Pee Dee NWR

[Onslow]

Heads up, there is a fishing season @ Pee Dee and permit is required to fish within the NWR including Brown Creek and the Pee Dee. There is also a fishing season which starts in mid April and ends sometime in Oct.

https://www.fws.gov/carp/service/federal-recreation-passes

[dublhaul]

I can't find any clear language on the refuge site saying that their fishing regulations apply to the Pee Dee River.  The .pdf of the brochure showing the refuge ponds and boundaries is not much help.  The legend shows the refuge boundary as a bolded dot-dash line.  However, in several places, that line just stops so that there's no closure.  The AI-generated response to the search question of whether the refuge regs apply on the river says no, that state regulations apply. 

One would think that such an obvious question would be clearly addressed by the refuge.  (A good friend of mine's wife worked for the NPS in the GSMNP for years, and pretty regularly expressed frustration that the NPS too often seemed to be similarly vague when they disagreed with court decisions that differed from a policy they had formulated but was challeged in court.

That aside, I think the NPS is hugely underfunded, understaffed and struggles to keep the parks, truly national treasures, in decent shape.  Which is a major shame, especially considering some of the other areas in the federal budget get billions of federal dollars and provide little benefit.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

[Onslow]

The fishing permit which is nothing more than a summary of use restrictions that a user must sign, and there is no clear mention of fishing season on said permit.  I did see a mention of seasons after conducting a google inquiry.

I'm going with what's on the fishing permit which is debatable and somewhat ambiguous.

[dublhaul]

Agree with that.

Way back, I used to do environmental surveys for the power company.  We surveyed from Blewett Falls dam downstream several miles, and even took a few samples as far down as Cheraw, SC.  Once, in high water, we even took our jon boat (a large one) from the ramp at the highway bridge all the way to Cheraw, and never hit a rock. Did I menton the river was VERY high.  Decades ago, but I vaguely recall it took us about four times as long to get back upstream as it did to go down.

We used a variety of gear to try and get best estimates of the species and numbers of fish in the river.  I still remember how surprised I was at the number and sizes of shad we caught (and released) below the dam.  An electrofisher is quite a bit better for catching shad than a fly rod, and, in its own way, a lot of fun.

[Onslow]

Did you catch many largemouth and striper?

Duke power recently completed a migratory fish elevator at Blewitt. This very expensive contraption captures fish and lifts them over the dam. Last year, sturgeon and a couple 4–5-pound smallmouth were captured below Blewitt.

[dublhaul]

Not a lot of largemouth, and I don't recall catching a striper, although our sampling frequency was very limited, so we well could have missed them.  Plus, I do recall having the same bad luck I have when fly fishing - - - our randomized sampling dates managed to correspond to a lot of rain and high water events, and thus we "caught" a lot of woody debris instead of fish in nets, and had a tough time with the electrofisher in high, dirty water even seeing the fish..

There was a fish ladder installed when the dam was built, but it was not in a good position relative to flow channels and it was only a few feet wide.  It wasn't functional when I was there, but given its dimensions, the amount of water that could be passed down it probably wouldn't be sufficient to attract any fish.  And, it was pretty much modeled after west coast fish ladders where the salmon and steelhead are leapers, unlike stripers and shad.

[Onslow]

Here's what is known about the upper Pee Dee which isn't much.

Lake Tillery has Alabama bass.  The river downstream probably has an emerging population.  They've been caught below the dam.

There may be smallmouth in this section as well. Many folks don't realize the Little and the Rocky were stocked with smallmouth decades ago.  The rockiest stretch on the Upper Pee Dee is located between Tillery dam and the confluence of the Rocky.  I don't know a soul who's fish this section.  Only the Tillery tailrace seems to see action.  Mack McCorkle tried to float it many years ago, but a 20K pulse release.  Those days are long gone.  I've contemplated putting in at Tillery, float to the Rocky, then paddle 4.2 miles up the flat lower Rocky.  That would be a very long day or a camper.  This could be done solo since the shuttle can be walked.  It's only 3.8 miles. I suspect there are stripers staying in the river all 4 seasons.

The lower Pee Dee below Blewett bass status is unknown.  Stripers have been caught in September which suggests the river has year round stripers.  I spoke with the Fisheries Peeps in SC, and the stripers in the PD do not originate from the Atlantic.  It's not known if the striper population is reproducing naturally in the river.

Blue cats are the elephant in the room.

Shad is obviously a thing.

The river is thick with Buffalo

There are intermittent rock gardens down to Hitchcock Creek, but the river becomes shallow and sandy for a couple miles down to Diggs Tract (Wolf Den) access. Gradient picks up below here and there are a fair amount rocks/shoals all the way down to Cheraw. One of the biggest shoals is just above Cheraw.

It would seem improved flows in the last decade would improve the quality of the fishery and any attempt at fishing. I believe a report is supposed to be published in 2026 by the NCWRC.

[Onslow]

https://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/this-past-weekend-fish-whisperer-made-7.html

[trout-r-us]

We fished with a guide downriver from Rockingham about 15 years ago. A nice February day. Pretty much non-stop action with large Blue Cats. ~350# total in about 5 hours.
He had private access to a launch area, and a great deal of knowledge of the river and flows, enabling him to be able to run a very comfortable boat down there.
Here's my son with a nice one. (captain's nephew and first mate off to the side)

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