Lake Norman has emerged since 2001 as a lake with more and bigger largemouths and healthy spotted bass.
A decade ago, Lake Norman was widely known as North Carolina’s inland “Dead Sea.” Bass tournaments often were won by anglers with 5 or 6 pounds of largemouth bass in a five-bass creel. But that doesn’t happen any longer.
“Norman has changed a lot,” said Dan Duval, long-time tournament angler with several appearances on the pro side of Bass Angler Sportsman Society events. “Five years ago 5 to 10 pounds would win any tournament. Now you’ve got to catch 14 or 15 pounds in the daytime and 17 pounds at night.”
“We’ve got some good fish here now. Small ones are now a pound and a half. Fourteen-inchers are pretty much the norm.”
Strangely enough, a key element of the recent improvement in Lake Norman black bass fishing is the growth in the spotted bass population.
“Spotted bass first showed up in collections by Duke Power and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in 2001,” said Christian Waters, a N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission fisheries biologist in a presentation to the Lake Norman Fisheries Advisory Committee. “Every year since then, the abundance and distribution of the spotted bass has increased. Condition of the spots is good and the growth rate, according to annual management studies, exceeds growth of largemouth.”
Neither Duke Power nor the WRC stocked spotted bass at Lake Norman, but they are there and in good numbers.
What suddenly created in 2001 an emergence of spotted bass? Tales abound; take your pick.
“I’ve heard all kinds of stories about where the spotted bass came from,” Duval said. “Wherever it was, we sure enjoy them. They pull really hard, and they’ll be eating when the largemouth are shut down.”
Currently, largemouth bass anglers at Lake Norman catch largemouth and spotted bass — and nobody’s complaining.
However, Duval said he was stumped when trying to figure out reasons for the improvement of Lake Norman black bass fishing.
“Gosh, I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not a professional biologist. I think it probably had something to do with the beds of hydrilla that used to exist. I know lots of people disliked the hydrilla and it has been cut way back since they put white carp in the lake. But I think the hydrilla provided cover for lots of little critters. In turn the little critters got to grow big enough to provide good forage for the bass. And now we’re reaping the benefit.”
As water cools and crowds diminish after Labor Day, Duval said fall months become prime times for Norman black bass.
Among the places Duval looks for Norman black bass are clay flats.
“This spot has lots of stumps, you can probably see the shadows where they are,” he said as his boat drew near such a bank at Mountain Creek, “And there are lots of mussel shells. Those are both signs there should be bass in the vicinity.”
Duval maneuvered his boat into position and began to cast.
“Norman is pretty clear among Piedmont region lakes,” he said. “So I start fishing farther from the bank than most do. Long casts are really important here.
“Fishing farther from the bank is one of the changes in the 32 years I’ve been fishing Lake Norman. If you don’t know where the offshore cover and structures are, you could be in trouble out here. There can be some tough days.”
Early in the morning, Duval begins fishing top water lures. He cast a bone-colored Pop-R when fishing this day.
“I tie my own treble hooks with marabou and replace the rear hook on the Pop-Rs,” he said. “And I fish top waters until the fish tell me the top water bite is over. Sometimes, they will come up all day.”
The marabou trailer, Duval said, keeps working even when the lure is stationary.
“Lots times when the lure is just sitting there, you’ll notice it dip a little,” he said. “He’s on it and you better set the hook.
“To make the topwater work, you’ve got to vary the retrieve until you get the rhythm they want. And work it all the way back to the boat. Lots of anglers stop working topwaters half way back to the boat. But on Norman, they’ll hit it right next to the boat.”
Fishing with Duval, at the first place we stopped, I caught a nice spotted bass on my Pop-N Image Jr. We debated, good naturedly, the merits of our two favorite topwater lures.
When Duval decided the top water bite was over, he switched to fishing points and piers. He fished with what he called the “Old Man Rig.” a setup that’s been around for a long time but is unknown to many anglers. Other anglers know it by a popular name that’s come to the forefront in pro tournaments this year.
Duval rigs a ballhead jig, usually 1/4-ounce or less, with a 6-inch plastic worm.
“I like the Strike King worm,” he said. “See how it stretches?”
To demonstrate, Duval pulled a Strike King plastic worm about twice its normal length.
“I think the elasticity in the worm makes it catch in the teeth of bass that pick it up,” he said. “That makes it harder for them to spit it out.”
He rigged the worm weedless with the jig hook.
Drew Montgomery, a full-time Lake Norman guide with over 200 trips a year, calls the Old Man rig a “shaky head” rig. Unlike Duval, Montgomery fishes the rig with the hook exposed.
“You lose some that way because it’s not weedless,” Montgomery said. “But the balance of the lure is much better that way.”
Duval had some specific instructions in fishing the Old Man Rig.
“Cast the rig and let it settle to the bottom,” he said. “After you feel it hit the bottom, just jiggle it right where it lands. Bring it back slowly, really slowly. If it bumps something, just jiggle it.”
Duval thinks the tail of the worm wiggles when the jig is sitting on the bottom — and black bass can’t resist it.
