Roanoke River Shad 3/24/2014

Date- 3/24/2015
Location- Weldon on the Roanoke River
Quarry - Hickory Shad
Lures used- Arkie 1/16th and 1/8 Pink headed Jigs with Chartreuse, white and pink grubs
Water Temp- 50.7 degrees
Water Flow- 20,000 cfm Dropping to 4,000.  Water dropped several feet while we fished. flow probably around 10,000 most of the time we were there.
Partners- Tony, my son Mack, and my dog Pete

Hit the Roanoke today in search of Hickory Shad.  Caught a few on Chartreuse grubs but the bite was slow for everyone except for 1 guy using a pink spoon.  Now I don't normally use spoons as they costs too much but i did have some pink grubs.  I retied Tony's, my sons, and my line with pink and the bite was on.  Tony caught his first ever Shad and my son and I caught maybe 20-25 apiece.

It also  pays attention to "spy" on other anglers sometimes.  I didn't see anyone else switch to pink so I guess they just either weren't looking or didn't have pink.

A few pictures.

A nice day on the Roanoke,

American Shad

Date 3-18-2015
Location- 1 spot in the Neuse Basin and 2 Spots in the Tar Basin
Lures used- 1/8 oz Arkie Pink headed Jigs Rigged in tandem with white and chartreuse grubs
Rod and Reel Combo-  Daiwa 1300 SS Reel on Penn Prion 6'6" w/ 8lb Trilene XL
Water Temp 50 degrees
Partner Today-  Tony

Hit several spots today in search of shad.  First spot yielded me a Big American but not any more hits.  We left and went to several others and at every spot they were biting earlier and we missed the bite. Not a bad day today as we saw a lot of nice water , but I failed to put Tony on his first shad.

Big fish of the day caught in a Contentnea Creek.  Then we  headed North to the Tar River. 

Tony with a Tar River Crappie

Stream shot of the Tar River In Tarboro, NC

Note- Shad fishing is kinda like Spot fishing on Piers. What I mean is that 99 percent of the time when you arrive at "your fishing spot" usually you dont want to see another person there. But, when shad fishing you want a crowd there as if they are not there then the fish aren't either.

#shadfishing

#contentneacreek

#tarriver

Neuse River and my first Shad of 2015

Date- 3/10/15
Location-Lower Neuse River and Creeks off the Neuse
Time-1Pm-630Pm
Water Conditions and Flow-  High(12000+cfm) and slightly stained
Water Temp- 49 Degrees
Boat- Coleman Scanoe with 2.5 Hp Mercury
Partner- Aki and "Pete"
Best Lure-  1/8 Oz Pink Headed Arkie Jig with White Grub on 8 lb test
Presentation -  Slow and deep


Whew! I finally got out for my first Shad trip and we immediately headed upstream stopping at several spots along way.  Nothing.  We then headed farther upstream and went into a creek . Right away I immediately  caught a small hickory. Nice. This is the spot!  Wrong!!!   That was the only hit we got there.
I  then decided to head back downriver and up another creek except this time we went way up it between trees and found a few open holes back in there. We immediately started picking up some shad. Not that were we slaying them but it was enough to make up happy.  A nice day on the water with Aki and my Dog Pete.  I think Pete actually had a better time than Aki and myself.  The shad evidently are not in the main river but up in the flooded forest.   Next time I hope the river is at a more normal level but I can't complain as it was an awesome day on the water.

Here are a few Pictures.

Here is the Fishing "Mo" Chine back at the ramp,

Thanks for looking.  Hopefully headed to the Tar Basin next week.

#shadfishing

#neuseriver

Meat in the freezer

11/4/2014

Chatham County, North Carolina
2:30PM  till Dark
Gun- T/C Black Diamond 50 Caliber
Load- 100 grains Pyrodex Select pushing 240 grain XTP bullet

11/4/2014 I Hunted a box blind with a Pine plantation to my right and an Oak lot to my left. Aprox 4 pm A 6 point buck came in through the pines chasing a doe. Now, normally I don't shoot bucks this small but last year was a bad year for me seeing deer and this year hasn't been too good either.  Anyway, I lowered the hammer on this boy and he dropped right there.  Aprox 40 yard shot. The 45 caliber bullet(in a sabot) expanded to .73 and still weighed 221 grains.  That is very good bullet performance.

