It’s currently May 8th and we have been spending most of our days trout fishing, but the smallmouth bite has been heating up and we couldn’t be more excited. We are still experiencing excellent float fishing on the larger stocked trout rivers such as the Catawba River through Marion, the Tuckaseegee River through Dillsboro, and the Toe River through Spruce Pine. These larger stocked rivers are fishing well and will continue to fish well until the end of May. After the end of May we will be focusing our attention to wild trout and smallmouth bass. We will touch more on that later in this article.
We’ve had a ton of success this Spring wading and floating the delayed harvest creeks and rivers. I want to thank all the NCWRC workers who stock these creeks and rivers because without them we wouldn’t have these great fishing opportunities here in the mountains.
Early spring 2023 has provided some stellar nymphing, dry flying, and streamer fishing days on the Tuckaseegee and Catawba Rivers. We saw alot of low water days on the Tuck which made for some fun dry fly fishing. The higher water days provided great streamer fishing using sculpin and leech patterns. The Catawba River through Marion has seen a good amount of rain so streamer fishing has been fantastic a few days after the rain storm. There are a ton of 10-14 inch rainbows in this stretch with some bigger ones mixed in. The Toe River has been consistent since the fall and has been one of our most productive stretches for numbers of fish. Below are some of the few photos we have from the delayed harvest stretches in North Carolina. These stretches provide the best trout fishing in North Carolina from October to May.
The wild trout fishing has been great in our neck of the woods. We’ve been catching fish on an assortment of dry flies and nymphs.
I recently had a day in early May with some longtime clients where the sulphurs were going off like I’ve never seen before. I couldn’t get them tied onto my clients rods fast enough. We fished that hatch for about an hour and it was fish after fish since that’s what they were keying in on. That’s one of those moments where you had to be there to fully appreciate it.
The wild trout fishing will continue to be great until the water temperatures hit the upper 60’s. Ideally the best time to fish wild trout streams is when the water temperature is between 45-65 degrees. We monitor the water temperature each trip because the worst thing is anglers can do is go fish a wild trout stream when the water temperature is too hot. The good news is that we don’t see water temps hit the upper 60’s until summer so we’ve got a lot of great dry fly fishing until that time. If you’ve never experienced a wild trout fly fishing trip then consider booking one with us. This is an excellent way to better your casting and presentation skills. These wild trout normally give you one opportunity to catch them. If you don’t succeed on the first opportunity they give you at catching them then it’s best to move to the next hole. These are wild trout born in the stream so they are more in tune with what’s going on around them than stocked fish. On our wild trout fly fishing trips we take the 3 weight rods and cast dries all day and we will tight line the deeper holes looking for that 12-14 inch wild trout. Most fish are smaller on these creeks but what they lack in size they make up for in beauty. Check out some of the pictures from our recent wild trout fly fishing trips.
Float fishing for smallmouth bass is one of the best fishing trips you can take in North Carolina. We are close to coming out of the spawn on the smallmouth rivers. Some fish have already finished doing their thing and are looking for any available meal to put on the weight they lost during the spawn. The smallmouth bite will get better and better as water temperatures continue to warm. I tell clients the best time to smallmouth fish is May through October. If you haven’t experienced the smallmouth fishing in western North Carolina then you are missing out on a special fishing experience. The scenery is good. The fishing is good. The crowds are nonexistent. What more can an angler ask for in a fishing trip? We offer spin fishing and fly fishing trips for smallmouth. Contact us with any questions on when to schedule your smallmouth trip. Check out some recent pictures from our smallmouth trips.
We’ve got some new hats on the way to celebrate that smallmouth season is here! We will be selling them for $30 a piece. Let me know if you want one and we will make it happen. The image below is a sneak peek of what we came up with for the design this year.
