Pisgah National Forest (NC) Wild Brown Trout

As a side day trip during my time in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park area (Waynesville/Ashville), I found myself in the beautiful Pisgah National Forest. Fishing the West Branch of the Pigeon River over the course of an 1hr. morning and 1 hr. afternoon fishing session with my spinning rod (single barbless hooks - relax guys..) WE did manage to snag 4 or 5 Wild Brown Trout. Wonderful area, would move here.

[@michaelhill56]

It's called the West Fork of the Pigeon River. It was hit by record rainfall in August 21 and the fish population was decimated... Used to be a great fishery but it will take years for it to recover. The lower section between Sunburst and Lake Logan is delayed harvest...

[@TravelingTroutCo]

My only retort would be that I haven't (as of yet) caught a small wild rainbow with par markings. I don't doubt that they exist, but I haven't seen it yet.

[@WyomingOutofDoors]

Good video friend , was just checking out your channel and i joined up

[@fishingmidatlantic6610]

Awesome video

[@bruceburkhart1650]

Asheville is such a beautiful area! Great content as usual. Hope you get to explore that area more! Do you swap out the treble hooks on your spinners or do you modify them to be single barbless? If you swap them, do you have a link to what you're using? Keep up the great videos!

[@RefinerSimilitude]

Is that a Pflueger President 25? I love mine. I have an older model I’ve been using for 15 years that just broke. I caught about a 14” brown on it in Pisgah.

[@sasquatch-7416]

Thanks for another video. Question, ... in Pa, whats your best resource for trout waters? I'm trying to find good info online and I'm not doing great. I'd almost like to go back to paper, or a book.

[@TravelingTroutCo]

In my opinion - BEST (Contemporary) PA Trout Fishing Book; www.amazon.com/Keystone-Fly-Fishing-Ultimate-Pennsylvanias/dp/1934753459 Wild Trout Natural Reproduction Listing; www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/Trout/Documents/trout_repro.pdf Class A Wild Trout Listing; www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/Trout/Documents/classa.pdf

[@sasquatch-7416]

@@TravelingTroutCo you rock, thanks man. I just watched your steelhead vid. Thats badass to just head out there and go for it. No cares 👍🏻👍🏻 love it

[@Fishinstix]

Dude you are pumped! 😂

[@TravelingTroutCo]

Hell yeah brother I love that area in western NC.

[@drydroppin]

What trail was that?

[@bobgaleotti]

Read the regulation BEFORE fishing!! See 5:20 into video.

[@zoober8158]

oh shut the hell up

[@jessec7565]

I know you said that branch was stocked. How could you tell they were wild?

[@TravelingTroutCo]

Generally a few identifiers. Red in the adipose fin. Usually less uniformly sized (outside of the 11-12 inch range of stockers). Brighter yellow body and red spots. Stockers have kind of 'splotchy' spots. Stockers can have stunted fins from being raised in the pens. Wild guys are usually a little more lively too.

[@JohnBrown-vx3rx]

do you eat these?

[@TravelingTroutCo]

I'm not above eating a few trout per year, but generally I throw 99% of them back.

[@bjonh3099]

Get your spinner rod off my river.

[@TravelingTroutCo]

Ahh. The sound of fly fishing elitism at its best. I'm sure if you sat back, and really thought about that comment, maybe you'd realize it makes you look like a snob. By the way, I fly fish probably 60% of the time, but chose to fish conventionally on this particular day.