September Smallies

September 20, 2011
Boat - Old Town 119
Main Outfit used- Ambassadeur 4600 with 12 lb Ande line
Main Lure used- Strike King Spinnerbait, Chartreuse
Weather- cool and cloudy


I was dying to do a float this am as it has been July since I have done a float because of my operation. Should I go after Largemouths or Smallies?....Or should I go after Crappie or Carp?.....

The decision was to go after Smallies since I Have not fished for them much this year.  Weather was supposed to be cloudy with a 30 % chance of rain from 7am -12 and 50% chance after 12.  A daylight to 12 trip it would be . I  arrived at the launch at daylight to a cool 60 degrees air temperature and no one else there. Here is a picture of my "new to me" truck at the put in.  Note- my ole Honda will be doing 90 percent of my canoe hauling as it is a lot easier to put a canoe on a lower vehicle and strap it down.  Not really bad with the truck but alot easier with the car.

This "new to me" truck is a 2002 Sierra that I told my self if I bit the bullet and purchased it that I would also bite the bullet and purchase a good canoe rack for it. I have used Yakima racks since 1988 and have them for 2 hondas but for a truck the Thule racks look better and look better made. Ouch! that hurt as I have always praised Yakima.

The water was a toasty 67 degrees and clear. I started off throwing a Chartreuse spinnerbait and was rewarded with this Smallie.  She wrapped me up twice,  but fortunately I had 12 lb ande on the Ambassaduer 4600 and 7' allstar rod..

Get Your Strike King Spinnerbait here - https://amzn.to/3VOfDuR

I then caught a bigger one but she broke my spinnerbait and fell into the water as i tried to lift her into the canoe.

The smallies were really whacking my chartreuse  spinnerbait .

Lots of these little guys.

To Steve and Jim. this ain't where u think it is.

Out of 3 smallie fishing trips this year this was definitely the best out of the 3. Next time I will be better prepared with more spinnerbaits.  See you on the water Mack

#bass

#smallmouthbass

#fishing

Gona miss Ole Sassy

I lost my second favorite fishing partner on 9/9/11. Sassy the Boxer has gone to doggy heaven.   Sorry Todd, Steve, Jeff, and Rodney but my son is first and Sassy was second as she never whined about me catching  all the big ones, never had to be home at a certain time,   and never once did she have to ask for permission to go fishing with me....LOL.......

Anyway,  she was diagnosed with cancer in May and we knew that this day would be here soon. Friday was a very tough day. A very tough day indeed.

A little History about Sassy.  Sassy was my fourth boxer and my  first boxer That wasn't a puppy when I got her. She was 1 1/2 years old and had no boundary's where she had lived. I consider myself very good at training dogs and all my previous boxers would stay in their yard with out fences(no underground fences here) . Sassy was going to be a project and would test my training ability and herself.

The first month we had sassy she was going everywhere....Running all over the neighborhood. My previous boxer(Jordan) was admired all over the neighborhood as people were amazed at how well she stayed in the yard and how well behaved she was. I even had her trained to climb ladders and get on roofs.
Sassy coming after Jordan was like the coach after  Bear Bryant or whomever is going to follow Joe Paterno.  It was going to be a tough job for Sassy.  Even Ms. Diane down the road told me one day after one of Sassy's many escapes "you will never get her to stay in the yard like Jordan". I informed her that Sassy would it was just going to take a little time. She was a diamond in the rough.   A little time was less than 2 months. She was a very fast learner and Sassy proved Ms. Diane wrong. Very wrong..... Sassy may not have been quite as smart as Jordan but it was darn near close  and her personality, loyalty, and strength probaly made her my number 1 dog of all time. She loved kids but you could tell that Sassy would protect us , to the end if she had to. Sassy was my partner on many fishing trips and if I left the house with rods in hand and didn't take her you could see the sadness in her eyes,  so sometimes I had to sneak out..

