Catfish Adventure Below a Dam

Steve and myself made a trip to one of my favorite rivers on Friday the 13TH!!!. First we had to stop and buy goldfish at 2.75 a pop but these were Jumbos. We made it to the spot and the river was a little higher than normal. After a little thought I went back to the car and got my life vest. Steve already had his on and by the look of the rushing water I had better have one on also.   
We had to pretty much swim a channel with a backpack on, rods and bait buckets. Then wade though waist deep fast water. This was all to get out in the middle where the fish are. This Dam is 600 feet long so we had to get out 300 feet . Boy was that a workout. This spot is not for the weak and is very dangerous hence the life jackets.

Anyway action was very good with slightly rising water and a full moon. The water flow today was aprox 2300 cfm.    Steve caught several Blues before I even had my first hit but we were after Flatheads. Sometime later I heard Steve yelling and look over and he is fighting a big one. Then the line went slack. Crap, cut on a rock. A short while later I get a good hit and I got her head up and kept it up. Brief hard battle and I released her back to fight again. Most of our hits came by casting the goldfish right up against the base of the dam.   An awesome day on an awesome river with a good friend. Cant beat that.

Outfit I used- Shimano 6500 Baitrunner on a  7' Ugly Stik Tiger Rod , Bait Goldfish, Terminal tackle - 2 oz bank sinker swivel then a 6 inch leader using an 8 or 9/0 Hook. 

An Awesome day!

A good night of Catfishing Using Goldfish and Cutbait

Dan River VirginiA

June 7th 2014

I went  to one of my favorite rivers in search of some cats 6/7 430pm -430am 6/8.

 I arrived at my spot a little after 4 and  I was at my first hole 430 ish, 

 Bait today would be 12 bream I caught earlier and had on ice for cutbait. These would get the garlic bath. I also bought the last 8 goldfish a bait store had so these would be my flathead bait.

Gear and Outfits used- 
Abu 7000c on American spirit Nite Stik , 40 lb Cajun with 3 oz bank sinker and 9/0 j hook.
Shimano 6500 baitrunner on Ugly stik tiger rod loaded with 25 lb big cat. 2 oz sinker with 9/0 circle hook.
Abu 6500c on white ugly stik loaded with 30 lb big game. 2 oz bank sinker with 7/0 j hook on 3 way rig.6
Oh, I cant leave out the boat.  Sears 12' Jon with 55 lb thrust motor. Water too shallow for my gas motors.

I immediately started getting hits on cutbait(didn't used goldfish till 30 min before dark) from blues 5-10 lbs with the biggest at 10-11 lbs. Moved every hr to a different hole and caught fish on each hole and also lost several big ones, still nothing big.

^^^^This equals this \/ \/ \/

  
I also brought along a Banana (oh no he didn't!) because the forum post the other day had me laughing. I bring bananas a lot while fishing and it has never hurt my fishing.

anyway, aprox 245 I set up on my last hole. Apox 3 am I get a good run on the Abu 6500 set with a goldfish. I set the hook and the battle is on!!!....It was crazy for a few as I had to hold this strong fish and wind in 2 lines that were out. After 5 mins I bring in a good 35lb flathead to anchor the blues I caught today. Can you say Banana Smana??.

                                               ^^^^^ This equals this \/ \/ \/

I set the lines out again and get one more run at aprox 4 am. A small 5 lb flattie. I release her and head home. A nice night of fishing.

going to bed..........

#catfishing

#danriver

#fishing

#danvillevirginia

What is my most popular Blog post????

Ok, What is my most popular blog post?  Does it have something to do with Shad fishing?  Roanoke Bass fishing????
  
No.    But, lets back up a minute.  In 2009 I started this blog inspired by a blog I found on wordpress that was a canoeing and fishing blog. I started this blog to  chronicle  my treks down the many rivers I venture down(or up)and to also have a good time with it posting my favorite passion of mine which is  fishing.  I am a somewhat poor writer but I don't  really care. It is what it is.  I do sometimes try to post items that I think would draw viewers to my site but most time I do not.   Example:  I thought my post on Roanoke Bass and Shad would be popular(and they are coming in at 4th and 10th) but I never thought that they would be beat by a squirrel article and a canoe article. 

Anyway, almost instantly I kept pondering expanding my blog into my hunting treks but didn't for a good while as I thought they would be a distraction and also draw too many negative comments.  One boring day in 2011 I had nothing to post except a hunting post and I decided heck its my blog I will post what I want to.   One of my first hunting post was about Fox squirrels in North Carolina and I actually thought at the time that it would draw few if any viewers and was mainly for me.
Boy was I wrong!  My fishing blogs best post doesn't have anything what so ever to do with fishing!!!  And # 2 is about canoes!!     Dang,   Shows what I know.     Here is a list that will show you what I mean.

