Catawba River Float

[The Dude]

Psssht, it has a long way to go to reach New Zealand-like status, like the fabled Saluda tail race of the SC midlands.

[cupojoe]

Summertime water temps hurt the Catawba. I know it comes out of the lake but the release pipe aint very deep. 70-80 ft.  That along with the fact that the Catawba is a low elevation,low gradient river with loooong flat stretches of slow water that will warm up quite a bit on hot summer days.  Muddy creek will warm it up (and muddy it up)a lot also. Lack of dissolve oxygen used to be a big problem but the new turbines and minimum flows should help. I gotta give props though. Its a good float if you live close by and want to kill some time and there are some very big fish in there but it will never be another SOHO or even a Tuck.

[benben reincarnated]

Speaking of temps, I just heard back from the NCWRC...

Once a year since 2011 we stock 10,000 "advanced fingerlings" that are all triploid (sterile).  Our latest survey suggests fish are holding over, but not in huge numbers.  Our age data demonstrate all 4 year-classes are in the fishery; however, the majority of our catch are fish from the most recent stocking (which is normal).  If they push through the first year they are growing very fast.  There is also an underlying natural population but those fish are few and far between.  We recorded temps near 70 degrees this fall which is pushing trout's thermal tolerance, so high mortality of young fish may be the norm for this new flow regime.  If we can get a few years of cool flow (i.e., low rain years when Duke isn't forced to pump water for flood control) I think we will see better recruitment to age-2 and beyond.  Time will tell.  If we keep stocking and fish keep holding over we will eventually have multiple age classes in the fishery, which is what we are shooting for.