Freshwater Fishing Archives - Page 167 of 292

July 11, 2026

Diamond-shaped signs designate how mountain trout streams are managed in North Carolina.

Stay legal: know your diamonds

Trout-fishing regulations in North Carolina can change from stream to stream and even from one part of a stream to another. […]

Fishermen can catch plenty of bream and shellcrackers this month in the upper end of Lake Marion.

May is hard to beat

Terry Madewell

If there’s one month when just about every angler with a piscatorial preference can find something he or she likes, it would be May. […]

Mike Kesselring fishes Rough Creek in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Mike Kesselring of Bryson City has, by his count, 7,500 trout flies, a collection that includes dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, streamers and terrestrials that he has accumulated over 25 years, and, he said, “The only flies I’ve ever tied were at the end of a tippet.” […]

Finding this big flathead catfish floating lazily next to his family's Lake Norman boat dock, 10-year-old Nick Holjak netted the fish and pulled it in. After taking a few pictures, he released the fish, which calmly swam away.

Lake Norman boy, 10, nets 4-foot flathead sunning near family dock

Justin Parker

Nick Holjak often fishes from his family’s dock at Lake Norman, or in a nearby cove from a makeshift boat, but the 10-year-old wasn’t even holding a rod when he landed the kind of fish many anglers spend their lives pursuing: a flathead catfish that weighed close to 40 pounds. […]

Guide Buster Rush has run into some great crappie fishing this spring on Stumpy Pond.

Stumpy Pond crappie bite surprising even veteran guide

Terry Madewell

Cooler than normal air temperatures are helping Stumpy Pond, a small lake also known as Rocky Creek Lake, continue to produce good catches of crappie right into May. […]

Cover: May 2015 (NC) – Slab

North Carolina Sportsman

Dolphin take over the spotlight this month in the bluewater off the Outer Banks village of Hatteras, while to the west crappie are moving to deeper water and can be targeted along their travel routes. […]

Christin McCrory admires the kind of hybrid bass that Clarks Hill Lake is known for in the spring.

Hybrids at the Hill

Phillip Gentry

Most anglers, Brad Sasser included, go about fishing for striped bass and hybrid bass the same way. It’s sort of like cousins and half-cousins hanging out together; they live in the same neighborhood, grow up together and get along well, even though they may both share the same parental lineage. […]

Topwater baits and stripers just seem to go together for a lot of fishermen, and for good reason

Don’t put your topwater baits away when stripers are around

Dusty Wilson

Striped bass are a hot target in the waters of Neuse River, and there’s no better way to experience the thrill than with an explosive topwater strike. […]