There's Always Time To Fish

 Catching up with the blog

 

 

Its been quite awhile since I visited with eveyone, and posted anything resembling writing. With summer coming on and the school year winding down I will have a little free time to write. I plan on exploring several topics this summer, including: river smallmouth, small ponds, spillways and more finesse tactics.

Hopefully with the new direction of my job I'll be able to spend more time writing and fishing. So a new post is coming soon and we'll get back on track. 

 



If want to fish and need some advice or a guide then contact my good buddy Austin Neary. He is a serious stick on Glenville Lake and all WNC Mountain lakes. Austin fishes the BASS College Series, and after a third place finish at the Eastern Regional at Watts Bar, Tennessee he competed in the National Championship Tournament on Lake Chatuge. Reach him at Dream Catcher Guides

 

 



Real Sportsmen Buy their Licenses



Save wildlife for your kids





There's Always Time To Fish

 Power Finesse

Hurricane Falls on Lake Glenville, NC

Power Finesse is simply finesse fishing on steroids. I find that in clear mountain lakes I struggle fishing full-size jigs and plastic worms. Jigs are very good, and I catch a lot of fish on them, just not the bigger ones. Plastic worms catch their share of fish, but I catch a lot more on smaller offerings.

Strike King Bitsy Bug

True Finesse fishing is not really necessary because our lakes do have some color to the water, even though they are clear. I know it sounds funny, but compare the water clarity at Bear Lake to some of the lakes up north or out west and you’ll see what I mean. We don’t need 4-pound line and 1/32-ounce jigs, but we do need finesse tactics.

Power Finesse for me is simply finesse baits and rigs that are upsized a little bit, and




reaction baits that are down-sized a little bit. Drop-shots fished on 8-pound line with 3/16 to ¼-once weights and 6-inch worms, 3/16 to 5/16 ounce jigs, and smaller plastic worms are power finesse to me. Don’t think it’s only the weight of baits, but the size and profile as well. A 6-inch Robo worm is a lot smaller than a 6-inch Power Worm. A ¼-ounce Strike King Bitsy Bug is smaller than a standard ¼-ounce jig by about 30 percent.

The thing about these tactics is they allow you to finesse fish, but still cover water quickly and thoroughly. You can flip and pitch these small jigs and plastics just like their big brothers. You can cover more water with a 1/4-ounce drop shot, but still keep it in one place when you need to. You can also fish a little heavier cover than traditional finesse fishing.





Finesse darter



Robo Worm FX series

 I use a simple selection of plastics, and they have served me well. Zoom Swamp Crawler, G-Tail, C-Tail and Trick worms. Robo Worms and Berkley also make great worms for this style of fishing. For jigs I use Bitsy Bugs and the Jewel Eakins jig. I use rattle bands if I want to add weight to either jig. As for trailers, use what your normally use for jigs, just downsize them to match the jig. I really like Zoom and Netbait trailers.

The gold standard in trailers remains the Uncle Josh Pork Frog. This trailer is especially in the winter.

Nice fish on a Robo worm

Zoom Super Chunk

One drawback I’ve found is you have to cull through smaller fish than normal. Power Finesse tends to be a numbers game, but don’t think you can’t catch some big fish this way. May largest bass in 2012 was on a 1/8-ounce Charlie Brewer Slider Head with a Zoom G-Tail worm fished on 8-pound fluorocarbon. It was a little shy of 9 pounds and capped off a day with a 5-fish limit of 26 pounds. My largest Smallmouth ever came on a H2O Xpress CRULD crankbait and was 5 pounds 11 ounces.

H2O Xpress CRULD Finesse Special



The CRULD leads the field in “finesse” crankbaits. This little dandy is a true Power Finesse crankbait that dives about 5-feet and runs true out the package. H2O CRUL and the KVD 1.0 square bills are another example of extremely good crankbaits. Both run true, handle being banged into cover and hook and keep fish hooked very well.

Shad Rap

Of course you can always rely on the Shad Rap from Rapala.  The Shad Rap excels in cooler water, but works in great in the heat of summer becuase it works very well ast slow speed. It tends to roll more in warmer water, and you can use it as a jerk bait.  Other great hardbaits that work in Power Finesse situations are the Rapala X-Rap #6, and RC Stick Jr, the Rebel Pop-R and Heddon Zara Puppy.

