Get Some...

The North Carolina Delayed Harvest season ends this Saturday. With "harvest" no longer being delayed, trout anglers are free to open up a can of niblets and jerk a limit of the tasty little creatures from our once pristine, yet heavily poached, waters.

Lest you fret, fisheries folk tell us that most of the pellet munchers stocked in waters that fall under these regulations would never be able to survive the heat of a Carolina summer. Thus catch and release becomes corn meal and hot grease and the circle of life continues. The good news is that next year North Carolina will have added additional streams to the program and the catch and keep on the first half of the first day will be limited to anglers age 16 and under.

Me? I'll be fine. I plan to focus on warm water close to home with the occasional foray to our area tail waters. I even have a trip planned to check out this Bristol Bay / Pebble Mine thing first hand during late August. Don't forget to support their charity auction. My goals for that trip include not being eaten by a grizzly and to catch something on a mouse fly.

NC Trout Stocking for 2008 to be "Compressed"

From a press release issued by the NCWRC:

RALEIGH, N.C. (Jan. 24, 2008) - In response to drought conditions forecasted for this spring and summer, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will compress its trout stocking schedule for 2008, stocking the majority of fish in March, April and May, and limited numbers of trout stocked in June and July.

During a year with normal precipitation and weather conditions, Commission personnel stock trout throughout the summer and fall. However, Commission biologists determined that a compressed stocking schedule would help minimize the continuing drought’s impact on hatchery fish, particularly the fish that are now being grown out for stocking in 2009.

In addition to helping protect the 2009 fish, the compressed schedule will ensure that the majority of this year’s fish are stocked when stream conditions are more favorable than they would be later in the summer when water temperatures typically are higher and flows lower.

“With much of North Carolina in an exceptional drought and drought conditions forecasted into the summer, the aquatic habitat and environmental conditions for hatchery-trout production likely will continue to decline,” said Kyle Briggs, statewide hatchery production coordinator for the Commission. “However, we have every intention of stocking all of the trout scheduled for release in 2008 and will continue to target the normal sizes for those trout being stocked.”
“By removing a high proportion of the trout scheduled to be stocked this year before July, we can maximize the water and space we’ll need to produce the trout for the 2009 season,” Briggs said. “Given the anticipated drought conditions, this is a proactive, rational and equitable plan to address our trout production and stocking program for the next two years.”

Briggs doesn’t want to see a repeat of the fish kill at Armstrong last August when more than 103,000 brown and rainbow trout, the majority of which were schedule for stocking in 2008, succumbed to too much heat and too little rain.

While the Commission’s other two cold-water hatcheries produced enough trout to make up for the loss at Armstrong, Briggs doubts that could be accomplished again this year, particularly if there is no significant rainfall between now and the summer.

“Without this compression schedule, we could stand to lose substantially more fish than we lost in 2007,” Briggs said. “A loss of this magnitude would seriously impact both 2008 and 2009 seasons, and we would not be able make up that number of fish from other hatcheries.”

The compressed stocking schedule should not affect anglers fishing in delayed-harvest waters, as enough fish will be retained for stocking in these waters in October and November. Likewise, anglers fishing in hatchery-supported waters shouldn’t notice any effects of the compressed schedule. According to a trout-angler survey conducted by the Commission last spring, hatchery-supported anglers spend a majority of their time (75 percent) fishing during the spring when the stockings will be at their peak.

Big Plans For South Mountains State Park

South Mountain State Park is the home to one of the state's delayed harvest trout streams (and also some large rattle snakes). South Mountains is a large park with only one access point that does not involve some serious hiking to get to. The Charlotte Observer is reporting that all that might change in the near future.

The state Division of Parks and Recreation last week updated its 29-year-old master plan for South Mountains, which lies in southern Burke County and is the largest and one of the most rugged parks in the state, said parks spokesman Charlie Peek.

The new strategy, according to documents from the state, will eventually bring new hiking, walking and equestrian trails, dormitory-style cabins, an environmental education center, a eco-friendly dining hall and a second entrance to the 17,832-acre park.

Currently, Peek said, the only access point into South Mountains is at Jacob Fork, on the park's east side, and much of the terrain in that area is rough and often used for longer and intense hikes and fishing trips, backpacking excursions and camping trips.

"South Mountains has a wonderful backcountry experience," Peek said, "but it's not easily accessible for the casual traveler."

The new facilities could include cabins, trails and an environmental education center. Here is a link to FlyFishMagazine.com's review of South Mountain's State Park.

Proposed Changes to NC Fishing Regulations

Tony Robinson of Morganton.com has some excellent coverage of proposed changes to North Carolina fishing regulations that would define both artificial and natural bait.

Many of the state’s trout waters are classified as single-hook artificial-lure fishing only. The problem that has amplified in recent years is the fact that the law does not define or specify exactly what an artificial lure is. The proposal is to define what artificial lures and natural bait are when used in designated public mountain trout waters.An artificial lure would be defined as a lure that does not contain or has had applied any substance that attracts fish by taste or smell. Natural bait would be defined as any living or dead organism (plant or animal), or part of, or prepared substance designed to attract fish by the sense of taste or smell.

The changes are the result of an effort by anglers to clarify the legality of the use of scented doughs and other baits on delayed harvest waters.

See also this link to coverage of this issue and a call to action for anglers via our pals at the Southeast Fly Fishing Forum.

In other news from the same article the state is considering the additon of new delayed harvest trout waters around my home waters.

Other proposals would affect some streams in nine different mountain area counties. The towns of Spruce Pine and North Wilkesboro would have delayed-harvest trout waters within their city limits. This proposal would add 3.3 miles of new fishing opportunity. In the counties of Watauga and Wilkes, fishermen would gain new opportunities for catch-and-release/artificial lure trout fishing on parts of Dugger and Laurel Creek. Additional trout related proposals would reclassify or eliminate trout water designation from several other mountain streams.

Here is a link to the full text of the proposed regulation changes for 2008 as well as the schedule of the public hearings that will be held. Anglers should be sure to make their voices heard.

Artificial?

Via our fishing buddies at the Southeast Fly Fishing Fourm comes news that the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is considering a change in the rules that currently allow anglers to use scented baits on streams restricted to "artificial lures having a single hook only."

Here is an excerpt from a post by a SEFFF member who did much of the work to get this change in regulations considered:

The NC Wildlife Resources Commission met yesterday and unanimously voted to send the following to Public Hearing in Jan/Feb 2008:

"For the purposes of this rule, artificial lure is defined as a fishing lure that neither contains, nor has received application of, any substance that attracts fish by the sense of taste or smell. Natural bait is defined as any living or dead organism (plant or animal), or parts there of, or prepared substances designed to attract fish by the sense of taste or smell."

The existing regulations state that on wild trout water you must use artificial lures having 1 hook. The delayed harvest regs also require an artificial lure and that no natural bait may be possessed; ergo, no powerbait.There is one last hurdle and that is that the commissioners will vote at their March 2008 meeting to either approve or reject this regulation change based on what they hear at the hearings.

Fly fishers feel that the use of "power" type scented baits lead to higher trout mortality on streams designated as catch and release. The general feeling has been that there was some confusion as to weather these baits were legal or illegal on delayed harvest streams. This regulation should do a good job of settling the question.

Comments can be sent to the NCWRC at wrccomments@ncwildlife.org.

Rain! I don't mind!

It is finally raining here in the Carolina's. It won't be nearly enough but lets celebrate anyway!