 On our first  fishing trip together we arrived at the haw and I put her in the front of my Old Town 158. You could tell she was a little nervous and about 50 yds after launching she vaulted out of the canoe and hit the water swimming. I  immediately snatched her back in which wasn't easy as she weighed 70 lbs.  She never jumped out again and was always ready to go canoeing. We enjoyed many days on the water together  and we also enjoyed many days at home with Sassy.  She was happy right up till the end......  I never feed my dogs people food but Sassy was spoiled this summer. She actually ate better than me sometimes and several days before her death she had 2 nice big ribeyes that i cooked for her on the grill.

Here are some pictures of Sassy.

And Finally my favorite Sassy fishing picture......

No Offense to Jordan as she was a Great dog but Sassy arriving on the scene after Jordan was like if  Roy Williams had accepted Carolina's first offer to suceed Dean Smith and there would of been no  Bill Gutheridge and Matt Doughtery.

Sassy didn't miss a beat. You will be missed.  Cindy, Mack Nicholas and Myself

Sassy McCorkle 6-12-2003 - 9-9-2011

Catfish Jugs

Since its so hot and the fishing isn't so great I have been working on some fishing stuff and re organizing my utility building. Now since I am sidelined for a few weeks I can still  work on some stuff but cant do anything heavy.   One problem with my Utility building is my catfish jugs take up one corner. These are(were) big orange tide detergent jugs which I have used for a long time.  Lately, I have been seeing videos on YOU TUBE about using pool noodles/pvc  and smaller drink bottles. I figured i would make some of these as they are easier to store and by the videos catch big fish just as well as the bigger jugs.
Here are the 2 types I made.   I followed this guys suggestions as I thing he has the best Video out there on making these.   see     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHAxmOuK3Tg

The pool noodle one is aprox 18 inches with a 12 inch section of noodle. The pvc is 3/4 inch.  Inside,  instead of rebar and fishing weights I used 3 inch bolts. This bolt u position near the top and when a cat hits it slides down and helps the noodle stand up. It also makes a smack when it hits the bottom and some people believe that makes the cat swim harder thus setting the hook. All hooks are 5/0 circle hooks.  The water bottle is a 20 oz bottle , the bottom painted white. I am going to add some reflective tape and glo stiks  which can also be put inside. Its hard to see but the noodle one does have reflective tape at the very top. Hopefully sometime soon  I can give a report on how they do. They surely have saved me some space as I can get 10 noodles in a bucket.  Search you tube and you will see alot of vidoes on making these. Mack

Spring Shellcrackers 2011

I am home recovering from an operation right now so I fiqured I would post this spring trip I never got a chance to post.  I think the date on this was May 22, 2011.  Shellcrackers caught on the longrod in a local lake in the piedmont of North Carolina .  All caught by using a yellow popper and then an ant trailer tied to the bend in the hook aprox 1 ft behind the popper.  Most caught on Ant trailer but quite a few on the popper. Caught probaly 20-25 nice Shellcrackers

Rundown on gear

Reel- Daiwa SF 706

Line- WF-4-F

Rod- 8'

Flies- Yellow Popper w/Black Ant trailer

Avg size caught

These Crackers were a blast on the flyrod. 

Mack



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 Camping trip 6/18

***Just got my desktop fixed. this trip was done over 1 month ago. Great to have my computer back working good.!****

What a great way to spend a weekend. Camping with my son on the Neuse River and a black water Creek.
Back  in June we decided to camp at one of our favorite spots as the last few times  when coming home from there I could hardly make that 3am drive back to Cary. I was so tired one night I was pulled over in Johnston Co. by the highway patrol! The time before that I had to pull over and sleep for 30 mins. Getting old sure does suck.  We arrived at lunch, set up the tent, unloaded everything and then cooked some hamburgers on the Weber grill.   Sweet!

This is the first boat we saw on the creek,  Randy aka "Ole Rebel

Here is the tent and a view of the water.

After eating and speaking with Randy we headed to one of our favorite Bream spots. Not a lot was happening today with the Bream. We caught right many but not near as many the big ones as last month. They have probably headed to deeper water. A nice site today was 3 big Tom Turkeys walking right past us on the bank. One of those gobblers was a beast, his beard almost dragging the ground. While Bream fishing we also put out some bottom rigs for Bowfin and caught 4 nice ones.
Here are 2 of them.

