BirdTrout
Upper Broad River Watershed, North Carolina
1,124 miles of mapped stream across 2,478 square miles of drainage in Rutherford, Cleveland, Polk, Henderson, McDowell, Buncombe counties, in 108 named streams. North Carolina designates 85 of those miles as trout water, on 40 streams.
Open in BirdTrout50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands the app paints. On this map the colour is NC Wildlife Resources Commission's own classification of the stream, not a measurement, except at the gauge dots, which read live. Grey is water NC Wildlife Resources Commission has not typed.
The watershed in numbers
HUC8 03050105 in the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset. Every figure below adds up the river pages in this basin — same records, one basin at a time.
Cold, cool and warm water
North Carolina publishes a trout water designation and a wild-or-stocked tier, and no thermal class this page can read. It covers 0% of this basin's stream miles (0.0 of 1,124); the rest is untyped and is drawn grey on the map above.
North Carolina publishes no thermal classification of its streams that we could read, so this page has no cold/cool/warm breakdown. The live map colours North Carolina water from an air-temperature model at the moment you open it; the designations below are NCWRC's own and are the harder fact.
What makes this watershed distinctive
The Upper Broad drains 2,478 square miles of Rutherford, Cleveland, Polk and Henderson counties, and it is the shallowest trout basin in western North Carolina: 85 designated miles on 40 of 108 named streams, out of 436 mapped miles, most of the basin falling away east into the piedmont. The Green River is the water this basin is known for — 21.5 miles carrying Delayed Harvest, Hatchery Supported and Wild Trout designations between them — and the Broad River runs 25.1 miles as Hatchery Supported above it. The North Pacolet and the Hungry River, at 14.4 and 13.0 miles, are Hatchery Supported. Public ground is 35,053 acres and it is entirely state game land: South Mountains at 19,457 acres and Green River at 15,596, with no national forest in the basin at all. No gauge here holds a July record.
Every named stream in the basin
All 108 of them, longest first. 32 have a page of their own and are linked; the rest are in the app. The class column is NC Wildlife Resources Commission's designation of that stream. "Now" is the live USGS reading where a gauge stands in that stream.
| Stream | Miles | Class | Now | Designation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broad River | 25.1 | untyped | — | Hatchery Supported Trout Waters |
| Green River | 21.5 | untyped | — | Delayed Harvest Trout Waters, Hatchery Supported Trout Waters, Wild Trout Waters |
| First Broad River | 21.5 | untyped | — | — |
| Cane Creek | 18.0 | untyped | — | — |
| North Pacolet River | 14.4 | untyped | — | Hatchery Supported Trout Waters |
| Hungry River | 13.0 | untyped | — | Hatchery Supported Trout Waters |
| Duncans Creek | 10.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Wards Creek | 10.0 | untyped | — | — |
| White Oak Creek | 9.2 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Little White Oak Creek | 8.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Flat Creek | 8.0 | untyped | — | — |
| Vaughn Creek | 8.0 | untyped | — | — |
| Little Hungry River | 7.9 | untyped | — | — |
| North Fork First Broad Creek | 7.5 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Brier Creek | 7.0 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Ostin Creek | 6.9 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Cove Creek | 6.6 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Brights Creek | 5.9 | untyped | — | — |
| Hickory Creek | 5.9 | untyped | — | Hatchery Supported Trout Waters |
| Reedypatch Creek | 5.4 | untyped | — | Hatchery Supported Trout Waters |
| Camp Creek | 5.1 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Cub Creek | 5.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Horse Creek | 5.0 | untyped | — | — |
| South Branch Little White Oak Creek | 4.9 | untyped | — | — |
| Little Creek | 4.8 | untyped | — | — |
| North Fork Sally Queen Creek | 4.8 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Fork Creek | 4.7 | untyped | — | — |
| Pheasant Creek | 4.5 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Mountain Creek | 4.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Shoal Creek | 4.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Laurel Creek | 4.0 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Sand Branch | 3.9 | untyped | — | — |
| Skyuka Creek | 3.8 | untyped | — | — |
| Rotten Creek | 3.7 | untyped | — | — |
| Little First Broad River | 3.7 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| No Business Creek | 3.7 | untyped | — | — |
| Machine Creek | 3.6 | untyped | — | — |
| Laurel Branch | 3.5 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Rash Creek | 3.5 | untyped | — | — |
| Pool Creek | 3.5 | untyped | — | — |
| Colt Creek | 3.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Little Cove Creek | 3.3 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Cox Creek | 3.3 | untyped | — | — |
