Davidson River

The river

The Davidson runs 19 km out of the Pisgah National Forest past Brevard, and the 4 km of catch-and-release water below the hatchery is the busiest and most technical trout fishing in the Southeast. The fish see hundreds of flies a week; the water is small, fast and rhododendron-shaded. For a visiting angler it is a lesson in how much presentation matters when the fish are educated.

On this river

Fishing educated hatchery fish

Fish in the Davidson's C&R reach see hundreds of flies a week and they react to the line, not the pattern. Use 6X or 7X, a fly two sizes smaller than you would choose at home, and put your first cast where you think the fish cannot be, then work toward it. Casting to the obvious spot first is a wasted day.

Pocket water upstream

Above the falls the gradient steepens and the river becomes a staircase of small pockets behind boulders. Fish them with a short line and a single nymph, no indicator, and move 10 cm per step. This water holds the wildest fish on the river because it is hardest to reach.

Summer terrestrials under the canopy

In July and August the canopy closes and almost nothing hatches, so fish a foam ant or a Green Weenie tight against the rhododendron branches. The drift is only two metres long before the fly is in the shade line, so the take has to happen immediately — plan for one good cast, not a long drift.