BirdTrout
Valley River, North Carolina
10.3 mapped river miles, draining 33 square miles, in the Hiwassee basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 18.0 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 18.0 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 10.3–9.6 | 0.7 | cold | — |
| RM 6.8–0.0 | 26.8 | cold-transitional | — |
North Carolina WRC has classified 27.5 of the 31 miles NHD carries for this stream — 87% of it. The typed water splits 26.8 mi cold-transitional, 0.7 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
- Valley River fishing report — what it reads right now
- When to fish the Valley River — hatches, seasons and temperature
- How to get to the Valley River — access, parking and public land
- Valley River fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
- Is the Valley River good for rainbow trout?
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
3 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 549,002 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 |
| Town Of Andrews Open Space | city land | 993 |
| Town Of Andrews - Andrews Softball Field And Park | city land | 10 |
Species
NC DEQ recorded rainbow trout here in a fish community survey, between 2004 and 2009, at one sampling site on this water.
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
24 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Long Branch 8.1 mi · RM 8.8
- Junaluska Creek 7.5 mi · RM 0.5
- Stillhouse Branch 5.4 mi · RM 3.1
- Gipp Creek 3.7 mi · RM 1.9
- Bryson Branch 3.6 mi · RM 6.5
- Mill Branch 3.3 mi · RM 5.8
- Flat Branch 2.8 mi · RM 2.8
- Worm Creek 2.6 mi · RM 1.5
- Melton Creek 2.5 mi · RM 4.1
- Pile Creek 1.9 mi · RM 0.1
- Stewart Branch 1.8 mi · RM 0.2
- Turnpike Creek 1.8 mi · RM 5.6
Valley River sits in HUC 8 06020002 and 06020003, the Hiwassee basin, and drains 33 square miles, Strahler order 6 at the mouth. 133 NHD reaches carry the name for 31.4 miles in total — more than the 10.3 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.