Man Looking for a Catch
One of the most popular outdoor activities during the fall & winter seasons in the Western North Carolina Mountains is trout fishing. Whether you are a seasoned angler or you choose to embark on a guided tour, the area around Preserve at Rock Creek offers some of the best trout fishing around. As an added bonus, angling is a sport that all ages and genders can enjoy making the Preserve’s goal to have multi-generational families in their private mountain community more attractive.
Now, let’s try and understand why trout fishing can be just as good, if not better, in the fall & winter as in the summer. The single most important environmental factor that affects a trout's feeding behavior is water temperature. This is important because trout breathe oxygen just like humans and need a steady supply of oxygen in order to survive.
Trout Up Close and Personal
However, since trout live in water and water is made from a combination of hydrogen and oxygen, you may wonder how a trout could possibly run out of oxygen. The answer to that question is that a trout's gills are not designed to extract oxygen from the water molecules themselves but instead they extract dissolved oxygen from the water which consists of free roaming oxygen atoms that are not bonded to a hydrogen atom. In any given amount of water, there is a limited amount of dissolved oxygen and that amount is mostly determined by the temperature of the water. Basically, the colder the water is, the more dissolved oxygen it can hold and the warmer the water is, the less dissolved oxygen it can hold.
By Bill Blevins from Fairport, NY, USA; color-corrected slightly by Daniel Case prior to upload (Little brown trout) (CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)), via Wikimedia Commons
In addition to controlling dissolved oxygen content, the temperature of the water affects a trout's metabolism. When the water temperature is extremely cold (mid-30's F), trout tend to enter a catatonic state similar to that of hibernation in which their metabolic rate slows drastically and they require very little food. On the other hand, when the water temperature is extremely high (mid-70's F), the trout's metabolic rate increases and they require more oxygen than usual. The drawback is that warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen than cooler water and the trout start to suffocate as the water warms to around 70 degrees Fahrenheit .
The relationship between the oxygen content and temperature set the stage for the best season for fly fishing in the Blue Ridge Mountains to be in late fall through the winter months and into early spring when the water temperature is regularly between 45°F and 65°F.
Blue Ridge Trout Fishing in September, October, and November:
There are peak trout fishing periods here in Western North Carolina during the autumn months of September, October, and November. During this time, the days start to grow shorter and the angle of the sun is a little lower in the sky so the days are cooler than in the summer months. The cooler water temperature increases the availability of dissolved oxygen in the water, allowing for increased trout feeding activity.
Blue Ridge Trout Fishing in December, January, and February:
During the winter months in the North Carolina Mountains, the shorter days combined with the low angle of the sun in the sky cools the water temperature even further and slows the trout's metabolic rate. This causes them to feed less often. However, since the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water is increased during the winter, they will often feed actively on slightly warmer, sunnier days. Fly fishing for trout in the winter months here is often more productive than fishing for them during the summer months.
Helpful Links for Trout Fishing in the Blue Ridge Mountains:
- North Carolina Fishing License Information
- North Carolina Stream Flows and Water Releases
- Nantahala & Tuckasegee River Flow Release Schedule
- Trout and Fly Fishing in the Highlands Area
- Trout Fishing on the Blue Ridge Parkway
- FlyFishingNC.com - A Guide to Fly Fishing North Carolina Mountain Trout Streams
