# Nantahala Lake, NC Info



## cwebb (Jun 21, 2011)

Anyone have any info on fishing on Nantahala Lake?  It will mainly be a family type trip but I know I can get out to do something.  How about any flyfishing streams around?  Wouldn't mind trying that.  Maybe even something I can take my son to fish off the bank.  Thanks for any info.


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## evans_usmc69 (Jun 21, 2011)

Will you have a boat? Nantahala lake is probably the clearest lake you will ever fish. I have seen bottom plenty of times at 15-20' of water. It also has some absolute monsters in it, but the lake is hard to fish off the bank because there are very few areas(if any) that can be accessed from bank. You can always rent a pontoon from Lake's end store though if you're interested. The lake also has Kokanee salmon in it, but good luck catching one, they are in about 65-70' of water right now and only get deeper as it gets hotter. The lake has a good population of largemouth, smallmouth, walleye, yellow perch, sunfish, kokanee salmon, and lake trout.

For trout fishing in the streams, the delayed harvest section on the Nantahala river is a great place for trout fishing. It will probably have a lot of people fishing it in the summer because it's then opened up to live bait, but it's a beautiful river and has some excellent rainbow and brown trout in it. Right now is an excellent time to use crickets and "bubble" fishing to catch the trout. Bubble fishing is fly fishing with multiple flies tied on your line with a floating bubble tied at the end. When I trout fished, I would use between 5 and 7 flies at a time. The part of the river where everyone rafts is also a great spot to fish, but you have to go early in the morning or late in the evening after the water from the generator has been turned off. 

Just pm if you want to know more. I am originally from Nantahala and live about 20 minutes away now. I have caught a lot of good fish out of Nantahala, including my PB 9.1lber back in 2007. Just went last night and caught a 6lb2oz and a 4lb6oz largemouth. It's a great lake to fish, however, due to it's small size, it gets crowded REALLY fast in the summer!


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## cwebb (Jun 21, 2011)

Yes, I will have a boat but it will only be a bowrider type thing that comes with the house my inlaws are renting.  I could possibly drift and fish if it allows or anchor.  I will have a kayak to fish nearby the house and such. 

The river fishing sounds good.  I will look into that a little more as well.  Thanks for the info.


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## caver101 (Jun 21, 2011)

kokanee salmon?? Really?? That is very cool! Any other lakes in our area have them? I am going to have to look into catching some of those!

We kayak the Nanty all the time, may just have to drag the boat up next time


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## evans_usmc69 (Jun 21, 2011)

I've personally never caught one, but yes there are kokanee salmon in the lake. Below is the forum where there has been a lot of talk about them lately. They have been in the lake since the 60's I think. Seems like a real science to how they are catching them with a down rigger. I'll stick to the largemouth and smallies, although they say the koke's taste really good.

http://www.ncangler.com/forums/nc-mountains/


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## caver101 (Jun 21, 2011)

Thanks for the info


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## fishndoc (Jun 21, 2011)

One other thing to add for bank fishing:  I don't know about the rest of the lake, but the bank areas of the Nantahala river headwater are infested with rattlesnakes.

As far as trout fishing in the river downstream, the delayed harvest section (upstream of the power house) gets pretty warm in the summer, and is mostly fished out the first weekend the DH is over (early June).
Downstream of the powerhouse can be good fishing for wild rainbows, but would really be careful fishing there in the morning - the river rises really fast once they start generating, and there is no warning siren.  I prefer to fish this section at the end of the day when the generation has ended.


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## evans_usmc69 (Jun 21, 2011)

You nailed that, the head of nantahala is definately infested with rattlesnakes. I talked to a guy up there one day when I was fishing and he had said that is where they had supposedly released a bunch of rattlesnakes a long time ago. I have seen several swimming accross the lake in the past few years. 

I would also be careful on the rivers, plenty of copperheads, one of the main reasons I quit fishing on the rivers. There are also plenty of good trout to be caught in DH in July and even August, but they are pretty seasoned and are harder to catch than they are on opening day. A crickett usually gets em for me, or bubble fishing if they are hitting flies on top water.

As far as the river rising, I have fished it many mornings when they started generating and I didn't have a problem getting back up to the bank. It does rise rather fast, however, as long as you stay near bank access and don't travel the river bed too far, it's not that big of a deal.

Cwebb, also forgot, if you're going to anchor on lake Nantahala, make sure you have plenty of rope! It's 240+ feet deep at it's deepest points and most of the banks are very steep.


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## cjlake88 (Oct 2, 2011)

cwebb said:


> Yes, I will have a boat but it will only be a bowrider type thing that comes with the house my inlaws are renting.  I could possibly drift and fish if it allows or anchor.  I will have a kayak to fish nearby the house and such.
> 
> The river fishing sounds good.  I will look into that a little more as well.  Thanks for the info.




I kayak fish this lake alot, since my uncles boat isnt equipped for fishing. Just try and find some laydowns, or rockwalls and pitch a green pumkin creature bait like a yamamoto in there. that worked well for me last trip


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