Top of Page Entered on Thu Jul 15, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Wes Lewis, NC Sportsman Field Reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Mountain Island Lake boating regulations The Mountain Island Marine Commission completed the last of the three public hearings to discuss the proposed boating regulations on Mountain Island Lake.
During the meeting on July 7th, many people spoke out against the regulations and the proposed access permits. Among those against the proposed regulations was the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.
In a release that was read at the meeting, the NCWRC announced they were against any regulations that would restrict boating on public waterways.
After the public was heard and the statement by the NWRC, the Mountain Island Lake Marine Commission president, Pam Beck, stated that the commission would need to re-evaluate the regulations. She also suggested a panel of 'stakeholders' selected from the public that will assist the Commission in the future planning on MIL.
Top of Page Entered on Sat Jul 31, 2010 at 12:06 am
TAWatkins
Fishing Freshwater in Northern North Carolina
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Lunkers at Lake Hunt Caught these three lunkers within 40 minutes at Lake Hunt in Rockingham county, NC. The largest one weighed 6 lbs 15 oz. Fish were caught on 7/10/10
Top of Page Entered on Fri Jul 30, 2010 at 9:35 am
Walt Bowen - NC Sportsman field reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Northeastern North Carolina
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Kerr and Gaston reports Well I had a great time catching bass on Lake Gaston last Friday, but in hind sight I would probably have been better off practicing for Saturday’s tournament on Kerr Lake. Based on my wife Susan’s recommendation that I not practice (since she thinks I do better when I don’t) I went into Saturdays event blind so to speak, having not fished on Kerr at all since early July. As it turned out the Kerr bite was somewhat shallower than I anticipated, and had I practiced I may have figured that out in time for Saturdays Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament. The bass seemed to be lying in ambush around cover in 5 – 10 foot of water, waiting for small schools of young butterbean sized shad to pass by, offering an easy meal. I didn’t realize this until Sunday when I went out fishing for fun with Susan and Fred.
I did have two nice fish Saturday weighing 6.31 pounds total, including one that weighed nearly 4.5 pounds. One came on a jig around rocks, and the other on a plastic worm on a READ MORE ....
Top of Page Entered on Tue Jul 27, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Wes Lewis, NC Sportsman Field Reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Lake Rhodhiss Anglers are reporting some catches of bass and striper on Lake Rhodhiss.
Bass anglers are catching fish on the typical summer patterns of topwater baits in the mornings and evenings and with deep crankbaits or worms with the sun high in the air.
Striper anglers are deep trolling the points with bucktail jigs and cut bait with some success by marking the fish with depthfinders and dropping the baits to the schools.
Occasionally, some other fish find their way on the baits as crappie and bream still give chase.
Fall is on the way, but for now, there are still fish to be caught!
Top of Page Entered on Tue Jul 27, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Wes Lewis, NC Sportsman Field Reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Lake James summer fishing Anglers wanting to beat the heat on Lake James are going out a little earlier or later in the days now.
Some anglers are reporting bass hitting top water in the early mornings, with some nice fish being caught in the Catawba River arm of the lake. By working the main lake points, anglers are catching largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Walleye anglers are fishing very deep, as deep as 45 ft with nightcrawler rigs or shad imitations to get a few in the boat.
Bream are still near shallows, especially near any docks or trees in the water. Small spinners and curly tail jigs are taking some of these.
Even thought it’s hot outside, fishing is still a happening thing on Lake James.
Lake James is located out I-40 off of Exit 90, near Nebo.
Top of Page Entered on Thu Jul 22, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Walt Bowen - NC Sportsman field reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Northern North Carolina
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Way up North Report From last week’s trip to the great North –
On the first night in my campsite at the Plattsburg NY RV Park I met two nice couples from Quebec City who I found out travel 3.5 hours each way weekly to camp and boat on Lake Champlain. I was grilling a steak and getting ready to go in my camper to eat when they asked if I would care to bring my plate over and join them for dinner. Being the outgoing people person that I am I said sure and we had a great meal and discussion. Most of our talk centered around politics, mainly on how they feel about Canada’s government provided healthcare system.
They weren’t very pleased with the state of healthcare in their country, and reported that if you get a major illness you have two choices. Either wait in line for services until you die, or travel to the US and pay for your own healthcare. They also reported that while education including college is basically free in Canada, most doctors move to the US when they graduate in order to make READ MORE ....
Top of Page Entered on Thu Jul 22, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Walt Bowen - NC Sportsman field reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Northeastern North Carolina
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Kerr Lake Striper and Catfish report Randy Owen from Henderson sends this report from Kerr Lake -
I went out on Kerr Lake Friday at 2:00 p.m. to do some live baiting for Stripers. We put the boat in at County Line park and made our way through the Islands, eventually coming upon a nice size school of Stripers in 40 foot of water.
