Canoeing the upper Haws old mills July 2010

Made a trip on the Mighty Haw in Late July 10' with Steve to do a little fishing and to see a place where I pretty much learned how to fish but hadn't been there in a few years. My Parent's house sits on a bluff over looking the Haw. I also cut my teeth fishing the Haw as young man. The Alamance County part of the Haw has numerous dams so as a kid I fished every one I could get to. These are 2 of those dams.

This is the remains of Ireland's Dam. Most locals now call it another name but I stick with the old name. All that is left is actually the foundation of the dam which now makes it a 1 -1/2 ft tall dam. This mill started off as a grist mill in the early 1800's then was abandoned in the late 1800's. In 1913 it was turned into a power dam and there is no record of when the dam collapsed. If you zoom in to the picture of the building foundation you will see 2 trees growing on a slope. That slope is the angle of the wood dam(the dam was wooden) and the wood extended to 1/2 the height of the rock building foundation.

This is Steve looking worried as we get ready to run the tunnel .































This is Glencoe dam. There have actually been 4 dams here. The first 3 were wooden and the last was concrete. In this picture you can see the 1st and 2nd dams. First built in the late 1700's and the last dam built in 1951. Its amazing those wooden dams lasted as long as they did.














This is the "new dam" built in 1951.


































Here is a nice flower growing in the log jams just above the dam
















HERE ARE SOME ADDED PICTURES OF THIS PLANT AT ANOTHER LOCATION SHOWING THE BULB AND THE LEAF. i AM PRETTY GOOD AT IDENTIFING TREES BUT NOT SO GOOD ON SHRUBS AND SMALL PLANTS.

IF YOU KNOW THIS PLANT PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.  THANKS MACK

A sad note to this trip as we found dead fish everywhere and then learned Greensboro had released 1.5 million gallons of raw sewage into Buffaloe creek and the fish kill extended down past glenco. A very sad day.

ADDED SPRING 2014.....video of Glencoe Dam on my You Tube Channel 

Thanks Mack

Bull Loblloies and Eagles

Got out this am on one of my favorite spots at Jordan lake. This spot gave me a 7 lber this spring to a spinnerbait and during that spring trip I noticed an eagle going in and out of a big ole Bull Loblloy pine . I have fished this spot since the early eighties and have seen eagles here regulary, but have never seen a nest on this part of the lake. I have known of numerous other nest but not here. It didnt suprise me as this is a very remote corner of the lake.

Here is a picture of the tree. If you look closely you can see the nest.



















Here is the base of this Loblolly. These pictures do not do this tree justice. This tree is massive. It is at least 120' tall and that nest is as big around as a volkswagon beetle.















I thought the fishing this morning would be great after last night rains but the fishing was slow. I caught 1- 2 lber on a lunker lure and lost 2 and then I lost a decent bass on a texas rigged 10 inch culprit plastic worm. Even though fishing was slow it was a good morning as I saw 2 eagles, 2 ospreys , many herons and 1 white cattle egret. Also, i would not go to the base of this tree if they were still nesting. Eagles are done by the end of June.

Here is a decent bass caught this spring near the eagle nest. Also caught a 9lber in another spot within 1 mile from this nest. Gotta luv spinnerbaits in the spring.















Mack

Piedmont flow for smallies July '10

My good friend Steve and I decided to make a trip to a  Virginia piedmont river that holds some smallies and largemouths. The Staunton  River . This is not pronounced "Stawton" it is pronounced "Stanton" the U is silent. Anyway, We launched the canoe at 11am under bright sunny skies. The water was clear and a toasty 85 degrees . The bite was very slow at first . I caught a few on a popper , a few on plastics, and then I put on the smallie killer a chartreuse spinnerbait. There is a saying that I have that if you can only use 3 colors for smallies then here they are.

1. Chartreuse
2. Chartreuse
3. Chartreuse

The bite was on! We problay caught at least 30 smallies though none were monsters. Most were from 11- 13 inches with the biggest topping out at 13 1/2 inches though I did have 2 big monster smallies smack at one of my lures.

heres the first of the day















Here is Steve with a gar that crushed his buzzer!

