Blues, Flatheads, Monster Brown Water Snakes and my new Squirrel (fishing) dog Pete

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.

Nice big ole Brown Water Snake!

15lb Flathead caught on Bream head

11lb Blue Cat caught on bream cutbait

A view of how I set my rods in the holder.

Pete on the way back to the ramp.

Eastern NC Lake Bassin

Blackwater Pond Bass

4/5/2013...My son had the week off for spring break . I Only had Thursday and Friday off and Thursday the weather was terrible so that left Friday to take my son fishing. Where would I take him? Eno River white bass came to mind as I have been catching a few there but, according to usgs it was high. The Neuse ? that is our favorite spot but USGS had it up in wake and Johnston co with our area soon to be hit. I decided to take him to a very out of the way lake that is a good 2 miles off the main road for some bass fishing. I knew the water wouldn't be muddy as this is a black water lake fed by a small blackwater creek.

The lake is in an area that has plenty of Fox Squirrels and Red Cockaded Woodpeckers or RCW"S as a lot of people call them. 2 white rings around a tree denotes the location of a nest. These are endangered birds so you must not get near their nest.  Note: picture of cavity tree was taken with a zoom lens.

We arrived at aprx 230 pm and immediately our spinnerbaits were being smashed by eager bass. No monsters but a couple of 3 lbers with most being 1.5 - 2 lbs. White was a good color but my big bass bait the ole Black double copper spinnerbait was getting the most hits. The bite died at 430 or so when the sun really came out. We only managed a few after that.

Wildlife seen today was a Kingfisher, a Great Blue Heron, Geese, and 1 Beaver
Air Temp 64 degrees

Water Temp 59 deg

Boat- Coleman Scanoe powered by Motor guide

My outfit was a 7 ft MH with 50 lb braid (cause of trees)

His outfit Saros 3000 Spinning reel on Med rod with 30 lb braid

Baits Used- Spinnerbaits, Both Booya's  White 3/8th and a Black Booya Tux and Tails

Get them here-  white  https://amzn.to/3VAmGHo
Black Tux and Tails    https://amzn.to/3EUefzN

Here are a few pics of the Bass and Lake

Note - A Black Spinnerbait with Hammered double blades is one of my favorite Big bass baits and is also my favorite in "Blackwater" Lakes and Rivers.........Mack

#bass

#bassfishing

#colemanscanoe

A morning River fishing trip with my son.

I don't get to fish with my son as much as I would like to as he has lots of things going on, School, football workouts, AAU Basketball, oh and did I mention the Girlfriend?.....Anyway he wanted to get out on the water this week so I had a special river in the Piedmont of North Carolina  in mind. This spot gets very little pressure because of the lack of good access to this stretch and if you are not in shape this spot can do you in...Another problem would be waking him up early as I wanted to be on the water by 6 as it would be a 2 hr ride from the house. That turned out to not be a problem at all....We fished from 6 am to maybe 10:30 and he caught probably 15 plus bass, most being around 2- 2/1/2 lbs but 3 or 4 being 3 plus and one being 4 1/2 plus....Almost all of his fish came on a white buzzer with a couple on a white spinnerbait....I mainly fished a #3 Mepps spinner as I was fishing behind him and I probaly landed 10 or so with the biggest being a solid 3 lber....We lost 3 Jacks, 1 he caught on a spinnerbait but I dropped it in the water as the hook came off and I lost 2 on the mepps. We also saw lots of wildlife 1 being a fawn who had to of just been born as she could barely walk and a box turtle laying eggs......A nice morning on the river, an early fathers day present.....Mack

Some pictures of him

Some nice flowers on the river

One of the Bass I caught

My best Bass of the Day

                      The lures we used Today. A White Buzzbait and a Mepps spinner.

              This ole gal was laying eggs on the way in and on the way out she had just finished.

 

Mack

Fox Squirrels in Eastern North Carolina ( Sciurus niger niger )

Fox Squirrels In Eastern Nc

Published 12/11/11 and updated frequently 

The Fox Squirrel found in Eastern North Carolina are the biggest squirrels in North America . The scientific name for this squirrel is Sciurus niger niger. The Fox Squirrel found in Northwestern North Carolina and a few spots in the piedmont is a different subspecies. Most biologist call Sciurus niger niger the Southeastern fox squirrel or the Southern Fox Squirrel  as it is found from SE Virginia to Northern Florida. In Northern Florida some call it the Carolina Fox Squirrel.

This squirrel favors  Mature Longleaf pine forest that are burned and have a scattering of oaks underneath and also the surrounding bottoms. The can and do live in other habitats like big mature Loblollies that are open(and burned) but the Lonfleaf pine forest is the best habitat. A preferred habitat is some golf courses in eastern North Carolina.  The fox squirrel has to have favorable habitat so some areas have good populations and then others the Fox squirrels are scattered in isolated pockets of favorable habitat.  This squirrel(S. niger niger) always has a Black head with white nose and ears. Some call this a mask. The rest of the squirrel can be any color. North Carolina allows hunting for The southeastern fox squirrel in 21 eastern counties(it is now allowed in all 100 counties). North Carolina allows hunting for the subspecies found in the west in only 2 counties. Here is a list of the 21 Eastern counties and I will add some tidbits of what I know. 
 
