A "Sunny" Day

This particular post could have gone in a completely different direction if the hawg I hooked on this most recent float had made its way into the boat.  Instead I was left wanting another chance to land that monster river pig.  A classic case of "the one that got away".  At least I had a witness :)

My father, brother, and I used to waterski Belews Creek in the summer when I was a young.  I vividly recall getting home from school in August or early September and racing to the basement to prep the boat for an evening at the lake.  My dad would arrive at 3:15 pm, back up to the garage, we would hook up the trailer while he changed clothes, and we were on the lake by 4:00 pm!

One of my favorite things to do on these ski outings was to beach the boat in one of our favorite coves for a break and whip out the trusty zebco 33.  I'd wade the shoreline throwing little curly tail grubs or bettlespins and land fish after fish.  Call them what you like: redbreast, green sunfish, bream, sunny, longear sunfish, readear sunfish, warmouth, etc.  I'm not up to snuff with all the particular species of these colorful sunfish, but I had a ball catching them as a kid. 

My brother and I hadn't done any freshwater fishing in over a year.  We met up around 2 pm at one of my favorite rivers about halfway between Charlotte and Raleigh.  I'd never floated this particular section, but I was anxious to explore and see if we could find a few bass. 

Ambient:  Sunny skies, ~78 F

Water:  74 F, 3-4 ft visibility

I know this medium sized piedmont flow holds a lot of bass, but they all managed to avoid us during this trip.  Although we caught zero bass, there was definitely no shortage of active and aggresive sunnies.  My brother landed a sunfish on the first or second cast with one of my older rods and small spinnerbait.  Throughout our float we probably landed 15-20 each on about every lure we threw (Rapalas, spinnerbaits, buzzbait, Torpedo, Spook, bettlespin, crankbait, Roostertail ... pretty much everything except t-rigged plastics)

Weather was incredible, scenery was excellent, company and conversation was great, and the fishing wasn't terrible.  Bro managed to lose my favorite little spinnerbait, but made up for it with a nice chicken dinner after we finished up.  Hope to meet up with him again this year and actually catch a bass!

Morning Glass

As I continue to explore the many many places in NC to fish out my canoe, there's one I discovered this year that keeps calling me back.  Thankfully it's one of the closest to my house @ ~45 min.  During this trip I explored a section of this river a little more and I found some great water.

It had rained the previous day and I was worried this flow would be a little stained.  However, much to my surprise, the water was clearer than when I fished it in March. 

After a long carry due to wet/muddy conditions near the river, I put in just after sun-up. 

Ambient - low 60s, occasional light misty rain, very little wind :-)
Water - 3-4 ft visibility, no temp measurement

Started working my way down river in my Guide 119 with my new bending branches slice glass 280 paddle (http://tiny.cc/sktav), which is soooooo much better than anything I'd used previously.  I didn't catch anything until I made it to a shallow flat with flooded timber.  Caught a few small largemouth on a white buzzbait in this area and one on the bank on the way back to the put in.

Paddled ~4 miles or so round trip and my shoulders felt it for the next few days.  However, this was one of my more relaxing trips and well worth the effort. 

Good Morning at the Pond

I managed to spend my morning in my canoe at a small farm pond rumored to hold some large bass. 

I started just before daybreak with a jointed jitterbug.  I've never used a jitterbug before and this morning didn't help my confidence in it as I got no strikes. 

I love topwater action and I tried many lures this morning with only 1 topwater bass landed on a Heddon Tiny Torpedo. 

I started throwing a t-rigged plastic worm in the shallows and landed a few.  Tried other t-rigged plastics (worms & grubs) and landed a few more, nothing of substaintial size.  Also threw a rapala J-9 and a white Norman little-N crankbait and caught bass on both.  The crappie were busting at the surface all day and I caught a few of them on the Norman crankbait and crappie jigs.  They were biting my line and bobber and I think I could have worn them out on a fly rod with surface flies.  I also need the practice.  Oh well, maybe next time.

After the sun came up I started banging the bank with a weightless super fluke and landed even more bass.  Ended my morning catching a few on a weightless plastic frog (Horney Toad).  Best two bass are below, along with one of the small crappie I caught. 

It was a nice relaxing morning and I hope to fish here a few more times this year.

Movin' on Up ... the Deep River

I've been looking at upgrading my paddle for the solo canoe.  I picked up a "new-to-me" paddle last weekend and I had to test it out.  I bought a very lightly used Bending Branches Slice Glass 280 cm double bladed paddle.  It's very long and intended for use with solo canoes or wide/tall kayaks.  It's a great paddle and I highly recommend it for use with a OT Guide 119, Kaynoe, or other solo canoe.

I wanted to fish an area where I could paddle around a bit.  I started fishing the Deep River a few years ago.  In fact, it was one of the first rivers in the Triangle I explored after moving back to NC.  I had never fished above Carbonton, NC until today.  I got a recommendation from my friend Mack to try out an area just above hwy 64 near Ramseur, NC. 

Conditions

Ambient - 75 F, sunny

Water - 63 F, slightly stained (~3 ft visibility)

USGS Flow ~200 cfs @ Ramseur

I put in at a small mill pond and shortly after landed this small bass on a chartruese spinnerbait.  I thought it may be a great day after this start, but I quickly realized this area of the Deep River sees a lot of pressure due to very easy access.  The scenery is great with rocky cliffs, falling water, and lots of water fowl.  I lost a good fish just below the rapids shown below on a texas rigged Zoom lizard, which is one of my go-to lures.

I moved downstream for a short float and managed one more bass on a Heddon Torpedo.  This area of the river has a nice park running down river left with remnants of old textile mills.  The river is relatively shallow and full of rocks.  In the summer this would be a great place to rock hop and enjoy the cool water.

