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Trout fishing near Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Last updated 2026-09-24 · water classified by NCWRC

NCWRC designates 12 named streams as trout water within 40 miles of Winston-Salem, North Carolina — 14.6 miles of it inside that circle. The most of it is Fisher River, 36.5 miles out, with 6.4 classified miles that NCWRC designates Hatchery Supported Trout Waters. The closest is Ararat River at 32.1 miles. A designation is NCWRC's statement about the water, not a record of a fish in it and not permission to stand on the bank — check access and the current regulations before you go.

The trout water within 40 miles of Winston-Salem

Ranked by how much classified water lies inside the circle, and by nothing else. Distance is a straight line to the nearest point of the stream rather than to its middle, because the question is how far you drive before you can park — this app carries no road network and will not print a drive time it cannot compute. A stream that runs out of the circle is counted for the part that is inside it, never for its whole length.

Stream Miles out Classified miles NCWRC designation Size Thermal class
Fisher River part of the stream 36.5 6.4 Hatchery Supported Trout Waters medium stream 100% cold-transitional
Ararat River 32.1 4.9 Delayed Harvest Trout Waters medium stream 100% cold-transitional
Mitchell River 37.9 3 Delayed Harvest Trout Waters medium stream 100% cold-transitional
Elkin Creek 35.2 0.2 Hatchery Supported Trout Waters medium stream 100% cold-transitional
Flat Branch 37.8 0.1 Hatchery Supported Trout Waters creek 100% cold-transitional
Burris Creek 36.7 0 Hatchery Supported Trout Waters creek 100% cold-transitional
Faulkner Creek 32.6 0 Delayed Harvest Trout Waters small stream 100% cold-transitional
Lovills Creek 32.1 0 Hatchery Supported Trout Waters medium stream 100% cold-transitional

12 named streams clear the circle in all and the 8 holding the most classified water are named. The rest carry less water than something a reader would pass on the way to it.

A stream marked part of the stream carries classified water outside the circle too, and the mileage here is only what is inside it. The thermal class is inferred from NCWRC management tier (stocked holdover), and it describes the reaches inside the circle rather than the whole stream.

What NCWRC is saying, and what it is not

Every row above is on the list because North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission publishes a public mountain trout water designation per stretch. That is NCWRC designating the stretch as public mountain trout water, and how it manages it — wild, hatchery supported, delayed harvest or catch and release. It is not a record of a fish caught there, it is not a promise about any particular day, and it is not permission to walk to the bank — the land beside a classified stream can be private, and in most of these five states most of it is.

No species are named on this page. North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission classifies the water and does not publish which trout a segment holds, and this site will not put a fish in a named creek on its own authority. The classes above are what the state does say.

Getting to the water

This site has built access pages in North Carolina and none of them stands within 40 miles of Winston-Salem, so this page names none. Check NCWRC for access, and read the boundary of any land you cross — a stream being classified says nothing about who owns the bank.

Thermometers in range

USGS gauges within 40 miles that report water temperature, nearest first. Federal rather than the state's, so one may stand across a state line. No reading is printed here — this page is about where the water is, and a temperature on it would be true only of the minute it was built. The river pages carry the live numbers.

Read next

Open this water on the map →Every reach around it coloured by today's water temperature, with the access points along it.