NC Angler Forums banner

Thanksgiving week -cheoah,calderwood,santeelah,fontana

7K views 49 replies 8 participants last post by  loganwayne 
#1 ·
FELLOW FISHERMAN-
We are staying at Fontana village 11/20-11/27--fishing any of those 4 lakes---any suggestions.
i have fished them all but never this late in the year.

Any info will be of great help--lake preferences--spots, trolling patterns--specific lures you had success with, etc.....
I eagerly await your responses.

Thanks

be safe
good fishin

coach
 
#2 ·
Hi Coach. I will be there next week......and Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks. 2020 has kept me off the water so far.....but, that is about to change. Fontana and Santeetlah were very hot last year. i expect the same this year....but, it's Fishing....so, you never know?

I spent last year focused on Bass in the mornings and Trolling for Trout the rest of the day. The Bass hit Damiki Vaults and Spybaits readily. Both of those lures allow for long casts. I found them schooled up the creeks on both lakes. I plan to try some other lures this year including jigging spoons and chatterbaits.

The Trout fishing was Very Good....and I caught them every day in good numbers. I used wiggle hoochies, spinners, spoons and Rapala's.....and let the Trout decide what they wanted. Wiggle Hoochies ruled the water last year.

I will also be targeting Walleye this year for the first time. I find Fall/Winter to be my favorite time of year up there. Your mileage may vary. The Weather is a Big Factor. Two years ago Thanksgiving was COLD! Get some Merino Wool if it looks like it will be on the Cool side. Last year it was Mild.

There is plenty of info on here in the archives. The pics below show a Thanksgiving 3.5 lb Smallie, a half dozen Trout I kept 14-18 inches and my Boat covered in Frost from two years ago. Best of Luck!....D

 

Attachments

#3 ·
I have an 18' deep vee aluminum walk thru windshield and full enclosure if needed and we have all cold gear as we are up there in mid march too.

I lean toward cheoah and calderwood for trout--although I have caught plenty in Fontana and santeelah. We have caught quite a few walleye in both as well--just not in late fall. We usually troll spoons and plugs with some worm spinners thrown in at all depths generally running 5 lines. I'll grab some wiggle hootchies too---do you use a dodger in front?

What areas do you troll on santeelah?

thanks

coach
 
#4 ·
Lots of folks on here troll around the big point on Santeetlah....the "Town". I troll near the dam.....and as the weather gets cooler and the Trout turn to spawning.....I follow them up the creeks. Thanksgiving is about a month early for the Trout spawn. On Fontana you will likely find them stacked outside the big creeks (Hazel, Eagle) getting ready to head up.

Yes....I use a small flasher in front of the wiggle hoochie. Mack's Lures and Crystal Basin Tackle have everything you need. I do best with some custom ones I make....after that....chartreuse and pink. Some folks on here like the purple colors. I have Great Confidence in the wiggle hoochie and always have one in the water when trolling.

I don't know if you have a thermometer.....but a Fishhawk thermometer will tell you quickly what is going on. It will be Fun either way.....No Jetski's and less lake traffic. You can take your time and just enjoy the lake. Best of Luck Fishing!....D
 
#16 ·
....Yes....I use a small flasher in front of the wiggle hoochie. Mack's Lures and Crystal Basin Tackle have everything you need. I do best with some custom ones I make....after that....chartreuse and pink. Some folks on here like the purple colors. I have Great Confidence in the wiggle hoochie and always have one in the water when trolling.....
Purple is a good hoochie color in low light situations. The deeper you fish hoochies the better purple will fish. Purple is the color fish see best in dark water....blue is second to it. The bright colors are seen best in shallower situations with more light. Green is my leading color for Smallmouth strikes. Do the fish think they're tadpoles perhaps...??? I've done well for Trout using a variety of colors. I like purple in the early morn when the water is still dark. Later in the day other colors work better. The best purple pattern for me has been Shasta's Purple Splatter UV. I've found some hoochie bodies that are similar but bigger that seem to work at least as well. Really dark purple hasn't worked as well for me. Splatter patterns have worked well for me in other colors too.

If you don't know about Kokanee Tackle in Idaho, add them to your list of places work looking at.

My best green hoochie pattern is from P-Line's Sunrise Squid Skirts, Green Chartreuse Black Spot. They have them at Kokanee Tackle. They're 2.5" skirts. If I wanted 'em to be smaller, I'd just snip off a bit of the tail. I've been using them at full size.
 
