BirdTrout
Garrison Branch, North Carolina
1.1 mapped river miles, draining 0 square miles, in the Cheoah basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 6.1 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is 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 6.1 miles away, at Cheoah River Nr Bearpen Gap Nr Tapoco, Nc — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
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: 0351706800.
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 1.1–0.0 | 1.1 | cold | — |
North Carolina WRC has classified 1.1 of the 1.1 miles NHD carries for this stream — 104% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, 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
- Garrison Branch fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish Garrison Branch — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to Garrison Branch — access, parking and public land
- Garrison Branch fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
North Carolina WRC classification
North Carolina WRC classifies this water as Wild Trout Waters. The management tier on those reaches is 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
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 547,998 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Nantahala National Forest | U.S. Forest Service | 547,998 |
Species
North Carolina WRC designates this as trout water — 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
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Garrison Branch sits in HUC 8 06010204, the Cheoah basin, and drains 0 square miles, Strahler order 1 at the mouth. 1 NHD reach carry the name for 1.1 miles in total.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.