Segment 2, March 30th, 2024

This is the time of year that sportsmen and women across the Carolinas really wake up to Trout Fishing in North Carolina.  North Carolina trout fishing opens up on April 6th on Hatchery Supported streams.  This tradition for anglers across the state is a welcome right of passage over the generations.

However, there has been a lot of gossip & rumors about the upcoming demise of the Bobby N. Setzer Fish Hatchery.  Jake Rash, Cold Water Research Coordinator for the NC Wildlife Resource Commission joins…Carolina Outdoor host, Bill Bartee, to help with what are the facts versus fiction.

Show Highlights:

• NC Trout Fishing had an economic impact of $1.38 billion
  
• 370,000 anglers spent 4.6 million days fishing for trout in NC.  322,000 are North Carolinians & 48,000 travelled here from somewhere else
  
• Bobby N. Setzer Fish Hatchery will be closed for needed renovations in 2025.  2024 will not be affected
  
• 75% of the trout that are stocked in the state of North Carolina.  Four-Hundred thousand pounds of Brook, Rainbow, & Brown trout are stocked from the Setzer Hatchery.  Its location in Transylvania County is fed by the & Grogan Creek & Davidson River near Brevard.
  
• Setzer has been run by NC Wildlife Resource Commission since 1983.
  
• The state will continue stocking trout from other hatcheries
  

Things You’ll Learn by Listening:

There are four Trout Hatcheries run by the state.  Bobby N. Setzer Hatchery, Marion State 1957 (& renovated in 2017), Armstrong State 1926, & Table Rock 1946

For every $1 spent by trout anglers there was a $1.93 return to the state economy

Fact & Video Pages from NC WIldlife:

Trout Page: www.ncwildlife.org/trout

Video on Bobby N. Setzer State Fish Hatchery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcCeqQihcsQ

The Carolina Outdoors is powered by the Charlotte fly shop, Jesse Brown’s.  Get a 7 weight fly rod & take on a smallmouth bass in 2025 instead of that 3-weight rod for trout.