Fishing North Carolina Style

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Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on April 23, 2013 at 8:58am

As a Winter storm spins off to the Northeast, expect the winds to shift to southerly late tonight and begin pushing our water back to normal levels.....These winds are forecasted to increase throughout tomorrow afternoon....Water temperatures are hovering around the 60 degree mark with three nights in a row down in the 40s...it will rebound a little today and jump again tomorrow from sunny skies and the in flux of warmer waters from the shallow sound.....The Crappie will still be there for the taking and more and more gills will push in to the shallows of the creeks and rivers north of the Albemarle. This rising water event is a great time to capitalize on returning fish and an abundance of bait activity following warm water layers......The week ahead still is a bit topsy turby with up and down temperatures but things look increasingly better looking at the long range predictions......Remember the next Full Moon is Thursday the 25th and both sides offer good fishing traditionally.......In my mind a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work so I continue to work the odds in my favor......Good luck to you all fishing North Carolina Style......

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on April 21, 2013 at 12:59pm

I woke this morning for a cup of Joe and I quickly threw on the weather and they promised a very windy day today for Coastal North Carolina with a developing coastal storm.......Winds were dead calm so I threw on some heavier clothes to handle the 48 degree air temperature and shot over to the Little River hoping to get in a little fishing before it got too nasty.......I splashed at 6:10 and the water temperature read 64, down 10 degrees from mid week and river levels were a few inches down despite Saturday rains.......I set up to fish a jig under a float at 18" and the fish responded quickly......

First fish today was a nice Flier as they are pushing shallow alongside the Crappie that are still there...

The Crappie are still shallow and I caught my 20 in the first hour this morning including several fish at 12".......

Most fish of today's 42 were caught on this 1/64 ounce jig head and Gulp 1" Chartreuse Shad Minnow tipped with a live Cricket or Grass Shrimp....

I had some nice gills and had caught and released 21 sunfish when the winds began to gust above 30 mph and it was no longer fun just trying to put my light bait where I wanted to.......

Seeds are first to nest in our eastern waters and they are packed in....less than a foot in many cases...

The "Smelt" pattern picked up this bass and a few other gills this morning....

Our rivers are getting prettier every time out now as evrything blooms and the trees green in including the Bald Cypress which make for a very scenic picture......

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on April 18, 2013 at 5:42pm

Thanks Mark and David....good information......I'll be hitting Northwest in the weeks ahead Mark......it should be taking off up there soon.....

Comment by David Wester on April 18, 2013 at 3:15pm

I was just thinking about my method and what works for me when looking for bluegills this time of year. I almost always work 2 poles, 1 for casting jigs and the other for a slip bobber. I tie 2, sometimes 3 jigs/flies below the float. Always a larger hook on the bottom and smaller size hook on top, both tipped with a meal/waxworm. I will start with the float about 3ft from the bottom jig. I will start by purposely casting too shallow toward the shore most often around exposed stumps or overhanging trees. The float will lay flat with the jigs on the bottom, I then slowly retrieve until the jigs drop and the float stands. In my experience, If you don't have a bite in 5-10 seconds, give it a slight jerk or even a little pull. Let the jigs drop again and wait a few more seconds. If no bite at this point, time to retrieve and try again. I will try same depth for a few more locations attempting to find them. If I don't find them, I will slide the float up about another 6-8 inches and repeat the process untill I find the right depth. Another thing I've learned about the early season is the importance of tipping the jigs with your bait of choice. Whereas in times of a really hot bite when only a small piece of bait will do, or sometimes no bait at all, I keep my hooks loaded with fresh worms. I will put 2 mealworms instead of the normal 1 and if I miss a bite and the worms were hit, I will add another.
I can't wait for Monday, my next time I can get out on the lake.

Comment by Mark Stine on April 18, 2013 at 1:55pm

nice variety Jeff.  I went yesterday morning in the Northwest River. Not as much to report one 3 lb LMB on the Va side, on the NC side 2 white perch that were 12" some too small white perch and some too small crappie four more LMB (one keeper).  resorted to throwing rubber for the bass the perch hit a live minnow. caught the crappie on Greg M's "Spark bug" tied in blue dun. Water was too high and still stained in some areas.  But still lots of fun as always great sunny day with low wind! (sunburn! give the dermatologists something to complain about LOL).

Comment by Jim Gronaw on April 17, 2013 at 8:05pm

Outstanding report, as usual! Great variety! Our water today was from 61 to 64 degrees.

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on April 17, 2013 at 7:29pm

After putting in a full day at work today.....I took a glance at the forecast and decided to take advantage of the light southerly winds and premium water temperatures for a little afternoon telescopic fun......I splashed my boat a few minutes after four and had a fish almost instantly after arriving at my hot spot....this pattern repeated itself dozens of times as I ended up catching 81 total fish in the three hours I fished.......The Crappie bite shallow in our region is incredible still, I caught and released 42 nice Black Crappie up to 13".....I also had a nice run on the Bluegill with 36 sunfish, mainly 8 to 9.5 inches today including two Redbreast Sunfish which we don't see often in our brackish coastal waters.....Two more solid largemouth and another Yellow Perch rounded out the deal......It was furious from the outset and the fish were caught shallow on a yellow 1/32 ounce jig head with either a Pumpkinseed or Chartreuse Shad 1" gulp Minnow and a live cricket.......fished 18 inches under a float in two to three feet of water.......I also hooked a big Snapping Turtle and saw another snake sunning on the river's edge.....A great three hours that would have been better if I could have shared it with a friend......Only one other boat was out and they were fishing for bass....go figure!

42 total Crappie today...13" was BFOD

A pretty Redbreast...

36 decent Gills today...9.5" was BFOD

A Couple Bass in the 15 to 16 Inch Range...

A Yellow Perch..

And finally a pretty big snapping turtle.........water was 76 degrees with a wind tide from the south pushing water in......fish were hammering the jig under a float shallow around cover and man made structure.......

Comment by Jeffrey D. Abney on April 16, 2013 at 2:41pm

Good report David.....glad things are picking up in other parts of the state....I like red myself....I often fish a soft plastic called tomato seed that works great in my region.......Sounds like the gills are staged ready to go shallow in your region too.......Thanks for sharing with the group and good luck next time out!

Comment by David Wester on April 16, 2013 at 2:35pm

First good day of the year. 23 gills and 2 crappie. The bluegills were healthy and colorful, most in the 7-8 inch range. Caught 3-4 ft deep in about 6 ft of water. Although they are biting, they were not just hiting anything. I caught probably 20 of them on the red ant jig below, tipped with a mealworm. Red was definitely the color as I had the same jig in black/yellow tied above with a mealworm and they would touch it. The jigs were tied under a slip bobber. Fished about 2 1/2 hrs and they were biting good when I headed in. Had to get the kids from preschool. Can't wait to get out again with more time to experiment. If you haven't used red lately, try it. They were definitely seeing it.

Comment by David Wester on April 16, 2013 at 2:20pm

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