Fishing on Foot

What are Delayed Harvest Trout Streams?

If you spend time around trout fishermen in the South, you’ll eventually hear talk about Delayed Harvest or DH trout waters and the fine fishing they offer, especially during the catch-and-release season, which occurs throughout the cooler months.

I always spend at least a few days fishing Delayed Harvest waters in Georgia or North Carolina between October and May.

Delayed Harvest regulations, which were popularized in North Carolina in the early 1990s, maximize fishing opportunities in waters that offer quality trout habitat from fall through spring but lose trout habitat when the water warms. They also effectively serve the interests of very different user groups among trout anglers.

Most Delayed Harvest stream sections have little to no natural reproduction and most were managed as nominal put-and-take fisheries, with only spring stocking, prior to the development of this management concept.

How Delayed Harvest Works

All trout fishing is catch-and-release during the “delay” part of delayed harvest trout management.

The way DH streams work is that they are heavily stocked through the cooler part of the year and open only to catch-and-release fishing with tackle restrictions from fall through late spring (Oct 1 through the first Saturday in June in North Carolina). This is when the habitat is best and these waters can support a high density of trout. The tackle restrictions (only single-hook artificial lures in North Carolina) allow for easier fish releases.

About the time the habitat quality would start diminishing, the regulations change, allowing for a limit of trout to be taken home and for fishing with bait and with treble hooks.

Without the harvest, not nearly as many fish could be put on these streams during the catch-and-release period because the habitat would not support the large numbers when the water started warming.

Specific regulations vary by state, but the concept is always the same. Waters in the program range from small creeks to big tailwater flows and vary dramatically in character.

Common denominators are that the fish tend to be plentiful during the release season (albeit increasingly educated at the season progresses), and opportunities to bring home a limit tend to be very good early in the harvest season.

For those reasons delayed harvest streams tend to be quite popular, so expect company and plan strategists accordingly.

First Fishing Trips

Details remain fuzzy. I’m the littler guy on the right — 4 or 5 years old — and I can’t claim any actual recollection. However, that outing started my fishing journey and the core of my career path.

I’m pretty sure it’s the only time my family ever went fishing together. I don’t even know where we got fishing tackle, and I assume the camper that’s hooked up to Dad’s Charger was a rental.

We were somewhere around Bemidji, Minnesota. I know that because pictures from the same trip include shots of us with Paul Bunyan and Babe in Paul Bunyan Park beside Lake Bemidji.

It’s also uncertain who actually caught the perch in the picture. I always assume it was me because I was the fisherman in the family. My brother Scott assumes it was him because he was older and more able. Maybe it was a team effort.

Subsequent Fishing Trips

What I do know is that this trip created a spark. The spark grew to a flame on visits to friends and a great aunt and uncle who had cabins in Northern Wisconsin, where I would spend every minute I could catching sunfish from docks while the rest of my family did whatever people do when they spend days visiting family and friends.

Then there was the small footbridge over a creek that was a short walk from our house in Clearwater, Florida. I spent countless hours leaning over the rail of that bridge and standing on a lone cleared bank spot beside the bridge, fishing for golden shiners, bluegill and occasional largemouth bass.

Eventually I began riding my bike to neighborhood lakes and getting rides to park lakes and to bridges and piers on Tampa Bay, the Gulf and the Intracoastal Waterway. Sometimes buddies would join me. Often I fished alone. Didn’t matter to me. I was fishing, so I was happy.

And I toted my rod & reel and tackle box to any event that was near water, if I was allowed to do so. Youth Group, Scouts, family picnic, vacation… anywhere I could.

Learning to Fish

My family moved from Minnesota to Florida when I was 6, and my grandfather followed a year or two later. He was a lifelong fisherman and taught me some fundamentals and helped my parents pick out early tackle for me. I don’t specifically remember fishing together, except for one day on a 1/2-day deep sea fishing trip.

I mostly learned by doing. I watched Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, Roland Martin and Orlando Wilson, read Florida Sportsman and Bassmaster magazines, and soaked up all I could from anyone I met who ever fished. But mostly I leaned by trial and error.

Every now and then a Scoutmaster, a buddy’s dad or some family friend would take me out in a boat for bass or inshore saltwater species. Mostly, though, it was Fishing on Foot, so I suppose that’s why that style of fishing resonates so strongly in me and why I’m glad for the opportunity to share things I’ve learned in this blog.

Change Hooks for Special Regulations Streams

Switching hooks on small crankbaits and minnow baits opens a lot of options for fishing special regulations trout waters.

