This section provides information on more than 500 publicly accessible places to fish in North Carolina. You can find information on the location of publicly accessible fishing piers, boat ramps, and canoe launches, as well as places that provide bank and wade fishing opportunities. The NCWRC Fish Attractor Map and Coordinates are provided, as well as additional resources such as the NCWRC county trout fishing maps and a link to the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries website.
The interactive fishing access map is intended to be a comprehensive information source for anglers looking for a place to fish in North Carolina. The map allows you to view public fishing areas and NCWRC managed trout streams throughout the state.
The viewer can search for public sites based on the type of access they are interested in (i.e. piers, boat ramps, universal access, etc.), the species they are interested in, access sites within a specific county, sites within a specific distance from their location, or by water body name.
Use the Public Mountain Trout Waters Search to locate a great new place to fish for trout in the mountains of North Carolina or learn more about the rules and regulations of trout fishing.
This search can help you locate Public Mountain Trout Waters and show you which regulatory classifications apply. You can open a map and zoom to the selected water once you have made a list of locations or save your list as a PDF document to read when you are on the go.
Create and download a fishing access guide in PDF format.
The NCWRC, along with several cooperators, have routinely placed fish attractors in public lakes and ponds throughout North Carolina. (Click here for images of fish attractors.) While many of these sites are marked with buoys, many are unmarked and can be hard to locate without GPS coordinates. The above map contains information on more than 500 fish attractor sites deployed by NCWRC in over 50 water bodies. Also, GPS coordinates for each are provided below. Map datum used for these files is WGS84 and all coordinates are formatted in decimal degrees.
Fish attractor coordinates for downloading to personal GPS devices:
Excel file type GPX file type
Updated April 2022
Tackle Loaner Program - borrow rods and reels, free of charge, for the day, at select city and county parks statewide.
Rhodes Pond Update - timeline on Rhodes Pond dating back to 2005 and other information regarding the lake.
N.C. Stream Conditions - websites that provide information on current stream flow conditions and projected release schedules from hydro power stations.