Anson- found in predominately loblollies in this county.
Bladen- Good habitat
Brunswick-  good habitat
Cumberland- good habitat especially on Ft. Bragg
Duplin -
Edgecombe- only opened recently-  Edited 2016 - I Saw a big Black one a few miles east of Wesleyan

 College  in March of 2016 and more recenty (2025 & 26) have seen bunches along Hwy 64 between Rocky Mount and Tarboro
Greene-  Seen 2 there recently along Hwy 264 (2026)
Harnett-
Hoke- good habitat
Johnston- most found east of I-95 but a few pockets of them west of I-95
Jones- I have seen a few in this county
Lenoir- I have seen a lot in this county
Moore- good habitat-I have seen a lot in this county
New Hanover- good
Onslow-
Pender-
Pitt-
Richmond-good habitat
Sampson- good
Scotland- good
Wayne- Lots of reports from this area
 
Now for counties where I know this animal exists but hunting isn't allowed. These are usually counties that border the above counties. and I will list then in no particular order.

*****added these counties below you can now hunt them as in the last few years the NCWRC has opened up every county to hunting fox squrrels***  
 
Union- eastern part
Stanley-
Montgomery- candor south mostly
Chatham- Limited to a few isolated "pockets" Especially around Jordan and harris lakes but hunting them there is mostly useless as while they are there they are still "limited"
Lee-
Wake-Limited to a few Isolated "pockets"  a few found within a few miles of Apex/Cary
Wilson-
Halifax- Edited 8/2016  Getting more and more here,  Most east of I-95 but a few west of 95 as well. A lot near the Community of Tillery.

Nash-  I saw 1 near Spring hope 2025  
Northhampton-  

Martin-Good reports from there- some on Roanoke River Refuge
Craven- I have seen a lot in this county - I have wondered why there is no season here???
Carteret-
Robeson-I have seen 1 there, it is decent habitat but not great.
Columbus-
Bertie-
Hertford-
Beaufort- Plenty arount Choccowinnity and especially Cypress landing golf course and Mauls Pt Rd
Pamilco- used to be a lot around Minnisott - edit 2026  some at Minnesott Golf and country club)
Randolph-a few reports from very southern part 

  
 
The counties above defiantly have some , other counties maybe Gates,  and a few others.
The key to more Fox squirrels in eastern North Carolina is more controlled burns in the Longleaf  and  The Loblolly pine forest  but to leave some oaks underneath. The restoration of the Longleaf to its habitat it has lost will do a lot for the fox squirrel. The  Loblolly  forest around Jordan lake is being  thinned and burned some  by the forest service and the maturing of that forest may lead to very good habitat in the future.  If you look closely (But be careful while driving) you can see some Longleafs (very few) scattered along us1 in Wake and Chatham counties. Virginia also has some S. niger niger in a few counties above Northhampton and Hertford but it is very rare there.
 
I have hunted and studied  S. niger niger  since 1990 and Even though my favorite animal to hunt is the Fox Squirrel , I would never hunt them in a place where they were not common. if you have some on your land in a county where they are not allowed to be hunted please make sure they are protected and if you can,  plant some Longleafs and possibly do some controlled burns.
Like I said in my last post, this week I am planting 100 Longleafs. 100 is not that many but if every hunter in NC  planted 100 we would be in good shape.

Here are a few pics of ones I have harvested.  I will post some more pictures at a later date.

This is what is called a "saddleback" color phase.  Except most saddlebacks do not have the white tipped tail.

This was my son's first Fox Sq. he harvested about 5 years ago. He spotted it in the top of that big loblolly he is in front of.

This Black Phase Fox Squirrel was the first Black one I harvested back in the early 90's.

This squirrel measures fron the tip of his nose to the base of the tail 17 inches. Then from the base of the tail to the tip of the tail it is 17.5 inches making this squirrel 34.5 inches long!!!!!  When someone unfamiliar with these squirrels sees one they have no idea it is a squirrel because they are twice as big as a gray squirrel. Note - 25 percent of Fox Squirrels in Eastern NC are Black. This varies from county to county but usually 25 percent are Black.  

This Old guy below was a brute  going 3.4 lbs.  His Black face is almost faded out. This is one of the best looking ones I have harvested. You have to see him in person. The color is a blue-silver. I was about to quit squirrel  hunting that evening as I hadn't seen a Fox Squirrel all day so right before dark I went where the Longleafs give way to the thick bottoms and proceeded to call on a dying rabbit call to coax a Bobcat out of the bottom. Instead of a bobcat coming out of the thick bottom I kept hearing something behind me getting closer and closer every time I called. When I finally turned around this old guy was staring me down. Sometimes animals come to predator calls just out of curiosity. 

This is a recent one, This is one of the common color phases. Reddish gray. You can also see really good the black head with white nose and ears that they all have.

Mack

#foxsquirrel

#foxsquirrelhunting

Phelps Lake part 2.

Well, we returned to Phelps for another round in spring 09. The fishing was nowhere near what it was last year. This is because of one major condition. The water was down aprox 1.5 ft. This was because of the bad fires and the lake being used for water. Now that doesn't sound like a lot but when it is 16000 acres and the avg depth is like 3-4 ft then you have some problems......I couldn't put my motor down until i was at least 100 yds out!. We could not find any minnows close to the lake. we mainly fished with buzzbaits and tubes. Some fish caught but not many.


here's 1 that nailed a 3 in tube



here's another that nailed a tube



we finally got disgusted of the poor fishing so we went looking for bears in the pocosin refuge.
lots of bears were being seen , one even came through the camp but we missed him. This was at breeding season so the male bears are out searching. We didn't see any but tracks were every where



this was everywhere in the roads!



and then we were out of the car looking for tracks and i happened to walked over to a culvert in a canal and this bad boy was laying on top of it! Picture doesn't do him justice but it is at least a 4.5 to 5 ft timber rattler. Very thick body.


We will be back to Phelps lake. Though the fishing was poor this year, searching the refuge was awesome!. Mack