Fishing with "The General" on Friday the 13th

I started my Internet fishing on Georgiariverfishing.com and catfish1.  Todd "The General" was one of the first members there and now he has moved to the great state of NC.  We have talked several times on the phone about fishing and whatnot but finally worked our schedules out and made a trip on Friday the 13th!

Would it be a lucky day or a bad day on a North Carolina Piedmont River????

We launched right at 630 am and immediately got into some stripers hitting top water baits and Sebile swim baits. Here are a few pics..

We then shifted our focus to Bass and we had a good day .  Todd mainly used a buzzer while I used mainly a white spinnerbait, the Sebile swimbait, and a Bagleys Smallfry Bream. We each probaly caught 20-25 bass apiece with Todd getting the big one at 5-14. I lost a 4lber but caught 3 -3lbers.

I also caught 6 species on this trip.  10~Stripers, 25` Largemouth,  1 Channel cat, 20~ Redbreast,  1 Bluegill and 2 white perch.  This is the second time I have done that in a week.

Here are the channel cat , some nice Redbreast, and the small bluegill and white perch.

And a few more fish.

 A good day on the water with lots of fish caught. We also saw lots of wildlife including Bald Eagles, ospreys and Otters. Thanks for Going Todd. Mack

Hot Cats

Since it is so hot I decided to go to one of my favorite cat spots late and fish late....I Left the house at 4 and was on the water at 6.....Today I would be in my scanoe with my 55 lb thrust motor.....I headed upstream from the put in. The water was fairly swift and I did have to get out and pull through 2 rapids, but I made it to where I wanted to start . My first priority would be to catch bait......

I had a fairly hard time catching bait but by dark I had managed to get 3 greens, several redbreast and a few bream for bait.....Also caught 2 smallies and missed a nice one.....all bait caught on a beetle spin..

                                                                           Bait

The outfits today would be a Bantam 50 loaded with 20lb line on a black ugly stik (light cat outfit)and a Abu 6500 loaded with 30lb line on a white ugly stik(medium size cat outfit).....Hooks used were a 9/0 circle hook used on the 6500 and a 7/0 j hook on the Bantam 50. 2 of the Bream were used as cutbait sprayed with garlic juice and the rest would be used live. The bream would be kept alive in a Flow troll Bait bucket which you can see in the above picture just below the redbreast anal fin. You can see some of the fish in the bucket.

1st fish right at dark was the flathead that hit a small (4" green) on the 7/0 hook. Next fish was a blue that hit a bream head soaked in Garlic juice and the 3rd was also a blue that hit a live bream....both on the circle hook.

I did lose 2 nice fish and called it quits at 1230 am......Back home and finished cleaning fish at 330am.....

Nothing huge tonight but a few decent size cats....Highlight of the trip was right at 1030pm i hear some splashing in the water river left and shine my light there. 1 doe and 2little bitty fawns in the shallow water and they stayed there probably 30 minutes......Mack

"119 in the Shade"

Steve and myself made a trip down my home stretch of river on Friday June the 29th, 2012.
We got an early start at 6 am and finished the day at 1pm. Today was going to be 100 plus degrees and the fish were fairly active. I probably caught 10-12 bass , mostly on a white spinnerbait and lost 3 big ones 4 lbs or so,. Steve caught about he same but landed his 2 nice fish.  Most of his fish came off a swimbait.
Here is the first monster-

119 in the shade is referring to our Old town 119's

here is a "119 in the shade". 

Steve's best bass of the day.

The Redbreast were bedding and very aggressive today. I caught several of these on bass sized lures. 

Wildlife seen today was the usual ducks, herons and kingfishers but the highlight of the day was  2 otters who poked their heads way out of the water trying to fiqure out what Steve was. Mack

June Smallie action

I had Tuesday June the 26th off so I headed to a favorite river of mine ( The Dan River )  for some Smallie action. Fished from 4:30 pm till dark. Air temp was right at 80 deg  at the put in and 65 deg  when I took out at dark. Nice! 
I caught 10~ smallies with most being small but 2 were decent fish. 1/2 the smallies caught on a 3/8 oz Chartresue spinnerbait and 1/2 on a pumpkinseed grub on a 1/4 oz jig head.  I also managed 1 channel cat on the spinnerbait and 1 White Bass on the grub. This is about a 3 mile float with slack water and some fast water. Highlights were some ospreys and 2 groundhogs.

Here are a few pics.
A nice jon boat on the river.

This Smallie has a scar on her back from a heron or some other predator.

My best fish of the day. She did not want to get into the canoe!

This Channel Cat ruined my spinnerbait.

A White bass was an added bonus. She hit the grub.

 

Thanks for reading , Mack

#danriver

#smallmouthbass

Euro style Carp Fishing

Friday June the 15th , I met Aki and Santosh at a local lake to try my hand at Euro Style Carpin.  Now, I used to fish all the time for carp but that was with a Carolina rig , a small baitholder hook and some whole kernel corn. I usually chummed with corn also. Their method was similar but they use heavier weights and a lot heavier leaders. The main reason for the heavier leader is it is stiff.....When the carp sucks in the hook with the corn on it she feels the stiffness of the line and tries to spit or blow the hook out.....One problem, she cant spit it out because the line is so stiff , she then turns and runs setting the hook on herself....Brilliant!....They also use "packbait" , this is a combination of grits and creamed corn you Pack on to  the weight and what it does is when your rig hits the water and then the bottom this packbait falls off and chums the area around you corn on the hook.
We fished from 5:30 till 8:30 and probably caught 6 carp, that many cats, though most were small  but I had a great time fishing with Aki and Santosh.  Here are a few pics.... Thanks again Aki and Santosh

My outfits today were 1.  A Shimano 3500 Baitrunner on an 8 ft rod with 15 lb test 2. Penn # 9 loaded with 20 lb Cajun on a 9 ft rod.  The Carolina rig consisted of a 2 oz egg sinker, black swivel, 30 lb leader, and a #6 hook.
                                                                            The rig

The fishies

                                                    Santosh with a  Rare ghost carp

Mack

Cary, North Carolina Urban Creek Fishing

Friday June the 15th I had  2  fishing  trips planned.  1st, see last post , was taking my son Bass fishing on an unnamed river.  2nd was to fish for carp and cats in the evening at Lake Crabtree. I needed some cutbait for the evening trip so I made a run to a nearby creek that is very very tiny but always has eager fish in it. My son actually caught his first fly rod fish there probaly 10 years ago.  Now this "crik" doesn't look like much as you can jump accross it in most areas but it is full of fish...Tiny fish mostly,  but I have seen some 1 and 2 lb bass in there but most will be around 10-11 inches. I caught probably 20 redbreast, 5 Bass and 1 bream in about 20 minutes of fishing. Fun fishing !  The lure used today was a 1/32 oz beetle spin and an ul spinning reel with 4 lb test.

Mack

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