Friday 8/10/13 Jeff and I made plans to go to a stretch of river we had never fished from canoe. I had bank fished the put in of this section. We have fished this river a lot but a good ways downstream and a good ways upstream but we had never floated this section. This river also has Roanoke bass ( Ambloplites cavifrons ) in it which were stocked years ago but they are confined to an aprox 15 mile stretch and I had heard reports they were doing well. Jeff had never caught one so even if he only caught 1 that would be a great day. If I also caught one it would be great as well as this would make the fifth flow I have caught them out of. (Eno, Fishing Creek, Uwharrie, and the Nottaway in Virginia being the 4 where I have caught them)
We arrived at the launch right after daylight and immediately started catching Bass on spinnerbaits and buzzers. About 1 mile down river I hooked a very nice Roanoke bass which snapped my line and confiscated my Mepps Minnow #3 !..Not good. We then came upon a nice pool at the bottom of a long shoal and after catching a few bass Jeff hooked and landed his first Roanoke which was also Citation size. For a citation in NC a Roanoke Bass must be 11 inches long.
We continued our float downstream for 2.5 miles then made the journey back up dragging our canoes through shoals. We found another nice hole that we had evidently paddled right over and caught many Roanoke's out of it. I caught 2 citations( 11 3/4 in , 11 5/8 in) and I think Jeff caught his 2nd citation in there as well. It was a great day on a new stretch of river. I think we caught about 20 bass a piece , Jeff caught about 10 Roanoke's to my 6 or so and we each caught right many redbreast.
The lures I mainly used for the Roanoke's were the Mepps Minnow, and a small Rapala. Jeff caught his on a variety of lures including a small beetle spin type lure , a crankbait, and a curlytail jig.
One of my Favorite pictures of a Roanoke bass. Jeff took this picture we me in the Background.
Garlic for Catfishing???? I knew they had garlic scents but I had assumed they were for spraying Bass worms(which was the original intent) but who would spray garlic on perfectly good cutbait? My Taxidermist Bill told me that when he goes to Kerr Lake that he sprays his cutbait with Garlic and it outfishes non sprayed cutbait. I was a non believer when Bill told me this way back in the 90's but knowing Bill wouldn't lead me a stray I tried it and Since then I have used it religiously and It works!.
I use either Jacks juice or Bang garlic spray. If i am bream fishing during the day for bait I will take some bream and go ahead and cut them up and put them in a ziplok bag and spray them to let then marinate which works well. Garlic works well using it as soon as you cut the bait up also and if I cast out and dont like the spot I respray with garlic and cast out again.. I almost never go catfishing w/o a can of Garlic Spray.
This is my biggest cat caught on a bream head sprayed with Garlic spray. 46lb Blue caught in the Neuse River, that was a night to remember.
I have also used it with success spraying it on nightcrawlers and other baits.
You can also sprinkle Garlic powder on cutbait when you freeze it for future use. I wouldn't recommend spraying cutbait with the spray then freezing it as the spray is A LOT STRONGER than the powder and your freezer may get a garlic smell.
Also, A lot of catfishermen use whats called Chicken Breast Marinated in Garlic Powder
( CBMIGP for short) and it does work well for Blue and Channel Cats but I can assure you that anything sprayed with garlic spray is better than garlic powder. The powder is reserved for freezing in my catfishing world. Either way is going to be better than no garlic at all.
The other day I was looking at you Tube and came across "Garlic Worms". After seeing this guys video on Garlic worms I was amazed that no one had posted anything before him on this. I would go into detail on it but I don't want to steal his glory on this so I will post his link. Watch it , it is so simple it's amazing. I tried it(I have some in the fridge right now) and it works.!
Got home from work the other evening and my son arrived about the same time with some bamboo tied to the canoe rack. I asked his friend and him what are you doing?. He said he was gonna go gig some frogs. I then asked him did he have a gig and he said yes that u bought me one a few years back. I had forgotten about that. My memory is good it is just short.
Anyway, they go giggin in the pond back behind the house and left me at home cause the ole man was just too tired. My wife asked would they get any. I replied that they might get a couple since it being his first time I doubted they would get many. Note : He has always enjoyed hunting and fishing but hasnt taken it up like his ole man as he has always been into sports big time but since turning 16 he has really pursued fishing. Back to story. Aprox midnight he comes in the house and says how do I clean the frogs. I then asked how many do you have and he said I dont know. Well I go out there and the cooler is loaded with them! I spent the better part of an hour cleaning them and teaching him how to...