#5 ·
Thank you again--one ? left. What temp do you like to fish in? I would think as soon as it breaks 60 would be good although i fish 48-49 for Landlocked Salmon and Lakers in New England summers--I have very good electronics and a fish hawk I clip on my downrigger ball for 5' increments. Soon I will have the blue-tooth model with the stand alone screen.

i went on macks and ordered the wiggle hootchie stuff--i have plenty of dodgers. a buddy of mine fishes wiggle hootchies with just a smile blade above the swivel up in NH.

Thanks for all the help!!

coach
 
#6 ·
So....last Thanksgiving....my Notes show Air Temps of 54 to 60 degrees and lows around 40. The overwhelming factor was the Wind.....Lots of Wind. You don't want to be on Fontana on windy days unless you're way up the creeks and sheltered. Even then, just crossing the lake from the Marina or Cable Cove Landing is no fun. If that happens again (wind), head for Cheoah or Calderwood.

Water Surface Temps were also 60 on Fontana and 55 on Santeetlah. The Trout were up in the 15-20 ft range and if you use Lead Core.....you can simply flat line.....easy trolling. My largest trout of last year came on my Thanksgiving Trip. I caught two over 20 inches. I caught many in the 16-18 inch ranch. The largest trout came on Rapala's. The most trout came on wiggle hoochies.....a slightly larger custom version I make myself.

The wind was a force to be dealt with....but, the fishing was great where I had boat control. The pics below show 5 trout I kept 18-14 inches. The other pic is of a double....two 15's that hit almost simultaneously on a different day. I usually keep 5 or 6 trout a day in the 15-17 inch range for my freezer. If a fish is injured or hooked badly I will also keep them.

You should find ideal conditions for trout.....and the shad should be balling up nicely. Bass and trout both will be on them. Electronics are key. Check out the mouths of every creek on Fontana and Santeetlah. Cheoah and Calderwood are a different story. I look forward to your reports on here. There are some members on here who live in that area and can dial you in further. Let us know what you find....D

 

Attachments

#7 ·
I figured the temps would be in the ranges you stated--i have trolled the mouth of Hazel in March and caught a 5 lb brown in 2016 along with a few 15'' rainbows.--How far up did you troll last fall?? Where did you get the Brookie?

Thanks again--I troll sutton spoons and others & I do fairly well on the rapala flo-orange x-rap on all trout/salmon & smallies, walleyes too. The walleyes should be around those points near the mouths of the creeks as well.

coach
 
#8 ·
Sutton Spoons are solid! I've been using Natahala Nailers.....though I haven't seen Scott on these boards lately. I have added Thomas Buoyant Spoons for this year....as a Buddy uses those and Kastmasters to great effect. I've actually got more new lures to try than I will probably have time for.

Despite the vast and often frustrating waters.....Fontana is my Favorite Lake. I can almost always find Spotted Bass and Rainbows.....but, it's the Brown Fish that I love most.....Smallies and Brown Trout. They are still plentiful....but a bit more sophisticated in their tastes. I chased Bass up into the bends of the creeks, where they were smashing shad. I did not troll too far from the creek mouths at Thanksgiving, but, at Christmas (Spawning Time) I went up the creeks and found the Trout stacked there. You should find them still in open water over the channels and near the creek mouths during your time.....D
 
#10 ·
It’s all been pretty well covered fontana is huge but if you can find the places they are holding around you can do well.

Santeelah can be a pain and tough fishing but to me consistently has bigger fish just not as many and harder to find than the others you listed. It can also have some stupid strong winds.

Personally I’d start on calderwood and get some fish then try the others. I’ve always had good luck on it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#11 ·
Just Lately, Calderwood and Chilhowee are overrun with seaweed. Fontana is generating 6500 CFPS 24-7. Brookfield slows down at night and refills their lakes. When daylight comes they generate at 10,000 CFPS for many hours in a row. It rips the weeds loose and it's hard to fish as your lures get fouled in a hurry. A friend was on Calderwood last week. He said the weeds were terrible in the top end but most of the fish were in the middle of the lake where the weeds were less problematic. TVA has a long way yet to go dropping Fontana for the winter. The heavy generating is gonna be happening for at least another month.
 