I was in this box stand

With this view

The result- Meat in the freezer

                                                     This Bullet did it's job nicely

Thanks, Mack

Yadkin Float

I have not made a smallie trip all year(usually I do 5-15 smallie trips) so when Fishwhisperer wanted me to go to the Yadkin Wednesday I jumped at the chance. 

We made the  2 and 1/2 hour trip and met up with Ken and proceeded to a tributary of the Yadkin. Here we would float down a few miles, join the Yadkin and take out on river right down stream.   

The day started off cool and by lunch it was a very nice day. Water temp was 57 degrees which is close to 10 degrees cooler than our piedmont flows right now. My first 2 fish came on Spinnerbait and were small Spotted Bass.  I then switched to a black grub and caught my first smallie of the year! Not a monster but I will take it.   Caught a few more here and there then we reached the Yadkin. I then pulled out the big chartreuse spinnerbait and with in a few minutes it got hammered by a good 3.5 to 4 lb smallie.  One jump and she was gone!  Ouch! I then proceeded to catch a few more on the spinnerbait and finally switched to a Cordell Spot. Caught several on the spot but that monster is gonna haunt me for a while.  Ken caught a handful of smallies, all on the fly and FW caught a slam.(Spotted, Smallie, Largemouth). Got my last slam in the same stretch a few years ago,   A good day on the river with 2 good friends  

Boat used- Old Town 119

Lures use- Cordell Spot, Booyah Spinnerbait, Black grub on 1/4 oz head

Water temp= 57-58 in both rivers

Thanks for lookin........

#yadkinriver

#smallmouthbass

#fishing

A Hybrid Kinda Day

Heard from several reports that the Hybrids and Stripers were pretty active in several of the local rivers so I went today to a spot where I used to catch them back in the 1990's. Fished from 3 -Dark.
Air Temp when arrived aprox 74 degs  and when I left 68 degrees,  Water temp was 70 degrees.
I Caught aprox 10 from 4 1/2 lbs to aprox 7 lbs.  All were hybrids except for 1 very small Striper.
I also caught 1 decent chub of a Spotted bass on the Chug Bug.

All of them made good strong runs

Here is a list of the lures they hit .

1. 4 inch Gotcha Curlytail with Flake on a 3/8 Gotcha Chartresue head. This is what the bigger one Hit.

2. Black Chug Bug with red mouth. caught a couple on this one and lost a really big one on it.

3. Booyah 3/8 oz Chartreuse/White Spinnerbait with the pink tubing on trailer hook. This was the top producer.
[b]Note- see the pink tubing on the trailer hook?  that really makes the hybrids hit it.  works in front of a lipless crank also very well.  see[/b] http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-few-lipless-crankbait-tips.html

Hybrids are kinda like Smallies in that they luv Chartreuse.

Boat Used today was my OT 158 as my Fishing partner was "Pete" and thus i need the bigger boat.

Wasn't another fisherman out there except Blue Herons ,White Egrets, kingfishers and some opsreys.
Also saw some ducks and Geese.

"Pete"

Mack

Haw River Float 9/5/14

Nat's Dad called me Wednesday Sept the 3rd to see if I wanted to fish a spot we hadn't been to since last year. We had fished upstream and down but not here so I jumped at this chance to fish here.

Friday afternoon was the day. ND was mainly throwing a Spro Swimbait and his average size bass he was catching was better than mine.  I started off with a pearl fluke and a white buzzer and wasn't gettin any luv. I finally switched to a Cordell Spot and a White Spinnerbait on another rod. The average size I was catching went  up and I ended up with a good solid 5 lber. We probably had 15 bass a piece which is ok as a good day on this river will get you 20-40 bass.  We also caught a lot of  Redbreast , 1 crappie, and the only white perch I have caught this far upstream.

Wildlife seen was lots of Geese, Woodducks, Great Blue Herons, Little Green Herons, White Egrets, lot of Ospreys, and 2 big Bald Eagles which we got to see 1 snag a fish out of the river.

A really good day on the water.

Mack