Reddit reviews Carolina Whitewater: A Paddler's Guide to the Western Carolinas (Canoe and Kayak Series)

Checkout the Western Carolina Kayaking group on meetup.com. Even if you don't want to participate in meetups, you can get an idea of where to go and what level the water is at different places by looking at the past events and looking at the pics or reading the comments.

My husband and I just went up to Bear Creek Lake near Cashiers last weekend. It was a really scenic lake and without hundreds of houses lining the banks. There's also a huge waterfall you can hike up to the base of, but we didn't have time to do it.

There are a bunch of recreational lakes within a 1-1.5 hour drive. Lake Lure, Lake Junaluska, Fontana Lake, Lake Glenville and on and on. I usually just browse around on google maps, find a lake that looks nice and then Google some info about it.

For rivers, you'll probably want to look at taking a skills class or a guided tour where they let you bring your own boats, before trying it out on your own. The exception being certain stretches of the French Broad. You'll need a shuttle anyway for a river, and there are outfitters in Asheville who will drop you off at the put in for the Class I float and then you don't have to worry about finding it yourself.

You might also want to look into purchasing a river guide. My husband and I got Carolina Whitewater as a gift and it is pretty thorough.