Staunton River Camping and Fishing

I had plans to take my son to Georgia for a Get together for  some Camping, Canoeing/fishing and to see some old friends but the weather did not cooperate. The Flint was too high to float so we had to look for an alternate plan close to home. The first place that came to mind was the Staunton River and the Staunton River State park in Virginia. Now, I have fished the Staunton before  but not down this low. This would be new water to me. Here is a view of the entrance as we arrived on 6/22 around lunchtime.

The visitor station was a very nice place with a very helpful staff plus they had plenty of merchandise if you left something at home or didn't want to drive the 20 minutes to the nearest Wal-Mart!

 Plus, they are open to 10 pm and they don't lock the gate at this campground so if you do need to run into town late at night you can. Here is a view of the visitor station and the pool beside it.

Both are Top-Notch facilities.

Here is a view of our camping spot.

This campground is the nicest I have been in so far. It is a meca for the fisherman because you have the choice of 2 ramps. 1 on the Dan river arm of Kerr Lake where you can launch and either run up the Dan river or run down to the main lake. 2. You can launch on the Staunton river arm of the lake and run up the Staunton river or go to the main lake. We chose to spend all of out time on the Staunton side. Here is a view of that ramp.

Left takes you up into the River and into some backwater areas and right takes you to the main lake. We launched at 4pm and headed upriver.

This is part of an old pumping staion that was used for the campground. This is no longer needed now as the Park is now on City water.

Mack N. started off throwing a frog and I started off with a chartreuse spinnerbait since the water was high and muddy. The spinnerbait was getting hits from some fat chunky bass so it didn't take him long to change to a spinnerbait as well. We were getting hits by throwing at Willow trees and the hits were about every 30 yds down the bank.  Most were 1 1/2 lbs to 2 1 /2 lbs but Mack Nicholas caught 1 that went just over 4 lbs. Here are a few of those pictures.

We left biting bass to go catch bait for a night of catfishing. Our bait of choice would be either Bream and/or White Perch.  We used 2 rods for this, both ultralites. 1 was rigged with a 1/2 oz  bell sinker on bottom with 2 gold hooks spaced 6 inches apart above the sinker. The 2nd one had a splitshot just above a cricket hook . We tipped each hook with a piece of nightcrawler.  Hits were many and often, catching all the white perch we cared to catch and a few bream and 2 shell crackers as well.

This is a picture (a poor one but you can get the idea) of the 2 bottom rigs we used for White Perch.

You can use sabiki rigs for them or the rig I used with the 2 gold hooks does well even with 4,5, or 6 hooks spaced a few inches apart. Tip each hook with just a piece of worm.

Right before dark we started catfishing. The hits were few and far between. At aprox 10pm it started raining hard and I thought Mack N. would want to call it quits for the night but he wanted to stay, so we stayed until 2am with it raining the whole time. Thank goodness for Frogg Toggs!.. We did manage a  couple of Blue cats with the  biggest at maybe 5 lbs. Both caught on cutbait sprayed with Bang Garlic Spray on a7/0 circle hook with a 3 oz bank sinker.  This is a picture of the rig I like.

The next day we launched again around 4pm and headed upriver to do some exploring.
Here is a short video of us and the Scanoe running up the muddy Staunton.

We went back to our spot where the white perch were biting yesterday and they were still there. We caught more than just white perch though,  We would catch a perch then the next fish would be either a BlueCat or Channel that weighed 3/4 up to maybe 1lb 4oz. These were actually pretty fun to catch on ultralites. They were hitting the same rigs as yesterday tipped with a piece of night crawler. Right at dark we started catfishing. Bites were few and far between again. These catfish have to be spawning. I have got reports of them spawning this week too. The biggest that night was an aprox10 lb channel cat that hit a piece of cutbait. There were very bad clouds in the distance but the skies above us were clear and we could see the Big Dipper. We were treated to  an awesome lightning storm display in the sky miles away towards Brookneal or Alta Vista. Here is  a picture of one of the many small cats we caught and then the biggest which may have gone 9-10 lbs

Dont Say it!  I know I look drunk,  but I am just dog tired. We did set out 10 jugs after catching this fish and didn't get 1 bite on a jug.

