Good Day Fishing On A North Carolina River

February 12, 2011
North Carolina River Bass Fishing
Sunny and windy
Water Clarity-Murky
Lures Used- Cordell Spot, Strike King Spinnerbait
Reels used-Daiwa Regal 2500 spinning reel w/14lb fireline-Cordell Spot,
and Ambassadeur 5600C loaded with 15lb ande -Strike King Spinnerbait
Boat Used- Coleman Scanoe w/55lb Thrust trolling Motor
Time-1230-500PM


Met up with Jeff today about 2  hrs east of  Raleigh for some winter river bass fishing in eastern North Carolina. When I arrived at the ramp my first thought was that I should have cancelled because of the wind, and stayed at  home to watch UNC beat up on Clemson,  My second thought was that I should have brought the gas motor.  Both proved to be wrong. Took awhile to find the bass but once we did it was game on.  I caught 3 big ones today with my total bass somewhere around 12 for the day along with 1 gar, 1 bream and 1 crappie. Jeff reeled it quite a few bass as well but I got lucky today with the big ones.

These bass wanted a lure retrieved fairly fast with  probaly 75 percent  caught on the Cordell Spot and 25 percent on the Strike King spinnerbait.

Here Is Jeff at the start of the trip headed upriver.
Note: 90 percent of the time I head up river as if something happens to your motor you can drift back down. Even without a motor you can easily get way to far down river and the paddle up river at the end of the day is torture. Easier to paddle up and float back down.

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This was the first fish of the day and the biggest. She nailed my spinnerbait At first she didnt fight that hard and i was just reeling a fish in until she came up. Then I got nervous as she tried to jump several times.

Here is the average size we caught today and a decent view of the SK Spinnerbait.




The Bass above is probaly the fattest bass I have caught in a long time.  What A Pig!  This maybe a lunker in a few years the way she is eating.

Below is Jeff with oneof the many cookie cutters we caught today

One of the 3 nice ones I caught today, Here you can see the Cordell spot in her mouth. 



My 3rd "lunker" of the day

Here is my final fish of the day. I was sure I had a 10lb bass on but after a few minutes I realized it was problay a gar. 

A good day fishing  with a good freind, We also saw 3 wood ducks, several herons, lots of buzzards and a couple of pileated woodpeckers.  I cannot wait to get back and try for some topwater bass on this river and maybe try the flyrod here. 

Mack

Thank goodness for crappie jigs.

Sunday January the 30th 2011
NC Piedmont river
time 2pm-dark
water temp 44 degrees
air temp 60 plus
sunny
water slightly stained
lure used: mostly 1/16 oz chartreuse jig
Boat used:  Coleman Scanoe with 55 lb thrust trolling motor

Well I have fished 2 times this year with a total of 2 bream caught.  Not a great start but but those 2 trips sure beat working.  Went Sunday January the 30th of 2011 to a river in central NC where i knew the water temp would be slighty higher than the surrounding rivers.  Fishwhisperer and myself arrived at the put in at aprox 2pm.  In no time we were at my "hole" that is known to produce some crappie and bass. The water temp was a balmy 44 degrees while the air temp was pushing over 60.  We started of with tube jigs under corks and picked up a few bream but no crappie.  Finally we decided to move downstream to another hole and almost right away were rewarded with a bass on almost every cast. These bass were hitting crappie jigs. All of the bass were 12 inches to 12.5 inches or so i decided to throw some "bass" lures (a spinnerbait and a pig&jig)....no hits on the bass lures. Of course I went back to the crappie jigs and the bass strikes were immediate. Then i tried a chartreuse sassy shad and hooked my only crappie of the day. I actually had to go back to the 1/16 oz crappie jig to get a bass strike.  I caught over 20 bass with FW catching about the same. We each caught 1 crappie a piece and a few bream as well. Most of the bass were right at 1 lb but some did push  2 lbs with a couple topping out near 3 lbs.
Very tough condtions. Even though we probaly caught over 40 bass, if we hadnt been throwing  crappie jigs we may have had a big ole "skunk" .... fish wanted a small lure retrieved slow and deep(6-8')

Here are a few pics.



If you want to see a picture of this jig go to my article
http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/poor-mans-tarpon.html

Thanks Mack