Although I caught a few, this wasn't my favorite place to fish.  However, with such a nice park, this would be a great place to take my family for a picnic, fishing, swings, playground, and feeding ducks. 

2011 Smallie Trip #1

There aren't many places where you can go by yourself unassisted and easily float a few miles without having to paddle back upstream, unless you're willing to stash your boat and all your gear long enough to ride a bike or walk back to your car and then return to the get out. Well, I don't own a bike and I'm not too keen on leaving my only solo boat and best fishing gear sitting under a tree by the river until I return.

This short solo float was on a small piedmont flow where I am sure there are smallmouth. I've never caught a white bass and I've heard this section of river holds them in the spring.  I've been to this general area many times, but never fished it. Conditions were as follows:

Ambient Temp - 55-60 F, Overcast skies, Light cool wind

Water Temp - 61 F (big surprise, I was expecting low 50s)

Water Condition - ~2 ft visibility, normal flow conditions

I was expecting much warmer weather, but the cold front that came through ruined all that.  I think it also ruined the fishing.  Unfortunately I didn't land any smallies or any bass for that matter. However, this was a slow scenic float with plenty of wildlife and I'll definitely be back.

Photo of the parking area and cart setup and then the put in. I had to walk ~1 mile upstream to the put in for a 2.5 mile float back. Thankfully it was mostly downhill to the put in.

A few shots of the river

One of three monsters I caught, all on the Rapala J-9.

Shots of the get out. I had to cart the canoe back upstream about 1/4 mile to the Scout mostly uphill, but it's a fairly well established road.

I saw lots of birds, including 3 large herons, an osprey, and a pair of turkeys.  Then it was off to Charlotte Motor Speedway to see my International Harvester buds at the annual car show.  I also managed to pick up a new-to-me double bladed paddle, see that and more in my next post.

Smallmouth in the Piedmont ... who knew? Well, I didn't!

In my bio I mentioned that I got started fishing from a canoe with my dad on the James river in Virginia going after smallmouth. After moving back to NC a few years ago, I discovered a few great fishing websites that have helped me find new places to fish and some great people to enjoy those experiences with right here in my home state. They are as follows:

http://www.ncangler.com/

http://www.riverbassin.com/

In addition, I got a great book for Christmas a few years back - http://www.pocosinpress.com/

Paul Ferguson's book, Paddling Eastern North Carolina, has great information for canoeist, including: launch access, trip lengths, rapids, cautions, and points of interest & scenery. It's a great resource for canoeing any NC basin from the Yadkin east.

These resources have allowed me to discover some great rivers that I've never fished before, some of which are within 1 hr drive from my house in Raleigh. The most surprising was that I could get to smallmouth bass waters within 2 hrs from Raleigh. In fact, there are multiple places to fish for smallmouth within that range. No more long trips to Virginia and buying another fishing license just to find some smallmouth!

Last year I visited a few of these rivers and ended up landing 3 smallies around 17". I'd never caught any smallie over ~2lbs up until last year and to get 3 approaching 3lbs each in one year was pretty awesome, at least for me. Although one of these fish was caught in the Potomac basin while visiting the inlaws, my "luck" with big smallies has greatly improved. For trips I made in NC, not only did I catch many smallies (including 2 great fish), but I lost 3 others that were easily my best smallmouth ever.

First smallie trip was in late June and I landed this 17" smallie on a t-rigged purple Yum grub. This was the first time I fished this river and altough I had heard smallies were in this area, I was shocked that was able to catch one this big on my first trip. It was 100 deg F that day and all of the fish caught were hanging in the shade next to current breaks, including this guy. The photo below was on a solo float in mid September on the Monocacy river in Maryland. This is a relatively small river, and again, I was shocked to catch a smallie of this size. I landed this one on a rebel craw crankbait. I had just tied it on and tossed it out to test the settings on my baitcaster. As soon as I began to reel it got slammed! The photo below is from a late September trip I took with a colleague. We actually floated two sections of the same river over two days and camped at a state park. By day two we had figured out a pattern with relatively dull colored spinnerbaits and I landed this fat 17" smallie on a yellow & blue mini strike king spinnerbait. It was tied to my ultralight with 4 lb line! My colleague brought a similar sized smallie to the boat on the same lure shortly after and it got off before we could get it in the boat for a photo. On this same trip I missed a very large smallie (est @ 5lbs) and landed the 16" spotted bass pictured below.

All in all, I had a great year for smallmouth and am now convinced the smallmouth fishing in NC is just as good, if not better, than any trip I've taken in Virginia. In 2011, I hope to get out and land a few more of these scrappy river bronzebacks.

Back to the Well

Air Temp:  55, warming to near 70 deg F
Sunny Skies
Water:  58 deg F, Stained (~2-3 ft visibility)

Boat:  Old Town 119
Lures Used:  Spinnerbait, T-rigged Yum grub, Rapala Shad Rap, Cotton Cordell Spot, Rebel Craw
With the success of my last excursion, I decided to fish the same river today.  Launched before sunrise and tried to catch a few on topwater.  Wasn't getting any strikes, so I quickly went to the spinnerbait and landed one in my hotspot from last trip.  Also caught this guy on the Yum grub

After being stalked by a coyote (not a joke), I decided to move on and shortly thereafter landed my personal best river largemouth at 6.5-7 lbs.  Caught this fat mamma on a rapala shad rap.  There was a rather large fish tail showing in the gullet and she was still chasing fish!

Keep switching lures to see what was hot.  Caught fish on all lures listed in the opening of this post, ~20 bass in total.  Here are a few of them. 

The bite shutdown around 10 am and I paddled back to the launch to pack it up.  Good morning on the water with awesome weather and a few really nice fish.  I think I've found one of my favorite spring holes.

-Jeff