The White Bass Run this year in Central NC has been pretty good. I have been 3 times so far and have done well all 3 times.
3/26/2016
Went fishing for White Bass with my wife and I may have caught 25~ fish and she probably got 35~ She got more as I was unhooking her fish and just having fun watching her catch them. We caught them 2 ways. 1 by anchored and casting to a known spot and 2 by trolling. When I troll I normally use 2 rods(canoe so a can't troll umpteen) but today we just trolled with 1 line for her as I was doing the paddling and unhooking. We got rained on for aprox 30 mins but otherwise it was a great day. I don't know who had more fun. The Wife, Pete the dog, or myself. Pete absolutely luvs to fish!
We caught White Bass, White Perch, Yellow Perch, Bream, and a couple of stripers. We also saw a Few Eagles, ospreys, Herons, and a Pileated Woodpecker. All fish caught on a 1/8 oz mini trap, small roadrunner, and a small spot.
March 27th, Went back to the same place , My fishing Partner today was the Famous Mark B. (Wuzworthit) who I have known since the 80's. Fish were scattered except we did catch about 20 out of 1 hole. Had several doubles on as well. We also ran into Professional fisherman Turtlestew. and also Watched an Eagle try to steal a meal from and osprey .
4/15/2016
Went today from 12-6 pm. caught a lot of White bass. Most small to medium size with 6 that were good size. Also caught maybe 10 white perch, 5 or 6 bream and 1- 4lb channel cat. Hottest action was 1230-130. then sporadic. Best lures were chartreuse SSR5 with blue back and orange belly, mini trap, and road runner. I took one of my old Heddon Sonics and it caught 3 or 4 fish then my knot broke and I lost it. Dang it!!! I hate I lost that lure.
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
My passion is river fishing and with all the rain that meant either pond fishing Saturday am or Lake fishing as all the rivers I usually fish were way too high. My son wanted to go so with all this rain I decided to take him to a spot at Jordan Lake where with these kind of conditions I was faily sure we could catch some fish along the riprap given the weather and especially the way the wind was blowing pushing shad up against the riprap. We arrived at daylight and we proceeded to catch probably 20 largemouth up to right at 4 lbs, most on Rat-L-Trap, 4 or 5 white bass most on rat l trap , 4 or 5 black crappie mainly on mini trap and maybe 4 or 5 channel cats up to 4 lbs on shad. My son was wearing me out to begin with but towards the end I gained on him and came close to his success.
Oh, and we caught 1 Citation size fish. I was reluntanct to post this until I heard back from my fisheries Bioligist friend whom works at Auburn University as usually I am fairly confident in species identification but this one I was 90-95 percent sure on just not 100 percent sure. He responded back that he was confident that the fish I caught was indeed a white perch...no! not a white perch. what were yall expecting? a big fat largemouth of smallie???
I'll take a citation perch any day. 12" is citation size.
Here is what Steve (Auburn Bioligist) said about this fish-
"wow - that looks like a whopper of a white perch! It could be a hybrid between white bass and white perch, such pairings are not unheard of in that genus. But, smart money would be on it being a really nice white perch."
He also said- "that is a magnaminous white perch"
Here are a few more pics of our outing
A good morning fishing with my favorite son!
Tags "North Carolina White Perch " " North Carolina Citation White Perch "
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
