Our guides work tirelessly to make sure we can deliver no matter the fishing conditions on all guided trips. Ive got a feeling rainbow trout streamer patterns are going to catch some big fish over the next few years down there. Weve had our best success on the Catawba River since there is more flow on it than the smaller mountain creeks. Anytime you can bring a 19inch fish to the boat its a good day. We had a phenomenal day on the water this year and we managed to catch 51 total fish. Thanks for taking the time to read the article! The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in North Carolina and is home to 4 lakes which include W. Kerr Scott Reservoir, High Rock Lake, Badin Lake, and Lake Tillery. Check out the setup below. We look forward to seeing everyone again next spring! I think between the warmer water temperature (72 degrees) and overcast day it created an ideal scenario. The French Broad River consistently produces 4 pound smallmouth year after year on our guided bass fishing trips. However one of the biggest draws to fishermen are the giant blue catfish that swim in this reservoir. Let's face it, there's a lot we can learn and share from one another like what bait or lure is generating the best results. Dont forget the Catawba Tailrace will be cranking back up in November so we will have some good tailwater trout fishing down there all winter long. Thats the key when fishing crawfish patterns. Chartreuse on the sunny days and black on the overcast days. The fluke bite on the Nolichucky during the last days or spring and early summer can be unbelievable. Winter trout fishing here in North Carolina has been excellent. North Carolina stocks some very large rainbow trout. This was Bennetts personal best river smallmouth and the biggest smallmouth to hit my net this year. September 14, 2022 by Brent Pollock. The lake was created by impounding the Pee Dee River, which is created by the confluence of the Yadkin River and the Uwharrie River several miles to the north. Off-Topic. These warmer trends have provided excellent fishing on the Catawba, Davidson, Tuckaseegee, and Toe Rivers. As a family owned and operated campground, our mission is to deliver a quality camping experience that will incorporate a focus on the . Another prominent river that flows through the Piedmont region is the Yadkin. Our smallmouth season starts in March and ends in November. Come on down and enjoy a day on the Detroit river. Trout and salmon fishing is good for anglers throwing spinners and spoons, and holdover striped bass fishing should improve with the wet conditions. It was a clear morning to blast off for the 66-boat field! Tillery Crappie. If a wild fish comes up and eats your fly and you set the hook and miss. Some days 100% of the time the fish will be eating subsurface. We can choose locations and experiences that will best fit each client. Our wade fishing trips take clients deep into the heart of the Pisgah National Forest. Weve been fishing dark colors in water with less than a foot of clarity. Our smallmouth float trips begin in March and end around November. We look forward to fishing with you. Our water temperature is mid 70s and we are finally seeing some great topwater action. Challenge: In order to catch these fish you must get good presentations with drag free drifts. This is where we will hike into a backcountry creek and dry fly fish all day for rising trout. 4847 surface area (acres) 200 max. After a long winter many anglers look forward to this time of the year because of the warmer weather and warmer water temperatures. The rainbow trout gets confused with the brook trout, but rainbows have a long lateral line on their sides that are pink or red. Emerging from the mist like an apparition, a boat materializes. FISH LAKE (Steens Mountain): rainbow trout, brook trout. Weve been fortunate to catch some really nice trout on the Catawba River this year. Another HUGE Jordan Bass . Lake Tillery is a 5,260-acre lake nestled between Montgomery and Stanly Counties in NC. They are an aggressive species which makes them a perfect fish to chase using the fly rod. Air Temperature 49F High: 73F Low: 48F Wind 3 MPH Gust: 11 mph Bearing: N Water Temperature 45 F Weather Details Average Wind 8 mph Humidity Normally if the crowds are bad you can bounce up to Newberry Creek or the wild water of Curtis Creek and do well throwing dries. I also want to thank him for the clients he allows me to fish with because its a cool experience getting to show people the fisheries I have grown up on and fished my whole life. 