Outdoor News Daily

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will open approximately 1,000 miles of hatchery-supported trout waters in 25 western counties at 7 a.m. on April 3. The season will run until one-half hour after sunset on Feb. 28, 2011.

While fishing on hatchery-supported trout waters, anglers can harvest a maximum of seven trout per day, with no minimum size limits or bait restrictions.

Hatchery-supported trout waters, marked by green-and-white signs, are stocked repeatedly from March until August every year. Many of these waters are stocked monthly, although some heavily fished waters are stocked more frequently.

This year, Commission personnel will stock nearly 864,000 trout, with 96 percent of the stocked fish averaging 10 inches in length and the other four percent exceeding 14 inches in length.

The stocked trout are produced in four Mountain region fish hatcheries operated by the Commission and distributed along hatchery-supported streams where public access for fishing is available. While hatchery-supported waters are open to public fishing, many of those miles are privately owned.

“Anglers need to know that fishing opportunities on many hatchery-supported streams are available only through the continued support of landowners,” said Doug Besler, Mountain Region supervisor for the Division of Inland Fisheries. “For this reason, we want to remind anglers to respect the land they’re using and remember that access can be taken away if landowners feel their land is being abused.”

Anglers can help prevent the loss of public access to fishing by:

* Respecting private property and landowners at all times
* Removing all trash and litter from fishing and parking areas
* Parking only in designated areas and leaving driveways open for pass-through traffic
* Closing and/or locking gates after use
* Reporting wildlife violations by calling 1 (800) 662-7137

Click here for a detailed list of all hatchery-supported trout waters and regulation information. For trout maps, click here; and for weekly stocking summaries on hatchery-supported trout waters, click here. Note that weekly stocking information appears online for only seven days, and updates are posted on Fridays after fish are stocked.

For more information on fishing in public, inland waters, visit the Commission’s Web site, http://www.ncwildlife.org or call the Division of Inland Fisheries, (919) 707-0220.

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