Float for Stripers and Largemouths

Hit up a piedmont river on Friday June the 24th.  Jeff and I had wanted to go to the yadkin or possibly another river but rains in those drainages made the conditions not to our liking. I suggested a river that I have fished alot in the past but only sparingly in the last few years. It was a good gamble. I also brought along a freind of mine , Mike.  I think we all had a blast.

We launced just after daylight and Mike spotted some schooling action upstream. We all headed that way and Mike and Jeff were tearing up the stripers. I couldnt buy a bite. They were having nothing to do with the topwater lures I had brought.  Very frustrating. I was glad for them but still very frustrating.  Finally I dug a little deeper in my box and found a lure I had forgot was in there.  A clear chug bug. Man! I prayed and thought that would be the lure.  First cast . Bam! A striper was on.  I ended up with about 15 stripers from 3 - 7 lbs on the ole chug bug. This bite lasted about an hour and I think we could of caught them longer but a long float lay ahead, so we headed down. .   Mike actually caught some on the longrod but I couldnt get there to take a photo, without messing up his spot..
Well done Mike!

Here are 2 of the stripers I caught.

We then Started throwing lures for bass. I started off with a white buzzer but ended up throwing a white spinnerbait.  I chose white as the water was very clear. I probaly brought to hand 20 plus largemougths,  though most were small in the 1 - 1 1/2 lb range. I did catch 1 that was probaly 4 lbs and a 3lber. Jeff ended up with the biggest at almost 5 lbs.

My best bass of the day

This  redbreast nailed my spinnerbait.

Mike w/an avg bass we caught today

Me and one of the many bass we caught.

Here is the big one of the day

We were floating down the river in a channel between 2 Islands when I heard some rustling in the woods on the Island. All of the sudden , this beast is standing there and he doesnt look happy that we are around.
He may have been the highlight of the day.

Here is a nice pic of the water that we were catching bass in.

A great day on the water with some great freinds.  Its hard to beat topwater stripers and Largemoughts on buzzers and spinnerbaits.  We also saw lots of wildlife. Herons, ducks, geese , ospreys, and 1 lone eagle and the lone goat.  Also saw some big gar, big monster carp and saw some big and i do mean big freshwater drum.

Mack

Blackwater Camping trip 6/18

***Just got my desktop fixed. this trip was done over 1 month ago. Great to have my computer back working good.!****

What a great way to spend a weekend. Camping with my son on the Neuse River and a black water Creek.
Back  in June we decided to camp at one of our favorite spots as the last few times  when coming home from there I could hardly make that 3am drive back to Cary. I was so tired one night I was pulled over in Johnston Co. by the highway patrol! The time before that I had to pull over and sleep for 30 mins. Getting old sure does suck.  We arrived at lunch, set up the tent, unloaded everything and then cooked some hamburgers on the Weber grill.   Sweet!

This is the first boat we saw on the creek,  Randy aka "Ole Rebel

Here is the tent and a view of the water.

After eating and speaking with Randy we headed to one of our favorite Bream spots. Not a lot was happening today with the Bream. We caught right many but not near as many the big ones as last month. They have probably headed to deeper water. A nice site today was 3 big Tom Turkeys walking right past us on the bank. One of those gobblers was a beast, his beard almost dragging the ground. While Bream fishing we also put out some bottom rigs for Bowfin and caught 4 nice ones.
Here are 2 of them.

Later that afternoon we ran into Alan,  aka "Tarheel Flyflinger" and his wife. They had also caught some nice bowfin and Alan gave me 3 very nice flies to try at a later date. Thanks Alan!
That evening we set up to catfish on the main river and had to head for the tent as a massive storm was rolling in. Mack N. caught 1 small flathead  apox 6lbs before we headed for cover. Luckily it never hit an we got a good nights sleep.
We woke up early and were eager to  hit the river again.  We caught some more bream and about the same number of bowfin as yesterday.
Look at the size of this cypress knee!.  I have always wanted to take a picture of this  knee as it is at least 20' tall and I finally  convinced Mack N. to climb out of the boat and stand on one of the smaller knees. Some of these cypress trees are surely over 500 years old.

We made it back to the ramp at lunch and Ran into Alan again, this time his partner was his son. They had caught some big bowfin and were headed home. We cooked some steaks and potatoes on the Weber grill and chilled out for a few hours.We then packed up and headed home.  Not our best catching trip but that is not what it is all about.
A weird side note is how can we be camping and surrounded by swamps and I think I only had 2 mosquitoes get after me the whole time down there????.  Then I arrive in Cary and while unloading my stuff in my yard I am attacked by what seems like thousands of mosquitoes????.  Dang  things.