The next day he invited his girlfriend over and the other gigger and they fried them all up. Did they save me any? NOOOOOOOOO:( Anyway, I was proud of the boy doing something that I hadnt taught him how to do. I am sure when deer season rolls around that on Saturday evenings(mornings he will be sleeping , tired from football) he will be in one of my deer stands shooting my deer. Oh well,
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 "
There are many ways to get your canoe to the river. Here are a few of them.
The easiest and cheapest way is to just throw it in the back of a pickup and go. When I first started out thats how I did it. It was either an old truck my dad had or the old work van he had. Many, many days Todd and I would throw my Coleman Scanoe in the back of his van and go hit Jordan lake or the pond we had on the Caswell County Gamelands than had some big monster bream. Here is a recent trip I did on the Yadkin River with Mookie, Catawba, Fishwhisperer, and Tread.
The most common way to carry a canoe is on the roof of a car with some sort of roof-rack or foam pads.
Here are the foam pads on a Scout That Jeff uses for one of his canoe transporters.
Another inexpensive way which I thought was absoutely the best "cheap" way is to make a frame out of 2x4"s and then put the pads under the frame and then a ratchet strap is thrown over the frame and through the window and then tightened so the frame doesn't move. There are eyescrews at the end of each board that serve as a place to tie to and a place where the boat can't slide off. Then you would tie the front and back of the canoe down to the bumpers or whatever and maybe a strap over the canoe. Steve and I happened upon some fellow fishermen on the Staunton river one day and this is what they had. I thinks this rack is AWESOME.
They transported 2 canoes to the river on this wood rack. Pretty smart idea.
I ran into a man on the Smith river during the summer of 2013 and he lashed 2 metal pipes to the top of his SUV. He transported 2 yaks tot he river this way.
Another option is to go all out and get an expensive Thule Xsporter Rack like I did when I purchased my GMC pickemup truck.
I always like to have straps or ropes over the top plus the bow and stern tied down but that isn't feasible on my truck so i take two ropes and lash the thwarts to the rack.
Below is probably the most common system , using a yakima or thule style rack.
Or, you could just haul you Canoe like ths guy hauls his boat!!!
Back in May Steve and I wanted to hit the Haw for some bass fishing. We didnt have high hopes as I had a morning obligation and he had an evening obligation so that left us to fish from 11-4 during the middle of the day. We didn't catch alot as expected but the scenery was good as always when you are on a river. We did manage 4 or 5 bass a piece but nothing big . Steve caught most of his on a Rat L trap and I caught most of mine on a White spinnerbait. Here are a few pics.
A double
And a couple of views of the Swepsonville Dam. I caught thislittle guy on a beetle spin
I havn't fished as much this year since running a new store takes more time and effort to clear up past problems etc but we closed earlier than normal monday so I decided to hit a lake near work for a couple of hours. I got a report of some nice bream being caught and was directed to 2 spots. Hit the first 1.....nothing. ..paddled to the second.....nothing.
Headed accross the lake and around a bend and saw a good looking spot. Bobber hit the water and kept going under. Caught about 30 in 2- 2 1/2 hrs there and just down. Kept 12 for frying and released the rest. I know bream lb for lb fight very hard as they are one of my favorite fish to pursue but these were unreal. Almost like they had a trainer down there. All caught on Crickets 2 ft under. Mack
Lake- Holt Reservoir
Outfit Used- 6' medium lite Spinning w/ 6lb line
Bait - Crickets 2' under cork
boat- Old Town 119
Time of Day - 5pm- 730 Pm
My son and myself fished the Roanoke on Mothers day since were were in town to see my wife's mother. We fished from 3 - dark. We knew the striper bite would be easy so at first we fished for bass and panfish that we luv to catch in the Roanoke. The bass fishing was kinda slow with the high water(15000 cfm).
We did manage a few nice bream and 1 decent Raccoon Perch, and my son did manage a couple of decent bass on a white spinnerbait. About 430 we switched to Stripers using 4" sassy shads in Blue flake, Chartreuse flake and white with red front. All caught fish , mostly deep and hopping them in. We did catch some right at the boat fished faster. We had a very good 1 hr period from 530-630 where we were constantly on fish almost every cast with many doubles if i was not netting fish or filming video of him catching them.
Boat Used- Coleman Scanoe with 2.5 Mercury
Lures for Stripers- 4 " Sassy Shads
Water Flow - 15000 cfm
Water Clarity- Clear
Here are a few pics.
A bass then a Raccoon Perch (yellow perch)
Now Some Stripers
The Lures used- I used the Blue Flake and Chartreuse Flake and My son used the white and red.
Nothing beats putting your son on some good fish. A very good day on the river with my son.
We caught toomany to count and that is one of the reasons they call this place the
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