Summary of the conditions and equipment  used:

Boat- Colemane Scanoe w/ 2.5 hp Mercury
Bait- Live white perch and cut bait for bigger Cats, night crawlers for white perch, small cats and panfish.
Outfits used for Cats- Ambassaduer 6500 with 30 lb big game line on White Ugly Stik, Ambassadeur 7000 loaded with 40 lb Cajun line on 8' American Spirit Night Stick. We also had a Shimano 6500 baitrunner w/ 25 lb Ande on a 7 ft Uglystick Tiger rod but we didn't use that one.
Outfits for panfish- 2 Ultra lites w 4lb line.

Kerr Lake Level- 301.2 ,  1.2 feet up from normal level of 300 ft above sea level
Staunton Flow at Randolph gauge- Aprox 3000 cfm, avg for ths time of year is aprox 1500 cfm.



All in all it was a good 3 day trip. Hopefully we will make it back next year when the Walleye run up from the lake. Thanks , Mack

#stauntonriverstatepark

#danriver

#stauntonriver

Flint River: My Quest for a Shoal Bass Micropterus cataractae

1981.  What does it mean to me? Well, Its the year I graduated from High School, but when I think of 1981 I think more about how long I have wanted to catch a Shoal Bass ( Micropterus cataractae ). June 1981 to narrow it down as Outdoor Life had an article(which I still Have) tittled  "River Of The Redeyes". The Shoal Bass was not recognized as a Separate species until 2000 so up till then Shoal Bass and redeye bass(coosa bass) were lumped together as 1 species.  Anglers on a few Georgia rivers knew there was a difference as the "redeyes" in one drainage always topped out heavier than the others. These monster "redeyes" were sometimes called "Flint River Smallmouth" and are naturally found in the Flint / Chatahoochee drainage in Georgia and the Apalachicola / Chipola in Florida.  They have since been introduced to the Ocmulgee in Georgia.

1995.  April of 1995,  Southern Living Magazine did an article on the Lilies found in the Cahaba River Titled "Lily of The Stream". I also still have that article.  That is how long I have been wanting to see some Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies .

2005.  That's the year I joined GeorgiaRiverfishing.com.  Since then my eagerness for a Shoalie has increased because members of that forum are always posting pictures of Shoal Bass they have caught.

So, when would I go?...Work and family duties always kept getting in the way but this winter I said to myself this was going to be the year. I have had several offers in the past to go fish for Shoalies but couldn't work it out. Members of  GRF  had a get together planned for  the month of May so I decided this would be a great time for me to go meet up with a bunch of guys I have known for years through the Internet and get the Shoal Bass off my bucket list. Sam (Creekstalker) the Owner of Georgiariverfishing.com showed up which was nice as he has been up to North Carolina twice to fish with me. I have also met Several other members at tournaments in North Carolina but this was going to be a treat to go down there and fish with them.

2012.  May 18th 2012 to be exact. That is the day I caught my first Shoal Bass. Nothing huge but my goal fish wise was to catch just 1. I didn't care how little or big I just wanted 1. Here she is.

Another one- most I caught hit a spinnerbait

I caught a handful that size the evening of the 18th plus a few Redbreast and Bream.

The campsite was awesome and the river was amazing. Thanks to Mike for being a great host.

I went to bed that night very tired after a long hard drive from North Carolina and an evening of paddling and fishing but was a very happy camper as I had caught my Shoalie. The next day I awoke and hit the river this time going downstream and was rewarded with a nice Shoalie, a few small shoalies , a few decent Spotted bass and some more Redbreast and Bream. Here are a few pics of my am float.

 I came back to camp at lunch very hungry but happy I had caught a Shoalie above 2 lbs. I was so happy in fact (and Tired) that I told Phillip that I was going to stay in camp and enjoy the evening. He talked me in to paddling upstream farther than I had been and I am sure glad he did as that evening I ran into these on the river.