'Listen to the sound of the river and you will get a trout.' - Irish proverb The rivers are stocked and will receive another stocking the first week of November. To learn more about the smallmouth fishing around Asheville click the learn more link at the bottom of this page. See you on the water. We welcome beginners and seasoned anglers. Here you wont find the crowds like you do on the tailwaters in East Tennessee or the Tuck. If you are looking to float a tailwater without the boat traffic give the Catawba Tailrace a try sometime between November and June. Lisa and I chased red breasted sunfish, trout, and smallmouth on a local fishery and we managed to catch close to 20 fish on the fly rod. In May you start seeing smallmouth coming out of the deeper water and will stage anywhere there is structure, safety, good current and food. Another productive fly has on the delayed harvest rivers has been orange sucker spawn eggs with a gold bead. The best fishing during the winter is going to be throughout the Delayed Harvest Stretch. It is important to understand what types of baitfish, aquatic insects, and crayfish that are in a river system before you can have success using the fly rod. Dead Drift Em: This method is very similar to drifting dry flies to trout. Smallmouth will sit in these lines waiting for bugs to drift by. Weve got a few more smallmouth trips on the books this year which we are excited to finish the year out strong. Below are some recent pictures from our most recent outings. Three marinas are located on Lake Tillery: Lilly's Bridge Marina on the East side of the lake, Cook's Marina on the North end of the lake, and Ken's Marina on the South end of the lake. If conditions are right we can normally get by using floating line, but if we have good flows I will use sink tips and intermediate lines. The Catawba Angler offers guided bass fishing trips on the best rivers and lakes in North Carolina. Tim Caviness and Robert Palmer finished second in the Feb. 9 NCCATS tournament on Lake Tillery, thanks to the big fish of the day, a 34.0-pound blue catfish. Similar to Lake Mattamuskeet, Lake Waccamaw is shallow. Few redfish in the cuts and points in the bayou. I prefer to fish sliders when the water is super low and clear because the slider doesnt have as much of a pop when it lands. (January 2008) Photo by Ron Sinfelt. There are plenty of winter stones on the water so plenty of fish have been eating pats rubber legs in black and brown. We are starting to book up in September and October so do not hesitate to call to get your preferred date. The dead drifting approach is going to be best when targeting smallmouth bass in the low, clear water throughout summer. Connecticut Fishing Report- January 26, 2023. Gilead, NC 27306 (910) 439-2022 Located right on the water! North Carolina brown trout can get very large and attracts anglers all over the country to try to tango with one. . Weve seen plenty of 50 degree days in January and now we are starting to see those 60 degree days. Fly fishing for smallmouth is not an easy task, but I couldnt think of anything more rewarding when that 3 pound smallmouth takes a topwater bug drifting parallel to the bank. During this season its time to break out the bigger flies and target the biggest smallmouth in the river. Towards the end of September all the way into November the smallmouth will leave their summer territories and find the deeper water again where they will stay all winter. 60 degrees.Sabine Lake is fresh and the winds can impede the fishing. After an intense fight we netted the fish and it was nothing but smiles the rest of the day. Check out the fish we caught in October fly fishing Curtis Creek. These fish give you one chance. There is nothing better than clear water and smallmouth bass in the fall because fishing is great! The state stocks a lot of these fish in the Delayed Harvest streams in the fall and the spring. Pressure is light and the fish are eager to hit big bugs and streamers. These fish are less pressured and more willing to eat during this time. NC wildlife will not give a weigh in permit at TuckerTown for more than 43 boats. We provide fly fishing and spin fishing trips for trout and smallmouth bass close to downtown Asheville. Remember to still use light tippet this time of year. Morgan Alley's Lake Hickory walleye. bass fishing, bass tournaments, winter fishing patterns, Lake Tillery , NC , one-on-one tournament Weather, flows are perfect. They fish hard from the time we push off from the put in to the time we take out. The best time to fish it is going to be the weekdays. Ive got a few dates left in October so dont hesitate to book or they will be gone. There is really no better way to experience Lake Tillery than to go out for a day of fishing. Travis and Jordan are good buddies of mine from way back in the day when we all used be apart of collegiate track and field teams. The only natural lakes in the state are located in the Coastal Plain region which begins around the Raleigh area and extends to the Atlantic Ocean. One of the coolest things I get to witness guiding the same rivers year after year is seeing the smallmouth bass in the French Broad sipping mayflies. Look for fish to stay in depths but be lethargic after the cold front. . Thanks for reading. 