2015 Delayed Harvest Dates
While regular Hatchery Supported waters in North Carolina are closed for the month of March, those creeks designated as Delayed Harvest are still fishable (catch and release, of course).
Here is the stocking schedule for the different waters around Western North Carolina. These delayed harvest waters are stocked eight year as opposed to five or six for the hatchery supported creeks. There are also more trout released per stocking - specific numbers for each creek in each county can be found by selecting your county of interest here.
In the past couple years I have heard rumors of otters invading our local streams here in Graham County (I have yet to witness an otter outside of Fontana Lake). This leads to people asking what is the point of these delayed harvest waters if the otters will get all the fish or if the fish can't reproduce or if you can't keep the fish, and so on.
To these people, I say that if you have to ask what the point is, you are missing the point. To me, the beauty of catch and release fishing is that if it is done right, the fish you enjoyed catching will still be there for the next guy to enjoy. It's not in the taking, but in the planning and the preparation and the work it takes to coax this wild animal into thinking your fly is actually something edible...not as easy as it seems.
I love the delayed harvest waters on my "home creek" in Graham County - Big Snowbird Creek. I was able to share a day with some students back in the fall. I threw in one time the whole day, andI was rewarded with the fat brook trout you see here. For me the more enjoyable thing was to watch these boys catch fish after fish and to know that the next time they are on that creek, those fish should still be around. I hope they don't miss the point.
Here is the stocking schedule for the different waters around Western North Carolina. These delayed harvest waters are stocked eight year as opposed to five or six for the hatchery supported creeks. There are also more trout released per stocking - specific numbers for each creek in each county can be found by selecting your county of interest here.
In the past couple years I have heard rumors of otters invading our local streams here in Graham County (I have yet to witness an otter outside of Fontana Lake). This leads to people asking what is the point of these delayed harvest waters if the otters will get all the fish or if the fish can't reproduce or if you can't keep the fish, and so on.
To these people, I say that if you have to ask what the point is, you are missing the point. To me, the beauty of catch and release fishing is that if it is done right, the fish you enjoyed catching will still be there for the next guy to enjoy. It's not in the taking, but in the planning and the preparation and the work it takes to coax this wild animal into thinking your fly is actually something edible...not as easy as it seems.
I love the delayed harvest waters on my "home creek" in Graham County - Big Snowbird Creek. I was able to share a day with some students back in the fall. I threw in one time the whole day, andI was rewarded with the fat brook trout you see here. For me the more enjoyable thing was to watch these boys catch fish after fish and to know that the next time they are on that creek, those fish should still be around. I hope they don't miss the point.
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