Hello to all my 5000 followers....uh, i mean my 5 followers..lol............anyway, I havent been fishing in over a month as my mother who had been sick for several years took a turn for the worse back in september and passed away September 24. I just have'nt felt like going even though I have had a few days off. Some things are more important than fishing(never thought I would say that!). Mom told me the life is for the living not the dead (her words to me several weeks before she passed away), as she did not want anyone to be upset over her passing, so, I will hopefully be fishing soon and honor her wish. She will be missed.
I will this winter or early spring plant a Dawn Redwood(very similiar to bald cypress) in her honor and name it the "Mary Lee" Tree. Hope the beavers dont mess with it or I will have to go on another beaver killing spree.............Mack
9/11/2010 Floated a piedmont river from 7 am -1pm. Water temp at 7am 74 degrees. water temp at 12 was 76 degrees. Water low and clear. I started off by throwing old dependable(white spinnerbait) and only had 2-3 bass that were 12-13 inches. I then saw a tree laying over in the water and casted to it. A big crappie nailed it but then I lost her. I then casted a red roostertail and was rewarded with a broken line(knot) . I mainly was planning to bass fish but dug through my stuff and found some chartreuse curly tails with pinkhead(see shad atricle for pics of lure), a few beetlespins and a roadrunner. I proceeded to catch 30 or so crappie off of this one tree along with 2 bass mostly on the jigs. Most crappie were average but all were eatin size and a few were over 12 inches.
On the paddle back to the bridge I caught a few more bass and a few bream for a total count on bass at around 12......... some were caught on spinnerbait and 2 on chartreuse lunkerlure. Not a single bass went over 2 lbs today. Also saw 2 nice 5 lb plus goldfish(koi) that actually hung around my canoe for a while.
A nice morning float saved by the good ole crappie. Mack
Floated a section of river 9/3 that I have not been on in a while. 10 am -3pm Water low and clear. Water temp 84 degrees. We immedieatly saw 2 bald eagles at the put in. I started by throwing a white buzzer and put 6- 8 fish in the boat real quick. I also was throwing a white spinnerbait and a white floating worm. Most hits came on the buzzer and spinnerbait. A few fell for the worm. 19 bass caught in all by me . Steve I think caught 12, with 3 of his being the biggest.
Here are the baits I was using today on this river. These baits work great anytime the water is warm and
clear.
Clockwise: White Lunker Lure, White Strikeking spinnerbait, and white zoom floating worm
Here is the avg bass caught today.
Some fish were caught in still water up against wood and others were in fast current areas.
Here is probaly my best fish of the day.
And here is Steves best fish of the day.
A very nice day on the water. Signs of life everywhere, minnows, fish, deer, muskrats, the 2 baldeagles and we saw 1 big monster snapping turtle.
Floated a section of the haw I had not been on in years with my good freind Jeff and caught a few fish. Nothing to bragg about but a good day on the water. Put in at aprox 3pm and took out at dark. This was about a five mile float with the first half very slow fishing. Jeff began to catch fish off of wood with plastic worms and lizards. I lost a few on worms but was mainly throwing a lunker lure buzzer. Here is Jeff with a Haw River Bass.
Here is Jeff playing tag with some female ducks.
Finally my bite started to p/u and I caught 2 good fish , both pushing 4 lbs. I can thank the inventor of 50 lb braid for this one as she wrapped me around a log up against a rock and i just held her there and pulled my canoe to it with the rod.
Near the end of the float I knew of a spot that holds large numbers of crappie so we fished this spot for a while and caught probaly 10-15 crappie on tube jigs under corks and sassy shads.
Kinda a slow day on the Mighty Haw but any day is a good day fishing. Mack
8/31/2010 I had a decision to make and was having a hard time making it. Should I go east or west to fish on my day off, and if I go east should I fish the Neuse River or a creek that feeds the Neuse?....If I go west should I fish a small river for smallies or should I fish a bigger river for smallies? Decisions, decisions!....Finally I decided on the bigger river west. The Dan River. Next time I go by myself I will go east.
Anyway, I arrived at the river at 4:50 pm. I loaded my canoe on my cart and headed west as I have a long walk along roads to do this shuttle without another car.