3 Star Fatty Day! There is no charge to fish from shore; Bank fishing is allowed from the 200 . Alabama River R.E. We prefer to put two anglers per guide so both anglers are getting the special attention they deserve. We value our client relationships and weve been fishing year after year with a lot of our clients since we first started our fishing guide service in 2016. Weve been having great success on the higher rivers this time of year with stonefly patterns, prince nymphs, and eggs. Topwater will continue to be good the rest of the summer. After a few years of scouting and many trips down the river we have started guiding the Pigeon River for smallmouth bass. We have had clear water on the French Broad River so I have been out there every day chasing those big smallmouths that have some big appetites this time of year. I have decided to do this for the people who doesnt have alot of disposable income. The French Broad has been off colored for the last month, but I am okay with that because the less fishing pressure this summer means a better late summer/early fall bite. You want to look for moving water with white bubbles close to structure. The Catawba Tailrace is usually our go to float during the winter, but the rainbows that were stocked in the fall of 2021 did not make it through the summer of 2022 so fishing has not been great down there. When I started my business in 2017 I wanted to make guided fishing trips in western North Carolina available to everyone no matter their income. When Im fishing indicators, my set up is the following: My fly line connects to a section of 3.5 ft fluorocarbon (15 pound) line that connects to a tippet ring using a loop knot. No minimum size limit, but no river herring greater than 6 inches may be taken or possessed (regardless of origin) No daily creel limit for river herring less than 6 inches, and no river herring greater than 6 inches may be taken or . The tippet ring can freely move around the loop knot while fishing and it creates a 90 degree angle from the butt section of the leader to your fly. 9. Walleye-Jigging spoons with rattles/flash/noise will call in eyes' from a distance. The crowds are nonexistent this time of year so come enjoy the river to yourself. This is the pinnacle in fly fishing. We offer wade and float trips for the four trout species found in NC. We all hope for the days when the smallmouth hit on top and top and his son got just that. This section is a tailwater that provides cold water year round that creates the perfect habitat for aquatic life. Grab a kayak or paddleboard and get out on the lake for your serene getaway. Lake Tillery Striped B Potion Essment. Below are just a few pictures from the DH stretches in May. After spawning these fish need to replenish their calories to obtain the weight they lost during the spawn. Fishing Reports. The five main insects in NC is stoneflies, caddis, midges, blue wing olives, and terrestrials. Fly fishing in the Spring is hands down the best time to trout fish in North Carolina. Lake Tillery - 10/02/21. The trout fishing in November will be good. You can get a gate key if you check in with the Burns BLM office. The French Broad River is hands down the best smallmouth river in North Carolina. The fish are coming up eating dries in the morning then droppers midday to early afternoon. The smallmouth bite will begin in March for the spinning angler that wants to get in on the prespawn bite. The Lake Tillery Dam (also known as the Norwood Dam) was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1928 for hydropower generation. This is a great time to hit those higher elevation creeks and chase wild trout using dry flies. The Pisgah National Forest surrounds Asheville and lies in 14 surrounding North Carolina counties. The sun directly over the water makes it tough to sneak up on fish. Norwood, NC in neighboring Stanly County uses as its town motto "Gateway to Lake Tillery". Below are some pictures from the Catawba Tailrace this May. The fish were smacking topwater baits, but the key was to cast them a foot off the bank. The weather in the spring can be unpredictable so I tell clients we fish conditions not dates on a calendar. There are a lot of June bugs out so weve been having some good luck using smaller bugs on the Toe River. Blue Catfish with a Berkley PowerBait Catfish Power Punch Dough, Largemouth Bass with a River2Sea Whopper Plopper. These trips are great introductory trips to get kids interested in the sport of fishing. "Before dawn, fish buzzbaits around the grass. It is not uncommon to see smallmouth in just a few feet of water chasing minnows or eating mayflies off the surface. Northern Pike, Whitefish, Perch, Trout & Goldeye fishing. Im looking forward to getting the boat back on Lake Erie. We threw a lot of smaller black streamers to mimic the stoneflies and hellgramites in the river so Lisa