Smallies, Northern Largemouth and Florida Largemouth in one Day

Fished The Dan river Friday October the 7th, 2011 with my good friend Jim.

Conditions

Water low and clear, 63 Deg
Air Temp 70's
Time- mid-morning to mid-day
Baits used 3/8 oz spinnerbait, 3inch tube, buzzer
Boat used- Old Town 119

Jim and I met up at mid morninfg and floated a short stretch of a good river. I immediately got a hit on the spinnerbait and then threw the tube back in and a nice 12 inch smallie nailed it. After a few more fish I moved downstream and a monster smallie nailed my spinnerbait but like a rookie i still had by drag set too light and didn't get a good hookset!....I was very  disappointed that I made such a rookie mistake. I quickly shook the bad memory of that fish and proceeded to work likely looking spots midstream. Most hits all day came from the middle of the river.  Almost all the hits came on the spinnerbait with just a few of the tube. I only had one hit on the buzzer and it may have been a redbreast grabbing the skirt. My top  3 smallies today  were 14 - 14 1/2 inches. The rest were 12-13 inches with none under 12. .....14 I think was the smallie total with the one lone largemouth that may have been 16 inches. It was a very nice day on the water with Jim and we were always surrounded by a few ospreys and even got to witness their fishing skills. We saw at least 2 ospreys that had fish  in their talons and other wildlife seen were a lot of geese and a few ducks.

See why I hardly ever fish a spinnerbait or a buzzer without a trailer hook!

Here is Jim and his Coosa. Not sure of Jim's final tally but I know he landed some smallies and also 1 largemouth as well.

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Towards the end of the float I pulled this gal out from a laydown on the spinnerbait. A nice river largemouth.

Oh,  I almost forgot about the Florida Strain Largemouths. When I left the river I was set on getting to a very little known  lake ( Lake Burton ) that that has been stocked with Florida's. I was determined to get there even if only to get a view of it before dark.  I actually made it there with an hour to spare and immediately paddled down one bank throwing anywhere that looked good. After about 10 minutes I was rewarded with this Florida.

A great day on the water.  Smallies, Northern and Florida Strain largemouths in one day.

See ya on the water,  Mack

#fishing

#lakeburton

#danriver

Float for Stripers and Largemouths

Hit up a piedmont river on Friday June the 24th.  Jeff and I had wanted to go to the yadkin or possibly another river but rains in those drainages made the conditions not to our liking. I suggested a river that I have fished alot in the past but only sparingly in the last few years. It was a good gamble. I also brought along a freind of mine , Mike.  I think we all had a blast.

We launced just after daylight and Mike spotted some schooling action upstream. We all headed that way and Mike and Jeff were tearing up the stripers. I couldnt buy a bite. They were having nothing to do with the topwater lures I had brought.  Very frustrating. I was glad for them but still very frustrating.  Finally I dug a little deeper in my box and found a lure I had forgot was in there.  A clear chug bug. Man! I prayed and thought that would be the lure.  First cast . Bam! A striper was on.  I ended up with about 15 stripers from 3 - 7 lbs on the ole chug bug. This bite lasted about an hour and I think we could of caught them longer but a long float lay ahead, so we headed down. .   Mike actually caught some on the longrod but I couldnt get there to take a photo, without messing up his spot..
Well done Mike!

Here are 2 of the stripers I caught.

We then Started throwing lures for bass. I started off with a white buzzer but ended up throwing a white spinnerbait.  I chose white as the water was very clear. I probaly brought to hand 20 plus largemougths,  though most were small in the 1 - 1 1/2 lb range. I did catch 1 that was probaly 4 lbs and a 3lber. Jeff ended up with the biggest at almost 5 lbs.

My best bass of the day

This  redbreast nailed my spinnerbait.

Mike w/an avg bass we caught today

Me and one of the many bass we caught.

Here is the big one of the day

We were floating down the river in a channel between 2 Islands when I heard some rustling in the woods on the Island. All of the sudden , this beast is standing there and he doesnt look happy that we are around.
He may have been the highlight of the day.

Here is a nice pic of the water that we were catching bass in.

A great day on the water with some great freinds.  Its hard to beat topwater stripers and Largemoughts on buzzers and spinnerbaits.  We also saw lots of wildlife. Herons, ducks, geese , ospreys, and 1 lone eagle and the lone goat.  Also saw some big gar, big monster carp and saw some big and i do mean big freshwater drum.

Mack

Blackwater Creek Adventure

Went to a tributary of the Neuse river this am(6/7/11) in search of some Jack(Chain Pickeral).
Launched at 7am at a private ramp and made the paddle to this trib and worked my way up about 1 mile throwing a red roostertail with a silver blade. No Jack! but did manage 3 bass about 1 lb apiece and 2 bream.

Had to make 2 portages around fallen trees but not a bad float.

Since no Jack were caught on the way up I switched bait s and tied on a spinnerbait to throw on the way back down. Mainly targeted logs and cypress knees.  I picked up 3more bass all almost identical to the first 3 and 1 small bowfin.

Finally almost back down at the neuse I picked up a bass that may of went 5 lbs wet. She gave a good fight but 14 lb fireline was too much for her.

Dissapointed I didnt catch a Jack but a good morning it was with some decent fish caught.
Mack

3rd American Shad Trip Spring 2011

Steve and I headed back down east Friday April 15 to see if we could catch some American Shad.

We went by several of our American Shad spots and nothing was happening with the shad. The recent lack of rain had dropped the water levels and possibly moved the fish back down. We knew we could go to the Roanoke and catch some Hickory Shad but we wanted the big boy's. We each had 1 hookup and each lost A big American Shad!!

Anybody who knows me, knows 1 thing. If I ain't catch'in the fish I set out to catch I will fish for anything that bites. That includes Hornyhead Chubs!......