Joel Bartholomew (AKA Houndog) and I dropped 6 lines in the water. Houndog caught a 6 lb striper and then I had a take down. I grabbed the rod and I knew right then it was something big. It took a good 10 min to get him up just
to see that it was a Blue Catfish. As soon as he saw the boat he went straight back down to the bottom. On the 3rd time when he came up, Houndog was able to get the net under his head just before he bolted out of the net and went back to the bottom.
On the 4th time when he came up Houndog was able to net his head and I threw the rod down and grabbed his tail and the other side of the net. It took a total of 30 minutes from the time I hooked him to the READ MORE ....
Top of Page Entered on Fri Jul 9, 2010 at 10:54 am
Andy Crawford, NorthCarolinaSportsman
Fishing Freshwater in Northeastern North Carolina
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New Product Showcase The latest innovations in fishing tackle and accessories will be introduced this week during the ICAST show in Las Vegas, and we're on hand to provide all the details.
Be sure to check out our dedicated New Product Showcase. Just look for the banner ad on the front page and scattered about the other pages.
Top of Page Entered on Wed Jul 14, 2010 at 8:46 am
Wes Lewis, NC Sportsman Field Reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Lake Norman’s bass still hitting in the heat The water temperatures are up on Lake Norman and the bass fishing almost as hot.
Anglers are catching bass during the day on medium running crankbaits worked off the ends docks that are near deeper water. Koppers Live Target Shad and the Rapala DT 6, both in shad patterns, are catching numbers of bass.
Topwater baits are taking the early morning and late evening bass, working them across long, tapering points.
Tubes are also taking some bas around the docks. Vertical Lures Tube-X baits in the watermelon seed color is taking some bass.
There aren’t a lot of larger bass being caught right now, but numbers of fish can be caught with some persistence and lots of sunscreen!
Top of Page Entered on Mon Jul 12, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Capt Craig Price
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Lake Norman July 2010 Water temperatures in the upper 80F range has made daytime striper fishing sporadic, but the bass, catfish and white perch fishing continues to be strong. There are good early morning bites along the lower main river channel using an assortment of live baits and shallow running artificials. Fish deeper in these same areas as the day brightens. Major creek channels in the 20-40 ft range are good sources of white perch. When schools of perch or bait are found in the creeks, trophy catfish are often under them.
Top of Page Entered on Sat Jul 10, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Justin S
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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10 Plus pounder HOW big yal think?? Cought this monster at local pond on a popper and I think its @ lest 10 pounds? Cought on a small 10 pound spinning outfit. Could this be some sort of NC record? please give me imput.
little pond monster My buddy caught thins one on live minnow at a local pond. we never caught any thing this size outta there very suprised. weighed in @ 5 lbs and 21 1/2 in. long
Top of Page Entered on Wed Jul 7, 2010 at 11:42 am
Bassmaster
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Stripers on the Lake! Went up to Tillery for a weekend. Stripers are starting to school up more at the Yadkin chain of Lakes in July. Got this nice striper on Tillery while trolling the bucktails. I think I had two on at one time!!! One of our mono leaders snapped!!! I thought I was hung til the rod started jerking all crazy!!!! Most stripers we catch are no more than 5-7lbs so this was a nice treat. Fish was 10lbs and was good eatin'!!!! The other fish was 14lbs and is going on the wall. Skinned him out the other day.But still going to the coast this winter to catch one that could eat him!!LOL!!! Tight lines!
Back from HONEY HOLE Well I was right. These big monsters where caught only 26 minutes apart. I didnt weigh them or measure there lengths cause of HATERS on here wanting to say I am a liar .so I cleaned them and put them in the freezer instead just look at the pic and you judge
Top of Page Entered on Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 9:11 pm
10883
Fishing Freshwater in Eastern North Carolina
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good day! cats & crappie from one small pond and bass from another. cats caught on liver and old hotdogs crappie on a curly tail grub jig by my wife.
Top of Page Entered on Wed Jul 7, 2010 at 11:47 am
Walt Bowen - NC Sportsman field reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Northeastern North Carolina
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Kerr Lake fishing (not catching) report Last weekend I experienced some of the slowest bass fishing on Kerr Lake that I’ve ever seen. It’s always slow this time of year, but it was brutal last weekend. I caught only a few small bass over 4 days fishing (I only fished a few hours each day due to the heat). The one good bass I hooked at around 5:00 AM on Monday morning jumped and threw the hook after eating the white and black Jitterbug I was retrieving by the rocks on Nutbush Bridge.
There were a lot of boats out jigging, live baiting and trolling for stripers. Randy Owen from Henderson reported catching nice limits of stripers between 6 and 11 pounds, as well as several catfish, all on live bait.
