Lake Jocasse trip this fall...

CliffA

CliffA

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2009
4,712
Lake Norman, NC
Boat Info
2001 Sea Ray 340DA
Name: 'Happy Place'
4.5kW West. Generator
Purchased Nov. 2014
Fresh Water Use
Engines
Twin Merc. 6.2L (MPI)
640 hp (Total)
Raw Water Cooled
V-Drive Transmissions
so my wife and i are wanting to take the boat to Lake Jocassee for the first time this fall...we prefer to go when the leaves are changing color...we will likely want to camp overnight...anyone have any ideas about the best time of year for this trip and/or good camping spots or any other info we should have?....i hear there are a couple of waterfalls to see...anything else?...i also hear the lake is very deep...how much anchor rode do i need to bring to give me at least a 5:1 scope while on the hook?...the lake looks very nice in the pics i have seen, especially with the mountains in the background...

thanks...
 
There has been some great CSR gatherings before. Do a search and you should find some good info. I think I may even have a garmin GPS track with some of the waterfalls on it.
 
"e-mail my son. He lives in Greenville and that is his hangout with his 19 footer. sjcharna@aol.com. I will let him know"

thanks...my son went to Clemson and lived in Greenville for a couple years after college but he did not spend much time on the lake...



"We got 6 boats headed up there on October 21-23. C'mon and join in."

thanks....we may just take you up on that offer....



"There are many who visit Jocasse on this site. Check out Devils Fork. There are also parks along Hwy 11 going to the Lake. We boat on Lake Keowee and stay in the state park just north and east of the lake on Hwy 11.

http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/ca...n_camping.aspx"

thanks...i'll do a little more research on what the lake has to offer as well as some more forum searches....




"There has been some great CSR gatherings before. Do a search and you should find some good info. I think I may even have a garmin GPS track with some of the waterfalls on it."

thanks...any info you can give us is appreciated...
 
Kermit said:
What is the lake level right now?
Click to expand...

Looks like 80 feet as of today. Last year when we were there it was 85. Actually when it is low like that you can see where you are going (avoid rocks) better up the creeks and there are some great sand bars to park the boats and walk around. In addition, there are a lot more waterfalls to see when it is down. Otherwise, they are just creeks running into the lake.
 
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Hellman Huddle said:
Looks like 80 feet as of today. Last year when we were there it was 85. Actually when it is low like that you can see where you are going (avoid rocks) better up the creeks and there are some great sand bars to park the boats and walk around. In addition, there are a lot more waterfalls to see when it is down. Otherwise, they are just creeks running into the lake.
Click to expand...

With the recient rains, the falls shoud be running and the leaves beautifull, Looking forward to a great weekend. Just wish the moon was full, but the stars should be bright.
 
nickysc said:
With the recient rains, the falls shoud be running and the leaves beautifull, Looking forward to a great weekend. Just wish the moon was full, but the stars should be bright.
Click to expand...

No full moons! The Last full moon didn't turn out to well did it?
 
we badly want to come but not 100% sure at this point if we will be able to....we don't want to hold the group up, so if we can make it to the lake maybe we can meet up...if we are able to go we will be looking for you....
 
we did get to Lake Jocassee this w/e on Sunday around noon....the water level was about 20 ft low...this made for an 'interesting' launching and retrieval process...the ramp was pretty steep and around 100 ft (guessing) due to the low water level....once we got the boat to the water launching was not too bad...however the dock was completely on dry land so there was no easy way to pick up my wife after launching...we had to beach the boat near the ramp after launching so my wife could get onboard...again, not too bad except for the VERY sticky mud along the bank....once we headed out we met a few boats from 'Carolina Boaters'...we chatted for a few minutes and then started exploring the lake...this was our first time at Jocassee and we were 'wowed' by the beauty of the lake...the leaves were not quite at peak color yet but still very pretty...the water was blue and clear and cold (70*F) and still plenty deep...even with the low water level we saw depths around 300 feet in some spots...we spent around 4 - 5 hrs exploring the lake...we found one very nice waterfall that we could drive right up to...it was called 'Mills Creek Falls' if i remember correctly....we drifted for a little while in the big section of the lake and had some lunch...we headed in around 5:00 Sunday afternoon....overall it was a nearly perfect day boating...the weather was clear and sunny with a temp around 65*F...the wind was very light so we only needed a light wind breaker to stay warm...the boat ran great and we didn't have any issues with the truck or trailer which is always nice...this was our first time visiting a mountain lake with our boat so we were not sure how our Mercury Mountaineer would perform towing the boat up and down the foothills, but it did a good job overall...there were a couple long steep hills that we dropped to around 45 mph but usually we were able to stay within 5 mph of the posted speed limit...we will definetly add Jocassee to our 'favorite lakes' list and plan on many more trips back...we still have a lot more lake to explore yet and there are all kinds of historical sites around we still want to see.....we highly recommend visiting the lake to anyone within a reasonable distance....
 
Cool thanks for sharing, but do I need to say... Pictures, Pictures... (grin)
 
i'll get my wife to post the pics on the Wal-mart web site and post the link here...
 
Cool pictures, thanks for sharing. Yep that is a long ramp. It was that same way a couple years ago when we went last.
 
chuck1 said:
Cool pictures, thanks for sharing. Yep that is a long ramp. It was that same way a couple years ago when we went last.
Click to expand...


the Carolina Boaters had a couple boats in the 26 - 28' size....i don't know if they had any issues launching and loading...we had all we wanted just handling our little 22 footer....
 
No problems with the longer ramp! The length and angle is not a problem with my diesel truck and the other two had four wheel drive. Wiht the water level down, it was easy to beach the boat to get on and off the boat. I was able to dingy in to load my boat.
 
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