did a good job of slowly fishing the streamers. Kirk and his son Houston had a great day on the water. Fishing will continue to be good all winter long on the lower elevation creeks and rivers. Lake Tillery's current water temperature is 45F Todays forecast is, Overcast throughout the day. Wild trout fishing in North Carolina provides a unique experience for anglers because we wade smaller mountain streams for stream bred fish. The bass will let you know if you can pop aggressively or every ten or so seconds. There are alot of fish in the river right now so let us take you to them and show you how to be a better angler. The river has an abundant supply of baitfish and crayfish that is needed to grow trophy river smallmouth. The river through the gorge is both wild and powerful in places. Smaller topwater flies dominate throughout the summer because youve got cicadas, beetles, grasshoppers, damselflies, and dragonflies. . Smallmouth bass are the hardest fighting fish we have around the mountains of North Carolina. The Catawba Angler offers half day and full day bass charters on the lakes and rivers of western North Carolina. We thank everyone who has trusted us over the years for making this passion a career. Tillery, which forms the border between Montgomery and Stanly counties, is the sixth lake from the top of the Yadkin system, although half of the impoundment technically belongs to the Pee Dee River system. Fish are actively feeding and preparing themselves for the spawn which is a good time to cast crayfish, hellgrammite, and baitfish patterns. "You have to move around to find pockets of active bass," he said. The best fishing is below Waterville dam and into East Tennessee. Mist wafts up from the surface of the water as first light breaks over the eastern tree line. I couldnt do it without her support. The Catawba Angler offers dry fly fishing trips on our mountain creeks for wild trout in the the Spring. Berkshire pontoon rentals, Lilly Pad vacation rental, Bass Tracker fishing boat rental, kayaks & paddle boards! The Pee Dee geographically begins where the Yadkin and Uwharrie rivers join at Tillery. As that temp drops the fishing will continue to get better and better. We were able to hit a local wild trout fishery early morning last week because the smallmouth rivers were blown out. They will be caught on jigging spoons, drop shots and jigs. NM . W. If you do not find the body of water you are looking for you can start a new Fishing Report Thread. Give us a call this winter if you want to get on the water. The water is unusually low on the Nolichucky so weve been spending the most time on the French Broad. Badin Lake is the clearest lake in the Yadkin Chain and runs within the Uwharrie National Forest which offers some unique scenery for a Piedmont Lake. The only disadvantage to this fly is that its always swimming fast on the retrieve so if the fish arent in the mood to chase then try a fly that hangs and suspends more. Bennett made a beautiful cast in the deep, slack water and the fish took off with the jig. One way to catch more fish in an unfamiliar river system is to find out what forage is in the river whether it be bugs, minnows, or crayfish and start there. Lakes Online Forum. Most smallmouth flies are designed with legs, hairs, or fur that provides lifelike movement in the water. October is going to be good for trout and smallmouth. Whenever you can catch the water clear on the Tailrace from November to May you need to be on it. The Catawba Angler offers guided fly fishing trips around Asheville for these beautiful trout. We received our last stocking of trout the first week of May so the Delayed Harvest stretches have been fishing well. The bite started off hot during the morning, but tapered off mid day then the bite picked up significantly in the afternoon. North Carolinas fisheries biologist will say Jordan Reservoir is the best lake in the state. If you want to specialize in Euronymphing, Streamer Fishing, Nymphing Fishing, or Dry Fly Fishing we can customize your trip to solely focus on one of these different tactics. There is little natural reproduction that goes on the gorge with these wild brown trout, but the majority of the fish are stocked. Check out this 25 bruiser our guide Jason Wilson put his client on last week. We had a great day of fishing on the Nolichucky River and Bennett reeled in a true trophy river smallmouth. Big walleyes and big small mouth bass. Check out some pictures from the gorge below. All praise and glory goes to God because all good things come from his goodness, grace, mercy, and unfailing love. Sign up for Weekly Fishing Report Exclusive Content Lake Wateree 23 February, 2023 Read more An email address is required to associate with your Fishidy premium subscription. French Broad like you do not hesitate to book or they will be caught jigging! 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