Later that afternoon we ran into Alan,  aka "Tarheel Flyflinger" and his wife. They had also caught some nice bowfin and Alan gave me 3 very nice flies to try at a later date. Thanks Alan!
That evening we set up to catfish on the main river and had to head for the tent as a massive storm was rolling in. Mack N. caught 1 small flathead  apox 6lbs before we headed for cover. Luckily it never hit an we got a good nights sleep.
We woke up early and were eager to  hit the river again.  We caught some more bream and about the same number of bowfin as yesterday.
Look at the size of this cypress knee!.  I have always wanted to take a picture of this  knee as it is at least 20' tall and I finally  convinced Mack N. to climb out of the boat and stand on one of the smaller knees. Some of these cypress trees are surely over 500 years old.

We made it back to the ramp at lunch and Ran into Alan again, this time his partner was his son. They had caught some big bowfin and were headed home. We cooked some steaks and potatoes on the Weber grill and chilled out for a few hours.We then packed up and headed home.  Not our best catching trip but that is not what it is all about.
A weird side note is how can we be camping and surrounded by swamps and I think I only had 2 mosquitoes get after me the whole time down there????.  Then I arrive in Cary and while unloading my stuff in my yard I am attacked by what seems like thousands of mosquitoes????.  Dang  things.

Big Channel Cats

After seeing a bud of mine catch some nice channels I decided to hit a pond in my Town Limits and see how it is.  Problem........I had no good bait.....except,  my box turtles night crawlers and some frozen catalpa worms......Heck,  I do have some good bait but  I was out of cutbait which I usually keep in my game freezer.
So off to the pond I went.....stayed a couple of hours.  Rods were a Abu 5600 C4 with 15 lb ande on a 7' rod and a Shimano 3500 Baitrunner on a short 6' ugly stik loaded with the same 15 lb ande.  These are what I call by "light" cat rods.

Had 3 hits but only one hookup which was this bad boy . A 13 lber!

Then a couple of days later I took my son and a freind of his Thomas.

This time I also had no cutbait but I had gone by Foodlion and picked up some White Bass fillets.  These I cut into strips and soaked in Garlic juice. 

Here is our first hit.

A 16 lb 4 oz monster

Thomas then caught a 9.5 lber 

 A good night fishing and the boys had a great time.....I will have to hit up a few more local ponds as most around here are loaded with Channels......Thanks 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

Bowfin Slayer

Went to the Neuse Saturday June 4th in search of some Bream and Catfish.  My son wanted to take a freind so Nathan was our  fishing partner for today. We arrived at the ramp at aprox 3pm and made way to our bream hole.

Nathan and Mack caught lots of Bream on crickets with a few good ones caught. Not nearly as many big ones as last time but we were fishing for bait so smaller ones are ok as the bigger bream were released.

I had told Mack that the cat bite may be slow this evening as the cats are spawning so he decided that he wanted to fish for Bowfin while we were Bream fishing. I put out 1 rod (shimano 3500 Baitrunner w/15lb line on a 6 ft ugly stik) for Bowfin using cutbait on the bottom. You can see this rig on my post about catching catfish out of canoes. This rig with cutbait is a proven catcher of Bowfin.

Here is a video of the first Bowfin of the day

He caught 2 that size. Here is a picture of his other big one. Hard fighters!

After dark we set up on 3 different catfish spots but no hookups.  We all had a blast as we saw lots of wildlife and even had a fawn swim by us. We packed up and headed home at 11:30pm.

Brown Trout saved the day.

Made a pretty long trip yesterday to catch some Smallies. Upon arriving I was a little disappointed with my spot and headed up stream for better looking water. Good move  as I caught 1 fat little Smallie and 1 nice brown Trout . Only fished 2 hrs as I was run off the water with a massive storm but it sure beat working.
Brown Trout. Fisheaters. Gotta Luv them..........
Threw a spinnerbait and a rapala.  Water Temp 57 degrees.
Here are a few pics............

