May Bream on the Long Rod

I was coming home from work the other day and Jeff called me and asked where I was at. I replied I am at the intersection of road a and b.  He then replied he was only one block behind me so he asked that I pull over up a head so he can give me a lure.  Sure, anytime someone wants to give  me a lure I am all for it.   So, I pull over at this business that I pass every day and golly there is one really nice looking pond here that you cant see from the road.  Jeff couldn't resist throwing some lures and he caught a couple of bass. What I noticed was the Bream bedding.  

I made it a point to take my flyrod with me to work 2 days later so I could hit this spot after work.   I arrived at aprox 6 PM and fished till 830 pm.   The Bream action was awesome and I caught some really nice ones along with some average sized ones which were still fun.   Here are a few pictures

Now this Bream below is not a big one but it is one of the coolest I have ever seen, This bream has a face that is  Greenish white and is identical on both sides. It was actually better in person.

This one was one of the last ones and she put up one heck of  a fight.

Outfit Used-  Daiwa 706 fly reel on a 7 ft rod loaded with 5 weight floating line.

Flies used were a tandem rig of a Yellow popper and a Black ant trailer tied directly to the poppers hook.

Location- Piedmont North Carolina Pond

Last Shad of 2015 ??

LAST SHAD OF THE YEAR FOR 2015???

Everyone talks about when the first Shad of the year will be caught in North Carolina.
Will it be caught in January or February????
There are even several shad tournaments giving prizes to the First Shad caught. But for some reason no one seems to talk about when the last one will be caught.

Well, when will the last shad be caught?? Will it be in late April? May? or possibly June?  Note- I have seen them in a river in June.

Here is a Mothers day shad caught May the 10th, I caught a bunch and left at 7pm upon releasing this one , It was a fun few hours on the river....This is 8 days later than I have caught them on the Neuse. My previous latest day in the year was May the 2nd catching White Shad on the upper Neuse.

Pete knows where this is but he ain't  talkin.lol

Date- 5-10-2015
Outfit -Daiwa 1300 on Penn Prion Rod with 8 lb line.

lure- Pink headed 1/8 oz Jighead with 2" white Gotcha curlytail

I Started at aprox 4pm and left at 7pm upon releasing the last one.  All were good hard fighters and all were caught on a white grub.  I also did catch a 3 lb  Bowfin to boot.  Lots of Osprey's and Herons doing the same thing I was doing.........Fishing!   A fun day on the water with Pete.

Those American Shad are a Blast!

34 lb Flathead caught on Shiner

Date 5-6-2015
Location- Central North Carolina Stream
Outfits Used-
Abu Garcia 7000 w/ 40 lb Red Cajun line on 7' Med Hvy American Spirit Nite Stik
http://bottomdwellerstackle.com/american_spirit.htm#Nite_stik_classic
This IMHO is the best Cat Rod for the money

Penn Mag 10 loaded with 40 lb Red cajun line on Berkley Big Game 6'6" Med Hvy
I caught the cat on this out fit.

Rig- Carolina Rig with 3 oz Bank sinker, swivel, 1 ft leader and 7/0 J hook. 

Time- 5:30 PM - 830 pm

Bait Used- 4 goldfish from my last trip and some river shiners and shad caught in castnet

Headed out to one of my favorite spots for Flatheads and and set up my rods in surfrod holders.
I had zero hits on Shad and goldfish. My one lone hit came on the shiner and it was also the smallest bait I had. This Flathead was a mean one.  I doubt I have ever had one fight harder. She was a real brawler and I was lucky to have landed her.   Released her unharmed for another angler to catch.

Bait-

Here is the Trophy of the day. 

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

#catfishing

#flatheadcatfish

#NorthCarolinafishing

Maple Cypress Landing / Boat Ramp

This ramp is Located a few miles north of Ft Barnwell, NC. This was  my choice on my first Shad fishing trip for this year. see  http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/neuse-river-and-my-first-shad-of-2015.html     The NCWRC has put in a new ramp and parking lot which was very much needed.  The old ramp was in very bad shape but that also meant less traffic which was good.

