March 9th, 2019
Crappie Fishing with Goldfish
Location- Central North Carolina Creek
Time - 3-5 Pm
Rod- 7' Abu Super7 Med action
Reel - Okuma Stratus SGT30
Line- 10 lb Trilene
Hook- #4 Gold wire hook with a split shot
above and 2' under a cork
^^ The reason for going with the outfit listed above is I wanted a longer length to help control the drift and bigger line than I normally use as there are some nice channel cats in this stream that I thought I may luck into one of those.
I have always fished with goldfish but it has always been while I was fishing for Catfish and those were with big Goldfish. Those big goldfish work fantastic on catfish so I have always thought smaller ones would work great on Crappie. This has been a goal of mine to do this and today I made it happen.
I stopped and my local Pet store and got 20 feeder goldfish for $4.29. I kept these in a minnow bucket aerated with a Baby Bubbles which does a great Job. You can see how awesome they work in the video but I had a hit on all 20 Goldfish! It was a great couple hours on the water and I will be sure to do this again on a nearby lake so stay tuned for that !!
My wife and I along with our Dog Pete Hit a side channel off of the Neuse after some Shad on their spring spawning run. We got there at Aprox 2 and fished until 6 pm. The action was slow but fun as we caught what we were after. The best Lures used were 1/8oz Pink headed Jigs and 2 inch white grubs rigged in tandem. I think I landed 5 which I am Happy with.
Since the water was high from recent rains we were fishing this side creek off of the Neuse River which is also called Village Creek. The High water will send some of the fish up this creek so it is usually a good spot during high flows.
Below on the map this spot is pinned as Shad spot #1. You fish right off of the bridge , just make sure to watch out for traffic as Most of the traffic goes slow when people are fishing but some don't slow down so use this at your own risk. Also, be careful with your casts as there are plenty of trees that will "take" your lures. Today at peak time there was apox 15-20 people fishing off of this bridge.
I would recommend you use at least at least 10 lb line since you are lifting the shad up the bridge but we did "get by" with 6 lb on a couple of rods but we did not catch any big ones today. 6 lb line is not going to lift a good one up.
Here is My dog Pete that loves to fish. My wife snapped this picture after I said "fish on" and he has to see it.
This is a video of this trip. Please watch and enjoy and please subscribe to my You tube channel and follow me on Instagram.
Smith Mountain Lake Virginia
Virginia Carp Fishing
Dates October 13th and 14th 2018
Water Temp 64.5 degrees
Water depth 10'
My wife and I spent the weekend at Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake so I did some Carp fishing while I was there. The first day I had only 3 hours or so to fish as we had to go out to eat and be back in time to see the UNC vs Va Tech Game. The game for me did not go as well as the fishing.
It was a productive Saturday session with 4 Carp Brought to the dock with one of those being a Black Carp. A first for me.
The first fish came within 15 minutes and the other 3 were spread out on this outing. I had not pre-baited this spot so I thought that was a pretty good session. However, I did know I had a good chance to fish Sunday so I did bait this area so my Sunday session would hopefully be better or have bigger fish. This "baiting" consisted of throwing out 1 can of corn and 1 can or cream corn.
Sundays session was only 1.5 hours but but I did catch the biggest of the trip and had 2 other "runs"
All of these fish were caught in 10 ft of water on the outfits listed at the bottom. A big thanks to my wife for patiently waiting in the car while it lightly rained for most of this session.
The Highlight of the day was when we left the lake a Big ole Fox Squirrel ran across the road in front of us.
My You Tube Video of this will be posted below near the bottom. Please subscribe to my blog and You Tube Channel for more Posts.
Here are my 2 outfits I used on this trip, All fish were caught on the Shimano 3500 Baitrunner, I don't know why all came on this outfit other than I was casting each to the same spots which were about 30 feet apart from each other. This reel is matched to a 8' Ugly Stik and spooled with 16 lb High Vis Momoi Line
This is the other outfit, a Daiwa Millionaire 6000 on a 7' Ugly Stik Lite rod also spooled with 16 lb Hi Vis Momoi Line
Both of these are in Driftmaster Rod holders and DriftMaster Clamp mounts
The rig I use is a 1 oz weight ( more if windy) and a very short length of 25 lb or 30 lb flouro leader and a # 1 Gamagatsu Octopus hook
Here are my baits and attractants.....I left one out as I can't give away all of my secrets. LOL
These mixed with Oats makes this pack bait along with 4 - 5 kernels of corn.
Here is the small but Unique Black Carp
The Biggest of the weekend
Now the Video, Don't forget to subscribe and ask any questions as I try to answer all of them.
