Shad Fishing Trip Turns in Bottom Fishing Trip - Contentnea Creek #catfish

Took my  friend Ron to a down east river 4-13-13 as he has been wanting me to take him there for over a year so finally we make it work out. Our goal and his wish was to fish for shad. We hit several good spots for shad and nothing. Not 1 hit. After speaking with several other anglers we decided the fish we either gone back down or upstream out of our reach. What would we fish for now? I didn't bring any crickets for bream and if no bream we could not catch bottom fish. We bass fished a while with no luck and came upon a place where little bitty minnows were running from my bait. I then dug out a Mepps #1 Black Fury and got quite a few hits on it from some nice bream but could not hook 1. How do you lose a fish on a treble? Ron caught a couple of bream from this spot but nothing this place is noted for. We floated down stream casting to every likely spot. I kept catching 12 inch bass on that little black fury. Ron hooked a big gar on a little bait and after a long battle he landed a nice 15 lb gar. I kept telling myself that a bass was gonna end up as cutbait but we finally managed to put a few more bream in the boat.

Ron needed to leave just before dark so that only gave is 30 -40 mins to bottom fish. Now Ron is an expert saltwater fisherman but this was new to him. We tied up to one of my holes and I put 2 rods out with cutbait. I told ron that I would tell him when to set the hook. Immediatly we were getting hits. 1st was a 8lb striper and then a 10 lb blue. Not a bad day for a busted trip. I think all 3 were his biggest freshwater fish.

Rod bottom fish were caught on- Abu 6500 with 30 lb line and 20 lb leader with a 2 oz zinker and a 7/0 circle hook

Bait - cut bream

Boat used -Coleman Scanoe with 2.5 Merc

Water temp- Toasty 70 degrees

I could not keep these small but fun bass off of the Mepps Black Fury

"Ron had a nice 15 minute battle with this Gar that was a tad over 15 lbs. I am holding it cause he didn't want too.    tag -  Gar Pictures North Carolina

"

Bottom Fishing with cut Bream got Ron this 8 lb Striper and the 10 lb blue

Mack

#contentneacreek

#catfish

#fishing