Guide To Panfish Fishing In North Carolina

All about fishing for panfish in NC lakes and ponds.

Throughout the state of North Carolina you can find waters with populations of sunfish, including bluegill, flier sunfish, green sunfish, pumpkinseed sunfish, redbreast sunfish, redear sunfish, warmouth, white bass, white perch and yellow perch.

Panfish & Perch Lakes

Major lakes in the state with populations of sunfish include Apalachia Lake, Badin Lake, Belews Lake, Blewett Falls Lake, Buckhorn Reservoir, Chatuge Lake, Cheoah Lake, Falls Lake, Fontana Lake, Graham-Mebane Lake, Harris Lake, High Rock Lake, Hiwassee Lake, Hyco Lake, Jordan Lake, Kernersville Lake, Kerr Lake, King Mountain Reservoir, Lake Benson, Lake Cammack, Lake Crabtree, Lake Gaston, Lake Glenville, Lake Hickory, Lake Higgins, Lake James, Lake Mackintosh, Lake Mattamuskeet, Lake Nantahala, Lake Norman, Lake Rhodhiss, Lake Sutton, Lake Tillery, Lake Townsend, Lake Waccamaw, Lake Wheeler, Lake Wylie, Mayo Reservoir, Mountain Island Lake, Moss Lake, Phelps Lake, Randleman Lake, Roanoke Rapids Lake, Salem Lake, Santeetlah Lake, Shearon Harris Reservoir, Tar River Reservoir and W Kerr Scott Reservoir.

Top Producing Panfish Lures & Bait

Check out the top producing lures and bait for bluegill, redear sunfish, rock bass and warmouth, as well as other smaller sunfish. Click here for the best lures for white bass, yellow bass, white perch and yellow perch.

NC Panfish Species

Click the images and links above for species details.

The state record bluegill was caught somewhere in Henderson County.

The state record flier sunfish was taken from a private pond.

The state record green sunfish came from a farm pond in Caswell County.

The Trent River served up the state record pumpkinseed sunfish.

The Big Swamp in gave up the state record redbreast sunfish.

The state record redear sunfish came from a private pond.

The state record white perch came from Falls Lake.

The state record yellow perch came out of Indiantown Creek.

Bluegill Fishing Basics Video

The core principles shown in this video will work for most sunfish, perch and other panfish.

Lori Hall with a dandy sunfish caught from a local pond in Durham County, North Carolina.

One or more species of sunfish populate virtually all warm water streams, ponds and lakes throughout North Carolina, and around the world for that matter. They can survive in waters that provide their natural food source of minnows, insects, crustaceans and worms. Their competitive nature amongst themselves, for food, makes them relatively easy to catch.

Panfish are prolific spawners and repopulate the waters as fast as they are harvested. A common problem with panfish fishing is that the waters are under-fished causing panfish to overpopulate. As a result they tend to stay small in size due to lack of food source.

The term "panfish" comprises many species, each called by a variety of names. The bluegill tops the list and is the most common.

Sunfish information in other states.