Tags
" Virginia Carp " #Carpfishing
Virginia carp fishing
fishing with Corn
Smith Mountain Lake fishing
Bowfin are a fish most fishermen either love or hate. Bass anglers despise them because they can really just destroy a spinner bait or a plug but I think most Bass anglers just are not used to unhooking them which can be daunting to some especially since they have teeth.
What's not to like about them?? They get Big, they fight hard, they sometimes jump, they are fairly easy to catch once you figure them out and they are tackle busters. Come under gunned and they will leave you with your head hanging. A True Sportfish they are.
So where do you find Bowfin? Check out the map below. 2/3rds of the Eastern US is Prime Bowfin habitat.
What surprises me about this map is how little Bowfin range in Texas. I actually feel sorry for people who live outside of where Bowfin Range !
Here is a map courtesy of usgs.gov
Anywhere they range you need to look for the backwaters or sluggish areas and especially areas with lots of weed growth. For example on my home lake of Jordan lake here in North Carolina they are all over the lake but less common on main lake points and areas w/o cover. To find an abundance of them you need to go to backs of coves where it is shallower and /or weedier. To find a bigger abundance of them find a creek with a beaver pond on it just above the lake.
I caught my first ever Bowfin way back in 1982 on the then New Jordan Lake when she was only a 1yr old lake. This 4 lb bowfin smashed a chartreuse Snagless Sally I was throwing for bass and I was forever hooked. Now, some years my fishing for them wanes while I pursue other species but I always keep coming back to the incredible Bowfin. I have caught them up to near 14 lbs but most are going to be 4-7 lbs with a occasional 8-10 lber thrown in.
One place I fish for them is the Neuse River in Eastern N.C. Down there it is a medium sized river that has some Cypress trees but to get into the really good bowfin water there you need to go into a feeder creek that is full of Cypress trees and back water areas, Here the Bowfin is King.
So, remember backwaters, sluggish areas, beaverponds, etc.
Some days you can even see Bowfin gulping air as they can breath air so if you see them doing this just know you are in a good spot.
So what kind of tackle do you use for Bowfins? Any reel that can be used for Bass fishing can be used for Bowfins but usually I go a little heavier. If I am truely Bowfin fishing I use at least 50 lb braid or 20 lb mono.
Tactics- Bait or Lures
Bait- The best way to catch Bowfin is to put a piece of cutbait on a Carolina rig using a 2 oz sinker and a 3-4/0 Gamagatsu J hook. The next best way is to float a minnow, shiner or very small bream 1-2 ' under a cork.
Lures- IMO the best lure for Bowfins are a 3/8 oz spinnerbait with tandem blades black in color. Chartreuse and white work also. Always use a trailer hook and this is a Bowfin getter for sure. Other good lures are a Chartreuse Snagless Sally, Floating Yellow Worms ( Haw River Tackle Floating Worms are the best ) and Pink Senkos Wacky Rigged. Truth be known they will hit any bass lure but the ones listed are the best IMHO.
March 3rd , 2018
Roanoke River, NC @Weldon
Quarry- Hickory Shad
***You Tube Video Included below***
I have had a great Spring so far and I have made a couple of trips for Shad and managed only One Hickory On February the 12 (my earliest shad ever caught ) and a White shad the other day in another River. I got a report the Hickory shad were on fire at Weldon so I called my buddy Aki and asked if he wanted to go??? He said sure! though he told me later he was skeptical about driving for 1.5 hrs to be able to fish for a little over 2 hours. Anyway we arrived at the boat landing and you could see people reeling in fish. The first Hour was somewhat slow but the second hour it really picked up . Together we caught 45 plus shad and 1 small Striper which is a lot for the limited time we were there.
I started off with a Tandem Rig but quickly changed to single Jig with a Big Split shot above it to get deeper.
This rig gets deeper than the Tandem cause the 2nd jig on the tandem doesn't sink like a big ole split shot.
The water was at about 9000 cfm and the water temp right at 50 degrees
The water Temp has dropped. It was 54 2 weeks ago and 52 on March 1st , now it is at 49 degrees. The shad are there you just have to slow down the retrieve.
Aki With a nice Hickory Shad
Me with The lone White Shad caught out of about 45 Hickories
Guys, the Crappie have been on fire here in Central NC for a few weeks but this week has been especially good. The water Temp in the area lakes and some of the Eastern Creeks has been in the mid 50's with Jordan hitting 59 degrees yesterday. This has got the Crappie wanting to spawn and moving into the shallows. Right now on Jordan and Falls Lake there are many many Crappie in 3 -5 feet of water. I have had my best luck throwing a 1/16 oz Monks head with a Kalins Triple Threat Grub In the Acid Rain Color. I have also been mainly throwing this jig on a 6' Berkeley Med Light Lighting Rod with a Daiwa Tierra 1500 reel spooled with 6 lb line. I am also throwing a Mini Rattle trap to weed out some of the smaller fish.
