Good Place for a Camping/Fishing Trip in Mountains?

Looking for a good place/area to head out to western NC around mid October. I don't get out that way much living in Raleigh and was wondering any good lakes/rivers you can camp on. Not opposed to a bit of a hike. Trying to plan a trip with the guys. None of us Fly fish but we may be starting to get into it by then so mostly just spin cast/bait cast type fishing for now.

The New River has some options for what you want and some good smallmouth bass fishing

Pisgah. Great hiking and camping and great trout fishing.

Colekira said:

Pisgah. Great hiking and camping and great trout fishing.

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Trout will be tough if you want to use bait in Oct better choice would be smallmouth or delayed Harvest for trout that is single hook artificial must release they will stock first week Oct. There is ton places to camp in Nantahala or Pisgah hopefully get enough rain can get low water levels if stays dry, Cherokee is an option if you want to catch and keep trout usimg bait. New river state Park is nice in Oct and the fishing is right out your campsite smallmouth would be the target lures and bait legal if enough water a float trip is pretty nice along the New River

You might try Carolina Hemlocks camp ground on Highway 80 in Eastern Yancey Cty. It sits on the Toe River about 5-6 miles Northeast of the peak of Mt. Mitchell. Great scenery and easy access to the Blueridge Parkway, especially nice in Oct. when the colors come. There are also at least three other campgrounds in the same area.

You might want to be a bit more specific about what you are looking for. Trout or just anything you can catch? C&R or are you looking for dinner? Lakes or streams? Boat or no boat?

There are a lot of good places to camp and fish in the mountains. Each one has a little different mix depending on what you are looking for and what gear you will be using. If you want a good chance at catching trout just for fun, I would do as turkeyfoot said and look at some of the Delayed Harvest water. There are plenty of wild streams that will fish well during that time, but the fish will be smaller and harder to catch.

As a word of advice, October is peak season up there, so go ahead and make reservations (if necessary) now.

Thanks for the advice, will look into all of them. Basically looking for anything to catch, C&R or dinner doesn't matter we can work it either way, and no boat.

If you think you want to try DH, here is the streams and stocking schedule:

http://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0...d-Harvest-Trout-Waters-Stocking-Dates-Map.pdf

Maverick9110e said:

Thanks for the advice, will look into all of them. Basically looking for anything to catch, C&R or dinner doesn't matter we can work it either way, and no boat.

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I was just complaining about the access up along the Watauga but...we stayed at Julian Price campground and it was a great spot. There's a big lake within walking distance of the campground, tons of little creeks to hike and fish and you've got some smaller lakes that look really fishy, in a good way of course. Another plus is that they should be finishing up the remodel of the grounds, which is taking place right now.

I didn't know about the website below but I've used it twice this month and it's really nice to have reservations before you make plans to drive four hours or more. Cheers.

https://www.recreation.gov/