The White Catfish were Biting

White Catfish Outing

Tuesday September the 27th I decided to go for Crappie at a dam just 2 minutes from my work.   My bait would be Crappie minnows which are just small shiners . I fished these on a #4 wire hook with a 1/2 ounce weight 1 foot above it .  My rods today would be a 20' fiberglass crappie pole and a 12' Uncle Bucks crappie pole with a 1000 size shimano reel spooled with 8 lb Hi vis line.

The plan was to drop the shiners right in front of the dam where the water is 12 ' deep and fish several depths till I found the crappie.  I never did catch a crappie but I caught several small chunky bass and for a while I was catching White Catfish 1 after the other.

The spot and the rods set out.

The first White Catfish, I thought I had a slab crappie on at first!  See the White whiskers on the Chin? that is how you tell if you have a White Catfish.

Another White Catfish..... this was the best one out of maybe 10 or so.  See the white chin barbels and notice the tail isn't as deeply forked as a channel cat.

I also caught several nice chunky Largemouth that put up very hard fights especially on these crappie poles.  All the largemouth were caught below the dam and released above the dam. All of the cats were caught just above the dam.

I left right after dark.  Even though I didn't catch my target species(crappie) , it was a blast catching those White Catfish.

Tags -  "White Catfish"  "North Carolina"

#whitecatfish

#catfish

#fishing  

Lake Raleigh

Lake Raleigh is a  75  acre lake  on Walnut Creek and located on NC States  Centennial Campus

***I have pictures and a video of the bottom of the lake and in August of 2022 I scanned and uploaded these to Youtube.  see the bottom of this article for the link to the video of the pictures. **********

    Lake Raleigh's Dam was breached during hurricane Fran in September 1996 and the Dam was rebuilt and then  re-flooded in early 2000.  I have pictures of the bottom just before flooding and will try to post those in the near future.    The State did not allow fishing from 2000 - 2007 in an effort to help build up the fishery.   Lake Raleigh has what you would typically expect for a  small Central NC  impoundment.   Largemouth Bass, White and Black Crappie, Bluegill, ShellCrackers, Green Sunfish, Channel Cats, Bullheads, Carp  and the lake also has a nice population of Shad.

Fishing is restricted to daylight and you also must possess a valid NCSU parking pass between the hours of 7am and 5pm.  If You are not a student or an employee and don't have a pass you are restricted to either fishing before 7am or after 5 pm or buying a day pass which cost 10 dollars. Also, this pass cannot be purchased online and must be purchased at   2721 Sullivan ST.  The  phone number for this office is 919.515.7572  .  The website for Transportation is www.ncsu.edu/transportation

***Parking Information Updated 08/02/20**** 

There is a small parking lot at Lake Raleigh but it requires a NC State parking Permit Mon-FRi from 7am-5pm.  You can pick up a 15 dollar visitor day pass at the Transportation Dept  2721 Sullivan Dr Administrative Services Bldg or you can utilize the Park Mobile app  https://parkmobile.io/ and pay for parking at the Poulton Deck (across the street from the Hunt Library ) on Partners Way. The cost is 3.00 dollars for the first hour and 2.00 every hour after that or a maximum of 15.00 for the while day. 

The parking lot only has 6 regular spots and 1 handicapped spot. If these are full you can park on       Main Campus Drive where there are aprox 15 spaces. 



Boats are restricted to cartop or in the bed of a pickup as no trailers are allowed as the spaces are not long enough for trailers and no motors which makes it ideal for canoes and kayaks.   Here is a picture of the Parking lot and Ramp.

 Lake Raleigh also has 2 really nice fishing piers for the boat less angler. 1 is just upstream from the ramp and the other is below the ramp.

This is the one below the ramp-

And the one above the ramp.

Here are a few shots from around the Lake.  The first being a shot just upstream of the dam.

Looking down the spill way into Walnut Creek.

A view of the spillway below the dam.

Some shots of the upper end of the lake.

I also saw a big nest which is either an Osprey nest(most likely) or an Eagle nest as I observed both species while I was on the lake .  Since my visit was way after nesting season none were observed right on the nest though both species were close to it.  The nest is right in middle of this Loblolly Pine.