Mack

2nd attempt at tying some flies

Even though my flyfishing started in 1977 or so on the haw river my Fly tying has just begun with gusto in 2011.
Over the years my main flies,streamers, terrestials and others has been usually a yellow popper with an ant trailer for bream and a wooly bug. For Trout it has been nymphs, and ants. Also for bream and other freshwater fish I sometimes use a mickey finn streamer. My flyboxes have umpteen numbers of flies and other stuff  but the main ones I use are the Ants, wooly bugs, mickey finns, pt nymphs and yellow poppers. So, after tying a few poppers and ants I figured my 2nd try at fly tying would be the good ole wooly bug.
So, off to see Jim at the GOPC and he was  there and as always,  ready to help. He gave me every thing I needed to tie an Olive wooly bug and I bought a few more items..

Here is my first attempt at a wooly bug...I had meant to put the bead on the hook but forgot!,  so I had to make my first one with the wired wrapped around the hook as i did not want to start over.

                                                                 1st wooly bug

My next one would be a another black ant.

I forgot the name of the next 2  but Jim showed me an example of each of these.

I think the next 2 I may try are the Gorilla Glue ant and the Mickey Finn....

Hopefully these will catch some fish

Mack 

Big Bream, Shellcrackers and some suprises....

Since my son is on trackout,  I had promised to take him fishing downeast for some big catfish. I told him the catfishin would be better next month  but he still wanted to go anyway . Thata boy!.....
We headed to one of my favorite rivers, the Neuse.  Now I  will not gona say exactly where we were,  but any blackwater creek off the Neuse between Smithfield and NewBern will give you some really nice bream and the main Neuse  will get you the Flatheads and Blue Cats.. 
We arrived at our destination at 1pm and fished untill 11pm. The Boat for today would be my Trusty 1984 vintage Coleman Scanoe with a Mercury 2.5 hp motor.  
First business of the day would be to fish for Bream.  For 2 reasons, they are fun,  and we need bait.  Bait of choice was crickets on 2 ul rods fished 2 ' under corks on #6 long shank hooks.  Man! did we have a blast and  we really got on to some good bream. My son actually lost one that was 1.5 lbs to 2 lbs and I had a similar one break 4 lb test at the boat!!!!. all of the big Bream were released for another day and a few of the smaller ones kept for bait.  Oh, I did catch a few on my 4wgt fly rod with a yellow popper and a black ant trailer.
Here are a few pics of some of the bream.

Not a big shellcracker but he fought like crazy!

Maybe my biggest of the day

One for the Longrod.... All fly rod caught fish caught on Yellow popper with Ant trailer.

This was probably my sons biggest of the day.

Here is the type of areas we were fishing. Throwing right up against Cypress trees and gum trees.

Right before dark we headed out to one of  my catfish hot spots and set up.

3 rods would be used tonight.

1. An  Abu 7000 loaded with 40 lb cajun line on a 7' mh American Spirit Nite Stik. This IMO is the best catrod on the market.

2. A Shimano 6500 Baitrunner loaded with 25 lb Golden stren on a 7' ugly Stik Tiger Rod. 

3. A calcutta 700 loaded with 30 lb big game on a custom made 8' rod that I can thank my Great freind Todd for!!!

All rigs were modified Carolina rigs with 2 oz sinkers, short leaders and 5/0 hooks. I left the 9/0 hooks at home!

The first spot yielded this decent striper that my son got in fairly easy on the calcuata 700. This Striper hit a piece of cut bream soaked in garlic juice.

After a couple of missed hits,   we moved down to another spot and right away I caught this small flattie.

After  a couple more missed hits we moved down to another spot and nada. 

Not a great day for bottom fishing but can't complain with a Flathead and a Striper caught,  and the joy of the day was seeing my son have fun with  those Big  Ole Bull Bream. Other wildlife seen was 2 Black Fox Squirrels , alot of white Ibis, some ducks and the usual Herons. Oh! on the ride down I did see that one unfortunate Fox Squirrel didn't make it across the rode and now I know someone who may have a red Fox squirrel tail for some Fly tying.

Mack