NC Listed Wild Trout Waters

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission lists several hundred stream segments as "Wild Trout Waters".  If you look at other data sets, it's clear that this represents only a relatively small fraction of the total wild trout water in the state.  This is probably still a useful dataset, as one would hope that most of the streams which provide a high quality sports fishery are listed here.  (However, for comparison, check out the NC DWQ page on the "NC Resources" Menu).

NC wtw on Google Earth with EBTJV data

Source: NC Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, 19981201, onemap_prod.SDEADMIN.fdtwwrc_arc: 
NC Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, Asheville, NC; EBTJV and Google Earth

This "Wild Trout Waters" data is basically the same as provided by the "County Maps", the differences being that the County Maps are updated regularly and this dataset was created in 1998.  Relatively few streams come on and off the list, so this DB is extremely useful, but you may want to compare it to a county map before heading off into the hills to explore a specific stream.  These streams are NOT all on public lands (though many are), so observe postings.

Blue streams are so-called "Wild Trout Waters", magenta streams are WTW that allow fishing with live bait.

It's interesting to compare the EBJTV data to these listings.  Generally they track pretty well, though a glaring ommission is that there are no listings within Great Smoky National Park, where some of the best habitat exists (empty yellow basins towards the western end of this photo).  Basically, one would expect many headwater stream in the park to support trout, though according to the park website only about 800 of 2,100 miles of streams in the park support fish.

You can download the NC WTW data from the "NC Resources" menu in the sidebar.

Last Updated (Monday, 31 January 2011 23:38)

 

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