BirdTrout
The Buller Water — South Fork Holston River, Virginia
Also called Buller Hatchery water, South Fork Holston trophy water.
145 NHD reaches, 54.4 miles of drawn channel — side channels and braids included, so more than the distance downriver.
Open in BirdTroutThe line is the water this name refers to, drawn from the NHD reaches it resolves to; the dots are the nearest gauges reporting water temperature, coloured by what they read now.
What it is
The South Fork Holston around the Buller Fish Hatchery in Smyth County, which carries two rules back to back: about four miles of sixteen-inch trophy water above the hatchery dam, and catch-and-release through the hatchery reach below it. The regulation covers part of the stream, not all of it — the extent above is the agency's wording. What is drawn here is the whole named stream, because there is no boundary anywhere we could check it against.
Above the dam: 16-inch minimum, 2 fish per day, for roughly 4 miles to the Jefferson National Forest boundary. Below the dam through the hatchery boundary: catch and release only.
Where it is
This name covers a stretch whose boundaries are posted on the ground rather than held in any file this site reads, so the map draws the named stream and the boundaries are described in words above rather than guessed at with a line.
No access site in this state's file falls within 3 miles of the mapped reach.
Regulations on this stretch
Above the dam: 16-inch minimum, 2 fish per day, for roughly 4 miles to the Jefferson National Forest boundary. Below the dam through the hatchery boundary: catch and release only.
Rules change every year and the posted signs are the authority, not this page. Check the current Virginia regulations before you fish. Where this stretch sits inside a larger river, that river's general regulations apply everywhere this stretch's do not.
Best times
Cold through the summer near the hatchery springs; the upper trophy water fishes best in spring.
Live water temperature
No USGS temperature gauge we read reports within 25 miles of this stretch, so this page has no live number for it. That is a gap in the gauge network, not a judgement about the water.
Fly shops nearby
- Damascus Outfitters — 6.7 mi
- Stone Fly Co. — 6.7 mi
- New River Outfitters — 24.5 mi
Straight-line distance from the centre of the mapped reach.
Sources for the name
BirdTrout did not name this water. 2 independent sources below use the name, and it ships only because more than one of them does.