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Pre-fishing season trout lesson
The real truth is that I jumped at the e-mail lure cast by the N.C. Wildlife Commission’s invitation to visit the Bobby N. Setzer Fish Hatchery near Brevard purely for the scenic-drive opportunity it offered.
My hunch was correct, and the views were non-stop last Friday morning as I traveled across the mountains via N.C. 107, N.C. 281, Charleys Creek Road, N.C. 215 and Transylvania County’s Clinic and Shoal Creek roads. Upon reaching my destination, the Wildlife Commission’s 50-year-old trout farm, I did learn a lot about fish production and stocking, thanks to an informative briefing from Carl Kittel, Wildlife Commission fish production supervisor.
The hatchery is named for Bobby Setzer of Cullowhee, former Western Carolina University athletic director and assistant football coach.
Setzer, a 12-year member of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, received the honor based on his tireless work to improve the hatchery. An avid trout fisherman since his Haywood County childhood, Setzer began pushing for upgrades to the state’s four trout hatcheries soon after then-Gov. Jim Hunt appointed him to the Commission in 1993.
Setzer, who was named chairman of the Commission’s Coldwater Fisheries Committee, made restoration of the hatcheries a top priority.
According to Setzer, the staff was already in place to do the job; what he did was listen, find out what they needed and “go to bat” to get it for them.
The Commission spent more than $2 million to renovate its trout hatcheries From 1992 to 2004, increasing production of catchable-sized trout 19 percent, from around 640,000 to 764,000 fish annually. Average size also rose 19 percent, from 9.16 inches to 10.86 inches, with those trout stocked in 188 rivers and streams across Western North Carolina.
Located in the Pisgah National Forest, the Setzer hatchery is the state’s largest trout hatchery with 16 indoor rearing tanks, where trout are kept until they are “fingerlings” (about 3 inches long), and 54 outdoor raceways, where the fish are grown until they are at least 10 inches long. Water for the hatchery comes from surface water diversions on the Davidson River and Grogan Creek, which supply about 3,500 gallons per minute. All the trout that’s stocked in Jackson County’s creeks and rivers is grown there, Kittel said.
Built in the late 1950s by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it was operated as a national fish hatchery for more than 20 years. The state’s Wildlife Commission has operated it since 1983, renovating the hatchery during the mid-1990s to add a liquid oxygen aeration system that increased production capacity from about 175,000 pounds to 250,000 pounds of trout annually.
Kittel told visitors that the hatchery maintains brook and brown trout brood stock and buys rainbow eggs commercially. Mature fish are spawned during October and November, and fertilized eggs are maintained in incubators until hatching, usually 30-40 days. Fish are fed two to three times each day, and grow at a rate up to one inch per month. Sixteen months after the eggs are spawned, 10-inch trout are ready for stocking, he said.
The hatchery’s trout go into public mountain trout waters in 15 WNC counties. Brook, brown and rainbow trout are distributed among approximately 80 different streams, with water recirculation and aeration providing life support for the fish during the transport, which may last eight hours or longer, Kittel said.
Kittel led a group of reporters on a tour of the hatchery for a firsthand look at the pumps, aerators and raceways and the trout themselves.
And the trip even yielded some non-fishy discoveries.
For example, I learned that former Asheville Citizen-Times columnist Geoff Cantrell, who grew up in Balsam, now lives in Raleigh and is a public information officer with the Wildlife Commission. While I’d spoken to Geoff on the phone, I’d never met him, though I’ve often crossed paths with his brother Mark, a biologist with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, who has been helpful with information regarding his agency’s thoughts regarding Duke Power’s relicensing applications.
The final discovery brought back a flood of memories. When the chairman of the state’s Wildlife Commission, John Pechmann of Fayetteville was introduced, I remembered two college friends at WCU who were from Fayetteville and shared that somewhat unusual last name. Sure enough, they were his sisters. Phyllis, who has appeared in the Cafe before due to a memorable Appalachian Trail trek, now lives in Chapel Hill. Her little sister, Anne, who once gave me an orange kitten, is the veterinarian she always dreamed of becoming and lives in Greensboro.
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