#12 ·
I was hoping others would chime in. While I have Not traveled yet this year to fish....I have hit some local spots. I have seen an explosion of weeds (duckweed, watermeal) on lakes in my area this year. We had a mild winter, and waterbirds, geese and ducks carried the weeds from lake to lake and they nearly covered some lakes completely. I said this last year.......we NEED some Cold Winter Temps to kill off the weeds and have the Lakes Turnover. Obviously, it's beyond our immediate control.

I am headed up Very soon now. Logan......do you have anything to share on the local fishing? Anyone?

Thanks and Good Fishing to All....D
 
#18 ·
I know it's really selfish, but I'll admit that I enjoyed the county closure a little bit. Turkey hunting all morning, trout fishing all afternoon, never seeing another person...

Santeetlah is tough to troll right now with all the floating leaves...yesterday they were spread all over the lake, not many clear areas. Trolled 5 lines for 2 hours yesterday and couldn't keep up with clearing leaves. Only caught 3 trout, lots of bass.
I've been doing much better jigging and throwing jerk baits.
 
#19 ·
I know it's really selfish, but I'll admit that I enjoyed the county closure a little bit. Turkey hunting all morning, trout fishing all afternoon, never seeing another person...
I know that feeling. I've had Calderwood all to myself a number of times. Santeetlah, no, not ever even close to alone but for an hour or two in the morning.

I might try fishing Calderwood next week. This week's flow maybe has washed the leaves clean a bit...??? Watching the water coming out of Santeetlah this week via Brookfield's's flow listings, it looked as if they sluiced a bit here and there. It's my impression that they release Santeetlah water to supplement Calderwood and Chilhowee's downstream generating. They're releasing 297 CFS into the Cheoah River right now. That makes their total flow out of Santeetlah right now at about 1100 CFS counting their generation into Cheoah Lake. 297 CFS is way above their regular, light flow. I've seen 'em jack it up to over 1000 CFS for a while.

I've made some new hoochies. I'm gonna try some new colors.
 
#22 ·
TVA is planning to release 10,000+ from Fontana come Tuesday this week. I suppose they wanna get caught up in dropping it for the winter. That's probably max generating on all three units...??? The little dams downstream will probably have to open some gates all or part of the day. I doubt Santeetlah can hold back water for long. I doubt it will open any gates....???
 
#23 ·
Cheoah Dam is reporting it's discharge at 12,103 CFS this afternoon. Can they generate that much at once? Or, do they have a gate open? Fontana is sluicing one tube. I presume that means one of their 3 generators is out of service...??? The 3,800 CFS coming out the tube is less than some past releases but still should look semi fantastic. It might have created some ice displays over night. I was up there a few years back when there was ice on the side where the tubes come out and there was what looked like snow on the other side of the river. Apparently, whilst being blown over there across the river, the droplets turned into flakes. The side of the ridge next to the dam looked like a snow machine had blown it for about 100 feet up. Earlier in the day before we got there that day, the road up to dam had been closed because everything was iced over.
 
#24 ·
I'm gonna fish Calderwood this weekend. We're still deciding between Saturday or Sunday. TVA is supposed to slow down their release after today. If they were gonna stay with the 10,000+ , 24-7 release I was gonna cancel. Maybe the last several days have gotten their Fontana draw-down back on schedule...???
 
#25 ·
I saw something last night that said the release was "until further notice"...i'm happy to hear it's almost over. Got out on Santeetlah today for the first time since the full moon, nothing but bass and whitebass. The trout were not where I left them. All fish ate a cop car needlefish off a dipsey 126 LOC. The other 4 lines didn't get a bump. Maybe I'll give Calderwood or Cheoah a try this weekend as well.
 
#29 ·
It was nice day to fish but the fish didn't cooperate much. All we caught was two little Rainbows. The top end was overrun with that stringy seaweed. The water was 61 degrees at the ramp. It ran 62-64 most of the day up and down the lake. That's way warmer than the long term average by a good 10 degrees. Maybe the fish were a bit lethargic due to how warm the water was? We only got two strikes.

We marked fish in the upper end. We marked many fish in the middle of the lake. That's where we caught our two fish. We changed lures quite a bit. It never seemed to help. Our strikes were on the smallest Mooselook Spoon and the smallest size Berkley Flicker Shad plug. We never got a strike on hoochies or the swimming crawler behind Mack's Flash Lite or a two blade Ford Fender cowbell rig. We finally gave up a bit past 3 P.M.

