Lesley

OMG this post gave me cold chills. I fished some lakes around Gainesville in FL as a child and remember seeing the gators. I even fell in Newnan (?) lake and freaked out. I was about ten years old. So, yeah.... having one come up to see your toes....Ugh!

I had a pond on the farm where I grew up that gave me the same frustrations. It had floating islands of algae which kept the water crystal clear. I could watch the bass ignore everything in my box. Just like you described, I tried fast, slow, big, small, bright, dark, whatever! Three things always worked in this pond: 1) The long black worm with white spots without a weight. I tried to keep it near the top of the water. I do not know where I got it, but my father told me it is supposed to mimic a baby snake, (and there were a lot of snakes there). 2) The silver Devils Horse. I worked it like a Rapala top water, a jerk just hard enough to get the props to spin for maybe a second, stop until all the rings in the water are almost gone. Then do the process all over again. For some reason the silver one is the only one that worked in this pond, but anything else silver did not work. 3) One time I found and caught a lizard and decided to use it as bait. I only did it once, but as soon as the bait hit the water, something grabbed it and my ten pound test line snapped. I never saw the fish, but I knew there were some huge ones in there, and it fought a little before the line broke, so it couldn't have been a turtle. I always wanted to try the lizard thing again. I was just lucky enough back then to catch one to use as bait. Haven't caught one since.

I do not have experience in Smallmouth and a friend asked where to go. So here's the question: Where's the best action for smallmouth in North Carolina?

A friend of mine recently asked me about Smallmouth bass in NC. I am not an avid fisherman for the smallmouth. So I couldn't tell him where the best locations are. I only know of them being popular in the mountian areas, but have heard of them in rivers such as the Haw, Eno, and Cape Fear. Any advise?

We had the same problem in a pond on our property when I was a kid. The pond was dug years before we got there for the purpose of irrigation. We ended up draining it and then stocked it with Channel cats, Largemouth, and Bream. This was in the mid 70's. Since then the locals fished out all of the cats and somehow crappie was introduced. So now we have the problem of too many bass. Most caught are around 12 inches. It's loads of fun, especially for the kids, but you know that there's more fish per water than there should be. Question is how to maintain the ratio of population. Did the catfish control it that much?

Small mouth bass is not so popular in that area of the state. Although I've heard that Falls of the Neuse does have them. 'Round there the Largemouth bass and Crappie are the two main targets. If you have a boat, Kerr Lake is near there for some great Stiped bass fishing. Just west of Raleigh, 'bout two and a half hours, is some better smallmouth action. In the mountain area of Boone or West Jefferson. There's also some great trout waters there.

Welcome! You kinda show your age with the way you text. I'm so old I have to type everything out. I wish I could get on board with your conservative style of typing. What kind of fish action is happening in RI?

Welcome. Sounds like you have lots of choices for your fishing. I grew up around farm ponds only. No rivers, no lakes.... farm ponds. We didn't need boats because we could cast all the way across to the other side. Now I live at the beach and am learning 1) how not to surf fish, 2) all of the weird fish names. (Yesterday I caught a fish that looked like a frog. All mouth and head - nearly two thirds of its' length_- YUCK!)

Welcome to the group. Good luck on you fishing expo's.

Hello Daryl! Welcome to the commune, I mean, community. If you ever head south, North Carolina offers the best in almost all categories: rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, ICW, surf, pier, off shore, and cast netting. Check it out!

Welcome! We in NC are not known to have as many lakes as you in MN, but we've got a lot of farm ponds!

I do not have the patience to use worms every time I go out. I usually wait until I've tried every top water and every spinner I've got before I resort to worms. I like the excitement of the attack on top water. So one of my favorite worms, then, is a really long black worm that has white spots on it. I rig it with no extra weight so that it kind of sinks very slowly, thus mimicing a snake. Talk about ticking off a large bass: let a snake go accross their way. Ha ha.

My wife keeps saying that she likes to fish, and would like to go with me, but she never does. There's always some excuse.

I have never had a problem with this in the past, with the exception of my friends down shore coming up to hog my area. Strangers tend to stay where they are. Maybe I have a wild cast that scares them? But I also do not like to stay in one area for too long. I am not a worm and bobber kind of fisherman. I need action when I'm fishing.