The Rocky Shoals Spider Lily

Wow! 

Seeing these Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies was almost better than catching a Shoalie. What an awesome site.

These are found from the Catawba River in South Carolina through Georgia and into Alabama. The North Carolina population's of this Lily are gone now due to the dams on the Catawba and now there are only 50 known colonies known in the 3 states. I had first heard of these from  Southern Living Magazine which did and article on the Spider Lilies found in the Cahaba River in Alabama. This was an unexpected surprise!

Here are a few random pictures of some of the fishermen, the campsite, and the River.

                                                         Trent and "Pamlico"

Phillip "Pip"

The "Boathouse"

Mike and Trent

Pip

Blackwaterbill, Doublehaul, Pip, Pamlico, Me, Shoalieman and ?

Goshawk on the River 

So what was the best part?
1st was seeing and meeting the Brother River fishermen, 2nd, was seeing those Spider Lilies, and 3rd was catching a Shoalie. Hopefully I will make it back next year. Now , I have a big desire to see the Spider Lilies on the Catawba River!  A big Thanks to Mike and everyone else. Mack

#flintriver

#shoalbass

#Micropteruscataractae

Micropterus cataractae

Neuse River Camping for Catfish

I decided to take my son camping on the Neuse last weekend(April 28,29). Tom (turtlestewbro) called me at the last minute and I asked him if he also wanted to go. He was in.  We arrived at the ramp at aprox 2pm Saturday.

This spot is like an old friend.  I have fished this area since the early 90's and sometimes wonder how I could of done without this place. It is always interesting and exciting when I get on the water here.  What has changed from last year and what has stayed the same??? A couple of big trees had fallen since my last time here and one area had been logged  but it was still the same ole great fishing spot.    My boat would be my  trusty Coleman Scanoe with my Mercury 2.5 for power. Tom would be solo in his yak. First order of the day would be to get bait for catfishing this evening. That meant fishing for bream with crickets. Usually that is a pretty easy thing to do here. You cast the cricket near a cypress tree, it sits there a minute, your bobber goes under, you reel in a bream. Easy.  No, not today! The Bream fishing today was one of the worst days I have had here fishing for them.  My son did score a nice one right off the bat but it took us several hours to get 5 Bream in the boat. That meant most of them would be used as cut bait as each one cut up would be 3-4 pieces of bait with of course the head being the best. 

A lot of top water action was going on as we were fishing for bream. I couldn't tell if it was small bass eating minnows, crappie or whatever  but you would see the small fry jump and scatter followed  by a big splash. I threw my spinnerbait to no avail and finally i downsized to a  1/16 oz white jig with a pink head . Almost immediately I was rewarded with this fish.

Stripers!.....Nice, and fun on 6lb line but they were no where near the minimum size limit of 18 inches so I had to return to bream fishing. 

We took 3 catfish outfits for this trip.  1. Ambassadeur 7000 loaded with 40 lb cajun line on a 7.5 ft American Spirit Nite Stik,  2. Ambassaduer 6500 w/power handle loaded with 30lb big game line on a 7' white Ugly Stik, and  3. Shimano Bantam 50 loaded with 25 lb Ande on a 7' Black Ugly Stik. This River is not the place to bring "wimpy outfits" . Just before sunset we sat up on one of our favorite spots and my son caught this one right at dark. It hit a small live bream, the only one we used live and this flathead was also the smallest we have ever caught here. Maybe 3 lbs at the most.

20 minutes later this Flathead hit a  bream head sprayed with garlic.

Not a monster but she put up a nice battle.

A little while later Tom hooked up to  a monster of a fish and fought it for about 10 minutes but finally the hook pulled out. Dang!   I am sure Tom will be back trying to catch that fish and redeem himself. We quit fishing at about 12 midnight , headed back to camp, set up the tent and I grilled porkchops. We then ate and crashed for the night. Not a lot of fish caught but fun as usual.  I can't wait to get back and fish here again.  Mack