Fontana's fall releases have been rather warm the past several years. I've been talking to TWRA about this. They have been talking to TVA about it. TVA says that when they have to generate extra heavy that the warm water is getting mixed in with the deep, cold water. It's my opinion this is because Fontana is silted-in enough that there's less cold water than in the past. In the past, rarely, if ever, was Calderwood's water over 54 degrees. I've seen it over 60 several times in recent years. Last fall, downstream at Chilhowee Lake, the water was 67 top to bottom except up the Abrams Creek arm where we caught a few Rainbows and the water was in the 50's. Fontana 's relationship with it's downstream lakes seems to be changing...???

 

Attachments

#30 ·
Thank You for the Report! It sounds like the releases from Fontana have affected Calderwood and likely Cheoah. They might need a few weeks to recover. I will be in the area over Thanksgiving....as will Ry Roryl (Coach) and will post temps and results. I will fish at least (4) days on various lakes including Fontana and Santeetlah.....with the other days undecided.

Once again....the warming temperatures are worrisome. Last year was spectacular nonetheless....we shall see. Good Luck to all....D
 
#31 ·
yup
The wife and i are there for the week -fri 11/20 -fri 11/27 --then on to cherokee KOA fri am and sat all day to see some elk and bounce around the reservation's trout streams & ponds before we head out early sun back to Florida.

Can not wait.

good fishin

Coach
 
#32 ·
FWIW if you fish Santeetlah and use a recent Garmin unit, I've been mapping some of Santeetlah. Snowbird, W.Buffalo pretty much done. Some on Santeetlah, Ground Squirrel, and E. Buffalo and some selected spots. You'll need a free Garmin account and the maps are free. They're called QuickDraw Community. Someone else has also been doing some mapping on Santeetlah. It looks like a 2d transducer used while they were trolling. You can determine which ones I've done as generally mine are bank to bank on clean 1ft contours. I don't know how much of this I will keep doing. It would help if I could find a few walleye while doing it. I've had some luck at that but not much. connect.garmin.com
 

Attachments

  • Like
Reactions: loganwayne
#34 ·
And just to make it a "full house".....I've been graphing Santeetlah for several years with Humminbird Autochart. The pic is of a flat area that drops from 15 ft into 80 plus ft. I have caught trout there consistently for the last two years. The flags show the most recent trip (Dec. 2019) and represent Trout Strikes while trolling. You would never know from the shoreline that this area existed.

I have also found that Mapping....which I enjoy....is a double edged sword. You can get lost trying to figure where the "fish should be". I've learned to stop telling them where they should be....and concentrate more on just locating them. I then graph and sidescan the spot to try and learn more. Sidescanning revealed some rocks in this area and no trees. For whatever reason....the Trout Love it! But....I still don't know why? I look forward to seeing if they are still there in a couple of weeks.

Water Temps and Weather will likely determine what happens....but, they were there two years in row in November and December. I will let you guys know what I find. Best of Luck....D
 

Attachments

#35 ·
I've been reading about the Jay Fair Trolling Flies and his trolling lines too over at Arctic Fox's website. Jay Fair is deceased but Arctic Fox continues to sell his trolling flies that look a bit like colorful woolyworm patterns to me. What I've found very interesting is the two packets of preassembled trolling line to fish the Jay Fair system. They both have braid backing. The shallow system line has floating (mono ?) line and then one half color of 18 pound leadcore line and then the leader. The deep system has regular line that sinks and then 3 colors of leadcore before the leader. This had me thinking if some variants of these rigs might be a good way to fish hoochies or trolling flies in winter when the Trout get really shallow.

I made myself a 4 color leadcore rig specifically to fish shallow Chilhowee Lake with mainly hoochies but sometimes other stuff. If I fished in the dead of winter, I think I'd make myself a variant of the Jay Fair lines. I might do one or one and a half colors of 12 or 15 pound leadcore line to fish hoochies shallow. For ya'all that are gonna fish in winter, a shallow leadcore set-up might be just the ticket...? I've caught Trout and Smallmouth in Chilhowee running a relatively heavy 4" flasher keeping my hoochie just underwater, no leadcore or downrigger, when the fish were on the top chasing. One or two colors might be just the ticket...??? I think I'd try this with no flasher in front of the hoochie.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top