Thompson River North Carolina Fishing Report & Options for Selecting Flies: Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. Please allow up to 24 hours for a response. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream
Freestone
Species
Rainbow Trout (wild)
Brown Trout (wild)
Size
Small to medium
Location
South Central North Carolina
Nearest Towns
Highlands
Season
Year-round
Access:
Good to none, depending on the
section
Non-Resident License
State of North Carolina
Weather
Season:
The season runs year-round
Winter:
Trout can be caught on most warm winter days.
Spring:
Fly fishing the Whitewater River during the Springtime is
the best time to fish it.
Summer:
Summertime may get a little slow due to warm water
temperatures.
Fall:
Fall is a great time to catch a large brown trout
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
4, 5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 to 12 ft., 5 or 6X Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Supreme Four, Superb Five
or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 4/5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Options For Selecting Flies:
1. Email us (sales@perfectflystore.com)
with the dates you will be fishing this stream and we will send you a list of our fly suggestions. Please allow up to 24 hours for a response.
2. Call us 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide which flies you need
3. Email us (sales@perfectflystore.com)
with a budget for flies and we will select them to match the budget and get them to you in time for your fly fishing trip.
All orders are shipped free in the
U. S. Orders over $100 are shipped via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2016 James Marsh
Fly Fishing The Thompson River North Carolina
The Thompson River is the most remote of any of the several streams that flows across the state line from North Carolina into South Carolina’s Lake Jocassee. It starts out on the Bearpen Mountain not far from Highlands North Carolina. The closest point a road gets
to the major part of the stream is on state highway #281 where the road crosses the river. The stream is heavily fished in the nearby areas at that point. Below highway #281, the river is in Gorges State Park and it remains in the park until it flows into South Carolina. There’s also one stretch of the Thompson River than flows through Nantahala Game Lands thats above the highway.
Like the other rivers in the Gorges State Park area, the Thompson has several waterfalls. Big Falls, also called Thompson Falls, is the most popular one. As with the other streams in the area, the Thompson River is better known for its waterfalls than its trout fishing
opportunities. This river drops 1750 feet in just over four miles. It has some small tributaries – Mill Creek, Reid Creek and others. There are seven major waterfalls and some minor ones on the Thompson River. None of them are accessible by road.
Due to its remoteness, most of the trout in its waters probably never see a fly. The Thompson River Trail roughly follows the stream for about five miles from highway #281 to Lake Jocassee. It’s actually an old logging road. Moat all of the trails in the Thompson
River area are poorly marked.
From state road #1152 (in the headwaters of the Thompson) downstream to Reid Branch, a small tributary stream, the river is under the state’s wild trout regulations. All waters within Gorges State Park is under wild trout regulations. The stream is known for its
brown trout but it also has some wild rainbow trout. As with the other streams that flows across the NC/SC state line, this one is stocked with fingerling rainbow and brown trout in South Carolina’s waters above Lake Jocassee. This makes it possible for some of them to
get up into the Thompson River in North Carolina waters but the fingerlings quickly learn to behave almost identically to wild trout if they survive.
Other than the highway #281 area, which is heavily fished, the only way to reach this river below its headwaters is to hike using the Foothills system of Trails. This is a series of trails that’s approximately 75 miles long that wonder through this area in lower North Carolina. Any trail you take, is going to require a long hike. There’s one other possibility, depending on whether or not the Duke Power Company has the Musterground Road open. It’s a gravel road that reaches the stream in the Bad Creek Project that stays closed at least part of the time according to the locals. The shortest hiking route is over three miles long and it
departs from South Carolina’s Bad Creek Project. There are other routes but they all are longer. This means that most of the Thompson River below highway #281 is rarely fished.
Most of the trout, at least in the highway #281 area, are brown trout that range from 8 to 12 inches, although the first and only one I have caught there measured a full 16 inches. It was taken from a pool not far downstream of highway #281. Two others, caught that same day by Angie, were both under 12 inches. We only fished the stream, one at a time for about two hours.
This river probably has few areas where the water isn’t dropping from one plunge pool to another. There are few riffles, rather mostly all small, deep extremely clear pools. The brown trout are in the pools and the few runs that may exist. We have only seen a short section of the four miles of river below highway #281 and other areas may vary but based on the declination of the river, I seriously doubt it.
We suggest you fish very early or late during the time the skies are clear. Fishing on low pressure days, when there’s good cloud cover, will make the “catching” much easier from this type of stream. There’s little, if any, cover in the stream unless a tree happened to have fallen in the river. The larger brown trout hide under crevices in the rocks and boulders during the day. In this type of water, you are far better off fishing a nymph
in all the deep, dark likely places you can find as opposed to fishing a dry fly. The smaller browns do take dry flies at times but catching a large one on a dry fly is like trying to win the lottery.
The best time to catch a large brown from this stream (or any other similar one) is during the Fall spawning season when they loose much of their caution. I’m not suggesting you fish for them on their redds but rather prior to the actual spawn, although I doubt anyone is going to do much harm to the trout population in this stream. I would guess over ninety percent of its waters are never fished.