Will Nantahala Trout Bite Today?

Some things suggest that the bite on North Carolina's Nantahala River could be good today. Last week's rain probably made the river surge enough cause the fish to lay low under rocks for a few days for for fishermen to stay away. It has returned to reasonable levels for feeding and for fishing but is still high enough to keep the fish from turning too terribly spooky. It's also supposed to stay cold all up there all week (it's 26 right now), and it's mid-week in late January. Those factors suggest that competition from other anglers should be light.

On the flip side, fall stockings for the delayed harvest are done in October and November and aren't resumed until March, so no trout have been put in the river for a couple of months. Even with catch-and-release regulations, natural mortality and poaching clearly impact the total number of trout as winter progresses. I've also felt like numbers seemed low following really high water like we had last week and wondered if a bunch of fish had found their way downstream. Then there's the cold factor. While trout are cold-weather fish and like things kind of cold, when the water gets too chilly and their body temperatures really drop, they tend to lay kind of low and wait for things to warm a little.

So with good arguments for against the trout feeding, I really don't know. I suppose there's only one way to find out!