You can get anything Crappie related at Monks Crappie. He is located near Liberty, NC but does do mail order. ****
added 120122 - Note Monk passed away a few years back and his family sold the business so check out http://www.monkscrappie.com/
The Frabill E-Z Checker is a must as the area lakes have a 10 inch min size on the Crappie.
The E-Z Checker is 12 inches long so this ole girl is longer than 12
Here is my biggest so far this spring, a fat 14 inch one.
Here is a nice 12 incher I got walking the riprap.
I have kept a few each trip but I am letting go 90 percent of what I catch. Here are 2 gals that went 14 and 13 inches.
Right now since the fish are shallow, fish the back end of coves with overhanging willows , stumps etc. The back end of coves is where most are going to be but some can be found by walking the Rip rap as well and fan casting. They will spawn on the Rip rap.
Here are some of the lures I use for Crappie but if I only had one for this time of year it would be the Kalins in Acid Rain. These are not all I use but these are a must have for Crappie. Starting at the Mini trap and going clockwise are The Mini Trap, Blakemore Roadrunner, the 3rd is a jig with green flake and I think it is out of production I cant remember who makes it. I think it was a company in Virginia. I will post it if I remember the company name. FOUND IT!! They are made by the VIRGINIA GUIDE BAIT COMPANY. Next are 4 grubs by Charlie Brewer then last but not least is the Kalins grub in Acid Rain color. Purple Rain is also a good color.
Here is a video from my You Tube Channel. Please subscribe to my Blog and my YT Channel !!
Thanks Mack
I made the trip to The Roanoke / Blacksburg area for the UNC Va Tech Football game and even though my team got pounded I had a great time at the game and on Sunday after the Game I fished part of the Roanoke river that I have never fished before. Not a spectacular day as far as numbers caught but it was a nice day on some good water that holds a lot of potential.
This section is a few miles above Smith Mountain Lake . I immediately caught a very small smallie on a small Ultralite Rapala Minnow and then I could not get another hit.
I then switched to a float with a Trout Magnet Jig 2 feet under it. My presentation was to cast this upstream into current and let it Float back down. I caught 2 big River chubs using this method and I can tell you that River Chubs are Hard fighters. This is similar to how I have caught them on the Eno River using a cork with a tube jig under it.
I left this spot and went downstream to another spot and although I caught zilch at the second spot , my hopes and plans to return are high. When I saw the second spot(first spot too) I immediately thought that the lake Stripers came up here from time to time. My thoughts were confirmed when I was getting my rod out and looked over and 3 guys were getting out of their car as well and all had Redfins or big plugs on them. After speaking with them it was double confirmed that this section was indeed a Striper hotspot as one of them had caught a 20lber the week before. Towards dark there were a few big Stripers busting up and down river but I never connected. Return I will.
July 15th my wife and I decided to do a little Catfishing. Truth be told I decided and she chose to come along. Normally bait on this river is very hard to come by so I either bring my own frozen cutbait, buy goldfish, or get both. This time for some dumb reason I decided to buy 5 tubs of night crawlers and see what I could catch with just them. My wife was like you/we are only going to catch little cats with crawlers!!
I assured her that IF a big Catfish came up on a big glob of crawlers that it was game on!
First, we had to get the boat in the water.
First stop produced this massive cat! Now don't laugh it was cool catching this little guy who got a 7/0 hook in his mouth.
Was she right about we were ony going to catch little ones????????
That stop also produced a decent longnose gar that you will have to see in the Video.
We moved a few more times with not much luck. Our final stop had me put out all 3 rods.
All of the sudden and the spinner is smoking! after an Intense battle I finally subdued the beast by sticking my hand in her mouth and hoisting her aboard. My wife tried to net her numerous times and with her being a rookie on the net I was getting worried that that would cause me to lose this giant so that is why I lipped her.
I have included my you tube channel video of this catch but I will confess that this cat fought way better than the video suggest. I had to cut out a lot of the fight due to the reel just being in front of the camera and this massive cat splashed water on the lens so you couldn't see some of the fight due to it being blury .
Game On!!!!!
Also, If you read this blog or watch my You Tube Channel please subscribe to Both! Thanks for Subscribing!
July 15th
Dan River right on the North Carolina Virginia Border
Boat- Seras Gamefisher 1232
Motor- Mercury 2.5
Outfits-
Shimano 6500 Baitrunner Loaded with 25 lb Shur strike line on a 7' Ugly
stik Tiger rod, Abu Garcia 6500c loaded with 30lb Big game on a 7'
Ugly Stik and a 7000c Abu loaded with 40 lb Red Cajun on an American
Spirit Night Stik
Hook would be 7/0 Gamagatsu J and Circle hooks
Bait- Night crawlers on a 3 way rig
This is a Video of my Modifications to my Old Town 119. This is my favorite solo River boat by far and a good Lake canoe. If you have any questions please ask either here or on you tube. Don't forget to subscribe to both!!!
