The month of May provides some great trout and smallmouth fishing in the mountains of NC.
Trout Fishing in May
There are plenty of great trout fishing opportunities in May. The delayed harvest stretches are fishing well and the wild trout fishing on the wild trout streams is even better. Here are some of our most recent trout catches in the month of May.
20 inch brown trout caught on a recent float trip. May 1, 2021.
Wild brown trout caught in the Pisgah National Forest. May provides some excellent wade fishing in the backcountry.
Ashley with her personal best rainbow trout. Fish measured right at 20 inches. May 8, 2021.
Grayson with a great rainbow trout on a recent wade trip. May 7, 2021
Fred with a 18” rainbow that put up an impressive fight on 5x tippet. May 8, 2021
Nick with a big delayed harvest rainbow trout. May 7, 2021
Kevin caught double digits on a local delayed harvest stretch. May 7, 2021
Smallmouth Fishing in May
The smallmouth bite has been good and will only get better as water temperatures warm up. We have had good success on the Nolichucky, and French Broad Rivers. Fish are currently eating minnow and crayfish patterns. There hasn’t been much topwater yet, but I expect to see it on any of these warmer days. Here are some smallmouth from the month of May.
Fishing was great until we got rained out. May 3, 2021
14” river smallmouth. May 3, 2021
French Broad River Smallmouth May 10,2021
Smallmouth Country. May 10, 2021
Smallmouth fishing in May.
Ed Pruitt with a nice river smallmouth. May 2021
Outlook for the rest of May/Early June
Trout fishing will remain consistent in the larger rivers as long as water temperatures stay below 70 degrees. Wild Trout fishing will be the best bet come early June unless you are up for fishing the Catawba Tailrace. Since that water comes out of the dam it stays cool enough to float for trout well in the summer. Smallmouth fishing is good and will only get better. We have caught some of our biggest smallmouth in May/Early June. Don’t hesitate to book your smallmouth adventure because we are filling up fast the month of June and July. The fishing on Lake James has been excellent lately and will stay consistent well into the summer. Thanks for reading! Hope to see you on the water.
May 11th, 2021 (French Broad River Smallmouth)
The smallmouth are keying in on minnow and crayfish patterns. The fish have not moved into the shallow yet, but as the water temperature rises the bass will push towards the bank. Ton of mayflies on the water today and the bass were taking them off the surface. This was one of the first times I have seen this take place so it was cool to watch. We netted around 15 fish on a half day float with a couple of good sized ones in the mix. Check out the pictures below.
May 12th, 2021 (Trout Float)
Took Michael and his son Justin on a trout float and the weather just didn’t cooperate. The weather stations said it would stop raining around 10am, but it rained all day. I appreciate clients who are good sports about the weather because we can’t always have ideal conditions on the water. We caught fish before the water turned dirty, but we are going to reschedule for a better day.
Wet, cold day on the water.
May 17,18,19,20 (Nolichucky River Smallmouth Trips)
May 21st (Smallmouth Float Trip)
Longtime client Jay and I fished the Nolichucky River and caught some good fish on topwater lures. Water temperature was 66 degrees so the bass were feeding aggressively.
May 25th (Trout & Smallmouth Float Trip)
Rich and his son Wes went on a trout/smallmouth float trip with me and we had good luck catching both species. The water temperature was pushing 70 degrees midday so the trout bite slowed down, but we managed to catch some good ones early on. The smallmouth fishing has really turned on now.
May 15th (Trout Float Trip)
May 26th (Smallmouth Float Trip)
Dan and his daughter joined me to chase some river smallmouth in the French Broad River. Water temperature was 70 degrees. We caught 25+ fish with the majority of them weighing over a pound. The French Broad provides the perfect habitat for these smallmouth ambush crayfish, hellgramites, and baitfish. The French Broad River has really turned on and should provide fishing all summer long.
May 27th (Smallmouth Float Trip)
Catching smallmouth on the fly is challenging and its a lot of work. Jerry and Nathan threw topwater poppers all day and brought some good fish to the net.