| Panther Creek | 3.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Beaverdam Creek | 3.2 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Pot Branch | 3.2 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Gadd Creek | 3.1 | untyped | — | Hatchery Supported Trout Waters, Wild Trout Waters |
| South Creek | 3.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Grayson Creek | 3.0 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Silver Creek | 2.9 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Glade Creek | 2.8 | untyped | — | — |
| Pulliam Creek | 2.7 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Grassy Creek | 2.7 | untyped | — | — |
| Somey Creek | 2.7 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Negro Creek | 2.7 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Tumblebug Creek | 2.6 | untyped | — | — |
| Collins Creek | 2.4 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Tim Creek | 2.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Mill Creek | 2.3 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Middle Fork Hickory Creek | 2.3 | untyped | — | — |
| Turnbreeches Creek | 2.3 | untyped | — | — |
| Buffalo Creek | 2.3 | untyped | — | — |
| Roper Creek | 2.3 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Smalley Creek | 2.3 | untyped | — | — |
| Beck Creek | 2.2 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Casey Branch | 2.2 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Harm Creek | 2.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Canal Creek | 2.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Rush Branch | 2.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Toms Fork | 2.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Kelly Branch | 2.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Wolf Creek | 2.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Tom Creek | 2.0 | untyped | — | — |
| Rock Creek | 2.0 | untyped | — | — |
| Molly Fork | 2.0 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Isham Fork | 1.9 | untyped | — | — |
| Devils Fork | 1.8 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Queen Branch | 1.7 | untyped | — | — |
| Green Branch | 1.6 | untyped | — | — |
| Thompson Branch | 1.6 | untyped | — | — |
| Shop Creek | 1.6 | untyped | — | — |
| Big Branch | 1.5 | untyped | — | — |
| Long Branch | 1.5 | untyped | — | — |
| Bear Creek | 1.5 | untyped | — | — |
| Saconon Creek | 1.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Clear Branch | 1.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Fall Creek | 1.4 | untyped | — | Hatchery Supported Trout Waters |
| Allen Branch | 1.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Hardburgain Branch | 1.4 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Three Springs Branch | 1.4 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Big Fall Creek | 1.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Grice Branch | 1.3 | untyped | — | — |
| Johanna Branch | 1.3 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Joels Creek | 1.3 | untyped | — | — |
| Walker Branch | 1.2 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Buck Hollow Branch | 1.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Little Fall Creek | 1.2 | untyped | — | — |
| Hill Branch | 1.1 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Weaver Branch | 1.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Harrison Branch | 1.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Smart Branch | 1.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Sudlow Branch | 1.1 | untyped | — | Wild Trout Waters |
| Duck Branch | 0.9 | untyped | — | — |
| Slickrock Branch | 0.8 | untyped | — | — |
| Vira Branch | 0.8 | untyped | — | — |
| Hominy Mill Branch | 0.7 | untyped | — | — |
| Parker Branch | 0.6 | untyped | — | — |
| Spring Branch | 0.4 | untyped | — | — |
Public land in the watershed
35,053 acres in 3 units, which is 2.2% of the 1,586,232 acres the basin covers. Private inholdings carried in the same source file are excluded, here and on the map.
| Managing agency | Acres | Share | Units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner not recorded | 19,457 | 56% | 1 |
| NC Wildlife Resources Commission | 15,596 | 44% | 1 |
| NC Division of Parks and Recreation | 0 | 0% | 1 |
The biggest named blocks of it, each with its own page — the streams on that ground, what is open to hunt on it, and where the access sites are.
- South Mountains Game Land 22,542 ac
- Green River Game Land 15,069 ac
- Chimney Rock State Park 7,095 ac
Best time to fish
The hatch calendar for the North Carolina mountains, which is the region this basin's centre falls in — the same regions the app's hatch panel uses. It is a regional record, not a survey of this watershed: nobody has counted insects basin by basin. Year-round records (midges, scuds, sculpins) are left out; they are true every month and they are not what a calendar is for.
January
May
- Blue-Winged Olive
- Blackfly
- Blue Quill
- Cranefly
- +17 more
June
July
- Caterpillar
- Crayfish
- Green Sedge
- Light Cahill
- +18 more
August
September
October
November
December
Nothing seasonal on the water.
52 insects are recorded from the North Carolina mountains. Each links to its own page, with the flies that imitate it.
Neighbouring watersheds
The subbasins that share a boundary with this one and carry coldwater streams.