Rocket Shad

Spinnerbaits that excel in this technique are a little tougher to find. Most tend to be light weight, but the blades are wrong and that causes the bait to roll. A rolling spinnerbait is no good and you'll stay hung and not catch fish. You want a small sized bait, its the profile thats important. The blades must also match the small profile. If the your using regular sized blades you might as well throw a full sized bait. Several good models are available such as the War Eagle ¼ finesse Mike McClelland series or Strike King Lil’ Money and Rocket Shad spinnerbaits.



Halo Starlite

Rods and reels are personal choices, but I tend to stick with what I use regularly. For the drop shot I use a 7’ medium, fast action rod with 8-pound fluorocarbon and a 2500 size spinning reel. I fish the jigs and small plastic on a 7’ medium fast, Halo Starlight rod 

with a Daiwa Exceler reel.

I use Shimano Sellus 6’ 8” and 7' Crankbait rods with Daiwa Exceler reels for the Crankbaits and a H2O Express Tournament Choice 7’ medium rod with a Daiwa Exceler reel for jerk baits and spinnerbaits.

Fluorocarbon line is essential to Power Finesse fishing, and Braid certainly has its place. If you plan on using braided line remember to use a or monofilament to aid with shock absorption and visibility.

If want to fish and need some advice or a guide then contact my good buddy Austin Neary. He is a serious stick on Glenville Lake and all WNC Mountain lakes. Austin fishes the BASS College Series, and after a third place finish at the Eastern Regional at Watts Bar, Tennessee he competed in the National Championship Tournament on Lake Chatuge. Reach him at Dream Catcher Guides



NCANGLER

Real Sportsmen buy their Licenses



Save wildlife for your kids

 







There's Always Time To Fish

Winter fun time

They're still biting

For the average bass fisherman winter is the hardest season of the year to be successful. Depending on where you live in the Mid-Atlantic States the water ranges from cold to solid. While I have very little experience with ice, except to stay off of it, I do fish all winter in very cold water in Western North Carolina. Because we tend to shift our focus from Bass to Trout in WNC as Christmas rolls around, it doesn’t mean Bass can’t still be caught. Winter fishing here can be very good in fact, and depending on the weather can be fantastic until very late winter.

The way I determine where I’m going to fish is based on three major factors. Water temperature and bottom make-up are most important with water clarity rounding out the equation. Water temperature drives every aquatic ecosystem and is the most important consideration for winter fishing. The water temperature determines the activity level of the Bass, but just as importantly the forage. The makeup of the bottom is also very important. Does the pond have weeds or rock, does the lake have wood or weeds? Rock and wood hold heat longer, but live weeds provide oxygen and cover. Water clarity also plays a huge part in where the fish will hold and if they bite. Clear, cold water is preferred, slightly stained is ok, but the heavier the stain the worse the fishing will be. Run like the wind when you see muddy, cold water.

In WNC right now we have had a few day of serious winter weather and the rest of the season has been mild. My local lake was 50.4 degrees on Christmas Eve and fell to 50.1 on New Year’s Eve. Since that time the surface temperature has fallen to around 43 degrees. 50 degree water is closer to fall conditions than winter and therefore fishes more like fall than winter. You can still fish reaction baits and find a few fish shallow enough to pitch to them. Jerkbaits, flat-sided crankbaits, rattle baits and even spinnerbaits work quite well right now. When you need to slow down, nothing beats finesse and hair jigs with a pork trailer. Drop shots, shaky heads and straight-tailed worms Texas rigged all fish very well during winter.


Typical bluff on southeastern lakes and rivers

Just remember, colder and clearer equals deeper and slower.

Typical underwater point

As the water cools the fish tend to follow the closest structural change to deep water. If you are catching fish on top of a long point, then simply follow it out to keep up with the fish. If the point has good cover, even better, that will give the fish something to relate to as winter progresses. You are looking for sharp breaks and nearby deep water. If your lake or pond is a big bowl, like many farm ponds, then finding an abrupt structural change is key. If your lake has no real drop offs or breaks, then deep cover is the key. The fish want to relate to something. If they have nothing they tend to suspend at a comfortable depth and follow the forage.

