Top 5 Fishing Lakes in Western North Carolina

What a blessing to live and be able to fish here in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina! This place has it all! GIANT fish, numbers of fish, spotted bass, smallmouth bass and largemouth bass! All of these lakes have what I call "The Secret Formula" for being world class fisheries. First, almost every lake has a great abundance of shad (threadfin, gizzard, herring)! A shad is to a bass as a glazed munchkin donut from D&D is to a human! Bass don't stop eating them (EVEN IN COLD WATER)!!! These fish continuously gorge year round which produces above average size fish and feeding frenzies when you run into them! These lakes also provide bigger forage once a big ol' fish gets to big to be efficient chasing shad. This is when your bream, perch and trout become your big players! Mimicking this bigger forage can and will produce STUDS! But here is the thing, there is such an abundance of big fish you can hone in on them and not only have a great day for size but numbers with size!

Here are my Top 5 Fishing Lakes in Western North Carolina

#1 Lake Glenville, Cashiers NC

Lake Glenville is the best smallmouth bass fishery in the southeast! It's one of few lakes that has the odd combination of Blueback Herring and smallmouth bass! The abundance of herring, bream, yellow perch and trout make this lake absolutely lethal! A lot of big largemouth are caught year round to compliment the great smallmouth!

#2 Lake Chatuge, Hayesville NC

Lake Chatuge is almost identical to Lake Glenville except a few minor differences. Chatuge has big spotted bass instead of smallmouth. These spotted bass eat like you wouldn't believe and they really do look like a football! There are also Florida strain largemouth that swim around in Chatuge, they can grow up to 1.5 pounds per year! That combination of fish leads to some incredible days on the water!

#3 Fontana Lake, Bryson City NC

Fontana has some of the craziest fishing you've ever seen! With depths that exceed 500ft this lake is a big, clear, deep, honey hole! There are tons of shad which make for crazy top water explosions fishing for smallmouth, spots and largemouth! The fish are always schooling and if you can find some shallow largemouth on the bank you can bet they will dandy's!

#4 Bear Lake, Tuckasegee NC

Big largemouth is the only thing you need to know! Very few shad in this lake but the bass feed very heavily on bream, trout and crawfish! The largemouth grow and grow and grow. There is not a high population of fish but that means more food for the ones that are swimming around! 

#5 Lake Burton, Tiger GA

Lake Burton is not even in NC but is about 15 minutes from the state line! It's combination of Florida strain largemouth and big spotted bass make for a trip worth taking! The bass eat blueback herring and trout! They get huge, they get crazy and this lake is a little secret!