marginally affected, but I'd imagine that it would be months until they'd stock from any hatchery, local or otherwise. There are tons of toxins that have been released into the water and cleaning up debris in some of the larger rivers will take weeks. At that point they'll probably start thorough testing. Until that check points cleared, I can't imagine them wanting to add any fish since they can potentially spread the toxins up the food chain
I think that’s true for the rivers in the heavily affected areas, but I’d say there’s plenty of DH water west of Asheville that’s ready to be stocked if they acquired fish from somewhere
Yes they're blow out. Green river,pacolet river have 0 fish. . The whole river system is gone. O bugs,0 fish. Some rivers got lucky but for fact,these 2 rivers in Polk County are dead.
Hi everyone,
I’ve been trying to get a status report on Wilson Creek as far as fly fishing for trout, especially delayed harvest. So far I have found no data at all on Wilson Creek. Hope someone out there has some info that you could share. Thanks.
I heard the road has work trucks on it for several days making travel difficult if not blocked. There's a WilsonCreekFacebookGroup that will have more information as it becomes available.
We looked at heading that way before we planned our trip and road closures prevented it. That could change soon though
Pisgah natl forest pisgah district is supposed to reopen tomorrow 10/17/2024 but the grandfather district which wilsons creek is apart of is still closed for the time being. Most of the road from the harper creek falls bridge was destroyed. The section of road just below Betsys store was literally a boulder field until a few days after. It's in pretty bad shape at the moment I'd say it'll be a good while before it's repaired and reopened completely.
Whers the best place for smallies in western NC?
The French broad, pigeon, little Tennessee, and nolichucky are all great smallmouth fisheries. But those are all large watersheds that received a ton of the water and debris wash-down from the storm. Likely lots of debris, chemicals, and massive siltation and bank erosion. I would give those larger rivers some time or go help with cleanup on them before considering fishing them.
@SlabDynasty thanks! I can't wait for those rivers to rebound as I plan to spend the majority of my retirement fishing for smallies. I thoroughly enjoy your videos as I love seeing young down to earth guys like you get outside...basically getting shit done whether fishing or life in general. It gives me hope for the future. Anyway I hope to run into you guys one day. Love the channel, keep up the positivity as it shines through in all your videos!
You better look into the state and mining companies for lithium take these properties, these communities will not be rebuilt
The government use Harrp
The trout have survived several floods. The wild ones will be there.
FYI : Trout stocking has been delayed indefinitely in NC.
Yep, forgot to mention that but that’s the only thing anyone’s heard from nc wildlife
Send off some water samples to private labs and get back to us bud! You cannot begin to imagine the amount of pollution that has been washed into our rivers and streams! From irradiated material from power plants to entire waste water treatment plants to dead bodies of animals and humans to god knows what kind of chemicals from pvc manufacturing plant etc. etc. etc. It would take an absolute fool to eat a fish out of ANY stream in western North Carolina anytime in the foreseeable future! So before you drive by a river take a Quick Look and tell the world that it’s ready to be fished, you really need to understand the massive level of various toxins heavy metals and bad bacteria these fish are living in right now. I totally understand that we need business back in wnc but no stream in the entire area is safe for any human to wade in much less eat the fish!
I live in Spruce Pine and I couldn't agree more.
We’re very aware of the pollution in some of the rivers and wouldn’t encourage anyone to eat any fish out of any WNC rivers right now to be honest. We are 99% catch and release anglers anyways so it didn’t even occur to me to mention it, but it’s a great point thanks for bringing it up. The point of this video though is there’s plenty of water that was not as heavily affected or polluted and should absolutely fine for wading right now.
@SlabDynasty I love these waters here in Mitchell Co. But there is no telling how many thousands of gallons of fuel oil alone was spilled in the river system but it does not seem to be affecting the waterways. But as much water flowed, that's not to surprising
Future? Ha! Trout fishing is OVER in NC.Flounder and so on ovee.
More than half of NC mountain counties the residents need workers, elbow grease and volunteers to feed, house, shelter, cleanup, rebuilding their homes and lives more than they need travel tourism at the moment. Not sure how good you can really feel about yourself driving past or through destroyed communities and past homeless folks to go have a fun day fishing anyway. Give it time, things will return to normal eventually, but the scale and scope this natural disaster it will take a while.
Understand where you’re coming from, but I’m not sure I can agree with that logic at this point. I would have agreed a couple weeks ago in the immediate aftermath and would have definitely discouraged anyone go up there for anything but direct help/donations. But many areas are now transitioning back into normal day to day life and the people there need business. Obviously if you have the time and resources to help those heavily affected, I would encourage anyone to do so. But I wouldn’t discourage someone from going up there to be a tourist right now in areas that need tourism just because there’s this moral dilemma that you’re proposing. By that logic, should everyone drop everything they’re doing right now and immediately go help the homeless and the poor across the globe before doing anything fun? It’s a good thought but it’s not practical or realistic. There are a lot of volunteers out there right now and a lot of people encouraging more people to go volunteer. I’ve seen a lot less people encouraging tourism, presumably because e they’re afraid to get preached to or bashed. Tourism, while maybe less of an impact, has a positive impact for those affected by the storm.
My moral compass directs me right through these areas to fish. Maybe stop at the fly shop, get some gas, eat lunch. That’s how I’m helping and how I’d want to be helped. Not a handout. I feel for a lot of people that lost everything but beyond that it’s not my responsibility. We all have enough to worry about and don’t need to be shamed for getting out to have some fun. The tourism money is needed to support the economy and small businesses that need it more now than ever. How long do you think the state will continue to support trout fishing in WNC if there’s no tourism generated from it. Do you think the stocking programs are here for our benefit? No, they bring tourists and tourism money. If that goes then the funding for the hatcheries will follow. A lot of people don’t seem to want to accept that reality. If we don’t support our local guides and fly shops, now, then we’ll end up like Tenn with the state using hatchery money elsewhere and it won’t be the same, ever. It’s not a hard sell for a politician to take money from natural resources and use it for something else right now. So let’s support the local fishing community so they can continue to bring tourism to their counties. That will save trout fishing in WNC.
Those fish are fucked
The brown trout are sterile in NC waters so idk about there being native browns in NC. Only the brook trout is native to NC. Greetings from Wilkes county.
Browns are not “native”, but there are wild, reproducing browns in many of the rivers of WNC. Only the stocked fish are sterile. Tuck and Nantahala both harbor wild brown populations to my knowledge
@@SlabDynasty learn something new everyday. Did the wrc release non sterile trout in our states history?
How do you sterilize a trout? Genetic manipulation? Surgery prior to stocking?
@@AdamMiharaFishing they genetically modified the eggs at the hatchery to have a missing part of the chromosome I believe. They definitely do this for all 3 species of trout they release.
All fish stocked by WRC are sterile. There are plenty of wild browns in our rivers that were brought in during the early 1900s and they thrive here so reproduction has been successful for over a hundred years. Plenty of wild rainbows as well. I live in Canton and if you get away from the areas that are stocked all the fish are wild. Plenty of rivers and streams have all three species that are reproducing naturally with no stocking and you can get the trifecta of wild fish on the right day
Im amazed fish even survived that mess
they like water
@CameronK93 the cfm of those rivers and the amount of debris should have swept the fish away too. Guess theyre pretty damn resilient
Basin Ck. in Wilkes is a really good study on this type occurrence ,those wild Rainbows 3"-4" Wild Rainbows just can't be killed out ! 🏞 🐟
Thanks for the update.
No problem