-C.B.
Shew, long time no post and I apologize for that. It seems the blog gets put on the back burner when it comes to work, weddings, mowing grass, you know, when life happens. Back in July my buddy Seth and I hit Mountain Island Lake up a couple Saturday mornings and the following slideshow is of a few of what we caught those weekends. Enjoy! -C.B.
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The creek that shall not be named
As May turns into June, I always start daydreaming during work about hitting the small shaded creeks and rivers that can be found throughout the United States. There is just something about using an ultralight rod and matching wits with skinny water fish that gets me fired up. To quench that thirst, I headed out for my first skinny water excursion this year Friday afternoon, hitting a creek near my home that shall remain nameless so I can continue to have zero to low pressure fish at the end of my line! I was able to hook up with two small bass and numerous sunfish, all coming on a 3" plastic lizard.
After talking with my wife when I returned home, we decided to head out there again on Saturday to enjoy the nice weather with the dogs. It's about a 15 minute walk back there from the development where mine and Paul's buddy Seth lives, so after a nice and HOT walk back there, the dogs were happily playing on a sandbar and in the water while I was fishing and my wife was sitting back enjoying the scenery. Using a little 4" red shad plastic worm, I wore out the areas I fished the afternoon before with no luck. I waded my way on up towards a tall railroad trestle that crosses the creek and finally felt a heavy tug on the end of my 4-lb line. After a good fight on the ultralight, my prize was a 1-pound largemouth! A quick photo-op later and back in he went to fight another day. All in all, the past two days have given me a few quality hours on a creek that makes you feel you are in the middle of nowhere, yet it is only 15 minutes from downtown Charlotte. I plan on fishing it more as we enter Summer and eventually will float up it as far as I can in a kayak as it empties into the river just a half-mile below my house. Be sure to hit the "Read More" link to check out a slideshow of some pictures we took Saturday. 'Til next time, may your casts be true and your bites be plentiful! -C.B. 20 inch 3.9 pound Small Mouth Bass I spent the better part of a week in the Finger Lakes region of New York last week for my annual fishing trip and family visit! We started our fishing on Monday August 6th, and it was a great start. My girlfriend Jackie and I were on the lake by 7:30 a.m. We decided to fish with our tried and trusty bait - Mooneyes! We were fishing Owasco Lake and were anchored in about 75 feet of water. We had baits suspended at 20, 30, 45 feet and one on the bottom; we had our best luck throughout the week fishing at 40 feet and shallower Jackie started the morning with a catch and release small mouth bass which was 13 inches. She quickly followed it up with a 17 incher that weighed in at 2.9 pounds! Not to be outdone, I finally got one on the line which was 20 inches weighing in at 3.9 pounds! We had a few other small bites with nothing coming into the boat to close out the morning. We were a bit hungry so decided to head to shore for a good lunch with the grandparents and my cousins. Afterwards we took my older cousin Hannah (12 years old) out for an afternoon of fishing and she made the most of it, taking the only fish of the afternoon which was 18 inches long and 2.8 pounds! I've attached all of the photos to this post and have two more days of fishing to tell you about still as this was just the start of what was an awesome few days of fishing. Look for the other recaps over the next couple of days. -Paul Nicolucci Every summer it seems the masses head out. Where, while to their local river, lake, stream, creek and/or mud puddle to chase a fish so stout. It is you they chase oh delicious one, your white flesh flaking right off of the bones. Only after being rolled in flour, seasoned with salt and pepper and fried golden brown do you produce yummy moans. You are what steamy summer nights are made for as well as cold winter days. That is when the hardcore find the largest of your brothers and sisters to tame. From bullheads to flat heads and channels or blues, shoot sometimes people catch a behemoth Mekong or two. We load up with chicken livers and hot dogs while the crazy among us use soap. It is never in vane as it doesn't take long for those nibbles to give us hope. Myself, I used a dead shiner on Mountain Island and you took the bait. Matt, well he used a piece of sausage on his newly made jugs that you obviously did not hate. That Channel tipped the scales at 6 lbs and the other 3 weighed less. All in all a great Friday night, especially with no fish cleaning to make a mess. -C.B. My last day of fishing on Owasco Lake was this past Friday. My buddy Brian and I got out on the lake around 7 a.m. and we fished until around 1 p.m. We had a very successful day, catching 7 Smallmouth bass. We finally broke the 20-inch mark with one weighing in over 4 pounds! On this day we caught all of our fish using live bait (Mooneyes).