Many of my favorite trout streams, including delayed harvest waters in and a few Southern states and wild trout waters in North Carolina, can only be fished with single-hook artificial lures. Fly-fishing is the most popular approach on most of these waters, and spin-fishermen typically fish wish small jigs or they clip two of three points from the trebles of spoons or inline spinners.

My preferred approach much of the time — and one that often seems overlooked for special regs waters — is to fish with a small crankbait or minnow bait with a single hook rigged on the back split ring. Trout in these waters typically see a lot of the same fly patterns and small jigs and spoons with similar profiles, so a more aggressive imitation of a minnow or crawfish often prompts strikes and can be especially good for larger trout.

A few of my favorite specific baits for special regulations trout streams are a Rebel Teeny Wee-Craw, Deep Teeny Wee-Craw and Tracdown Ghost Minnow. The craws and minnows have very different profiles and actions, and the most productive one really varies with the fish’s moods from one day to the next.

All of these baits come with stock trebles that work great as trebles but would leave too little hook if trimmed to a single point. I like to remove both treble hooks and replace the back one with a short-shanked hook that is two or three sizes larger than the original treble hook. I do likewise with my favorite trout spoon – the Lindy Rattl’n Quiver Spoon, which comes with a single small treble hook.

I also like micro jigs for trout, especially when the water is extra low and clear. However, having several minnows and crawfish crankbaits rigged for single hook regular opens far more opportunities to fish the way I like to and to catch more fish.

How to Catch Crappie from Docks

Docks provide great places to fish for crappie without a boat. Here’s how to fish docks effectively.

Docks commonly offer great opportunities for crappie fishing without a boat because they bring together fishing access and crappie habitat. Light spinning tackle and small jigs are all you need to catch these fish.

Whether it’s a boat or marina dock that you have permission to fish from or a fishing pier in a park or other recreation area, this kind of structure provides shade for the fish, cover of various sorts (often including brush that that has been placed nearby to attract fish), and forage in the form of minnows and aquatics insect nymphs, which are drawn to the dock for the same reasons.

The dock puts you within easy casting or pitching range of the crappie, and in many cases, directly above them, making controlled, accurate presentations easy.

Dock Presentations for Crappie

Docks allow for very controlled presentations of crappie jigs.

A 1/16-ounce or smaller crappie jig is tough to beat for crappie fishing from docks. Often the best way to fish a jig from a dock is also the simplest. Drop the bait straight down and suspend it beside a dock support or over a brushpile, either holding the rod tip completely still, twitching it slightly or slowly lifting and letting the bait fall again.

Experiment with different depths and try various spots, giving extra attention to corners and crossbars on that connect dock supports.

Sometimes the crappie prefer a moving jig. Two great techniques are casting parallel to the dock, letting the bait sink and then reeling, and making a short pitch parallel to the dock, closing the bail and letting the jig pendulum to straight below your rod tip.

Dock Crappie Fishing Tips

Minimizing noise can help you catch more crappie from docks.

Tread Lightly – Sound resonates. Walking lightly and minimizing banging when you set down gear helps keep the crappie unaware of your presence.
Soften bait movements – Sharp jigging is more apt to spook crappie than to prompt strikes. Less is more!
Double Up – A tandem rig, with jigs spaced 2 feet apart, allows you to work two slightly different zones and experiment more efficiently with bait shapes and colors
Do Not Touch – When you hook a fish with a vertical presentation, if possible land the fish without touching the reel handle. This allows you to drop the bait back to the exact same spot for the next presentation.

4 Top Baits for Dock Crappie

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Fishing on Foot Blog

Fishing on Foot began as a YouTube channel in September 2023 but its origin goes much farther back. I’m a lifelong, all-species angler and have always had an extra fondness for fishing that could be done on foot, whether wading or walking the bank.

I grew up in a non-fishing family, but was fortunate to be in the Tampa Bay area and had plenty of places where I could fish without a boat. First, ponds and creeks I could walk to or ride my bike to and then piers, bridges and wadeable saltwater areas.

As a fishing writer I’ve had opportunities to fish all over the United States and in a few other countries, at times with guides and pro anglers. However, many of my favorite outings are the ones I do on my own two feet, whether wading a trout stream, standing on the surf, walking a pond bank or even walking on a frozen lake.

Through my YouTube channel and this blog, I want to share great angling opportunities that don’t require a boat, blogging about specific outings and providing details on destinations, fishing techniques, gear and more.

Thank you for reading. Be sure to check out Fishing on Foot on YouTube!

-Jeff Samsel