Lake Raleigh

Lake Raleigh is a  75  acre lake  on Walnut Creek and located on NC States  Centennial Campus

***I have pictures and a video of the bottom of the lake and in August of 2022 I scanned and uploaded these to Youtube.  see the bottom of this article for the link to the video of the pictures. **********

    Lake Raleigh's Dam was breached during hurricane Fran in September 1996 and the Dam was rebuilt and then  re-flooded in early 2000.  I have pictures of the bottom just before flooding and will try to post those in the near future.    The State did not allow fishing from 2000 - 2007 in an effort to help build up the fishery.   Lake Raleigh has what you would typically expect for a  small Central NC  impoundment.   Largemouth Bass, White and Black Crappie, Bluegill, ShellCrackers, Green Sunfish, Channel Cats, Bullheads, Carp  and the lake also has a nice population of Shad.

Fishing is restricted to daylight and you also must possess a valid NCSU parking pass between the hours of 7am and 5pm.  If You are not a student or an employee and don't have a pass you are restricted to either fishing before 7am or after 5 pm or buying a day pass which cost 10 dollars. Also, this pass cannot be purchased online and must be purchased at   2721 Sullivan ST.  The  phone number for this office is 919.515.7572  .  The website for Transportation is www.ncsu.edu/transportation

***Parking Information Updated 08/02/20**** 

There is a small parking lot at Lake Raleigh but it requires a NC State parking Permit Mon-FRi from 7am-5pm.  You can pick up a 15 dollar visitor day pass at the Transportation Dept  2721 Sullivan Dr Administrative Services Bldg or you can utilize the Park Mobile app  https://parkmobile.io/ and pay for parking at the Poulton Deck (across the street from the Hunt Library ) on Partners Way. The cost is 3.00 dollars for the first hour and 2.00 every hour after that or a maximum of 15.00 for the while day. 

The parking lot only has 6 regular spots and 1 handicapped spot. If these are full you can park on       Main Campus Drive where there are aprox 15 spaces. 



Boats are restricted to cartop or in the bed of a pickup as no trailers are allowed as the spaces are not long enough for trailers and no motors which makes it ideal for canoes and kayaks.   Here is a picture of the Parking lot and Ramp.

 Lake Raleigh also has 2 really nice fishing piers for the boat less angler. 1 is just upstream from the ramp and the other is below the ramp.

This is the one below the ramp-

And the one above the ramp.

Here are a few shots from around the Lake.  The first being a shot just upstream of the dam.

Looking down the spill way into Walnut Creek.

A view of the spillway below the dam.

Some shots of the upper end of the lake.

I also saw a big nest which is either an Osprey nest(most likely) or an Eagle nest as I observed both species while I was on the lake .  Since my visit was way after nesting season none were observed right on the nest though both species were close to it.  The nest is right in middle of this Loblolly Pine.

Here is an aerial view of the lake showing the approximate location of the nest and the locations of the Parking lot, Piers, ramp and Spillway.

I fished lake Raleigh For a few hours and while I struck out I know there are some nice bass in this Lake.  Lake Johnson upstream of this lake produces really big bass so I am sure this one does as well.

A gentleman on the pier had some nice  Crappie that he caught while I was canoeing.

Here is the video of the Bottom of the lake . Pictures taken in early 2001 just before the dam was closed. 

Thanks for Looking, Mack

#lakeraleigh

#raleigh