I've attached pictures for your viewing pleasure, we captured all but one of the bass in a photo. The fish we did not capture in a photo was 19 inches and weighed in at 3-lb, 2-oz. -Paul Nicolucci I started the day the usual way: Getting bait at the South end of the lake. My buddy Brian and I were set up on the water by around 7:30 a.m. and we had the first of many fish on by 8:00 a.m. We were fishing in about 70 feet of water with minnows suspended at 20, 30, 45 and then one just off the bottom. One Lake Trout hit at 45 feet and the other at 30 which is a bit unusual as they tend to suspend deeper in the water or lay on the bottom. The Smallies were caught mostly between 15 and 30 feet. After a whole lot of laughing, high fives, and reeling in fish we ended the day with 2 Lake Trout, 3 Small mouth Bass and 1 Yellow Perch. I've included a bunch of photos and weight / length of each fish in our "On The Water Media" section which can be found here. I'll also attach the photos to this post for easy viewing :)
-Paul Nicolucci I arrived at Owasco lake for my first fishing outing in a couple of years up here in New York on Monday night. My Grandfather picked up some Mooneyes and we decided to try our luck out where we usually fish. We fished the evening and had no luck....not even one bite! Oh well, that's fishing! You won't catch anything if you let one evening deter you, so we decided to try again Tuesday morning. We started fishing around 8 am and around noon we finally had some activity! We had three bites, only one of which led to a fish in the boat: A decent smallmouth bass that I landed. The bass measured 17 inches and weighed-in at 2 pounds 2 ounces.
My buddy Brian came out with me after work around 5 pm and we decided to just cast some spinnerbaits over rock and weed beds. We had a successful couple of hours, with Brian landing another nice bass about an inch shorter and one ounce smaller. I caught a small Northern Pike (21.5 inches / 1 pound 8 ounces) which we released. We also got a couple of good-sized Yellow Perch and some other panfish. I've included some photos of the bass and the pike that we caught. We are fishing the rest of the week as well and I'll keep everyone posted with our catches! -Paul Nicolucci I just wanted to post a short entry about my trip to Upstate New York during this week. I'll be spending a good portion of my time fishing on Owasco Lake for bass, trout and panfish! I made the trip a couple of years ago and had great success during the first week. We almost limited out on bass with a mix of Smallmouth and Largemouth! As I've said in previous posts, I grew up near this lake and have a lot of experience fishing it. I'll be mixing up my fishing, everything from still fishing with live bait to casting spinner and stick baits. Might even do some trolling! Be on the look out for pictures and, if I'm able to, I'll try to get some video of the trip! -Paul Nicolucci As mentioned in the blog entry below, I was gone this past weekend camping, fishing and even turkey hunting. Instead of taking my boat back to Conover for safe keeping at my parent's house, I decided to just come back on to Charlotte after leaving the campground Sunday and return the boat today...so I could spend a little time out on Mountain Island Lake yesterday.
After letting my buddies Justin and Eric know of my plans, Eric decided he would join me. I loaded up around 4:15 pm and was on the lake by 5 pm. I trolled up and down one of the banks in the cove of the Neck Road access area until Eric showed up around 6, then we were off to check out the upper, river-like section of the lake that we had never been to. It was evident that Duke Energy was pulling water from the lake as well as releasing it from Lake Norman due to the faster-than-typical current. We just used it to fish the bank, quickly at that, and enjoyed our time out on the water. I was able to navigate the boat down a creek channel that I ducked hunt this past year and pointed out one of the blinds in the area to Eric. Eventually we worked our way through the large flat section in that general area, throwing worms at the edge of grass mats. While doing so, we were lucky enough to have two Bald Eagles soar over us, a first for me in this area of NC and a testament to the great asset the Cowan's Ford Wildlife Refugee is to the Mecklenburg, Lincoln and Gaston County area. Hitting the river channel and its current again, we floated down the bank, having a whitetail doe run to the water's edge a mere 50 yards from us, looking at us like we were not supposed to be there. During that, I managed to pick up a feisty 1.5 pound largemouth on my finesse worm and spinning gear (I love that setup!). After letting him go and floating down the bank a hundred yards or so, a beaver popped up on the bank and swam upstream, which was a pretty cool site to see as the sun was setting. We ended the day fishing one of our favorite little coves, where Eric somehow managed to catch a bluegill with his line stuck in a tree, the lure barely touching the water three feet below where he was hung. As we headed back to the dock, all I could think about was how there is no better way to spend my time than with one of my dear friends out in God's creation. Until the next fishing trip recap, tight lines! -C.B. With much anticipation, this year's family camping trip to Arrowhead Campground, located in the El Dorado area of North Carolina's Uwharrie National Forest, started for me last Thursday. After making the hour trip back home to Conover to pick up my boat and meet my grandfather, who was pulling the camper, off we headed down I-40, Highway 70 and eventually Highways 49 and 109. We arrived at the campground around 1:00 pm once we had to gotten our fill of food from the grill of the El Dorado Outpost and by 2:00 pm we were on the water fishing for crappies.
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