Fishing

Lake Wylie offers some of the best fishing in the southeast. Anglers from across the country as well as first timers from family docks have landed a wide variety of fish, from largemouth bass to channel catfish.

At 13,400 acres with 325 miles of shoreline, Lake Wylie is home to fish in its shallows, around docks, or in the greater depths up to 82 feet (lake depth averages 20 feet). With little natural vegetation in Lake Wylie, due to its high turbidity, fish tend to be oriented toward structure, water temperatures, and corresponding oxygen levels.

Lake Wylie is divided down the middle between North and South Carolina, so both states’ fishing licenses need to be in your possession when fishing Lake Wylie, or you need to have at least one of the state’s licenses in your possession and make sure you stay on that state’s side of the lake. South Carolina fishing licenses can be procured from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources at https://www.dnr.sc.gov/licensing.html. North Carolina fishing licenses can be procured from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission at https://www.ncwildlife.org/licensing/hunting-fishing-trapping-licenses.

Lake Wylie is a very diverse fishery. Known fish species include shad, alewives, blueback herring, white perch, crappie, spotted bass, bream, largemouth bass, blue catfish, flathead catfish, channel catfish, yellow perch, carp (including sterile grass carp not to be harvested), smallmouth buffalo, gar, and bowfin. Shad (most often threadfin and gizzard shad) are the predominant baitfish in Lake Wylie. Rarely, a striped bass is caught having flowed down from an upper lake. One northern snakehead was known to be caught in Lake Wyle. The South Carolina state record white perch at 1 pound and 15.2 ounces was caught in Lake Wylie. The North Carolina state record smallmouth buffalo at 88 pounds was caught in Lake Wylie.

Though once considered a top largemouth bass fishery in the Southeast (Lake Wylie hosted the Bassmaster Classic in 2004), largemouth bass populations and individual fish sizes are decreasing, partly due to fishing pressures and the introduction of spotted bass. The spotted bass (technically Alabama Bass) have been introduced illegally and are becoming the predominant bass species. They are generally smaller than largemouth bass and can be differentiated by their connected dorsal fin, spotted lateral stripe, and closed jaw line terminating before the back of their eyes. White bass used to be prevalent in Lake Wylie, but with the introduction of white perch, the white bass population is almost non-existent now. The channel catfish population appears to be on the decline since the introduction of blue catfish and flathead catfish, which are increasing in population and individual fish sizes. Snakehead fish are an invasive species, and one has been caught in Lake Wylie.

It is illegal and can be devastating for the fishery to introduce non-native fish species into Lake Wylie. If you catch a northern snakehead fish (not to be confused with the bowfin which has a shorter anal fin, less than half the length of the dorsal fin), do not release it; instead freeze it and contact either the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources or the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, depending on the state where it was caught. Sterile grass carp have been introduced by the Lake Wylie Marine Commission to control the spread of invasive hydrilla plants. If you catch a grass carp, they are costly and not to be harvested; please release it. Also, please wash off your boats and wash out your live wells before bringing your boats from other waterways onto Lake Wylie or upon departing Lake Wylie.

Currently Lake Wylie does not have any zebra mussels and very little of the invasive hydrilla and alligator weed.