heading to Fontana middle of Oct. for a fishing vacation with my girl, anyone offer good advice? would love to bag a smallie, never caught one!
heading to Fontana middle of Oct. for a fishing vacation with my girl, anyone offer good advice? would love to bag a smallie, never caught one!
I spent a week there many years ago,it’s a tough lake to me.Nothing but rock and nearly verticle banks,it was 50’ into the winter draw down and I understood full draw was about 100’. The best place I found was a waterfall but I don’t recall where it was,shouldn’t be too hard to find as the lake isn’t real big. If you can find the falls you can almost certainly catch smallies there,I did and I know almost nothing about them.
Lots of better places than that (Tellico, Hiwassee or Apalachia), unless you are already going there.
I went there two years ago in late June. I had zero expectations as I've always heard its super tough. I crushed them all day long on main lake points. It was awesome. It was blue bird sunny conditions with a pretty good wind blowing down the main lake. Every main lake point had a school of smallmouth and/or spots on it. I was catching them on a drop shot with a Jackall Crosstail shad. The avg. size was around 14-16 inches. I caught one 3.5 and a couple 3 lbers. That time of year I would have a fluke ready for schooling activity. Good luck
Currently Fontana is 16 ft into the annual 53 ft drawdown. In mid October it should be about 25 ft down, reaching the low point in mid-December. It does have steep banks, and is hard to learn, but at 17-21 miles long, depending on where you say the 3 rivers end and the lake starts, it is not exactly small. It averages 135 ft deep, and is 440 ft at its deepest at low pool. It is the deepest lake east of the Mississippi. I catch a lot of fish there, and fish it regularly because it is close, but it has taken me many years to learn it.
thanks for the suggestions guys! Primary reason for the trip is to take my girl to see fall in NC mts., the fishing will be secondary. if we dont catch a single fish, no big deal, but im certainly going to give it a shot! i fish the Pee Dee and Catawba chain, mostly from Norman down, so this will definitely be a new experience for me! Main consensus so far: Find The Bait!
I fish Fontana thru mid July, then usually switch to Santeetlah for the rest of the fishing season. Santeetlah is a beautiful lake, and I seem to do better there than Fontana during late summer and fall. Lots of smallmouth there like Fontana, huge lake trout too, and the water level is not dropped very much for the winter. It is only a short distance from Fontana, but it is maybe 1/3 to 1/4 the size, and definitely worth the trip. Fish the rocky shorelines for smallmouth, and spots and LM will be there too.
It is a pretty lake. Fishing is more than just catching. Keep an open mind and have fun and it will be a good trip. Got a few buddies that are hardcore tournament fisherman that go there once a year. They do nothing but drift live bait. They say they just go to chill out and fish like they did when they were kids
You can censor my speech but not my thoughts or will
We are living in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so stupid people won't be offended
That's exactly what i had in mind! I pretty well have my girl interested in bass fishing now! Fished her first tourney last Saturday with me and she had a blast, even though she didnt put a keeper in the boat. The trip is more about time spent together having a great time than anything else! Thanks so much to everyone who has given tips and locations, keep em' coming and i will be sure to post up pics and fish, if we catch any picture worthy!
Reply With Quote