Only two colors of worm are needed at Norman, Duval said.
“I tell people black worms for colored water and green worms for clear water,” he said. “People get too hung up on colors of lures.
“Speed, depth and size — those are the important factors. All those colors in the shop are just to sell more worms.”
For fishing the Old Man Rig, Duval uses a spinning rig.
“These longer 7 1/2-foot rods load up lots better than the shorter ones,” he said. “So you get a much better hook penetration when a fish grabs this lure. And a bigger fish can be fought more successfully with a longer rod.
“Fishing points I use 8-pound- test line but when fishing at piers and docks, I use 10-pound-test.”
The Old Man — or shaky-head — rig caught a number of nice bass including largemouth and spots. Where there was lots of cover, we followed Duval’s recommendation and fished the Old Man Rig. In more open water, a tube-grub lure worked well.
Points at Lake Norman, Duval said, have been eroded at the upstream sides through the years and silt has deposited at the downstream sides. Consequently, the upstream sides of points have a steeper slope than the downstream side.
“Lots of the best humps for holding bass at Lake Norman are humps off the end of points,” he said. “I don’t know why this is, but lots of points drop off then come right back up. Most anglers never fish those humps. Big mistake.”
Montgomery also hits the points in autumn.
“Norman is a great ‘schooling-fish’ lake in autumn,” he said, “especially for spotted bass.
“I fish the points with a Double Buzz from Dave’s Tournament Tackle. The best choice is a 1/4-ounce buzzbait with a clear skirt or a blue back and clear skirt.”
Montgomery fishes the rounded, red clay points between marker 13 and the Cowan’s Ford Dam.
When I fished with Duval, brush piles at points yielded several nice fish. At one place, a two-pound largemouth grabbed and Old Man Rig and a second fish was pursuing the largemouth.
Before Duval could make a cast near my fish, it came off. We called the fish “caught” as it escaped while I was letting it swim near the boat.
“Points at Norman are great places to fish,” Duval said. “Where the points extend out toward the channel are best. Some of the best have hooks on the end that most anglers never see. A good angler can pull up to a point and catch a limit pretty fast.”
At one of the points we fished, bass were breaking the surface as we rounded the edge of a cove. Here a tube grub fished about 5-feet deep over 60-feet of water was the best bet.
“My personal belief is that schooling largemouth will still be relating to something — a hump, a ledge,” he said. “But the spots will follow the bait fish wherever they go.
“During autumn, there’s lots of schooling activity. Largemouth and spots tear into schools of bait. In addition to the lures we’ve thrown today, blade baits, I use the Silver Buddy a lot. They’re great for bass busting bait.”
In addition to the Silver Buddy, a Sonar is a great blade bait. Either can be cast a country mile, a desirable feature as schooling and surface-breaking bass always seem to come up just beyond range of most anglers’ maximum casting distance.
Piers and docks, Duval said, also are principal black bass habitat at Lake Norman.
“Somebody who wants to fish Norman successfully has to learn to fish piers and docks,” he said. “These are primary cover in the summer. I’ve caught several 4- and 5-pound fish off piers this summer.
“See the isolated pole there? Spots in particular like those isolated poles, the ones standing by themselves away from the pier. Cast over there.”
As the Old Man Rig was cast toward the pole and the retrieve began, sure enough, the lure was stopped by a hard hit. Moments later a nice bass was on the business end of the rig.
Another technique Duval uses for Lake Norman black bass is the drop-shot rig. While the drop-shot rig has received lots of attention in bass fishing circles the last 4 or 5 years, it has been used by crappie anglers for years, often called the Kentucky rig.
A weight, usually 1/4 ounce, is tied to the end of the line. A couple of feet above the sinker, a single hook is tied. And for bass anglers, a worm is rigged on the hook. While the drop shot rig can be fished in shallow water, it’s most commonly used for vertical fishing.
Duval caught several largemouth and spotted bass with the drop shot while I stuck to the Old Man Rig.
“Most people fish the drop shot too hard,” he said. “They jiggle and wiggle, lift and drop. The drop shot rig is a stationary rig. The movement of the boat, just the angler’s on motion, will supply plenty of action. The drop shot is a means of catching neutral fish.”
Montgomery recommended the drop shot as well.
“The drop shot works great where fish are suspended off dropoffs,” he said. “I use a 1/4-ounce weight if there’s not a lot of cover and a 1/8-ounce weight near brush piles. For a hook, I use a No. 4 Gamakatsu. And I get my hand-poured worms from guys down in Pineville.”
Another place one is likely to find spotted bass at Lake Norman includes rock.
“If you see a rock, a natural rock not rip rap, there’s probably a spot on it,” Duval said.
At Lake Norman, the natural rocks tend to be clay-colored and the size of a cement sack or larger. If one pays attention to the configuration of rocks, he will see more rocks at Norman than he may have noticed in the past.
Whatever anyone may have heard, don’t discount Lake Norman these days when it comes to bass fishing.
Largemouth and spots are flourishing. It’ll pay anyone to get in on the action.
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