This is for a month but I can sort it any way and the Fox squirrel post is always # 1 whether it is sorted by day, week , month or year.   Oh well.   

	Pageviews
Fox Squirrels in Eastern North Carolina ( Sci... Dec 11, 2011, 8 comments	4562
Canoes that I use For River Fishing...... May 6, 2012	2218
Big Bream, Shellcrackers and some suprises.... May 13, 2011	603
Roanoke Bass .....The forgotten Bass Oct 4, 2009	601
A Grand Day Carp Fishing Oct 8, 2011, 3 comments	568
The Yadkin River Slam Dec 17, 2009	480
Haw River Float trip July, 6th 2010 Aug 12, 2010	463
Neuse River Camping for Catfish May 2, 2012	446
Penny's Bend White Bass 3/24/11 Mar 24, 2011, 1 comment	443
My 2010 Shad season In Review. May 29, 2010, 1 comment Mack	364

              

Awesome day of River Fishing

Jeff and my self made a float on a Piedmont River Sunday May 25th.   The Bass were hitting a Booya White Spinnerbait and a Zoom Pearl Fluke.   They were really getting after the Fluke and the technique was to skip them under overhanging bushes and trees getting the Fluke really close to the bank and working it out fast. Today We probably caught 20 plus bass apiece with Jeff getting his personal best river bass that was pushing 8 lbs.   Also caught along with the Bass were 3 good size Jacks.  Both of my Jacks hit the spinnerbait and the hooks held.  Last year at this same spot I lost 7 Jacks in one day!! .   
Midday I also trolled for crappie catching 20 or so and they all fell for a chartreuse roadrunner.   Several bream were caught along with the crappie so Jeff had a nice cooler of fish with several crappie, Bream and 2 nice Jacks.

Towards the end of this float is a dam and I talked Jeff into fishing the pools below it and I think he is glad he did catching his best river bass to date down there and I also caught my best fish of the day there.  Mine fell for the spinnerbait while Jeff caught his on a big beetlespin on 6 lb line!!!

WOW!!

 

 

We also saved two toads today as Jeff found an old perk hole that had 3 toads in it. One was dead and the other 2 could not get out.  I lightly hooked each one released them and then filled in that death trap.

 

Wildlife seen today was lots and lots of Great Blue Herons, a few wood ducks,  and some ospreys.

A great day of fishing.

 

Boat used- Coleman Scanoe with trolling motor

Best baits today-  Pearl Fluke, White Booyah Spinnerbait and the Chartreuse RoadRunner.

 

Mack 

 

 

One Beautiful Catfish!

Black Flathead Catfish

Went fishing with my good friend Aki and James  5/20/2014 on a Central piedmont flow. We fished from aprox 4:30 to 8:30 pm.  Our quarry today was catfish and hopefully flathead catfish.   We caught bait with rod and reel(crappie and bream) and also with a castnet (shad and shiners).
Then we set out 2 rods each and began our wait . 30 mins later my rod with a crappie for bait was bent over and I reeled  in this nice 15lb flathead that was the darkest flattie I have seen.  James said he has caught a few dark ones here but this was a first for me.  All the flatheads I have ever caught were that normal yellow brown.  Not a huge fish but I was happy to of caught one that color.  We actually didn't land another fish but it was a good day.

Reels used- 

Daiwa Procaster PS55 loaded with 30 lb Cajun line
Abu Garcia 7000C loaded with 40 lb Cajun line
Both on American Spirit "Nite Stiks" 7' Med Hvy Rods

Rig was my usual Bottom rig for cats consisting of a Bank sinker and short leader with a good hook.
 

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out my YouTube Channel at  Mack's River Fishing YouTube Channel


#catfishing
#flatheadcatfish
#northcarolinafishing

Riverbassin Tournament Trail Charlotte Stop yields 2 Citation Roanoke Bass

I had eagerly awaited this stop in Charlotte but I had a problem....My best spots which were inbounds the last 2 Times in Charlotte(2011, 2013) were now out of bounds. I finished 4th both of those years and being able to hit my honeyholes surely helped. This time I was forced to fish a  section of river I had never fished.  My plan was to start off with a white spinner bait, a few topwaters and a fluke.

