North Carolina will not stock its delayed-harvest trout waters until November.
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission said an unusually hot summer, an ongoing drought, and damage still left from Hurricane Helene pushed water flowing into its mountain trout hatcheries high enough to kill fish. State Fish Production Supervisor David Deaton said temperatures coming into the hatchery have at times been in the mid-to-high 70s.
“Trout cannot survive that temperature,” Deaton said in the commission’s Sept. 23 release. “They get stressed, become susceptible to disease and many die.”
Staff estimate that since June they have lost about 70 percent of the fish at Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in McDowell County that were being grown to catchable size for this delayed-harvest season. As of publication, the commission had not said how many fish that 70 percent represents, and Deaton said staff cannot count what is left until sometime in October.
What that means close to home
Catawba County is not on the list. The commission’s public mountain trout waters list, dated Wednesday, has no Catawba County section. No delayed-harvest, hatchery-supported, or wild trout water is posted in the county.
The nearest delayed-harvest water is Jacob Fork in Burke County, from Shinny Creek to the lower boundary of South Mountains State Park. The park’s address is 3001 South Mountain Park Ave., Connelly Springs. The commission’s trout list places that park in Burke County.
The 2026 stocking-week chart still marks Jacob Fork for the week of Oct. 5. It marks the same week for three delayed-harvest waters in McDowell County: the portion of the Catawba River beside the Marion Greenway, Curtis Creek on game land below the forest-service boundary at Deep Branch, and Mill Creek from the U.S. 70 bridge to the I-40 bridge.
That Catawba River stretch is in McDowell County, not in Catawba County. Burke County has a separate stretch of the Catawba River, from Muddy Creek to Morganton’s water intake dam, but the commission lists it as a special-regulation water, not a delayed-harvest water. This announcement does not reclassify it.
As of publication, the downloadable week chart had not been revised. Its own note says dates can change and that changes come through a press release. The Sept. 23 release is that notice. It does not name a week in November.
The commission’s daily stocking page said no trout were stocked from Sept. 28 through Sept. 30.
The rules do not wait on the fish
On delayed-harvest waters, anglers still may not keep a trout from Oct. 1, 2026, through June 5, 2027. Natural bait may not be possessed. Only artificial lures with one single hook are allowed. The commission defines an artificial lure as one that does not contain, and has not been treated with, anything that attracts fish by taste or smell.
Those waters are posted with diamond-shaped black-and-white signs. In a normal year the commission stocks them heavily from fall through spring. This year, people who show up in early October should not expect a fresh load of fish.
The commission also said stocking spots along a stream may not be the ones anglers have used before, because hurricane damage changed access for both trucks and fishermen.
Why the hatchery was already short
Armstrong, north of Marion, is the commission’s primary state trout hatchery while the Bobby N. Setzer State Fish Hatchery is closed for renovation. Setzer had produced most of the trout the agency stocks. The commission said it closed Setzer in late 2025, and that before the work began it had told anglers only about 35 percent of the usual number of trout would be available until the project was done.
“That number was based on ideal conditions, and it’s been anything BUT ideal,” Deaton said.
Helene hit Armstrong in 2024. The commission said landslides made the creeks that feed the hatchery wider and shallower and took out the tree cover that had shaded them. Deaton said the agency knew that would mean hotter water, and that this summer’s heat and drought made it worse.
A commission update a year ago said the storm nearly destroyed Armstrong and that more than 600,000 fish there died, brood fish included. The Sept. 23, 2026 release does not repeat that figure. It describes this year’s loss separately, as the catchable fish grown for this fall.
The agency bought trout from private hatcheries to fill out the spring stocking. Deaton said the same move failed for this fall. Most of those fish were already promised, he said, and many private hatcheries are losing fish to the same heat.
He said November should be cooler, less stressful for the fish, and long enough for the survivors to grow a little more. He said he is confident Armstrong still has enough fish for a November stocking. He said he does not know what later stockings will look like until the October count is done.
The commission said Setzer remains on track to reopen at the end of 2027, with covered raceways and other work meant to cool the water and use less of it. Work on the damaged watershed above Armstrong is underway through the commission’s Hurricane Helene Restoration Division.
“We recognize the importance of trout fishing to our anglers as well as the economy of western North Carolina,” Mountain Fisheries Supervisor Kinnon Hodges said. He asked anglers for patience while the hatcheries are rebuilt.
Source note
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, “Environmental Impacts Cause Wildlife Agency to Adjust Fall 2026 Mountain Trout Stockings,” Sept. 23, 2026 (ncwildlife.gov). Daily trout stockings page, “no trout were stocked from September 28 – September 30, 2026” (ncpaws.org). 2026 Delayed Harvest Stocking Weeks (ncwildlife.gov), downloaded Sept. 30, 2026. Public Mountain Trout Waters, Inland Fisheries Division, dated Sept. 30, 2026 (ncpaws.org). South Mountains State Park address (ncparks.gov). Background only: commission releases of Jan. 24, 2025 (ncwildlife.gov), Sept. 23, 2025 (ncwildlife.gov), and Jan. 27, 2026 (ncwildlife.gov). Tip: a local news report on Facebook, Sept. 30, 2026, 11:19 a.m. ET (Facebook). The newspaper story linked from that post’s comments was not used.
Cover: File illustration, not a photograph of Armstrong State Fish Hatchery and not a 2026 mountain stocking. Rainbow trout. Timothy Knepp / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