I will be going from the slowest fishing I have experienced in a while to what I expect will be some of the best fishing I have ever experienced, as I am heading to Lake Champlain on the US Canada border for 10 days of bass fishing, the last 3 of which will be in the FLW American Fishing Series tournament. Last year w READ MORE ....
Pregnant Lady Lands Pregnant Fish. So me, my girlfriend, and a buddy went fishing in the sandy creek reservoir. Me and him didn't catch jack or squat! My girl laying down in front of me cast a booyah blade I had put on to fish with since she didnt want to use the pole anymore. Two casts and then this PIG showed her face! Beautiful fish I must say and the biggest I have personally seen. No scales, so I couldnt get a weight but I estimated the fish to be at least 30 inches. With no motor, just a couple paddles and some determination it all made for a memorable trip.
Top of Page Entered on Thu Jun 17, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Wes Lewis, NC Sportsman Field Reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Jordan Lake Stripers Anglers are reporting catching a number of stripers now with many of the stripers being caught trolling white bucktails and diving plugs. The fish are being marked on the depth finders and the lures lowered to the schools of stripers.
Live bait anglers are also reporting catching stripers by dropping the baits to the schools that are marked.
Many of the fish are reported being caught in the area from the S-turns to the Hwy 64 bridge and in the Haw Creek section of the lake.
Rattling baits, like the LiveTarget golden shiner, cast on the main lake points near dusk is producing some striper action as well.
Top of Page Entered on Fri Jul 2, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Kevin KBO Rigsbee
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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First Post and Fishing Picture Caught this nice 7.1 at falls lake in durham last week.. the bite has seemed to slow tremendously! i need to get better at fishing these summer patterns. this is my first post and im trying to get used to this whole thing.
Top of Page Entered on Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 11:04 am
Mike Deal
Fishing Freshwater in Western North Carolina
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Father's Day Bass On Father's Day 2010, We had a family fishing trip to a farm pond. We caught many crappie and small bass. My son caught this 10 1/2 lb. large mouth bass. And then 5 minutes later I caught the 13 lb. large mouth bass. This was a great family day. These two fish will be wall hangers and lots of memories.
Top of Page Entered on Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Candice Wilson
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Striper fishing We caught these striper on Memorial Day weekend in High Rock Lake. The one I'm holding was 10.5 lbs. and 29 inches long. The one on the left was 6 lbs. They were amazing and beautiful fish to catch. It was a great way to spend the holiday weekend!
Top of Page Entered on Sun Jun 20, 2010 at 8:28 am
crazyj
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Nite Fishing This is a small 5 pounder I caught tonite.I threw him back so he could get bigger.He hit a 5 inch jitterbug....Not no luck on the big one yet but im still trying
Randleman Reservoir Randleman Reservoir just opened to the public this March. I didn't start
fishing it until I started hearing reports of 20-30 bass a day being caught
so I made the trip from Winston-Salem to the new lake. This lake is awesome!
It's like Shearon Harris was when it first opened back in the 80's. We
caught several 2-3 lbrs and tons of 12-13' fish. We lost count after about
25 fish. This 6 lb bass was caught May 21st on a shadrap which caught about half the bass and a carolina rig caught the rest. Give it a try but remember it's $15 to launch!
Top of Page Entered on Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Walt Bowen - NC Sportsman field reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Northeastern North Carolina
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Kerr Lake Fishing report You may find this hard to believe (I know I do and besides I AM a fisherman), but my wife Susan, our dog Fred and I won a husband and wife tournament on Kerr Lake this past Saturday. No that’s not the part that’s hard to believe, but this is - Susan and I have entered 4 tournaments over the last few years, and we have come in first place in all 4 of them, along with catching the biggest fish in two. While the latest tournament was not a big event and had only 6 teams competing, one of the others was a big deal with 59 boats, and the other 2 were around 20 boats each. Now that’s hard for even me to believe.
We aren’t sure whether this results from our each of our kindred spirits motivating the mood of the other thru praise and mutual love, therefore positively impacting our performance, or that we aggravate each other to the point that we perform well to spite each other. I tend to hope it’s the former.
Using last Friday as a practice day, I landed several fish, including two READ MORE ....
Top of Page Entered on Wed Jun 30, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Sparse Grey Hackle
Fishing Freshwater in Western North Carolina
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Another Piggy Trout Here's another fish from my last trip. This one took a beetle. He was tucked up under a mess of brush. Absolutely beautiful colors... Can't wait for Fall!!!