Here is an aerial view of the lake showing the approximate location of the nest and the locations of the Parking lot, Piers, ramp and Spillway.

I fished lake Raleigh For a few hours and while I struck out I know there are some nice bass in this Lake.  Lake Johnson upstream of this lake produces really big bass so I am sure this one does as well.

A gentleman on the pier had some nice  Crappie that he caught while I was canoeing.

Here is the video of the Bottom of the lake . Pictures taken in early 2001 just before the dam was closed. 

Thanks for Looking, Mack

#lakeraleigh

#raleigh

My Dogs and Fishing

I have been fortunate enough to have several Dogs that absolutely love(ed) to fish.   Jordan then Sassy the Boxers and now Pete.    Here are some pictures I will post in no particular order though I will try to put the dates on them..


Sassy on the Roanoke river March 2009

 This is probably my favorite fishing picture.   Sassy licking that White Bass on the Haw April 2005. I did not realize she did that until I got home and looked at the picture! Gene Simmons has nothing on Sassy!!

Sassy April 2009 on The Little River

April 2009 on the Haw,  I also really like this one.

                                                                    March 2009.

This picture of Pete is from April 2013 on Contentnea Creek

 

  
 These pictures of Pete are from May 2013 on the Dan River.  It was a good day of fishing but Pete and I had a bad few moments.  Somehow I hooked Pete in one of his ears with a spinnerbait. He was squalling like he was being attacked by a lion. I had to pin him in the bottom of the canoe and take the hook out.   After that He acted like nothing had happened. He returned to wagging his tail just like that.  What a trooper.   Sorry bout that Pete.

This next picture is Pete and myself on Jordan Lake  August 2014

These Next 3 pictures of Pete were from

October 2014 on the Cape Fear River

 

March 2015 in Village Creek off of the Neuse River

May 2015 on Roanoke River, Pete watching me fish.

                                                       July 2015 Crabtree Creek

Pete on the Cashie River Feb 2016

                                                 

April 2016 on the Roanoke River

Pete and I were on a can't miss trip.  Problem was we didn't catch a thing.   But,  we had a good time. 

April 2016 Haw River/Jordan

Sept 2016 Cape Fear River

These trips would have been way less exciting w/o my 4 legged friends.

*********UPDATE***********

10/30/21      I am sorry to say that Pete passed away on September the 24th ,    Still hurts and I miss him

 very much.    See you sometime my special friend.     Mack

#pets

#dogs

#fishing

#mansbestfriend

Catching Catfish Bait In an Urban North Carolina Creek

This post was from 2 years ago. I just never got around to publishing it but now it made sense to me since the last post has the same reel and same creek .   

Date 7/5/2014
Location- Creek in the Cary city limits
Outfit- Dad's old Daiwa Mini spin
Line- 4 lb
Lure- 1/32 oz Bettlespin

The purpose of this trip was to catch bait for an upcoming catfish trip.  These fish will be frozen then used as cutbait .  This was and  is always a fun trip as the fish are always eager to bite.  The surprise of this trip was the yellow perch caught in this creek.  I caught Redbreast, Bluegill, Crappie, Green sunfish, Shellcracker, and a couple of bass(released).

Thanks, Mack

#fishing

#creekfishing

#creek

#creekfishingadventures

Fishing with Dad's Favorite Rod on Father's Day

This trip took place on Father's Day 6//19/2016 .Since my Dad has long Passed away(1996) I decided to take his favorite Rod and reel combo out fishing on Father's Day. This combo is one of the old Daiwa Mini-Spin Combo's . This reel is/was Part of the Silver Series from back in the day and it has the clicking sound as you reel just like the bigger 4000C and 7000 c reels had. My dad probably purchased this reel around 1975 or so.  It came with the wire guides that he quickly had replaced with Fuji Ceramic guides.

I took this outfit to a small creek here in Cary that is my bait catching spot for Catfish trips. The fish here are many and hungry though most are on the small size. I caught Green sunfish, Bream, Largemouth and Redbreast today. Bait of choice today was a 1/32 oz green beetle spin but the color doesn't really matter.  Throw a Beetlespin in this creek and it is going to be attacked!

He would be happy knowing that his favorite outfit is still be used and cared for.

Here are a few pics....

 Thanks Mack