A nice day on the water as alot of fish were caught and lots of birds seen. Wood ducks, herons and ospreys were seen frequently throughout the day.

Mack

Bass Pro Tournament June26, 2010 Charlotte

Bass Pro In Charlotte along with Basserdrew and riverbassin.com have started kayak/canoe tournaments with one of the stops this year being Charlotte. This is a catch, photo, and release tournament and since you could fish almost any river withing 100 miles of Charlotte I decided to enter. I knew that some topnotch fishermen were going to be entered so my goal was to be in the top 10, and possibly top 5 and if I was lucky enought to be in the top 5 I knew that I may have a shot at at 1st but I would have to be lucky and others would have to be unlucky. I chose to fish a creek/river that gives up a lot of fish in the 2-4.5 lb range with a few (not every trip of course) 5lbers and it has given me 2 fish in the past that were 8lbs 12oz. This is where I started as we had to take a pic of our creek/river with "legal light".

Here is my first fish of the day.

One big problem this am. I was catching alot of fish. Probaly caught 25 plus but most were 12-13inches so after the first 4 or so I was not catching fish good enough to bump my first 3 pics out of contention. Finally this fish, 7th that i took a pic of, but problay the 20th fish I caught bumped pic # 2 or 3 out.

Then after a few more small fish this fish bumped my 3rd pic out. This fish was caught on a buzzbait.

All in all a great morning as a lot of fish were caught, mostly on buzzbaits, a few on a magnum torpedo and a few on a fluke. On my way back to Charlotte I was confident I would be in the top 10 but thats all I knew. Like I said a lot of very good fishermen were in this tournament.

Namely, Sumtershoaliefan, Redheron, Toba and others. I started my intenet fishing on georgiariverfishing.com where I am sure Basserdrew, Sumtershoailfan and redheron did as well.

After final tabulation I came in 4th. Very happy with 4th but I missed being 2nd and winning a nu-canoe by 1/2 inch. Oh well. I did lose 1- 4lber that could of won it but thats fishing. 1 guy lost a 7lber so you never know.
Here are the final results of the Charlotte Tournament
Official Results
Angler Inches

1. Robert Dainton 55.75

2. Caja Ormand 52* (20)

3. Todd Braswell 52* (18.25)

4. Mack McCorkle 51.75

5. Lance Coley 48.75

6. Drew Haerer 47.75* (20)

7. Ben Adrien 47.75* (17)

8. Michael Troxell 47.75* (16.75)

9. John Japuntich 46.5

10. Joey Sullivan 45



Here are the final standings for True North River Basser of the Year after the 5 tournamnets.  Tied for 10th place is not to bad after only competing in in 1 of the 5 tournaments
TRUE NORTH RIVER BASSER OF THE YEAR


FINAL STANDINGS
Angler Points

1. Lance Coley (Calera, AL) 270

2. Ben Adrien (Johnson City, TN) 240

3. Sean Brodie (Milledgeville, GA) 220

4. Hal Lambert (Marion, SC) 170

5. Josh Tidwell (Attalla, AL) 160

5. Brian Conway (Thompson, GA) 160

6. John Japuntich (Americus, GA)* 110

6. Robert Dainton (Pittsboro, NC) * 110

7. Tim Emberton (Nicholasville, KY) 100

8. Jon Freeman (Mcdonough, GA) * 90

8. Caja Ormand (Shelby, NC) 90

8. Justin Wallace (Bowling Green, KY) * 90

8. Will Dalton (TN) 90

9. Richie Gudzan (Birmingham, AL) * 80

9. Todd Braswell (Albany, GA) * 80

10. Mack McCorkle (Cary, NC) * 70

10. Glenn Anderson (Hampton, GA) 60

10. . Erik Trent (TN) * 60

10. Blake Condo (Cleveland, TN) 60



Mack