Legal fishing time was 6 am and by the time I was on the water it was 6:15.   My first cast yielded nothing but my second cast with the spinnerbait brought on a vicious strike.  I was expecting to have a good solid 2-4 lb bass by the fight but was a little shocked to haul in a good solid 13-14 inch Roanoke bass.  Awesome!  Citation size in North Carolina for this species is 11 inches or 1 pound and this one would make that easily.  I was so surprised(and half asleep) that I didn't get an exact measurement on this fish but it was a good start even though this fish didn't count for the tournament.
Several cast later and my bait is slammed again.  My first Largemouth of the day??.  No,  another citation size Roanoke bass at a solid 12 inches!   Not the fish I was after but I will never complain about catching big Roanoke's. 

Here are a few pictures of these fish.
The Bigger Roanoke Bass ( Ambloplites cavifrons )

The 12 inch Roanoke

A little while later I landed a 11 inch largemouth but I would need fish a lot bigger than that.   Several cast later I landed the first decent Largemouth of the day.  

Not bad but I would need bigger fish to do well in this tournament.  I ended up catching only 7 or 8 bass with the best 3 all being around the 15 inch mark.

My 3 best Bass fell to the White spinnerbait, Pearl Fluke and Zara Spook. 
I ended up with 45.5 inches which put me in 15th place. I just couldn't get that good solid 21 to 22 inch fish that would have put me in the top ten. I was still happy finishing 15th out of 38 entries since this was my first time at this strtch of river.  

 More info on this series of tournaments can be found at http://www.riverbassintrail.com/

Thanks Mack

#roanokebass

#ambloplitescavifrons

White Bass in a Creek

I had a little time after work today (4/23/14) so I decided to check out a creek that flows in Falls Lake.  This creek holds lots of nice crappie but I was unsure of any White bass making it in there.   I arrived at the spot at aprox  7pm and hiked upstream a few hundred yards.  I was getting some hits on a White 1/16 oz super roostertail and was catching a lot of small white perch.  I lost that lure and I had 1 crappie jig in my ultralite box.  A Kalan's  grub in the "Acid Rain" color got the call and I immediately started getting hits on it.  Most were small white perch but I did catch a handful of decent White bass with one being a really nice one.   I also lost that lure and then put on a SSR #5 . That's a shallow shad rap #5 and I got a few hard strikes by catfish. I lost one about 4-5 lbs and caught a channel cat aprox 2 lbs and also one small bass. Next time I will be better prepared for this spot.



Here are a few pics.
This White Bass was a Brawler. 

 

Another one-

 

 Mack

Back to the Chain Pickeral (Jack) Capital of the World- Lake Mayo

This past Friday(4/19/14) I had promised my good friend Rodney that I would meet him somewhere to fish.   That somewhere where he wanted to go was Lake Mayo and since I hadn't been here in 2 years I was eager to wet a line here.   see-  http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/jack-chain-pickerel-capital-of-world.html

We both arrived at the launch at 2 pm and fished until dark.  Funny, this was about the same conditions I had last time.  A warm period then several cold nights to shut the fish off. It is really a wonder we caught anything.
After a lot of lure changing I finally found a lure they would hit.  The Rapala brokenback( J11) in Firetiger.  This may have not been the best pattern I may have found if I kept changing lures but I was happy to just catch fish after a few coooold nights so I stuck with the J11. Most fish came by casting parallel to the bank and maybe 10 yds off the bank.
I caught 3 Jack and maybe 6 Bass on it with 1 Bass falling to a Roadrunner.

Get your  Rapala FireTiger  J11 Here - https://amzn.to/3VCP1NH

Here are a few pictures-

Nothing over 2 lbs today but I was just happy having a tug on the line.

Mack

Back to my favorite Spot

I called Steve and asked him did he want to go to my favorite spot. He said YES , but  I warned him about the dog and the copperheads.  We made it up there at daylight and the action was fast! Well, at least for me.  I caught 8 bass on the Cordell spot in a little over an hour as we had to leave just after 8 to get Steve to his work.  The water was a little high and stained but the fish don't care. No lunkers today but some good action.  Also,  here you need a good long casting reel to reach the best spots.

 I really like the Daiwa 2600ss for this long distance casting along with the Calcutta Baitcaster. Both reels are spooled with 12lb line.

see       http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-first-two-bass-outings-for-2014.html     for my first two trips at this spot for this year

Trip - 4/12/14  daylight to 815am

Cary and Raleigh Urban fishing for 2014.

Lots of Lakes around  the  Cary , Apex and Raleigh area .   A lot of these lakes are from flooding problems on Crabtree creek.  Bond lake and   Crabtree Lake, are a couple examples of these and there are at least 20 of these built in  the Crabtree creek watershed area.   There are also a lot of small neighborhood lakes in this area as well. This post will hopefully be an on going post for this year of my "urban" fishing adventures in the Triangle.  

