North Carolina River Fishing and Canoeing with Mack: July 2016

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Greenfield Lake Wilmington, NC - where and what to Catch & more!

Greenfield Lake - Wilmington, NC

Greenfield Lake is a 90 acre millpond that was originally used for rice production starting way back in 1730. The City of Wilmington Purchased the Millpond and Land in 1925. The lake has a nice Boat Ramp and parking area (see Map) and has a 5 mile Greenway for walking /jogging/Bicycling around the lake. Things to see here are many species of Birds, Alligators, Turtles, and I am sure a few Fox Squirrels call the woods around the lake home.

Fish to be be found in the lake include Largemouth Bass, Bream, Shellcrackers, Bowfin, Longnose Gar, Black Crappie, Warmouth, Grass Carp, Common Carp, Yellow Perch, Golden Shiners and a record Bullhead Catfish was recently caught there.

see http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/outdoors/article85251312.html

The Trees in the Lake(Bald Cypress) and around the Lake (Longleaf pines and Live Oaks are numerous ) are impressive as well as the Stunning Azaeleas which you must see in Spring.

Greenfield Lake has a nice boat ramp that is perfect for Canoes/Kayaks and small Jon Boats. It is very shallow out from the ramp so bigger boats may have a problem.

The parking area at the Boat Ramp

Here are the signs at the Boat Ramp

Here is a view of the 5 mile trail at the Dam

A view of the Dam

Here are some Bald Cypress Trees in the Lake

A nice Crape Myrtle Tree covered in Spanish Moss

I saw 3 Alligators on my trip there. A small 2 fter, a 4fter and a 8 fter. I would not let a dog get near the water. These gators don't seem afraid and will approach you and while feeding them is illegal I suspect people do feed them by their behavior I observed.

Here is a nice Bass I caught there on a Black Spinnerbait

A nice Gar my Buddy landed.

If you ever find yourself in Wilmington you must at a minimum take a walk around the lake or better yet canoe the lake.

ADDED 2022

***June 19th 2022 my wife and I set out to explore and fish Greenfield Lake our quarry being Gar and while we were not successful( I had one good run) we did catch a lot of Bream and one nice Shellcracker . We also saw 4 Gators at one time and several others along with several Ospreys, Comorants, Little Green herons and great Blue herons.

Here is a picture of two anglers fishing -

A Nice Redear Sunfish AKA Shallcracker

tags - " Gar Images North Carolina "

#greenfieldlake

#wilmington

#northcarolina

#fishing

#greenfieldlakefishing

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Roanoke River Float

Date 7/5/2016
Location- Roanoke River
Boats - 3 Old Town 119's
Lures- White Spinnerbait, Pearl Fluke, Shallow Shad Rap

***see videos at the bottom****

Last Monday Jeff called me and asked me could I fish Tuesday with him and Steve.
I reluctantly said I had to work . The more I thought about this and the location of the float had me itching to go. So, late that afternoon I starting calling employees to cover me and then called my DM and he gave me the ok.

I met Jeff and Steve at the takeout at aprox 9 am and off to the put in we went. Immediately we started catching Stripers. I caught 7 on Flukes and a White spinnerbait. Jeff and Steve caught that many or close to it as well. We had a Triple going one time as well and all 3 fish were landed almost simultaneously. Pretty awesome!

A couple of nice fishermen we ran into on the river.

We left the Stripers still biting and started targeting Largemouths. I probably caught 20 or so though none were lunkers. Most were caught on a White spinnerbait or a Pearl Fluke. A few came on the shad rap but I was throwing the Shad Rap for Redbreast. Several of the Redbreast were very nice and though the largemouth were only average size today they were fun.

I enjoy catching Redbreast just as much as the Stripers and Bass. A couple of the Redbreast hit the big spinnerbait but most were caught on the Shallow Shad Rap.