Caught a few nice catfish on Jordan Lake this am using cut bait sprayed with Garlic Juice and a few on marinated wieners. This was a FUN morning on the water.
Today I went to a favorite river of mine to catch Flatheads on rod and reel and was surprised to see the water below the dam I fish almost DRY!!!!
They are working on the dam so the water is being all diverted into a canal which empties into the river 3/4 mile below the dam thus leaving alot of that stretch dry.
I spotted 2 young men Noodling them and then I started doing the same. Then a young lady named Rebecca came along and said she saw several in different hole so she became my spotter and camera woman. Thanks to Davey, Jojo and Rebecca.
I Just got back from a week in the Florida Keys crossing a few fish off of my "Bucket List".
Tarpon, Black Drum, Cuda, Mangrove Snapper, Jack are all now off of that list. I even wanted to see a Key Deer and after 2 hours of sitting still a nice Key Deer Buck came by. Ok, it was actually only 5 minutes but I got to see a Key Deer.
So, Saturday the 20th I was taking a nap recuperating and my wife comes into the bedroom and says Jeff is here. Crap, there went my nap.
Jeff talks me into going to a local flow for a short float for Bass. We look at usgs.gov and the water level looks perfect. We arrive at our destination and the water looks like crap. Too bad usgs.gov doesn't show water clarity. Now I like stained to slightly muddy water but this was so muddy I think I actually saw a Raccoon track float by! We stood there deciding on our options and after a little arm twisting I talked Jeff into going to a nearby spot for Flatheads.
First we would have to get bait. So off to the Bait store it was. I had only brought 1 cat rod since this was originally a bass trip so we took turns fishing for cats. I went first and caught one 20 lbs or so. Now, it was Jeff's turn . He casted to one hole and after 15 mins or so he casted to another hole and almost immediately his line started moving to the left. he set the hook and after a short brief battle he had his first Flathead! Awesome! Now, if I could just get him to go after Shad on the Shad run.
Note - no Flatheads were harmed today but 7 goldfish were. 7 x $2.75 apiece and a 4.99 baitbucket = $26.24
Catching Flatheads- Priceless
Rod - 7ft Heavy American Spirit NiteStik- This imo is the best rod on the market for the money
Date 5-6-2015 Location- Central North Carolina Stream Outfits Used- Abu Garcia 7000 w/ 40 lb Red Cajun line on 7' Med Hvy American Spirit Nite Stik
http://bottomdwellerstackle.com/american_spirit.htm#Nite_stik_classic This IMHO is the best Cat Rod for the money Penn Mag 10 loaded with 40 lb Red cajun line on Berkley Big Game 6'6" Med Hvy I caught the cat on this out fit. Rig- Carolina Rig with 3 oz Bank sinker, swivel, 1 ft leader and 7/0 J hook. Time- 5:30 PM - 830 pm Bait Used- 4 goldfish from my last trip and some river shiners and shad caught in castnet
Headed out to one of my favorite spots for Flatheads and and set up my rods in surfrod holders.
I had zero hits on Shad and goldfish. My one lone hit came on the shiner and it was also the smallest bait I had. This Flathead was a mean one. I doubt I have ever had one fight harder. She was a real brawler and I was lucky to have landed her. Released her unharmed for another angler to catch.
Saturday June 21st I called my old friend Todd and told him we were going cat fishing. He said where are we going??. To a dam where we wade out 300 feet to the middle and catch catfish I said. Catfish during the daytime?? Yep! Catfish during the daytime and not just channels and blues but Flatheads during the daytime.
I picked him up and off to the bait store to get aprox 20 gold fish. Not cheap at 2-3 bucks a piece so we must luv to fish.
We waded below this 600 foot long dam and tossed the goldfish right into the turbulent water below the dam. We missed a few fish and slung off some Goldfish but it was worth it.
My rod used was a Ugly Stik Tiger Rod paired with a Shimano Baitrunner 6500 spooled with 25 lb line. 7-9/0 hooks and 2-4 oz sinkers.
All of this video is from the 21st except the last picture which I threw in from the last trip.
Steve and myself made a trip to one of my favorite rivers on Friday the 13TH!!!. First we had to stop and buy goldfish at 2.75 a pop but these were Jumbos. We made it to the spot and the river was a little higher than normal. After a little thought I went back to the car and got my life vest. Steve already had his on and by the look of the rushing water I had better have one on also.
We had to pretty much swim a channel with a backpack on, rods and bait buckets. Then wade though waist deep fast water. This was all to get out in the middle where the fish are. This Dam is 600 feet long so we had to get out 300 feet . Boy was that a workout. This spot is not for the weak and is very dangerous hence the life jackets.
Anyway action was very good with slightly rising water and a full moon. The water flow today was aprox 2300 cfm. Steve caught several Blues before I even had my first hit but we were after Flatheads. Sometime later I heard Steve yelling and look over and he is fighting a big one. Then the line went slack. Crap, cut on a rock. A short while later I get a good hit and I got her head up and kept it up. Brief hard battle and I released her back to fight again. Most of our hits came by casting the goldfish right up against the base of the dam. An awesome day on an awesome river with a good friend. Cant beat that.
