BirdTrout
French Broad River, North Carolina
11.5 mapped river miles, draining 1,664 square miles, in the French Broad basin watershed. A USGS gauge stands in it, but its record is too short for a measured July mean, so what this page knows about its temperature is today's reading and North Carolina WRC's classification of the water itself.
50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.
The nearest live reading
The nearest gauge is 7.6 miles away, at Mills River Near Mills River, Nc — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — it has sent no water temperature for 315 days, since 17 November 2025, so no number here comes from it.
The pills above go to USGS. These are this site's pages for the same gauges — a thirty-day chart, the monthly means, the record, and today's reading against the five-year normal for today: 03447890.
Thermal classification
This is inferred, not measured. North Carolina WRC does not publish a temperature classification for this water. What it publishes is a management tier — whether the trout in it are wild, hold over through summer, or are stocked and fished out — and the bands below are read off that tier, because a stream that sustains wild trout is a cold stream and one that does not hold fish past July is not. It is the agency's judgement of the fishery translated into the four bands this site paints everywhere else; it is not a thermometer, and where the two disagree the thermometer is right.
North Carolina WRC's classification of this water, reach by reach. A class, not a temperature — no July mean, because none was measured here.
| Reach | Typed miles | Band | North Carolina WRC type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 9.6–9.5 | 11.6 | cold-transitional | — |
| RM 1.6–1.5 | 3.4 | cold | — |
North Carolina WRC has classified 15.0 of the 63 miles NHD carries for this stream — 24% of it. The typed water splits 11.6 mi cold-transitional, 3.4 mi cold. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water North Carolina WRC's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
Questions about this river
- French Broad River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the French Broad River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the French Broad River — access, parking and public land
- French Broad River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
North Carolina WRC classification
North Carolina WRC classifies this water as Hatchery Supported Trout Waters and Wild Trout Waters. More than one class appears because the classification changes along the river. The thermal bar above shows where. The management tier on those reaches is stocked holdover, wild. This is a designation of the fishery, not the season and creel rules — those change yearly and live with the agency.
NCWRC public mountain trout waters →
Public land on the river
8 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 149,944 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Nc Land And Water Fund Project | another state agency | 94,190 |
| City Of Asheville - Carrier Park | city land | 32 |
| City Of Asheville - French Broad River Park | city land | 20 |
| Blue Ridge Parkway | National Park Service | 53,630 |
| Buncombe County Open Space - Hominy Creek River And Picnic Park | county land | 10 |
| City Of Asheville Water Authority Property | city land | 333 |
| Bent Creek River Park | city land | 2 |
| Buncombe County Park | county land | 1,726 |
Species
North Carolina WRC designates this as trout water — Hatchery Supported Trout Waters, Wild Trout Waters — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
Hatches on this water
52 insects are recorded from the North Carolina mountains, which is the region this river sits in. That is a claim about the region and not a survey of this stream: nobody has recorded which of them has been caught here. Open the river in the app and the hatch panel will narrow it to the ones whose temperature window today's reading is inside.
| Insect | Peak | Water | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Black Stonefly Allocapnia / Capnia spp. |
January–April | 34–46°F | #16–18 |
| Little Brown Stonefly Taeniopteryx / Strophopteryx spp. |
February–April | 38–50°F | #12–16 |
| Blue-Winged Olive Baetis spp. |
March–May and September–November | 38–58°F | #16–22 |
| Quill Gordon Epeorus pleuralis |
March–April | 42–52°F | #12–14 |
| Blackfly Simulium spp. |
April–June | 40–65°F | #18–22 |
| Blue Quill Paraleptophlebia adoptiva |
April–May | 44–56°F | #16–18 |
| Cranefly Tipula spp. |
April–June and September–October | 40–65°F | #6–10 |
| Grannom Brachycentrus spp. |
April–May | 48–58°F | #14–16 |
| Green Rock Worm / Green Weenie Rhyacophila spp. |
April–June and September–October | 45–68°F | #10–14 |
| Hendrickson Ephemerella subvaria |
April–May | 45–58°F | #12–14 |
| Little Black Caddis Chimarra atterima |
April–May | 46–58°F | #16–20 |
| Alderfly Sialis spp. |
May–June | 52–66°F | #10–14 |
| Caterpillar Lepidoptera larvae |
May–September | 55–75°F | #8–14 |
| Crayfish Orconectes spp. |
May–October | 55–78°F | #4–8 |
And 38 more — the year-round records, mostly: midges, scuds and sculpins, which are in the water every day and are therefore never the news.
Tributaries and watershed
14 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Swannanoa River 24.5 mi · RM 0.0
- Hominy Creek 10.2 mi · RM 2.4
- Bent Creek 7.0 mi · RM 8.6
- Dingle Creek 4.4 mi · RM 6.4
- Fourmile Branch 4.2 mi · RM 4.8
- Long Valley Branch 3.2 mi · RM 2.7
- Clayton Creek 2.6 mi · RM 9.8
- Boring Mill Branch 2.1 mi · RM 8.2
- Ashley Branch 2.1 mi · RM 9.7
- Moore Branch 1.4 mi · RM 0.6
- Orton Branch 1.4 mi · RM 9.6
- Plateau Branch 1.2 mi · RM 3.6
French Broad River sits in HUC 8 06010105, the French Broad basin, and drains 1,664 square miles, Strahler order 8 at the mouth. 580 NHD reaches carry the name for 63.5 miles in total — more than the 11.5 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.