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Home › Waters › Georgia › Carters Lake
Reservoir · North Georgia mountains · Georgia

Carters Lake Fishing Guides

The deepest lake in Georgia, a pumped-storage project in the mountains with almost no shoreline development and a daily water-level swing that fish respond to.

A small boat pulled up on a calm reservoir bank at sunset

Map of the Carters Lake

10 numbered points: 5 access points, 2 campsites, 1 outfitter, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 26, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (5)
  • Campsite (2)
  • Outfitter / canoe rental (1)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 10 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Carters Dam
Corps of Engineers, Murray County		Dam / hazard34.61371, -84.67125The 445-ft earthen dam at the lake's west end - the highest east of the Mississippi. Pumped-storage generation moves the reregulation pool below it without warning.
2USGS gauge - Carters Lake
Roster gauge coordinate		USGS gauge34.61658, -84.67311Lake level and outflow for the Carters project. Check it before a pumped-storage day; the reregulation pool below the dam rises fast.
3Dam Site
COE, Murray County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.60684, -84.65715The ramp closest to the dam and the usual launch for the lower lake. Campground and day-use area on the same road.
4Carters Lake Marina and Resort
Private marina, Gilmer County		Outfitter / canoe rental34.60245, -84.65063The lake's only marina - slips, fuel, boat and pontoon rental, cabins. The one place on Carters to hire a boat.
5Woodring Branch Day Use Area
COE, Gilmer County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.61021, -84.63555Mid-lake ramp and swim beach on the north shore, separate from the campground 900 m west.
6Woodring Branch Camping Area
COE campground, Gilmer County		Campsite34.61262, -84.64596Corps campground on the north shore with its own launch. Open seasonally; reservable.
7Doll Mountain Day Use Area
COE, Gilmer County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.61080, -84.61525Ramp on the Doll Mountain peninsula, the usual launch for the upper Coosawattee arm.
8Doll Mountain Camping Area
COE campground, Gilmer County		Campsite34.60932, -84.61816Corps campground beside the Doll Mountain ramp, 200 m from the day-use area.
9Ridgeway
COE, Gilmer County - paved ramp, fee		Access / boat ramp34.65055, -84.61031The northernmost ramp on the lake, on the Tails Creek arm. Mountain-bike trailhead at the same site.
10Coosawattee - Carters Lake WMA
COE / WMA - paved ramp, no fee		Access / boat ramp34.61026, -84.67930On the reregulation reservoir BELOW Carters Dam, not on the lake itself. The tailwater launch; water level here swings with generation.

Guides on the Carters Lake

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Carters Lake

Carters is the deepest lake in Georgia and it neither looks nor fishes like the rest of the state. The Corps built it as a pumped-storage project on the Coosawattee River in the mountains north of Ellijay, and the combination of great depth, steep forested shoreline and almost no private development gives it clear water and a genuinely remote feel within about two hours of Atlanta.

Spotted bass are the primary fishery and they behave the way spots behave in deep clear water: relating to bluff ends, points and bait rather than to cover, and feeding well off the bank in water most anglers would idle straight over. Largemouth are present but secondary. The lake also holds walleye, which is unusual this far south and is the result of stocking into water cold enough to support them through the summer.

Pumped storage is the thing to understand before fishing Carters. Water is moved between the main lake and the reregulation pool below the dam, and the resulting level change is larger and faster than on a conventional reservoir. It can move within a single day. Fish respond to that movement, and anglers who fish it often plan around the generation schedule at least as much as around the weather.

Access is almost entirely through Corps recreation areas, and there is no strip of docks and boathouses to fish. That absence changes the game: without shoreline cover to work along, anglers here spend their time on offshore structure, on the timber lines left in the creek arms, and on bait. It rewards electronics and patience more than casting accuracy.

The gauge below gives the lake surface elevation. On most reservoirs that number tells you about the season. On Carters it tells you about today.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Carters Lake.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

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2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

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5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Pool right now

1,071.76ft
  • 24 hours+0.23 ft ↑ rising
  • For the dateAbout normal for the date

Reading taken 51 min ago at USGS 02381400, CARTERS LAKE NEAR CARTERS, GA. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Carters Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Carters Lake ft

Now: 1,071.76 ft pool elevation, read 7:15 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 02381400, CARTERS LAKE NEAR CARTERS, GA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Woodring Branch: Corps ramp and campground on the north side.
Doll Mountain: Corps ramp, camping and access to the upper lake.
Ridgeway: day-use ramp with quick access to the main lake.
Damsite and the reregulation pool: bank access and a separate small fishery below.
Carters Lake Marina: the only marina on the lake, with fuel and rentals.
Coosawattee arm: the upper end, shallower and first to colour after rain.
Note: development is minimal, so nearly all access is through Corps recreation areas.

Seasons

Winter: deep, clear and slow, with walleye beginning to move toward the upper end.
Spring: the best all-round fishing, spotted bass shallow and walleye catchable.
Summer: deep fish, very clear water, early starts and light line.
Fall: cooling water brings bait and bass back up onto the points.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Carters Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Spotted Bass, Walleye on the Carters Lake in Georgia.

Are there fishing guides on the Carters Lake?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Carters Lake. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Carters Lake?

Woodring Branch: Corps ramp and campground on the north side. Doll Mountain: Corps ramp, camping and access to the upper lake. Ridgeway: day-use ramp with quick access to the main lake. Damsite and the reregulation pool: bank access and a separate small fishery below. Carters Lake Marina: the only marina on the lake, with fuel and rentals. Coosawattee arm: the upper end, shallower and first to colour after rain. Note: development is minimal, so nearly all access is through Corps recreation areas.

When is the best time to fish the Carters Lake?

Winter: deep, clear and slow, with walleye beginning to move toward the upper end. Spring: the best all-round fishing, spotted bass shallow and walleye catchable. Summer: deep fish, very clear water, early starts and light line. Fall: cooling water brings bait and bass back up onto the points.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Carters Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Georgia agency site: https://georgiawildlife.com/fishing-regulations