What is my most popular Blog post????

Ok, What is my most popular blog post?  Does it have something to do with Shad fishing?  Roanoke Bass fishing????
  
No.    But, lets back up a minute.  In 2009 I started this blog inspired by a blog I found on wordpress that was a canoeing and fishing blog. I started this blog to  chronicle  my treks down the many rivers I venture down(or up)and to also have a good time with it posting my favorite passion of mine which is  fishing.  I am a somewhat poor writer but I don't  really care. It is what it is.  I do sometimes try to post items that I think would draw viewers to my site but most time I do not.   Example:  I thought my post on Roanoke Bass and Shad would be popular(and they are coming in at 4th and 10th) but I never thought that they would be beat by a squirrel article and a canoe article. 

Anyway, almost instantly I kept pondering expanding my blog into my hunting treks but didn't for a good while as I thought they would be a distraction and also draw too many negative comments.  One boring day in 2011 I had nothing to post except a hunting post and I decided heck its my blog I will post what I want to.   One of my first hunting post was about Fox squirrels in North Carolina and I actually thought at the time that it would draw few if any viewers and was mainly for me.
Boy was I wrong!  My fishing blogs best post doesn't have anything what so ever to do with fishing!!!  And # 2 is about canoes!!     Dang,   Shows what I know.     Here is a list that will show you what I mean.

This is for a month but I can sort it any way and the Fox squirrel post is always # 1 whether it is sorted by day, week , month or year.   Oh well.   

	Pageviews
Fox Squirrels in Eastern North Carolina ( Sci... Dec 11, 2011, 8 comments	4562
Canoes that I use For River Fishing...... May 6, 2012	2218
Big Bream, Shellcrackers and some suprises.... May 13, 2011	603
Roanoke Bass .....The forgotten Bass Oct 4, 2009	601
A Grand Day Carp Fishing Oct 8, 2011, 3 comments	568
The Yadkin River Slam Dec 17, 2009	480
Haw River Float trip July, 6th 2010 Aug 12, 2010	463
Neuse River Camping for Catfish May 2, 2012	446
Penny's Bend White Bass 3/24/11 Mar 24, 2011, 1 comment	443
My 2010 Shad season In Review. May 29, 2010, 1 comment Mack	364

              

Awesome day of River Fishing

Jeff and my self made a float on a Piedmont River Sunday May 25th.   The Bass were hitting a Booya White Spinnerbait and a Zoom Pearl Fluke.   They were really getting after the Fluke and the technique was to skip them under overhanging bushes and trees getting the Fluke really close to the bank and working it out fast. Today We probably caught 20 plus bass apiece with Jeff getting his personal best river bass that was pushing 8 lbs.   Also caught along with the Bass were 3 good size Jacks.  Both of my Jacks hit the spinnerbait and the hooks held.  Last year at this same spot I lost 7 Jacks in one day!! .   
Midday I also trolled for crappie catching 20 or so and they all fell for a chartreuse roadrunner.   Several bream were caught along with the crappie so Jeff had a nice cooler of fish with several crappie, Bream and 2 nice Jacks.

Towards the end of this float is a dam and I talked Jeff into fishing the pools below it and I think he is glad he did catching his best river bass to date down there and I also caught my best fish of the day there.  Mine fell for the spinnerbait while Jeff caught his on a big beetlespin on 6 lb line!!!

WOW!!

 

 

We also saved two toads today as Jeff found an old perk hole that had 3 toads in it. One was dead and the other 2 could not get out.  I lightly hooked each one released them and then filled in that death trap.

 

Wildlife seen today was lots and lots of Great Blue Herons, a few wood ducks,  and some ospreys.

A great day of fishing.

 

Boat used- Coleman Scanoe with trolling motor

Best baits today-  Pearl Fluke, White Booyah Spinnerbait and the Chartreuse RoadRunner.

 

Mack 

 

 

One Beautiful Catfish!

Black Flathead Catfish

Went fishing with my good friend Aki and James  5/20/2014 on a Central piedmont flow. We fished from aprox 4:30 to 8:30 pm.  Our quarry today was catfish and hopefully flathead catfish.   We caught bait with rod and reel(crappie and bream) and also with a castnet (shad and shiners).
Then we set out 2 rods each and began our wait . 30 mins later my rod with a crappie for bait was bent over and I reeled  in this nice 15lb flathead that was the darkest flattie I have seen.  James said he has caught a few dark ones here but this was a first for me.  All the flatheads I have ever caught were that normal yellow brown.  Not a huge fish but I was happy to of caught one that color.  We actually didn't land another fish but it was a good day.

Reels used- 

Daiwa Procaster PS55 loaded with 30 lb Cajun line
Abu Garcia 7000C loaded with 40 lb Cajun line
Both on American Spirit "Nite Stiks" 7' Med Hvy Rods

Rig was my usual Bottom rig for cats consisting of a Bank sinker and short leader with a good hook.
 

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out my YouTube Channel at  Mack's River Fishing YouTube Channel


#catfishing
#flatheadcatfish
#northcarolinafishing

Riverbassin Tournament Trail Charlotte Stop yields 2 Citation Roanoke Bass

I had eagerly awaited this stop in Charlotte but I had a problem....My best spots which were inbounds the last 2 Times in Charlotte(2011, 2013) were now out of bounds. I finished 4th both of those years and being able to hit my honeyholes surely helped. This time I was forced to fish a  section of river I had never fished.  My plan was to start off with a white spinner bait, a few topwaters and a fluke.

Legal fishing time was 6 am and by the time I was on the water it was 6:15.   My first cast yielded nothing but my second cast with the spinnerbait brought on a vicious strike.  I was expecting to have a good solid 2-4 lb bass by the fight but was a little shocked to haul in a good solid 13-14 inch Roanoke bass.  Awesome!  Citation size in North Carolina for this species is 11 inches or 1 pound and this one would make that easily.  I was so surprised(and half asleep) that I didn't get an exact measurement on this fish but it was a good start even though this fish didn't count for the tournament.
Several cast later and my bait is slammed again.  My first Largemouth of the day??.  No,  another citation size Roanoke bass at a solid 12 inches!   Not the fish I was after but I will never complain about catching big Roanoke's. 

Here are a few pictures of these fish.
The Bigger Roanoke Bass ( Ambloplites cavifrons )

The 12 inch Roanoke

A little while later I landed a 11 inch largemouth but I would need fish a lot bigger than that.   Several cast later I landed the first decent Largemouth of the day.  

Not bad but I would need bigger fish to do well in this tournament.  I ended up catching only 7 or 8 bass with the best 3 all being around the 15 inch mark.

My 3 best Bass fell to the White spinnerbait, Pearl Fluke and Zara Spook. 
I ended up with 45.5 inches which put me in 15th place. I just couldn't get that good solid 21 to 22 inch fish that would have put me in the top ten. I was still happy finishing 15th out of 38 entries since this was my first time at this strtch of river.  

 More info on this series of tournaments can be found at http://www.riverbassintrail.com/

Thanks Mack

#roanokebass

#ambloplitescavifrons