Big Catfish and Little Catfish - Dan River Virginia

Big Catfish Little Catfish

July 15th my wife and I decided to do a little Catfishing.    Truth be told I decided and she chose to come along.  Normally bait on this river is very hard to come by so I either bring my own frozen cutbait, buy goldfish, or get both.   This time for some dumb reason I decided to buy 5 tubs of night crawlers and see what I could catch with just them.   My wife was like you/we are only going to catch little cats with crawlers!!
I assured her that IF a big Catfish came up on a big glob of crawlers that it was game on!

First, we had to get the boat in the water.

  First stop produced this massive cat!    Now don't laugh it was cool catching this little guy who got a 7/0 hook in his mouth.

Was she right about we were ony going to catch little ones????????

That stop also produced a decent longnose gar that you will have to see in the Video.

We moved a few more times with not much luck.   Our final stop had me put out all  3 rods.
All of the sudden and the spinner is smoking! after an Intense battle I finally subdued the beast by sticking my hand in her mouth and hoisting her aboard.   My wife tried to net her numerous times and with her being a rookie on the net I was getting worried that that would cause me to lose this giant so that is why I lipped her.

 I have included my you tube channel video of this catch but I will confess that this cat fought way better than the video suggest.  I had to cut out a lot of the fight due to the reel just being in front of the camera and this massive cat splashed water on the lens so you couldn't see some of the fight due to it being blury .

Game On!!!!!

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July 15th
Dan River right on the North Carolina Virginia Border
Boat-  Seras Gamefisher 1232
Motor- Mercury 2.5
Outfits-   Shimano 6500 Baitrunner Loaded with 25 lb Shur strike line on a 7' Ugly stik Tiger rod,  Abu Garcia 6500c loaded with 30lb Big game on a 7' Ugly Stik and a 7000c Abu loaded with 40 lb Red Cajun on an American Spirit Night Stik
Hook would be 7/0 Gamagatsu J and Circle hooks
Bait- Night crawlers on a 3 way rig

#danriver

#catfishing

#catfish

Gar Pictures

Gar Pictures

I was going through some Pictures the other day and ran across some old Gar Pictures that I don't think are on this Blog. All of these were caught in the Neuse.

My sons first Gar. I think this was from 2010 when he was 12

Myself with one while I was Cat fishing. I am pretty sure this was from the same day as above

 Another

And Rodney with probably his first Gar

Tags -  " Gar Pictures North Carolina "  " Longnose Gar North Carolina " " Pictures Longnose  Gar North Carolina "

#garfishing

#longnosegar

Greenfield Lake Wilmington, NC - where and what to Catch & more!

Greenfield Lake - Wilmington, NC

Greenfield Lake is a 90 acre millpond that was  originally used for rice production starting way back in 1730.  The City of Wilmington Purchased the Millpond and Land in 1925.  The lake has a nice Boat Ramp and parking area (see Map) and has a 5 mile Greenway for walking /jogging/Bicycling around the lake.   Things to see here are many species of Birds, Alligators, Turtles,  and I am sure a few Fox Squirrels call the woods around the lake home.   

Fish to be be found in the lake include Largemouth Bass, Bream, Shellcrackers, Bowfin, Longnose Gar, Black Crappie, Warmouth, Grass Carp, Common Carp, Yellow Perch,  Golden Shiners  and a record Bullhead Catfish was recently caught there.   

see   http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/outdoors/article85251312.html

The Trees in the Lake(Bald Cypress) and around the Lake  (Longleaf pines and Live Oaks are numerous ) are impressive as well as the Stunning Azaeleas which you must see in Spring.

Greenfield Lake has a nice boat ramp that is perfect for Canoes/Kayaks and small Jon Boats. It is very shallow out from the ramp so bigger boats may have a problem.

The parking area at the Boat Ramp

Here are the signs at the Boat Ramp

Here is a view of the 5 mile trail at the Dam

A view of the Dam

Here are some Bald Cypress Trees in the Lake

A nice Crape Myrtle Tree covered in Spanish Moss

I saw 3 Alligators on my trip there.  A small 2 fter, a 4fter and a 8 fter.  I would not let a dog get near the water.  These gators don't seem afraid and will approach you and while feeding them is illegal I suspect people do feed them by their behavior I observed.

Here is a nice Bass I caught there on a Black Spinnerbait

A nice Gar my Buddy landed.

If you ever find yourself in Wilmington you must at a minimum take a walk around the lake or better yet canoe the lake.

ADDED  2022

***June 19th  2022  my wife and I set out to explore and fish Greenfield Lake our quarry being Gar and while we were not successful( I had one good run) we did catch a lot of Bream and one nice Shellcracker .   We also saw 4 Gators at one time and several others along with several Ospreys, Comorants, Little Green herons and great Blue herons. 

Here is a picture of two anglers fishing - 

A Nice  Redear Sunfish  AKA Shallcracker
  

tags -  " Gar Images North Carolina "

#greenfieldlake

#wilmington

#northcarolina

#fishing

#greenfieldlakefishing

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

Good Day Fishing On A North Carolina River

February 12, 2011
North Carolina River Bass Fishing
Sunny and windy
Water Clarity-Murky
Lures Used- Cordell Spot, Strike King Spinnerbait
Reels used-Daiwa Regal 2500 spinning reel w/14lb fireline-Cordell Spot,
and Ambassadeur 5600C loaded with 15lb ande -Strike King Spinnerbait
Boat Used- Coleman Scanoe w/55lb Thrust trolling Motor
Time-1230-500PM


Met up with Jeff today about 2  hrs east of  Raleigh for some winter river bass fishing in eastern North Carolina. When I arrived at the ramp my first thought was that I should have cancelled because of the wind, and stayed at  home to watch UNC beat up on Clemson,  My second thought was that I should have brought the gas motor.  Both proved to be wrong. Took awhile to find the bass but once we did it was game on.  I caught 3 big ones today with my total bass somewhere around 12 for the day along with 1 gar, 1 bream and 1 crappie. Jeff reeled it quite a few bass as well but I got lucky today with the big ones.

These bass wanted a lure retrieved fairly fast with  probaly 75 percent  caught on the Cordell Spot and 25 percent on the Strike King spinnerbait.

Here Is Jeff at the start of the trip headed upriver.
Note: 90 percent of the time I head up river as if something happens to your motor you can drift back down. Even without a motor you can easily get way to far down river and the paddle up river at the end of the day is torture. Easier to paddle up and float back down.

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This was the first fish of the day and the biggest. She nailed my spinnerbait At first she didnt fight that hard and i was just reeling a fish in until she came up. Then I got nervous as she tried to jump several times.

Here is the average size we caught today and a decent view of the SK Spinnerbait.




The Bass above is probaly the fattest bass I have caught in a long time.  What A Pig!  This maybe a lunker in a few years the way she is eating.

Below is Jeff with oneof the many cookie cutters we caught today

One of the 3 nice ones I caught today, Here you can see the Cordell spot in her mouth. 



My 3rd "lunker" of the day

Here is my final fish of the day. I was sure I had a 10lb bass on but after a few minutes I realized it was problay a gar. 

A good day fishing  with a good freind, We also saw 3 wood ducks, several herons, lots of buzzards and a couple of pileated woodpeckers.  I cannot wait to get back and try for some topwater bass on this river and maybe try the flyrod here. 

Mack

Neuse River Cats, Shellcrackers and Shooting stars

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