I went somewhere this summer that I didn't know would be a good bucket list body of water.  I never even heard of this lake.  My son in law rented a lake front house right on Lake Nantahala, North Carolina.  It is the highest lake reservoir east of the Mississippi.  Surrounded by mountains, and over half the surrounding property is National Forrest and will never be built on.  This is a gorgeous setting.  We had a pontoon boat that came with the house rental, with a four stroke, and T/M, and two kayaks  The lake has a good supply of largemouth, smallmouth, crappy, lake trout, and salmon.  Since most of the locals troll for salmon, we had the bass fishing to ourselves.  We hired a guide for half a day to get a feeling of the lake, and then went out on our own all week.  There is a good size river that flows into reservoir, and you can motor up the river for miles, and it looks like your in a canyon river out west..  This is where the bass action was most prevalent.  Lots of lay downs on both sides of the river.  All our bass came out of this wood.  The main lake is over 200 feet deep, with sharp drop-offs.  In the early morning there was a black bear spotted swimming to an island in the lake.  Lots of black bear.  This lake is very close to Cherokee NC.  Our guide was pure Cherokee who retired from the US Parks Service.  Fascinating stories of growing up as a boy in the mountains, and fighting forest fires for the Park Service all over the country.  What a great trip, I will go back!

58 minutes ago, geo g said:

I went somewhere this summer that I didn't know would be a good bucket list body of water.  I never even heard of this lake.  My son in law rented a lake front house right on Lake Nantahala, North Carolina.  It is the highest lake reservoir east of the Mississippi.  Surrounded by mountains, and over half the surrounding property is National Forrest and will never be built on.  This is a gorgeous setting.  We had a pontoon boat that came with the house rental, with a four stroke, and T/M, and two kayaks  The lake has a good supply of largemouth, smallmouth, crappy, lake trout, and salmon.  Since most of the locals troll for salmon, we had the bass fishing to ourselves.  We hired a guide for half a day to get a feeling of the lake, and then went out on our own all week.  There is a good size river that flows into reservoir, and you can motor up the river for miles, and it looks like your in a canyon river out west..  This is where the bass action was most prevalent.  Lots of lay downs on both sides of the river.  All our bass came out of this wood.  The main lake is over 200 feet deep, with sharp drop-offs.  In the early morning there was a black bear spotted swimming to an island in the lake.  Lots of black bear.  This lake is very close to Cherokee NC.  Our guide was pure Cherokee who retired from the US Parks Service.  Fascinating stories of growing up as a boy in the mountains, and fighting forest fires for the Park Service all over the country.  What a great trip, I will go back!

And you can whitewater raft below the dam! Nantahala river also forms part of Fontana lake