4/10/14
The first urban adventure was April 10th   on my way home from work.  I fished from  630 -730 and caught 2 bass on a Booyah spinnerbait.   The first bass hit on the 3rd cast(just like the monster I caught the other day) and she weighed in right at 6 lbs.   The second was really hungry and was about the same size as my bait .  That fish may have been 10 inches.   Not too bad for an hour of fishing.

Mack

Monster Bass !!! Can I get a BOOYAH!!!.......... 1st Lunker of the year.

April 2014

Booyah Spinnerbait that is!!!!!!!

Today after work I headed to a spot to do a little bank fishing to relieve some stress.  530 PM-630pm. Water was clear as it gets here and the water temp was 61 degrees with an air temp of about the same.
I started off with a road runner and caught a few small white perch (I was after huge crappie this spot is known for) and with nothing but small perch hittin I put on a 1/2 oz chartreuse booyah spinnerbait .
On my 3rd cast , BAAMMMM   she  felt like a good 3 or 4 lber and then her head came up and I thought "jeepers that's a hawg" then she started fighting and got me wrapped twice but I finally got her in. Thank goodness for 12 lb Ande line. That line is really tough!!!!. Only bass I caught in an hour of fishing but I wont complain.
Oh, If it wasn't for a trailer hook I would of never caught her.

See this post for how I do my trailer hooks-   http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/trailer-hooks-for-spinnerbaits.html 

Get the Booyah Tux and Tails here -    https://amzn.to/3UtrLRQ

The Bank on this spot has a lot of burrowing crayfish which I guess adds to the forage here.

 

Burrowing crayfish home

Thanks for lookin.................

#hugebass

#monsterbass

#bassfishing

My First Two Bass Outings for 2014

This is a report of my first 2 Bass outings of 2014.  I have been really busy and made it a point to get out to one of my favorite childhood spots(come to think of it,  it is one of my favorite spots even today).    This is awesome in the early spring and rat l trap style baits here work wonders.

1st trip was on March the 30th from 7 am - 930 and I caught 8.   All were from 2 lbs up to 4lbs with one lost big un.  2 were caught on a Booyah Spinnerbait, 2 hit a swimming super fluke on a 1/2 oz jig head and 4 hit a Cordell Spot.   

The air temp was a chilly 43 degrees with a water temp of 46 degrees.   Water was stained.

A few pics of the first trip

Now the Second trip-

This trip took place on 4-2 and was from 7am to 9am. Water temp had climbed from 46 the other day to 51 deg today.  I also caught 8 bass again with the smallest being around 2.5 lbs and the biggest maybe pushing 5. All hit the Cordell Spot but I also threw the Super Fluke on Jighead but had no takers on that one.  Had to leave biting fish to get to a doctors appt.   Dangit!!!

Here are a few pics- 

Thanks for looking-  Remember the Trap or Spot is awesome right now!

The 2014 White Bass Run is ON!!

 I made two trips this week for white bass.  The first was on Wednesday April the 2 from 5pm till 730 pm.   I launched my Old Town 158 and I trolled a jig while heading upriver.  I hooked 1 nice white and continued upstream to one of my favorite spots.   I arrived there and caught a couple but nothing like I expected though I did catch a 5 lb bowfin on a jig.  I then trolled back down and caught another fish in the same spot as before so I anchored .  The bite here was on.  Most whites caught on a mini-spot but I did catch some on a curly tail jig .  I caught aprox 25 whites , 5 crappie, 6 Stripers and 3 perch.  The water temp was a nice 61 degrees with the air temp in the 80's.  
I saw several Bald Eagles , Herons and some Pileated Woodpeckers. 

A few Pics-

Fast forward to Friday April the 4th and I decided to go to this same spot but instead of a PM trip I chose an AM trip. I launched the Old Town 158  at 7 am and went to where I caught them the other day.
Nothing!!!..I headed to another spot and caught a few but it was slow.  I then headed back down to the good spot and they were biting.  I caught aprox 30 white bass, 3 stripers, 3 crappie and 3 perch along with 1 small largemouth.  I good morning on the water.  I left at 1130 and had a nice day catching fish and seeing  eagles, ducks and a few Hawks. 

Here are a few pictures of the fish-

And here are the lures I used today.  These lures will catch any white bass.  
 Starting at 12 and going clockwise - Mini-trap(the most productive lure this week), #2 Blue Fox spinner, Gotcha curlytail grub on 1/16 oz jighead,  5 in Swimmin Fluke on 1/4 oz jighead(this caught the biggest white),  Chartreuse Roadrunner, and a Cordell Mini Spot.

Thanks Mack...........