State hustles to fill trout-stocking gaps following Helene
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission stocks local streams, drawing anglers the region and generating over $1 billion in annual revenue regionally.
File photo
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is providing updates on measures to maximize trout stream stocking in the western part of the state after Hurricane Helene destroyed the Bobby N. Setzer State Fish Hatchery in September 2024.
The aging Setzer hatchery, which supplied most of the trout to NCWRC’s trout stocking program, had already been slated for renovations ahead of the storm, but that plan was dashed in a day when Helene dropped devastating rains across the region, including in Transylvania County where the hatchery is located.
“That was our major production facility,” Supervisor Doug Bessler told The Smoky Mountain News last month.
Demolition at the Setzer hatchery is scheduled to begin within the next couple of weeks. The wildlife commission claims that once the renovation is completed, the hatchery will feature state-of-the-art raceway systems that will make it more efficient and storm-resilient. It is estimated that it will be fully operational in 2028. The Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in McDowell County was also heavily damaged in the storm but has since returned to operation.
Still, with Setzer rendered useless as it undergoes its $50 million renovation, it was clear as soon as Helene’s deluge finally stopped that trout stocking would take a hit for years to come, leaving the public and private sectors both scrambling to mitigate long-term harm to that vital sector of the region’s tourism economy.
NCWRC’s Public Mountain Trout Water Program stocks around 1 million trout annually. Trout fishing has been a draw in Western North Carolina for decades, but it boomed in the early 2020s on the tail end of pandemic shutdowns, when Americans sought out both more domestic vacation destinations and those that offer outdoor recreation opportunities. As reported by SMN in December 2023, a report released by the N.C. Wildlife Commission put the economic impact in the state’s western 26 counties at $1.38 billion, a 360% percent surge since the 2015 report. In that story, outfitters noted that they were pleasantly surprised by the boom in the industry on the heels of COVID shutdowns.
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To mitigate the reductions in the state’s capacity to stock streams, the Wildlife Resources Commission is purchasing trout from private sector hatcheries willing to part with some of their stock that typically goes to local stores and restaurants. As of now, the commission has agreed to purchase trout from five producers in North Carolina and one in West Virginia.
The commission also purchased the Glady Fork Fish Hatchery in Transylvania County last fall, which can mitigate stocking reductions while renovations progress. The commission considered whether to buy or rent such facilities, ultimately determining that purchasing a facility is better in the long run. All remaining fish from the Setzer and Armstrong hatcheries have already been moved to the Glady Fork hatchery, which is primarily being used as a holding facility for those fish at this time.
Trout hatchery raceways use a continuous flow of water to maintain oxygen levels, remove waste and make feeding more efficient. The raceways in the regions largest trout hatchery were severely damaged during Hurricane Helene in 2024. File photo
“In addition, NCWRC has altered stocking frequency,” the wildlife commission said in a press release. “The stocking season has been compressed to allow the bulk of trout to be stocked during the heart of the trout stocking season in spring (hatchery supported and delayed harvest) and fall (delayed harvest).”
Meanwhile, Besler said that the wildlife commission is still seeking out more private sector suppliers from which the state can purchase additional stock, as well as other private hatchery owners who may be looking to sell their facilities. Working on that issue is David Deaton, NCWRC’s inland fisheries hatchery production supervisor.
The Glady Fork hatchery will also be used in the future, even once Setzer is fully operational. The long-term plan is to use Glady Fork to hold brook and brown trout brood stock.
“These facilities can produce trout to fill raceways, but they will also give a jumpstart when Setzer gets close to finished, so we’ll have fingerlings,” Deaton said.
Glady Fork will also provide another layer of redundancy should one or more facilities have to unexpectedly close for any period in the future.
As far as stocking goes, the strategy for now is to alter the stocking schedule so that there are fewer stockings, but those stockings can be robust enough to give people the experience they’ve come to expect. Basically, the theory is that it’s better to stock a stream once per month with a larger amount of trout than to spread it out and stock at a lower rate twice per month, Besler said, adding that there will be an additional focus on stocking during the peak spring fishing season that opens in April instead of lower-traffic fringe periods.
“We want the experience to be the best they can make it even with reduced numbers,” Besler said.
Visit ncwildlife.gov/setzer to follow the progress on renovations and learn more about the projects.
