Fishing in and around Lake Lure, NC

Boy with Fish

Lake Lure is a deep, clear lake with a maximum depth of 104 feet. Both warm and cold-water species of fish inhabit Lake Lure, such as largemouth and smallmouth bass, trout, bream/bluegills, crappie, perch, white bass, carp, and several species of catfish. In summer months, gradient layers of progressively colder waters form in the lake, but turn over to a uniform temperature in the winter.

North Carolina as a whole offers some of the nation's best fishing with abundant species and trophy game fish. If you are a resident or visitor to the state, or to Lake Lure, please review these links below to ensure that you understand the rules, regulations, and other guidelines governing North Carolina's inland, joint, and coastal fishing waters.  Download our local lake use regulations here.  Note, all those fishing in Lake Lure must have a license from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in accordance with NC General Statutes. 

Lake Lure Lake Use Regulations 

For information concerning inland fishing and mountain trout regulations for North Carolina in general, start here.

Of all the questions I’ve gotten over the years on a wide variety of topics about our lake and our wildlife, this is a common one and not one where there is a short, simple answer.

In truth, the fishing has been and is often great, but we also have challenges just like any other lake when it comes to fostering a consistently sustainable fishing livelihood.

Many fishing guides and residents will tell you that Lake Lure is an awesome fishing lake if you know where to go and know what the fish will bite in terms of bait.

In fact, over the last four to five years we have seen some really big fish that anglers have been more than willing to show off, one of the largest being a 14½ pound large-mouth bass.  Fish that size are what bring sportsmen to Lake Lure, but fishing Lake Lure is anything but easy.  It does take some skill and fishing knowledge to find the big fish and once you find them, you’ve got to catch them.

Category: Fishing on Lake Lure

Lake Lure is considered a cool-water lake, with average surface temperatures being in the low 70s and average temps at the thermocline being in the low 60’s. This is about what you would expect in a lake like Lake Lure (pardon the alliteration).  Lake Lure is classified by North Carolina as Class B, Trout waters.  This classification simply means that the water quality parameters at the time it was sampled were such that the lake could support trout.

Of course, that classification was made in the ’60s and a great deal has changed since then.  As our lake ages and becomes more eutrophic, the fish species that it will support will change.  Trout like cold highly oxygenated waters.  At the surface, our lake does have sufficient dissolved oxygen to support trout, but as surface temperatures increase and the amount of phytoplankton in the water column increases, dissolved oxygen becomes less, making it more difficult to sustain fish such as trout.

This is one of the reasons that Lake Operations decided to discontinue stocking of lake trout because it was not a sustainable practice with no real return on investment.

Lake eutrophication is a natural process that lakes go through as they age.  As this process occurs, the fishery tends to improve because there is more for fish and their prey to eat. Of course, there are also some drawbacks.

Nutrient loading is a problem that occurs as lakes age creating scenarios for harmful algae blooms that can cause fish kills and other negative impacts. This is one of the reasons why we pay close attention to our water quality numbers so that we can be proactive in addressing any problems that might impact the overall health of the lake.

Category: Fishing on Lake Lure

It is getting better. One of the biggest things that have helped has been changing our approach and dedicating resources to making Lake Lure a bass fishing lake. Bass are cool water fish, so they do extremely well in lakes such as ours.

We have also increased the amount of food the predator fish can eat by stocking threadfin shad.  Lake Lure has very little in the way of aquatic vegetation and structural habitat, which is a necessary component in order to have a sustainable fishery.

The structure is especially important because it provides not only protection but a hard substrate for aquatic plants and animals to attach themselves to.

This is why rip rap and fallen trees are so vital to the lake and why they should be put in place. The fishing benefit is huge and it helps to balance the ecosystem. Lake Operations has also gone a step farther by building fish habitat and sinking Christmas trees to help add some structure in places where fish like to be.

Category: Fishing on Lake Lure

If you are a fisherman and you are interested in knowing what we have in our lake, we actually have quite a diverse selection.  We have large and smallmouth bass, white bass, catfish, yellow perch, sunfish, and crappie; there are a few lake trout still left in the lake and we also get a few in the headwater reaches of the lake near Pool Creek and the Broad River where rainbow trout will occasionally be found.  There are also a few chain pickerel found in the lake which was probably stocked in here many years ago. There are no muskellunge here unless someone put them in without our knowledge, and if they did they probably won’t survive long enough to breed due to the water temperature and lack of good muskie habitat.

As far as fish stocking, the only fish the town stocks the lake with are largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white bass, and threadfin shad.  Anything else that’s in the lake was either stocked long ago or naturally occurred in the Broad River before it was impounded.

Our Lake Operations Department is continuously monitoring the health of the lake and looking at ways to improve the fishery in Lake Lure.  No one wants to come to a lake that is not healthy and the best way to measure the health of a lake is to look at the lake ecosystem and see how it’s thriving.

If you have questions about fishing in Lake Lure or would like to know more, please contact Dana Bradley, Parks, Recreation and Lake Director at (828)625-9983 x 502 E-mail: dbradley@townoflakelure.com

Category: Fishing on Lake Lure
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