June Smallie action

I had Tuesday June the 26th off so I headed to a favorite river of mine ( The Dan River )  for some Smallie action. Fished from 4:30 pm till dark. Air temp was right at 80 deg  at the put in and 65 deg  when I took out at dark. Nice! 
I caught 10~ smallies with most being small but 2 were decent fish. 1/2 the smallies caught on a 3/8 oz Chartresue spinnerbait and 1/2 on a pumpkinseed grub on a 1/4 oz jig head.  I also managed 1 channel cat on the spinnerbait and 1 White Bass on the grub. This is about a 3 mile float with slack water and some fast water. Highlights were some ospreys and 2 groundhogs.

Here are a few pics.
A nice jon boat on the river.

This Smallie has a scar on her back from a heron or some other predator.

My best fish of the day. She did not want to get into the canoe!

This Channel Cat ruined my spinnerbait.

A White bass was an added bonus. She hit the grub.

 

Thanks for reading , Mack

#danriver

#smallmouthbass

Euro style Carp Fishing

Friday June the 15th , I met Aki and Santosh at a local lake to try my hand at Euro Style Carpin.  Now, I used to fish all the time for carp but that was with a Carolina rig , a small baitholder hook and some whole kernel corn. I usually chummed with corn also. Their method was similar but they use heavier weights and a lot heavier leaders. The main reason for the heavier leader is it is stiff.....When the carp sucks in the hook with the corn on it she feels the stiffness of the line and tries to spit or blow the hook out.....One problem, she cant spit it out because the line is so stiff , she then turns and runs setting the hook on herself....Brilliant!....They also use "packbait" , this is a combination of grits and creamed corn you Pack on to  the weight and what it does is when your rig hits the water and then the bottom this packbait falls off and chums the area around you corn on the hook.
We fished from 5:30 till 8:30 and probably caught 6 carp, that many cats, though most were small  but I had a great time fishing with Aki and Santosh.  Here are a few pics.... Thanks again Aki and Santosh

My outfits today were 1.  A Shimano 3500 Baitrunner on an 8 ft rod with 15 lb test 2. Penn # 9 loaded with 20 lb Cajun on a 9 ft rod.  The Carolina rig consisted of a 2 oz egg sinker, black swivel, 30 lb leader, and a #6 hook.
                                                                            The rig

The fishies

                                                    Santosh with a  Rare ghost carp

Mack

Cary, North Carolina Urban Creek Fishing

Friday June the 15th I had  2  fishing  trips planned.  1st, see last post , was taking my son Bass fishing on an unnamed river.  2nd was to fish for carp and cats in the evening at Lake Crabtree. I needed some cutbait for the evening trip so I made a run to a nearby creek that is very very tiny but always has eager fish in it. My son actually caught his first fly rod fish there probaly 10 years ago.  Now this "crik" doesn't look like much as you can jump accross it in most areas but it is full of fish...Tiny fish mostly,  but I have seen some 1 and 2 lb bass in there but most will be around 10-11 inches. I caught probably 20 redbreast, 5 Bass and 1 bream in about 20 minutes of fishing. Fun fishing !  The lure used today was a 1/32 oz beetle spin and an ul spinning reel with 4 lb test.

Mack

A morning River fishing trip with my son.

I don't get to fish with my son as much as I would like to as he has lots of things going on, School, football workouts, AAU Basketball, oh and did I mention the Girlfriend?.....Anyway he wanted to get out on the water this week so I had a special river in the Piedmont of North Carolina  in mind. This spot gets very little pressure because of the lack of good access to this stretch and if you are not in shape this spot can do you in...Another problem would be waking him up early as I wanted to be on the water by 6 as it would be a 2 hr ride from the house. That turned out to not be a problem at all....We fished from 6 am to maybe 10:30 and he caught probably 15 plus bass, most being around 2- 2/1/2 lbs but 3 or 4 being 3 plus and one being 4 1/2 plus....Almost all of his fish came on a white buzzer with a couple on a white spinnerbait....I mainly fished a #3 Mepps spinner as I was fishing behind him and I probaly landed 10 or so with the biggest being a solid 3 lber....We lost 3 Jacks, 1 he caught on a spinnerbait but I dropped it in the water as the hook came off and I lost 2 on the mepps. We also saw lots of wildlife 1 being a fawn who had to of just been born as she could barely walk and a box turtle laying eggs......A nice morning on the river, an early fathers day present.....Mack

Some pictures of him

Some nice flowers on the river

One of the Bass I caught

My best Bass of the Day

                      The lures we used Today. A White Buzzbait and a Mepps spinner.

              This ole gal was laying eggs on the way in and on the way out she had just finished.

 

Mack

Roanoke River Float 6/9/12

Floated the Roanoke River with Jeff, Todd, and Todd's son Josh. We launched at 7 am and ended our float at  aprox 3pm. Our quarry today would be mainly Bass, Stripers and some panfish, though we saw lots of big carp and gar. 3 Bald Eagles also were seen throughout the float as they kept going downstream from us as well as a  couple of ospreys, 1 muskrat and the usual herons and kingfishers.
My main bait today would be a white spinnerbait, a 3 inch grub and a 3 inch grub under a popping cork for the stripers.

I caught aprox 12 bass on the spinnerbait , 1 on a 1/32 oz beetlespin(the biggest at 2 1/2 lbs) and several on the grub. I caught only 2 stripers on the popping cork set up though I could have caught more but they were small stripers hitting today. I also fished for Redbreast fairly hard after Jeff caught a big one and landed about 10 of them with 4 or 5 of them being of good size. Jeff caught about the same as I did with a lot of small bass but it was a fun day on the water with the hightlight being todd's son catching a nice striper right at the end.  I took a lot of pictures so following is some of them.

Caught on Popping Cork rig pictured above

I heard a big splash and looked over and Jeff was falling out of his canoe! Wish I had that on video!

Jeff and a nice Redbreast.

After Jeff caught that nice Redbreast I switched to a small beetle and caught the biggest bass of the day! I had to go to the bigger grubs to get the redbreast to bite.

No lunkers caught today but the picture below is what it is all about. He is hooked! 

Right at the takeout after a nice float.

A video of me running some rapids.

Mack