One had to die so one could thrive…

[CaughtMeABiggun]

Forgive me, but this is not a short story. In less than a week MLF will hold its largest tournament of the year on Lake Norman. As a local fisherman on the Catawba chain it’s hard to believe that this is actually happening. I started fishing Lake Norman in 1998. At that time it was the Dead Sea. 12 hours of fishing  and 1 small skinny bass in the boat was a successful day. My Mom caught a 24 inch largemouth in Norman around that time that weighed in at a starving 3.5 pounds. Even though Lake Norman was tough there was a jewel to the north. The 6 mile long Lookout Shoals Reservoir nestled between 30 mile Norman to the south and near 20 mile long Lake Hickory to the north. Lookout Shoals had a great thing going. Full of aquatic vegetation and plenty of big largemouth. At one time the state record striper came out of there at over 50 lbs. I saw two stripers cruising together that were both that size. My PB largemouth came out of there. 7 lb 3 oz and 21 inches long. That was over 15 years ago. For those that lived on Lake Norman that aquatic vegetation was a problem and somewhere around 10 years ago or so Lookout Shoals was dropped to river level. I believe it was an attempt to remove the vegetation from the lake. Regardless of the motive it removes the vegetation from the lake. Lookout Shoals has a dam that allows the water to run over the top of it when the lake gets high. After large rains it’s not unheard of for the d**n to be completely submerged under 10 to 15 feet of water. Being a 70 plus foot tall dam, it becomes the South’s Niagara Falls. At some point the grass that was up rooted, but still alive enough to take root made it across the dam and into Norman. This provided the nutrients missing from Lake Norman and kicked off the fishery we have there today. Sadly there is no more grass in Lookout Shoals and today it continues to die a slow death. I just thought I would share this story as I know Norman will have a lot of eyes on it. Without a doubt the lake is a top fishery, but I still remember the days when it was on life support. 

[Woody B]

I believe Lakes go through stages.  Lake Norman was built ~60 years ago.  It was a super lake in the 70's and 80's.  I think one of the biggest problems was/is silt.   Due to silt buildup, for a lake that's over 32000 acres there's limited places for Largemouth bass to spawn.  I hate to admit it, but spotted bass have helped turn Norman back into a decent fishery.   It's my understanding that spots tend to spawn deeper than Largemouth, so the silt isn't as big of a problem.  My PB came on Norman but it was over 30 years ago.  It's also my belief that Striped (and hybrid/bodie/wiper) bass are bad for black bass fisheries.   I think "they" have eased up on stocking them in Norman.  

 

I didn't see/haven't sought out the study, but a friend told me that an electrofishing showed that only 9% of the black bass population in Norman were Largemouth.  

 

10ish years ago a man caught what he thought was the NC state record Spotted bass.  Biologist determined it was a cross/hybrid (whatever you want to call it) from a Largemouth mother, and Spotted bass father.   

 

40 years ago Piedmont Bait and Tackle would have a new recently caught DD picture every time I went in there.  I haven't heard of a DD in years.   

 

 

I've never been to Lookout Shoals.  I've been to most of the other Catawba river lakes though.  A few decades ago my brother in law water skied on every Catawba river lake all on a single day for some kind of Duke Power charity deal.   He started a Lake James early in the morning and ended up on Wateree that evening.  He said it was a little bit of skiing, and a driving.  

[Josh Smith]

When I was a kid, there was a small lake I loved to fish at. Caught all sorts of bass, and especially large sunfish.

 

Today, the bass are still there but smaller, and the sunfish are all really small.

 

Part of the problem has been vegetation that prevented the bass from hunting the sunfish effectively. Another part, I'm sure, has been overfishing.

 

Lakes do go through stages. I have a couple books that describe these stages. Artificial lakes, if I remember, are faster to change. Haven't read the info in a while, so could be wrong on the details.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

OH Ivie was a dead lake literally not that long ago, then it refilled, TPWS stocked it properly, and here we are today.

 

Bob Lusk talks about this in his most recent podcast.

[Deleted account]

All lakes (and everything else) are always changing, there is no 1 to 1 correlation...

[Woody B]

After 3 days biggest 5 bass total is 17-12.  Biggest bass is 6 even.   That's about what I expected.  I bet most of them are spots.  

[VolFan]

I bet they’re catching A LOT of the though- great numbers lake.

[geo g]

Mother Nature is very resilient.