I prefer to begin looking in areas that offer quick access to deep water. Personally, I like points and rip rap banks because I feel they allow fish to move shallow when the water warms and quickly return to deep water when the weather changes. The absolute best structure on the lake or pond for these quick depth changes are bluffs. I learned to fish bluffs in Oklahoma, but have very few to fish on my home waters. Bluffs, both true and artificial, are simply vertical rock faces that fall into deep water. They are often found in very close proximity to channel bends resulting in good current and forage movement. Fake bluffs are sea walls, bridge pylons, dam faces and the like and fish remarkably similar to a true bluff. All bluffs develop deep cover in the form of wood that washes in, and rocks that fall or are placed deep. These are great places to look during the coldest portion of the winter because the fish can move up and down in the water column from deep to shallow quickly, and current washes forges to them.

Bluff bank marked on Topo map

If I fish a lake or pond that predominately has wood cover, I look for the most vertical wood I can find as close to deep water as I can get.  If you can locate wood cover in the form of brush piles or isolated stumps along a channel bend that is also a good place to fish. I avoid shallow wood and laydowns if I can. If I have to fish laydowns I look for ones that are on or close to the lake bottom, not the floating types. Bass will use standing timber or deep laydowns much like a bluff bank to travel from deep to shallow. If your lake is absolutely full of wood and you can find deep rock or a small bluff, even if it’s a clay bank you can bet there will be bass on it.

Weeds are fine if they are deep. When your lake has an abundance of weeds, either submerged or emergent, it makes locating the depth changes difficult. Once those important depth changes are located then you can begin to fish around the weeds. Either rattle baits ripped through the tips or jerkbaits just over the tops. Slower baits will work around the outside edges, especially along the drip off or the point where the weeds end and the hard bottom begins. Weeds also play a part in the only time I’ll fish a muck bottom. Some shallow bays that have a lot of emergent weeds during the warmer months have black mucky bottoms during late fall through very early spring. These areas, especially on the northern banks, warm faster on sunny days. This can draw both forage and bass shallow and they will be positioned on the hardest bottom in the bay, on depth changes and on any rock. In the late winter to early spring when the weeds begin to emerge fish will also move up and hold on deep weed edges. While I avoid weeds in the winter I flock to them in the warmer month, more on that later.

Remember, the harder the bottom the better.

During winter, Bass want to eat and spawn. This drives fish to set up on areas that allows them both easy access to forage and close proximity to spawning areas. When you find these areas you’re in business and can load the boat. Start with reaction baits and work toward slow, slender finesse style techniques and jigs. Next time we’ll talk about the baits and where to fish them.

 
If want to fish and need some advice or a guide then contact my good buddy Austin Neary. He is a serious stick on Glenville Lake and all WNC Mountain lakes. Austin fishes the BASS College Series, and after a third place finish at the Eastern Regional at Watts Bar, Tennessee he competed in the National Championship Tournament on Lake Chatuge. Reach him at Dream Catcher Guides 




Save wildlife for your kids


















 

Real Sportsmen buy their Licenses

 



NCANGLER

There's Always Time To Fish

 

Shad Rap





Cedar Cliff Lake, Tuckasegee NC



Soon after catching my first bass on an artificial bait I spent all my allowance on two lures. One was a jointed Jitterbug and the other was a F9 Rapala Minnow. I was hooked on the minnow right away and the Jitterbug slowly moved to back of my tackle box.

As a boy walking the banks of Cedar Cliff and Bear Creek Lakes I could catch bass on the F9 minnow almost all year. I guess that is what led to almost 40 years of being a bass addict. I thought at the time the F-series were the greatest baits ever made, and they still hold a special place in my heart.

 

Then along came the Shad Rap! I was looking for baits in the tackle section of Macon County Supply or Roses or maybe Sky City and stumbled across a Shad Rap. This was around 1984-85 and I was really getting into fishing more places than just Cedar Lake. I was just starting to fish places like Hiawassee, Bear, Wolf and Glenville Lakes. Rivers were also becoming a bigger part of my fishing. The lower Tuckasegee and Little Tennessee were also getting a lot of my attention.

