Winter is on its way out here in the mountains. We’ve seen plenty of 50 degree days in January and now we are starting to see those 60 degree days. These warmer trends have provided excellent fishing on the Catawba, Davidson, Tuckaseegee, and Toe Rivers. We have spent the majority of our time in the boat this winter, but have had some excellent days wading the Catawba. There are plenty of winter stones on the water so plenty of fish have been eating pats rubber legs in black and brown. The pats rubber legs is a confidence pattern for me during the winter. It’s proved itself over and over, year after year on these mountain rivers. Another productive fly has on the delayed harvest rivers has been orange sucker spawn eggs with a gold bead. If you can’t catch them on the pats or the egg then most likely the fish want something a lot smaller so that’s when you try your midges, pheasant tails, or flashy bead head nymph patterns. The smaller flies below have been productive for me on the DH section of the Catawba and Tuck.
We’ve been catching a bunch of rainbows and a few browns on the Catawba since that is the majority of the fish that were stocked this past fall. The Catawba, Tuckaseegee, and Toe Rivers will be receiving its first stocking of 2023, the first week of March so trout fishing here in the mountains is about to be lights out. We’ve got plenty of wadeable creeks and bigger rivers to fish for trout during March, April, and May. The fishing in the spring is consistent all day long because of the suitable water and air temps. If you’ve been wanting to book a guided trip, but have been on the edge of deciding I would like to encourage you to book. As a company we have decided not to raise prices this year for our half day and full day floats. Our half day floats are $300 and our full day floats are $400. I have decided to do this for the people who doesn’t have alot of disposable income. When I started my business in 2017 I wanted to make guided fishing trips in western North Carolina available to everyone no matter their income. You have my promise that our guided trips are the highest quality trip in western North Carolina even though our prices are the most reasonable. We understand clients work hard to book trips and so our promise to you is that we will do everything we can to give you the most memorable fishing experience in WNC. Let’s get back to fishing. The Catawba River is a beautiful stretch of water that holds a good amount of stocked fish. The stretch runs through small sections of private land that isn’t accessible by foot so these areas yield a bunch of fish. If you are a beginner wanting to book your first float trip and learn the ropes of fishing from a boat then this stretch is for you. Check out some of our most recent catches from the Catawba.
The Catawba River also provides great wade fishing opportunities as well. On the warmer days we have been taking advantage of wading the river with clients.
We provide all the waders, boots, rods, reels, and flies for our wading trips. We offer half day trips for $300 for two anglers and full day trips for $400 for two anglers. We are able to guide up to six anglers on guided trips using three guides. We prefer to put two anglers per guide so both anglers are getting the special attention they deserve.
We’ve been guiding on the Toe River this winter which has been excellent. This is a secluded stretch of water that isn’t the easiest to get to, but that is what makes it special. If you are interested in floating this stretch let us know. Check out this 25” bruiser our guide Jason Wilson put his client on last week.
The Tuckaseegee River always fishes well in the winter because it gets stocked in October, November, and December. We prefer to fish this river in the winter because it’s less crowded then and it’s a great time to rip big streamers for big fish. It will be getting stocked again in a couple of weeks so it’s a great option to fish this spring. Below are some recent photos of some of the fish we’ve caught on the Tuck.
The Catawba Tailrace is usually our go to float during the winter, but the rainbows that were stocked in the fall of 2021 did not make it through the summer of 2022 so fishing has not been great down there. We are still running trips down there if clients want to chase trophy browns throwing streamers. The bigger fish in the Tailrace are definitely carnivorous because the smaller stocked trout are their main food source. The NCWRC stocked a bunch of browns this past November in the 8” range so I’m expecting that stock to provide some good fishing over the next few years. The key to this fishery being successful is the survival rate of these stocked fish. The ones that make it past the first year grow to some trophy sizes. If you are on the hunt for that one big fish this is still the fishery to target. Let us know!
Below are some other pictures from our guided trips this winter.
Outlook for Spring 2023
The trout fishing in western North Carolina is excellent beginning in March and will continue well into June. The best fishing will be on the rivers that have been stocked, but there are numerous wild trout streams that will be fishing excellent as well. The smallmouth bite will begin in March for the spinning angler that wants to get in on the prespawn bite. This time of year we throw big jerkbaits and crankbaits for big river smallmouth looking to fatten up before the spawn. The guys that take us up on this guided trip are always happy at the end of the day when they have caught the biggest river smallmouth of their life. The French Broad and Nolichucky rivers produce trophy smallmouth year after year. If you have never been smallmouth fishing using light spinning tackle or a fly rod then I could not recommend it more. I believe it’s one of the most fun trips we offer. The fishing is excellent and the scenery is even better. Our smallmouth season starts in March and ends in November. Below are two big fish we caught last year in early Spring.
I want to highlight some of our best catches from spring time below. Enjoy the photos.
