Quick question on steelhead trout in North Carolina

[smokysteelhead]

From 1975-1983 steelhead strain rainbow trout were stocked off and on in various lakes.

It seems some of these fish survived in Santeetlah, Nantahala, and Fontana Lakes.

Do any of you western NC kokanee fishermen encounter these trout still? Thanks

 

[trollmonkey]

How's it going Smoky? We get some nice wild rainbows in just about every lake in the mountains. My best was a 21.5" 3lb 2oz native out of Calderwood. Mostly the wild fish will run 12"-20" and fight like crazy. There used to be a decent run coming out of Lake Lure up Broad River ,not sure they're still around. I've seen rainbows around 2 ft years ago in Broad River. Mark

 

[smokysteelhead]

Thanks for the reply.

I think I heard the steelhead are largely gone from Lake Lure but they still exist at Lake Santeetlah?

 

[rgarbar]

This thread is a few years old but this area is still very likely to produce some nice wild rainbows.

http://littleriveroutfitters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6397&page=22

 

[trollmonkey]

Ron ,How's it going? I've heard of some Nantahala rainbows better than 2 ft and over 6 lbs from some reputable sources. We've gotten a few around 19",our biggest was Will's 19.5' bow last year keep hoping for a monster.. Have you had any huge rainbows on? By the way thanks for the little river link ,interesting.

 

[rgarbar]

Caught a few 20+" and up to over 3lbs. Not much food for them at Nantahala and they don't appear to feeding on the Kokanee. I always found insects and small crustaceans in their stomachs. There are some big ones in the DH stretch of the river. Most bows I caught at Nantahala were 14" to 18". I like the big trout you have pulled out of Appalachia Lake. Wish they would improve the launch ramp there. Plenty of herring there to fatten them up. Gearing for some new electronics this season. Looking for some DI and SI especially on Calderwood and Cheoah. Have seen a lot of strange things on sonar in those places.