Here are 2  Google map shots of the ramp and river.  You can see the ramp and parking lot on the north side of the river just above the bridge.

Here are a few pictures of the updated ramp which went from 1 to 2 lanes.

A shot of the Parking lot.

A Shot of the Dock and my Scanoe!

Here is a video of the river above the ramp. We are upriver and headed back to the ramp. This is generally what it looks like in early Spring. In the Summer it is a lot lower.

  

What a nice ramp . 

Mack

Fun evening White Bass Fishing

Date 4-8-2015

Time 430-700PM
Quarry- White Bass on their spawning run
Reel-  Daiwa Tierra 1500
Rod- Berkley Lightning Rod 6'0" Med Light
Line- 6 lb Original Stren
Lures Used -  Bitzy Minnow White/Chartreuse & SSR5 shad colored

Get them here -   

Shallow Shad Rap 5 SSR5  https://amzn.to/3XUbO88

Bitzy Minnow - 
Location- Tributary to Falls lake
Water Temp-  70 Degrees!

Left work a little early today to get in some White Bass action. I start off with Chartreuse/white Bitzy Minnow and caught 3 white perch and maybe 20 White Bass.   The average size was small but they were fun, I lost my last Bitzy Minnow so I then switched to a Rapala SSR5 in Shad Color.
The size of fish Immediately went up and I caught maybe another 20 or so on it and 1 very small Striper.  I covered maybe a 1/2 mile of water and no one else was fishing this stretch. It was a fun evening on the water. I ended up with 47 White's, 3 White Perch and the one lone Striper.

Thanks, Mack

#fallslake

#whitebass

Awesome Evening White Shad Fishing

Date 4/16/2015
Time 5-7 PM
Lures Used -  1/8 oz Pink headed jig w/ White Grub
or Chartreuse Grub and a split shot aprox 1 Ft above it
Water Temp - 59 degrees

Sad day today.   We laid to rest my Mother in law ( Lillie Mae Turner) today.  She loved to fish so after everything had settled down we figured it was ok for My son(her grandson) and myself to go fishing for a few hours.

She must have been watching as my son put on a show catching White Shad.  He must have caught twice as many as me but that's OK. He is the only person that I don't mind out fishing me.

Like most shad they wanted the grub slow and deep. I actually caught a few while watching the Osprey's that were continually putting on a show for us .    I had several times stopped  my lure to watch the Osprey's and was surprised by several hookups doing this.

My son probably caught 10 big ones and me maybe 5.  The only other fish we caught was I snagged a big ole gizzard shad in the back.

My son has caught lots of Hickories before but today was his first time catching White or American shad.

Here are a few pictures.

Thanks, Mack

Big American shad

Date- 4/5/2015
Location- NE North Carolina
Water Temp- 54 degrees
Lure- 1/8 oz pink Jig head with white grub
and a 1/8 oz ~ split shot 1 foot above Jighead
Reel- Daiwa 1300 SS w/ 8 lb line

Had an awesome evening form aprox 3PM to 7 with 10 or so big White Shad caught.   All fought hard and deep.  The retreive had to be reel slow and deep to get a hit but they were there.

I also saw several Ospreys catch fish and one that grabbed a few sticks out of the water evidently to enhance a nest.

A day to remember!!

Thanks, Mack

Roanoke Shad 4/2/2015

Date- 4/2/2015
Location- Roanoke River, Weldon
Quarry - Hickory Shad
Lures Used - Single Barb less 1/8 oz pink Jighead w pink grub
Reel -  Daiwa 1300 SS and 8 lb suffix line


My son and me hit the Roanoke and had a blast, though he caught twice as many as myself.
Note- April 1st to June 30th this area is a single hook and barbless area, so that is why we are not using the tandem rigs now.

A good day on the water.

Thanks, Mack

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