As I expanded my fishing I found out that the Shad Rap worked wonders on those waters. When I fished other areas the first thing I tied on was a #5 Shad Rap. This was well before I had a subscription to Bassmaster or In-Fisherman or any other magazine and only knew what I figured out about bass fishing. Learning was slow, but what I eventually figured out still works today.



One of the first things I learned was that Shad Raps are not meant for brush or wood cover. The angle of the bill is not set to deflect off wood cover. I figured out after too many times swimming in cold water that I should keep it away from wood. I did learn, however, that fishing very close to wood was the way to go. Bass would dart out and eat that Shad Rap and I kept the laydowns pretty well fished out.

The second thing I learned was the Shad Rap fishes equally well fast as it did slow. I would make a cast and fish the area I thought there should be fish in, get not bite and speed reel it back in to make another cast. Low and behold I would catch a fish or two that way. It took a while to distinguish between dumb fish and causing a reaction bite, but eventually I did. The Shad Rap has such a perfect design that it rarely if ever rolls on the retrieve and that allows you to fish it quite fast.  The Smallmouth in Cedar Cliff really liked it when you cast near a rocky shore and reeled like hell and then stopped it. They would just crush it, especially in the late spring and early fall.

 

Another trick I learned is that a Shad Rap makes a great jerk bait. My good friend Brad Hensley and I were fishing the Broad River near Tignall, GA many years ago. The river wasn’t quite as broad as the name implied, but was slam full of Spotted Bass. We started wading the area around out camp and saw lots of fish, and had several follows. The Spots wouldn’t hit spinner baits or top waters and we didn’t try jigs after the plastic worms drew little interest. Remember this was before drop shots or shaky heads and it would be another year before the Slug go or Jerk Worm found their way into our tackle boxes.

Kentucky Spotted Bass

I picked up a medium light action Shimano with a Bantam reel and tied on a silver and black Shad Rap. It was about to light to cast far, but I could make long pitches.  After ten or twelve attempts to cast I discovered the pitching technique. On a straight retrieve I had a couple follows but then I got it hung a single, thin weed. I jerked the Shad Rap quickly and a two-pound Spot exploded on the bait. After catching that one I tried again with similar results. We spent the rest of the afternoon wading and pitching Shad Raps to every piece of wood or weed we could find. We easily caught 150 fish that day; Spotted Bass, Black and White Crappie and even some Largemouth. The biggest fish was around four pounds and most were two to three pounds. We never changed baits, just retied every few fish. I have duplicated those results here in WNC, the coast of NC, South Carolina, West Virginia, Oklahoma and even the canals of South Florida.

 

The Shad Rap is also revered as cold water bait as well. People all over the country use it when the water temperature is cold and the water is clear. Fished slowly on light line the Shad Rap can be deadly in rocky lakes all over the south. I use it both in the traditional crank bait style and like a jerk bait by adding some Storm Suspend-dots to keep it neutrally buoyant.   

 

Lakes, rivers, ponds and saltwater, the Shad Rap works everywhere on all fish. Fished slow, fast or erratically it catches just as many fish today as it did 30 years ago.

   

If want to fish and need some advice or a guide then contact my good buddy Austin Neary. He is a serious stick on Glenville Lake and all WNC Mountain lakes. Austin fishes the BASS College Series, and after a third place finish at the Eastern Regional at Watts Bar, Tennessee he competed in the National Championship Tournament on Lake Chatuge. Reach him at Dream Catcher Guides  

Save our wildlife for your kids

Real Sportsmen buy their Licenses

 

 




 

 

NCANGLER

 

There's Always Time To Fish
 
Topwater Time!

 Part 3

As for where to fish top waters, that’s a huge question. Basically anywhere there is water you can fish it. Really it’s that simple but also more complex. First you have to understand that for three of the four seasons there are fish shallow. Anytime there are shallow fish a top water can work very well. Fish in shallow water typically orient themselves on a piece of cover and sit and wait for food to swim past. With little water under them they must look up first to feed. The fish can also move horizontally a long way to are feed. 

Brian Bees prop bait

Deep water fish use the surface as an edge to trap forage fish against. The bass will follow below the schools of forage fish and slowly get closer until the school is on the surface. This effectively creates an edge that bass use. The forage can’t go up so they are trapped between the bass and the surface.