Here is a few of the fish I caught today.

Caught 2 this size on Rogue.

A Fowler's Toad

Caught 10 or so of these on crickets but not any size to the Bream today.

And last but definitely not least was this ole girl.

A bad day for catchin American Shad but fun was had. After leaving Wiggins Mill on Contentnea Creek,  the eat'in was great as we went to Bill's BBQ and got the buffet!.

Mack

River Bassin Tournament Trail Charlotte Stop sponsered by Bass Pro Shops April 2nd, 2011

RiverBassin.com and Bass Pro put on their second year of Kayak/canoe/wade tournaments this spring with Charlotte being the first stop. Last year I placed 4th out of a loaded field or great river bassers from mainly NC, Ga, and SC. I had missed being second by a mere .26 of an inch! and was the first to check in at 1:30! This year I was determined to check in after 3 but not later than the deadline of 4:30.

This years field had slightly less competitors because of the foul weather but anglers came from as far away as Indiana. I almost didn't enter because of the cold weather and high muddy water,  but was urged on by some Friends. My river I rely on was  high and muddy so I (we) had to go to a back up to a back up river (creek) that was not as stained.

My partner this year would be my good friend Steve. We launched at approx 7 am at a toasty 36 degree air temperature though the water was a nice 51 degrees. Fish were very hard to come by and after several hours I only had 1 fish in the boat and had lost 2! Fish were hitting my trusty old spinnerbait. This is a view of the put in.

A view of the creek as I paddled upstream.

This would be my first bass of the day.

Steve picked up 1 bass and lost 2,  then I switched lures and began throwing a Cordell Spot.
I was rewarded with this monster! LOL! but,  this fish really helped me.

Finally we gave up on this spot and from my databank on top of my shoulders I hit one spot on the way back to Charlotte that i knew may give us a fish or 2. After about 15 minutes my spinnerbait was nailed by this fish! I was hoping it was not a Bowfin and indeed it wasn't.

This fish was good enough to put me ahead of some great anglers and guess where I finished?.  Yeap,
 4th again! and I missed jumping up to 3rd  by a 1/4 of an inch again. That's is just how it goes sometimes, I had lost 1 earlier that would have put me in second but probably not first unlike last year where I lost a fish that would have put me in first but you can be sure that others had lost fish too,  so I am happy with being consistent and finishing 4th.  Steve and I also finished 5th in the team standings and surely miss that fish i was getting ready to net that somehow came unhooked that would have put us in 2nd for the team standings.

Here is a view of the "weigh in" stage at Bass Pro in Charlotte probaly about 1 hour before the actual weigh in.

Also, a big congrats to Catawba who had caught a winning stringer but didn't enter the individual competition.
Great stringer on a bad day. Congrats Catawba.

To see the official results see the link below.  Mack
http://www.riverbassintrail.com/recaps/2011-recaps/charlotte-wrap-up-article/#

Piedmont River Float for Bass 3/18

I couldn't find anyone to fish with so I called up my good friend Steve to see if he could go, LOL......Anyway, we hit up a local river to see what was up with this stretch and found some good spots. We didn't fish alot as were we mainly running and gunning checking out spots,  if you can call it that with an electric motor as our power.
The water was slightly stained and up with a water temp of 60 degrees. All fish were caught on spinnerbaits except one on a Cordell Spot.

Here is a nice Bass Steve got with a spinnerbait

Here is Steve with a Jack (Chain Pickerel ) that crushed his spinnerbait.

Look at this Bass, It's tail is half gone!

A nice view of the River

Another oddity for today is this Bass's bright red eyes. They were actually more red in person or is that more red in fish?......

We probably caught 8 bass but could of caught more but we were pre- fishing for an up-coming tournament and once we found fish we moved on to find other concentrations of fish. Today we probably found 5-6 really good spots but we will probably fish the Catawba river as that is where we crushed them last week.

Mack

Shad Fishing Trip Turns Into Bass Fishing Trip

Wanted to catch  my first shad of the year but I had a problem. My son had early release from school today (11:45) so I could either wait on him and fish closer to home,  or leave out early and fish by myself way down east where I know the shad are. I chose to fish with him but that presented another problem. Leaving after lunch meant that we couldn't  reach my hotspot on the Neuse River without being limited on fishing time and the shad may or may not be  far up the Neuse yet, but I would take that chance rather than to not spend time with him.

We arrived at the private ramp at aprx 1pm and the journey was on. The main river was slightly stained but not bad.  We threw rigs consisting of 2 pink headed chartreuse jigs,  the bottom weighing 1/8 oz and the top 1/16 oz. Water tempature in the river was 52 degrees and after trying several spots and then the mouth of a tributary without any hits we headed up the creek which was a toasty 56 degrees.

Here we are making our way up this tributary. Larry Dalberg can plug Jack Links Jerky so what the heck,  here is my son plugging Old Trapper Jerky! 

This creek is pretty unique as it is blackwater with some cypreess trees and  also has areas of rocky bluffs. I spent many afternoons on this creek in the 90's after work catching Bream, Bass, Cats and Shad.
Here is a nice Bald Cypress tree as we head upstream.

After getting no hits on my shad rigs I decided to start throwing a spinnerbait for bass. This was my reward on my second cast!

I then put on a Yellow Shyster hoping to get a Jack ( Chain Pickeral ) out of this creek and this little guy hammered it.

After heading back downstream to the river I pulled this little guy out of a ditch feeding the river.

No Shad today but I would  rather spend time with my son vs catching alot of shad. There is always Weldon and Wiggins Mill.  Almost forgot, we saw 5 deer feeding along side the river and several wood ducks and I personally saw 1 of the woodies up close as he about took my head off zooming down the creek!.

Mack

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