Hey with the temperatures going up and the fish getting off the beds, now the real fishing begins. This is my favorite time to bass fish cause they seem to hit almost everything. Tell me where you've fished and what they hit.

Wow! Sounds like you're having a lot of fun! Wish I was there.

I don't like to use a thermometer because I'm afraid I may scare the fish away. I know it's a silly fear, but I still like the first thing to hit the water to be something with a hook in it. Here's a link to a shop here in NC that has a lot of bass fishing stuff. I used to be an affiliate, but that website (for charity) never had traffic so the company dropped me. I still go there to get me some fishing gear from time to time. This looks like what you should be using. A thermometer with a weight and a tie-on area. Good luck! http://www.basspro.com/Stream-Fly-Fishing-Thermometer/product/22921/-298672

Hey, I wouldn't blame it so much on the stick except maybe you use it so infrequently that you are not sensitive to its' feel. Finesse is easier if you close your eyes and imagine being the bait while also being a marionette puppeteer. You want the bait to look like a real injured fish, foraging worm, or flapping insect stuck on the water. Above all else, have patience. Remember that while an injured fish may be panicking, it is also getting exhausted. A foraging worm is aware that it may be attracting attention and so it will move very fluidly and un-interesting-ly. A bug: well, throw one on top of the water and watch it. We've all done that, right? With respect to the carolina rig or texas rig, I've found that the heavier the lead, the less finesse I can give the bait. So to really practice your finesse, use a lighter lead weight or use none at all. Remember that the worm will take forever to sink, and even then you can't be sure that it actually did hit the bottom. It will not dig in the dirt and kick up clouds. But it will travel like it knows where it wants to go. I've had the best luck with lizards and snakes with no lead.

Offset spinnerbait with large fin or multiple blades works best for me if I am in a boat retrieving from shore. Inline spinnerbait works best for me if I am standing on shore with no cover retrieving parallel to the shore. Offset spinnerbaits called beetlebaits work best for me if I am on shore and drop them under cover. My worst performing are deep cranks (digs up weeds) and jigs (how are you supposed to jig from shore anyway?).

Largemouth bass, to me, seems to always be angry at all the other fish and at me. But they are so tough that if I catch one that's to small, no matter how rough I set the hook, I know it will be fine if I release it. Not so with a trout where you can rip its jaw off and still be required to release it just to have it die. (Consequently I have missed setting the hook on trout because I was afraid to hurt it.) So with that said, I think it's addicting because you can react (or over react) to that explosion of a lunker largemouth hitting your bait and you can reel that sucker in as hard and as fast as you want without worry of hurting the fish.

Now that's funny! Hey, how're they biting in Fla? I used to go to Orange and Newman(?) lakes when I was about 10 yrs old. Great times right there.

I agree that after the spawn they will be on the move and looking for baby fish. However, I also agree that the rain brings out worms and other terrestials and makes the water murky. So the noise is important so your bait can be found. I would use a shiny rattle trap of medium size or a shiny devils horse. Or maybe combine the suggestions of others and use a Johnson spoon with pork rind tail.

The advantage of Bass fishing is that they are so agressive. If you happen upon them during spawning season, you only need to run any old hook across their bed and they will pick it up to move it off of their eggs. Otherwise they are opportunists in that they will always fall for something injured, slower than others the same, or tasty like worms, snakes, lizards, or crawdads. As a kid I used a live lizard ONE time and as soon as it hit the water I had an explosion of water where the Bass attacked and "SNAP!!!" my ten pound test line broke. I don't know if live lizards are socially acceptable as bait, but based on that one time I would recommend them to anyone. But there is also many plastic lizards available. I haven't had much luck with them and I think it's because I rig them like worms: carolina rig style. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck!

I love Bass. Ideally pan fried with a mix of flour, corn meal, salt and pepper but not too much oil. The larger ones are great baked with butter parsly and lemon. Do you have any chef worthy recipes for them?

Thanks, VABasser! I have believed every story any fisherman told me however fantastic it may be. Mainly because I've had some personal near misses that sounded like a Huckleberry Finn tale. I was just hoping to get some stories out of this post. Good idea to put it on the general page.