Here is my rig I used.
Finally after a long walk(pull) in 90 plus degree heat I arrived at my destination.
I have fished this river since the 70's. It actually is 1 of my favorite rivers though I will admit the catching is only so so most days. This river was my second river I ventured to in my teens. Some of the fish I have caught in this river are Blue cats, flatheads, channel cats, stripers, white bass, chain pickeral(jacks) redbreast, bream, crappie, carp, smallmouth bass and largemouth bass. I even have a freind who caught a 5 lb walleye out of this river.
Here is my first fish of the day caught on a spinnerbait. Before I got to the river my plan was to mainly throw a buzzbait, but upon my arrival and seeing the water clarity I decided to throw a chartreuse spinnerbait.
Here is a view of the river.....
I Finally arrived at a good spot to get out and fish and stretch my legs. On my first or second cast my spinnerbait was nailed by this fish!
Then I was rewarded with this little but chunkie brownie!
No monsters caught today but fishing in not always about catching big fish. It was a fun 3 hrs on the water with some scrappy fish caught plus I got to see several ospreys, 1 fawn on an island and 1 funny looking opossum back at the parking lot. All fish caught on chartreuse spinnerbait and 3 inch tube. Mack
Made a trip to the Neuse Aug 14,15 with my son and his Friend Tyler for some catfishing on the Neuse River. We launched at a private ramp on the Neuse at aprox 4pm sat and fished until Sunday 4:30 am.
Here is a video of our journey down one creek at about 1/4 throttle.
The first part of the day was spent fishing for bait. We caught a lot of bream and some very nice shellcrackers on crickets fishing around wood structure , namely cypress trees and blowdowns.
Most were avg size to small which is good in a way as I don't really like to use big bream for bait as they do attract flatheads better but I don't like wasting a a big ole bream. here is a nice shellcracker that my son caught. This shellcracker was released along with all the very nice sized ones we caught. The water temperature in 2 creeks that we fished was a toasty 92 degrees, while the main river was 88 degrees.
Right before dark we started catfishin . The action was decent dark -12midnight and then it picked up again aprox 2-4. Here is Tylers first Flathead.
Here is my sons first of the night at aprox 22lbs
Above is a gar I caught and a 24 lb flattie.
Here is the best cat of the night caught by my son at 34 lbs. Caught on a live bream hooked to a 9/0 hook on 8 inches of leader and held down with a 2 ox weight. You do not want a long leader as they will wrap you around something if you do.
Was a great night. We saw over 20 shooting stars as there is a meteor shower going on this week and heard a lot of owls. Mack
August the 6th 2010 Steve and myself made a trip to our favorite river. The Haw. Last night it rained cats and dogs so I postponed our trip from am to pm so we could check out the gauges and other flows on other rivers as I thought the haw would be flooded. It was not. The haw went from a flow of 100 to about 500 and was a little muddy. Mud has never stopped me. Actually I like a little muddy water. We hit the water late in the afternoon and immediatly started catching fish. Almost all on spinnerbaits and most around wood structure and some around rocks. Bait(fry) were everywhere and they were jumping out of the water trying to get away from our baits as they thought the spinnerbait was a fish trying to eat them.
Here is the first fish
Here is Steves best fish of the day.
And here is a nice bass caught after dark.
This is the spinnerbait I was throwing. It is a 3/8 oz Stanley Wedge spinnerbait.
Today the water Temp in the river was 84 degrees and in one tributary we went up it was 80 degrees.
No doubt made cooler by last nights rain. We caugth a bunch of bass and could of mopped up on some bream and crappie that were chasing the small fry around but all we had was bass tackle. We saw lots of birds including blue herons, little green herons, kingfishers and 1 osprey.
Made a trip on the Mighty Haw in Late July 10' with Steve to do a little fishing and to see a place where I pretty much learned how to fish but hadn't been there in a few years. My Parent's house sits on a bluff over looking the Haw. I also cut my teeth fishing the Haw as young man. The Alamance County part of the Haw has numerous dams so as a kid I fished every one I could get to. These are 2 of those dams.