When spring arrives in WNC, the first places I look for top water fish is the ends of long points close to deep water, holding areas. These points allow fish to move shallower by moving vertically, as the sun warms the water. When the fish have moved up you can tempt them with a prop bait or Spook if you work it very slowly and subtly.

Dead sticking a jerk bait can work well too. Cast it out and let it sit there, that’s all. Watch your bait because the bite will not always be a big splash. Bass will often suck a bait under like a trout does a dry fly. You won’t catch a lot of fish like this but can catch some nice ones.

As the water warms into the pre-spawn, the fish follow secondary points toward spawning flats near the back of coves and pockets. Move from point to point and cast prop and walking baits to isolated 

Rebel Pop-R

pieces of cover, docks and laydowns. Also look for the first emerging vegetation in a cave or pocket. These areas can hold several fish so remember to make several casts and return later in the day to fish again.

During the spawn top water takes a back seat to other tactics but will still catch fish. One trick I use is to dance a prop bait or popper slowly around spawning flats. Play close attention to the outside edge, isolated cover and along deep water access areas. Another trick is to dance a jerk bait on the surface above spawning nests. When you break the bill on a small to medium sized jerk bait save it and file down the bill until it’s very close to the body. These baits will not work like a normal jerk bait, but will sit and quiver on the surface. A number 7 or 9 Rapala is perfect for this. This can drive bass crazy and draw vicious strikes.

Rapala F9

During the post-spawn bass need to recuperate from spawning and will settle deep for a few days. After they get back on track they’re hungry and will crush walking baits and poppers. Reverse the path you took into the spawning areas to find post spawn bass. Also look for humps, bars and around islands.  

H2Xpress TWS

When you find them use a quick retrieve to draw strikes. The post spawn often coincides with the Shad or Herring spawn and creates an early morning frenzy of top water action. Both Shad and Herring spawn on at or near the surface creating a buffet of forage for bass. Bigger walking baits and Pencil Poppers work very well.

I tend to fish top waters early or late in the day during the heat of summer. Most of the fish are deep and will not rise to hit a top water consistently. The fish that stay shallower will roam more during the lower light of morning and evening. Look for isolated cover near points and along feeding flats and ditches. Poppers fished fast works very well during this time. Another dynamite presentation is to fish a jointed black Jitterbug over the edges of flats, ends of drops offs and along bluff banks after dark. The strikes are loud, violent and make you have scared feeling in your stomach. Perfect way to end a day!



Shad

We’ve talked in an earlier entry about where to fish in the fall, so I’ll be brief here. Follow the forage on your lake!

You will read about how you should go to backs of creeks and deep coves where the bait is, and that’s true to a point. Remember you must follow the bait on your lake or river. The lakes I fish the majority of the time don’t have Shad, so I don’t run to the backs of creeks with the shad.

Blueback Herring

The bass in the Tuckasegee chain of lakes feed on Crawfish first and young of the year Bass and Sunfish second. I fish rocky, hard bottom areas and along any vegetation I can find. You need to think like a crawfish or bream. Laydowns, brush piles, docks and stumps are key areas.

 

choked it

Final thoughts on location. I find that the line where the bottom seems to disappear into deep water is a great place to start fishing a top water. I know it seems strange but I put together this pattern years ago and holds up every year. I don’t know if the fish use that line of shade or color change as an edge, but it works for me. Another place to never overlook is dark spots. Dark spots are often deeper than the surrounding water and can often have an isolated piece of cover in them that hold fish. Dam faces are excellent from early spring to late fall. The large rocks hold heat, and provide thousands of places for both forage and Bass to hide.

Find the fish during the season your fishing, fish your top water the right speed and hold on! Top water fishing can help you load the boat and often works when nothing else will.

If want to fish and need some advice or a guide then contact my good buddy Austin Neary. He is a serious stick on Glenville Lake and all WNC Mountain lakes. Austin fishes the BASS College Series, and after a third place finish at the Eastern Regional at Watts Bar, Tennessee he competed in the National Championship Tournament on Lake Chatuge. Reach him at Dream Catcher Guides



Save Wildlife for your kids































 

Real Sportsmen buy their Licenses



 

 



NCANGLER