The above Chart was evidently done before the Cahaba, and Warrior were declared seperate.
I have had a long desire to catch all of the Black Bass subspecies. The species are Northern Largemouth, Florida Bass, Smallmouth, Northern Spotted, Alabama bass, Suwanee, Guadalupe, Shoal Bass, Choctaw and the 7 Redeye species which are The Coosa Redeye, The Bartram's, Chattahoochee, Altamahaw, Warrior, Cahaba, and Tallapoosa Bass .
So far (Feb 2023) I have caught Northern Largemouth, Florida Largemouth, Smallmouth, Northern Spotted, Alabama Spot, Suwannee, Shoal bass, Coosa and the Bartrams.
This article will be updated peridiocally as I catch more or add to it.
Bartram's Bass
May 2017 I made a trip to South Carolina to get the Bartram's Bass off of this bucket list. I would of been happy with any size and the first 2 I caught were only 5-6 inches and the next two were 11-12 inches. I have included my You Tube video of this and just to let you know my wife caught the Biggest. OUCH! it may have been 13 inches but a 13 inch Bartram's is a good one. It was a nice day on a wonderful river. The redbreast has some of the strangest color markings I have seen with the red/yellow breast going all the way to the tail. It was a wonderful trip.
Bartram's Bass from the Chauga River in South Carolina
I caught this one and several like it
My Wife of Course caught the biggest.
Watch My Bartram's Video here
Shoal Bass
I caught My Shoalie ( Shoal bass ) in May of 2012. this was a fun trip made with some good friends.
We camped on the Flint River near Thomaston Ga and I caught several Shoalies.
You can view my blog post here on that camping trip and my Quest for a Shoal Bass here
April of 2022 I decided to try and get the Coosa bass off of my bucket list.
This Brought me to Rockmart Ga where I fished Eurhalee Creek ( A Tributary of the Etowah River) and while the fishing was tough I did manage 3 with 1 being a very nice one.. This is as big as they get.
January of 2023 I decided to go after the Suwanne Bass. The Sante Fe River near High Springs would be the area I was going to fish. I camped at Ginnie Springs and fished upriver day 1 and down river day 2 . I only caught 1 Suwannee Bass but thats all I needed. This was and awesome trip.
My First Suwannee
You can see my Suwannee bass video on You Tube here
Went Carpin yesterday (4/09/2017) after work from 4-7 pm with my wife Cindy. Caught 10~ carp and 4 or 5 channel cats in about 3 hours with most of the action coming in hours 2-3. It was Good day with a few big ones being landed. I had one really big run that I lost , the hook pulling out for some reason. The outing started slow but once they started coming in it was on. We Had 2 doubles on as well.
We were set up on a small point on a local lake using sweetcorn for bait. See below. The carp in this lake really luv sweetcorn and I have only had 1 day there in the last year where i have not caught a carp. Hopefully this trend will continue and will have more post to do in the future on this spot.
Bait- Sweetcorn with secret packbait on weight.
Reels used- 2 shimano 3500 Baitrunners , 1 on 8' ugly stik and the other on 7 ft Ugly Stik Tiger- Daiwa Millionaire II 5000M on Abu 7' rod
Line 16lb Momoi Hi Viz
I made a quick trip after White bass to a Falls Lake Tributary before a meeting at work. My plan was to walk a tributary of a local lake and throw 3 lures. A Shallow Shad Rap 5 ( SSR5), a Rebel Tracdown and a Roadrunner.
I caught 1 on the SSR5 and then lost the 2 I had. OUCH! There went 14 bucks.
I then threw the roadrunner and caught 1. Switched to the Rebel and I caught 3 or 4 on it. Ended up with 5 or 6 in an hour . Not great numbers but it was a good morning with fish caught.
Here is a video I posted on YouTube on this trip. Subscribe to my YT channel and also follow this Blog.
March 21st 2017
Location- Roanoke River Weldon, NC
Air Temps- 70's
Water Temp- 57
Lures- Tandem jigs
Tuesday March 21st Pete and I hit the Roanoke River in search of my first shad of the year. The water is extremely low at 2250 cfm. I caught aprox 25 Hickory Shad. Most came on Pink headed Jigs with White bodies but I think 1 came on Chartreuse. Some days they like a particular color and today it was White. You should always carry White, Chartreuse and Pink as you can never predict what color is hot.
Here are a few Pictures
I spent approximately 4 hours on the water with 25~ caught. This is not really a good number as on a good day in 4 hours you sometimes can catch double that but I am happy with 25~.
Here is a video I posted on You Tube on this trip. Please subscribe to it and follow this blog if you haven't already.
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