This is the remains of Ireland's Dam. Most locals now call it another name but I stick with the old name. All that is left is actually the foundation of the dam which now makes it a 1 -1/2 ft tall dam. This mill started off as a grist mill in the early 1800's then was abandoned in the late 1800's. In 1913 it was turned into a power dam and there is no record of when the dam collapsed. If you zoom in to the picture of the building foundation you will see 2 trees growing on a slope. That slope is the angle of the wood dam(the dam was wooden) and the wood extended to 1/2 the height of the rock building foundation.
This is Steve looking worried as we get ready to run the tunnel .
This is Glencoe dam. There have actually been 4 dams here. The first 3 were wooden and the last was concrete. In this picture you can see the 1st and 2nd dams. First built in the late 1700's and the last dam built in 1951. Its amazing those wooden dams lasted as long as they did.
This is the "new dam" built in 1951.
Here is a nice flower growing in the log jams just above the dam
HERE ARE SOME ADDED PICTURES OF THIS PLANT AT ANOTHER LOCATION SHOWING THE BULB AND THE LEAF. i AM PRETTY GOOD AT IDENTIFING TREES BUT NOT SO GOOD ON SHRUBS AND SMALL PLANTS.
IF YOU KNOW THIS PLANT PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT. THANKS MACK
A sad note to this trip as we found dead fish everywhere and then learned Greensboro had released 1.5 million gallons of raw sewage into Buffaloe creek and the fish kill extended down past glenco. A very sad day.
ADDED SPRING 2014.....video of Glencoe Dam on my You Tube Channel
Got out this am on one of my favorite spots at Jordan lake. This spot gave me a 7 lber this spring to a spinnerbait and during that spring trip I noticed an eagle going in and out of a big ole Bull Loblloy pine . I have fished this spot since the early eighties and have seen eagles here regulary, but have never seen a nest on this part of the lake. I have known of numerous other nest but not here. It didnt suprise me as this is a very remote corner of the lake.
Here is a picture of the tree. If you look closely you can see the nest.
Here is the base of this Loblolly. These pictures do not do this tree justice. This tree is massive. It is at least 120' tall and that nest is as big around as a volkswagon beetle.
I thought the fishing this morning would be great after last night rains but the fishing was slow. I caught 1- 2 lber on a lunker lure and lost 2 and then I lost a decent bass on a texas rigged 10 inch culprit plastic worm. Even though fishing was slow it was a good morning as I saw 2 eagles, 2 ospreys , many herons and 1 white cattle egret. Also, i would not go to the base of this tree if they were still nesting. Eagles are done by the end of June.
Here is a decent bass caught this spring near the eagle nest. Also caught a 9lber in another spot within 1 mile from this nest. Gotta luv spinnerbaits in the spring.
My good friend Steve and I decided to make a trip to a Virginia piedmont river that holds some smallies and largemouths. The Staunton River . This is not pronounced "Stawton" it is pronounced "Stanton" the U is silent. Anyway, We launched the canoe at 11am under bright sunny skies. The water was clear and a toasty 85 degrees . The bite was very slow at first . I caught a few on a popper , a few on plastics, and then I put on the smallie killer a chartreuse spinnerbait. There is a saying that I have that if you can only use 3 colors for smallies then here they are.
1. Chartreuse 2. Chartreuse 3. Chartreuse
The bite was on! We problay caught at least 30 smallies though none were monsters. Most were from 11- 13 inches with the biggest topping out at 13 1/2 inches though I did have 2 big monster smallies smack at one of my lures.
heres the first of the day
Here is Steve with a gar that crushed his buzzer!
A nice day on the water as alot of fish were caught and lots of birds seen. Wood ducks, herons and ospreys were seen frequently throughout the day.
I enjoy anything in the outdoors. Mainly canoeing and fishing but, also hunting, hiking, I love to plant trees and also search for big trees.
I grew up just outside Burlington, N.C. where my parents house sat on a bluff overlooking the Haw River. I can thank the Haw for getting me started in the outdoors. I Have 2 YouTube Channels as well. Mack's Extreme River Fishing and Mack's Public Land Hunting.
Thnaks, Mack