Top of Page Entered on Tue Jun 29, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Sparse Grey Hackle
Fishing Freshwater in Western North Carolina
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Piggy Trout So, my fishing buddy and I decided to take one last trip to our secret honey hole somewhere in the mountains of North Carolina before the heat and water levels put too much stress on our little trout friends. We tied on Beetles and fished the banks. It was like Smallmouth fishing. Slam the bug down, get a hit. Anyway, we were having a ball and I noticed a shadow hanging out by a big boulder. After I stared long enough, I convinced myself it was a fish, so I switched tippet, tied on a stonefly nymph and a Prince dropper and started rolling casts up against the rock. About six casts later, the indicator stopped, I set the hook and nothing. It took about ten seconds for him to realize he was hooked. Then it all broke loose!! This bad boy was 27 inches long and every bit of 7 1/2 pounds. Very cool...
Top of Page Entered on Tue Jun 29, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Wes Lewis, NC Sportsman Field Reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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Lake Norman spotted bass Lake Norman’s spotted bass are running deeper these days due to the heat, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be caught. Deep running crankbaits are a good way to put a few in the boat.
Anglers are reporting catching the spots on long points by using diving crankbaits that can reach depths of 14 to 20 feet. Koppers LiveTarget deep running craws, Rapala DT 14s and 16s and Norman DD22 baits are taking some nice fish off the points that are close to the main water.
Morning and evening topwater and jerkbaits are also taking some decent fish, along with an occasional striper mixed in.
Some largemouth are being reported up the Catawba River near the I-40 bridge and are being caught with Vertical Lures Jig-X jigs or Tube-X tubes in the green colors.
The surface temperatures are in the 90 degree range and the water is clear. When the sun gets up, go deep!
Top of Page Entered on Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 9:53 pm
tatguy
Fishing Freshwater in Eastern North Carolina
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9 lb 4.5 oz large-mouth bass this hawg was caugh 6/12/2010 in nash county in a farm pond i have only been fishing 2 years so i was happy to get it . It is my largest to date and i hope to get a 10 lb + soon (fingers crossed) i caught it using spinner with some custom touches hope you all like it
P.S. it was released back in the pond i caught it very much alive!!!
Top of Page Entered on Wed Jun 16, 2010 at 10:59 am
MamaBass
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
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First Bass Catch Ever These fish were caught on my very first bass fishing trip. Henry Smith of Deep Creek lures was kind enough to take me for a fishing lesson. The two bass were caught using a shaky head with a Deep Creek 5 inch worm. Caught the biggest one on my third cast. They were caught in water about 20' deep on Falls Lake. I had a great time and am totally hooked on fishing now, especially for bass. Loved the Deep Creek worms and the shaky head. Thanks Henry for teaching me so much in just one trip. I'll be out there trying again. Maybe I'll even fish some tournaments in another year or so.
Top of Page Entered on Tue Jun 15, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Walt Bowen - NC Sportsman field reporter
Fishing Freshwater in Northeastern North Carolina
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Gaston and Kerr report Well Vern and I cashed a check in last weekend’s final NC Central division of the Fishers of Men tournament on Lake Gaston, but we came up 2 points short of capturing the year end points championship. We ended up in 9th place for the day and took home $196 with 5 fish weighing 12.53 pounds after one good fish jumped and got loose that looked to be between 3 and 4 pounds. That one would have culled a two pounder and put us in the top 3 or 4, plus given us the point’s championship. One fish lost equaled over $2,000 in missed money.
Franklin County Finance Director Chuck Murray and his partner Randy Groves brought in 5 fish weighing 19.3 pounds to take 1st place in the Michael Henry Memorial Tournament. Chuck is on a roll coming off a big win in Kentucky last week. They didn’t offer much in the way of information about their catch, but they probably used a combination of crank baits and football jigs.
I caught the fish in the attached picture late Sunday afternoon on Kerr Lake j READ MORE ....
Top of Page Entered on Wed Jun 16, 2010 at 3:51 pm
fatcat
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
FALLS lake We went today a got two bass a 2.5lbs and a small 1lbs
We used a crank bait and a carolina rig with a weedless frog and bettel bait.
We stated at 5:00pm working the grass that you now can see, in and out we have had alot of luck other the passed 3 weeks in the grass on crome crank and carolina rig. We just started fishing and are still learning how to even fish. any pointers please send thanks
Top of Page Entered on Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 9:45 pm
fatcat
Fishing Freshwater in Central North Carolina
Photo Album
falls lake bass Got this 6.5 lbs fish at falls lake last week using a sliver crank bait in the grass, we got 5 fish that day 2 more keepers and two small ones on red eye shad cranks
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The Super Flukes are my favorite baits, too! Congrats!
I was using a zoom super salt plus fluke, white pearl with a green tail. I caugh....
Nothing like fighting a nice fish as the sky gets darker!
It looks really healthy. What were you throwing?