Outfit I used- Shimano 6500 Baitrunner on a 7' Ugly Stik Tiger Rod , Bait Goldfish, Terminal tackle - 2 oz bank sinker swivel then a 6 inch leader using an 8 or 9/0 Hook.
I went to one of my favorite rivers in search of some cats 6/7 430pm -430am 6/8.
I arrived at my spot a little after 4 and I was at my first hole 430 ish,
Bait today would be 12 bream I caught earlier and had on ice for cutbait. These would get the garlic bath. I also bought the last 8 goldfish a bait store had so these would be my flathead bait.
Gear and Outfits used-
Abu 7000c on American spirit Nite Stik , 40 lb Cajun with 3 oz bank sinker and 9/0 j hook.
Shimano 6500 baitrunner on Ugly stik tiger rod loaded with 25 lb big cat. 2 oz sinker with 9/0 circle hook.
Abu 6500c on white ugly stik loaded with 30 lb big game. 2 oz bank sinker with 7/0 j hook on 3 way rig.6
Oh, I cant leave out the boat. Sears 12' Jon with 55 lb thrust motor. Water too shallow for my gas motors.
I immediately started getting hits on cutbait(didn't used goldfish till 30 min before dark) from blues 5-10 lbs with the biggest at 10-11 lbs. Moved every hr to a different hole and caught fish on each hole and also lost several big ones, still nothing big.
^^^^This equals this \/ \/ \/
I also brought along a Banana (oh no he didn't!) because the forum post the other day had me laughing. I bring bananas a lot while fishing and it has never hurt my fishing.
anyway, aprox 245 I set up on my last hole. Apox 3 am I get a good run on the Abu 6500 set with a goldfish. I set the hook and the battle is on!!!....It was crazy for a few as I had to hold this strong fish and wind in 2 lines that were out. After 5 mins I bring in a good 35lb flathead to anchor the blues I caught today. Can you say Banana Smana??.
^^^^^ This equals this \/ \/ \/
I set the lines out again and get one more run at aprox 4 am. A small 5 lb flattie. I release her and head home. A nice night of fishing.
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.
Garlic for Catfishing???? I knew they had garlic scents but I had assumed they were for spraying Bass worms(which was the original intent) but who would spray garlic on perfectly good cutbait? My Taxidermist Bill told me that when he goes to Kerr Lake that he sprays his cutbait with Garlic and it outfishes non sprayed cutbait. I was a non believer when Bill told me this way back in the 90's but knowing Bill wouldn't lead me a stray I tried it and Since then I have used it religiously and It works!.
I use either Jacks juice or Bang garlic spray. If i am bream fishing during the day for bait I will take some bream and go ahead and cut them up and put them in a ziplok bag and spray them to let then marinate which works well. Garlic works well using it as soon as you cut the bait up also and if I cast out and dont like the spot I respray with garlic and cast out again.. I almost never go catfishing w/o a can of Garlic Spray.
This is my biggest cat caught on a bream head sprayed with Garlic spray. 46lb Blue caught in the Neuse River, that was a night to remember.
I have also used it with success spraying it on nightcrawlers and other baits.
You can also sprinkle Garlic powder on cutbait when you freeze it for future use. I wouldn't recommend spraying cutbait with the spray then freezing it as the spray is A LOT STRONGER than the powder and your freezer may get a garlic smell.
Also, A lot of catfishermen use whats called Chicken Breast Marinated in Garlic Powder
( CBMIGP for short) and it does work well for Blue and Channel Cats but I can assure you that anything sprayed with garlic spray is better than garlic powder. The powder is reserved for freezing in my catfishing world. Either way is going to be better than no garlic at all.
The other day I was looking at you Tube and came across "Garlic Worms". After seeing this guys video on Garlic worms I was amazed that no one had posted anything before him on this. I would go into detail on it but I don't want to steal his glory on this so I will post his link. Watch it , it is so simple it's amazing. I tried it(I have some in the fridge right now) and it works.!
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
Thursday the 18th of April I went to one of my favorites spots down east. This would be a special day even if I did not catch anything as I was taking my new Squirrel dog 'Pete" on a boat for the first time. Pete did extremely well which my wife said he wouldnt. Told ya so!...We started off trolling for Stripers and mananged a 12 incher right away but it was not going to be a good day for trolling as the oaks were putting off these tassle things that kept fouling the line.
We then proceeeded to bream and bass fish and just like the other day the small bass were wearing out the Mepps Black Fury.The Problem was not many bream were hitting it and they were also not hitting crickets in the usual spots. We finally managed to catch a few for cut bait and since I had to leave at dark we motored to a spot to set out 2 lines. Right before this spot I look on this tree laying in the water and golly there is this one huge Brown water snake Anyway we anchor up and I put a bream head on one and the next slice on the other rod. 5 minutes later one rod is bending like crazy!. I reel hard and get in a 15 lb flat head. No monster but I will take him. 1 hr later the other rod is bending and I reel in an 11 lb blue. No monster again but I am not complaining with catching fish.
Pete was loving every minute of this. A good day on the water. Mack
Caught quite a few small bass and a few bream on the Mepps Black Fury size 1.
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
I also bought the last 8 goldfish a bait store had so these would be my flathead bait.
