Spotted bass, white perch now top targets on lower end of this sprawling reservoir.
Craig Parks calls himself a “reformed striper fisherman,” and says it’s a matter of necessity.
Parks, who runs Fish On Lake Norman Guide Service, said that, on Lake Norman, the alternative is to be a frustrated striper fisherman, or an unsuccessful striper fisherman, or a retired striper fisherman.
“The striper population is really low now,” Parks said. “Starting about seven years ago, we’ve been having a fish kill about every other summer, and we had a big one in 2009. I’ve seen them floating this summer — not in big numbers, but I don’t doubt there’d be more if there were more in the lake.”
So to keep his business afloat, Price has had to make a few adjustments, and fortunately that’s been made possible by a couple of fish that might have originally been considered “undesirable immigrants” – spotted bass and white perch.
In a large measure, they’re filling the niche that stripers have held for years as a top-level, open-water predator that bites willingly. In other words, a fishing guide’s dream.
White perch began to show up in fisherman’s creels at Norman a dozen or so years ago, with spotted bass two or three years behind. Biologists figure they were brought in and “stocked” in Norman by fishermen who admired them in other reservoirs. Some anglers weren’t taken by either species right off, but in time they sort of grew on people – especially when striper numbers plummeted.
“I had some questions about spotted bass, but for what we do, they’re good in here; it is what it is,” Price said. “Spotted bass, for a fish that’s supposed to be a black bass, they behave a lot likes stripers. They school, and they spend a lot of time offshore. They’re not like a largemouth bass that will sit on a piece of structure. They aren’t around any type of structure; they’re just in open water on bait.
“Spots and white perch are very often in the same areas – because the bait is there. When the stripers were in here, I could look at my sonar and tell you whether what I saw was schooling stripers. Now, I can’t tell if they’re perch, spots or stripers because sometimes they’re all together.”
Price said fishermen are catching white perch up to a pound or on Lake Norman; most of the spotted bass weigh a pound or 2, with more quality fish being caught in the spring and fall.
“When I was striper fishing, I was more particular about my live bait; now, store-bought minnows are fine,” he said. “If you try to pull anything much bigger than a bass minnow, the spots and perch will worry you to death chewing on their tails and never get hooked.
“One important thing to make people understand about Norman is that these fish are keying on small bait. If they like to fish a topwater bait like a Spook, they need to fish a Spook Junior. A Pop-R is great. Downsize your baits. Norman is a clear reservoir, so you downsize as a rule.
“It’s amazing to me how my clients have been catching everything on a Sabiki rig fishing for white perch. A lot of times, jigging, I’ve had clients jig up four or five spots on a Sabiki rig; they may all be 8 inches long, or they may all be 12 to 15 inches.
“In the fall, as the water cools and the spots get real active, it’s not unusual at times to catch two on one lure that’s got two or three treble hooks.”
One other thing that spotted bass have going for them as a target of fishermen is that they tend to bite better on bright, sunny, bluebird days that are normally a turn-off to other species’ feeding habits, Price said.
“I think they bite better when it’s bright and sunny than when it’s cloudy,” he said.
Another thing that makes spotted bass and, to a lesser extent, white perch popular target species is that it doesn’t take much to get them to feed at the surface. Price said it’s a rare day on the water when you don’t run into a school busting shad at the surface. And it doesn’t matter how deep the water is where they’re feeding: Spots will come up out of 10 or 15 feet of water and bust shad.
At 32,500 acres, Lake Norman is such a large reservoir that fishermen often choose to learn the section of the lake closest to their favored ramp, or in many cases, closest to the direction from which they approach the lake.
The NC 150 bridge crosses Norman approximately at mid-lake. It’s served as a dividing line for years, and with good reasons. Downstream, the lake widens and deepens. It’s more open water, and for years, it’s been considered a less-fertile area. Upstream, it’s more riverine in nature, less developed; it fishes different.
Price lives on the lake’s western shoreline near the town of Denver, approximately halfway between Cowan’s Ford Dam and the NC 150 bridge. He offered to share some of the more-productive spots in his half of the lake with North Carolina Sportsman. Here they are:
1 McCrary Creek Narrows
35 35 231 N/80 54 828 W
A public boat ramp in the back of McCrary Creek can be accessed from NC 150 on the east side of Lake Norman, making it the creek the farthest upstream of any that is wholly in the lower end of the reservoir.
Price said it’s a great fall creek because so much bait heads back in there, and so many predator fish follow. He concentrates on an area midway back in the creek where it narrows down to get between two rocky points that extend from opposite banks.
“When fish move in and out of the creek, they’ve got to go past this place,” Price said. “You can catch them around either point. You can catch them on the (left) side on the rocky point that sticks out toward the creek. You can catch them on the little rocky point that sticks out on the right. You can fish right up against the bank.”
For spotted bass, Price likes to fish either area with topwater baits and shallow-running crankbaits.
2 Flag Point (Hagar Creek)
35 33 671 N/80 56 656 W
Price said Hagar Creek is a fall hotspot because it’s not a big creek, and baitfish and spotted and white bass can move in and out quickly.
“There’s such a short distance between the mouth of the creek and the back of the creek, any time fish move in or out in spring or fall, it doesn’t take them any time to move in or out,” he said. “It’s nothing for the bait and fish to move in, but they do go in stages.
The point, which splits the creek, has a sharp drop on its left side but deep water on both, and an obvious landmark is a flagpole that sits on the tip.
“Early, I’m going to fish in shallow water with either live bait or artificials: topwater baits, shallow-running crankbaits or stickbaits,” he said. “As the day gets brighter, they’re going to move out.
“Anywhere you can fish a drop, a significant drop, is good. The drop on the left side of the point goes from 6 or 8 feet down to 20 to 25 in a short distance. If I find fish on that spot, I fish a jigging spoon.
“Historically, when the stripers were here, I’d be pulling live baits fairly shallow on free lines or behind a planer board, but not anymore.”
3 Little Island Beaverdam Creek
35 34 222 N/80 58 284 W
In Beaverdam Creek on the lake’s western shoreline, Price calls the area where a small island juts out into the creek channel from one side a “pinch point.”
“It’s a natural funnel that bait and fish have to pass through,” he said. “You’re fishing in 25 to 40 feet of water on either side of that funnel, and if you find them concentrated in there, you can catch them on a jigging spoon.”
Price said the actual point that the island is part of isn’t the target for fishermen: It’s the areas on either side.
“You’re not catching fish right on top of that little point, but on either side. You can fish 400 or 500 yards on either side of it with live bait on downrods,” he said.
4 M1 Marker
35 33 101 N/80 58 137 W
The mouth of Mountain Creek, Beaverdam Creek and Little Creek are relatively close to each other, so the main-lake area in which they feed is a special one, Price said.
“Those three creeks all come together in this expanse of open water before it drops into the old river channel, and you’ve got a channel bend there,” Price said. “Starting in September, the bait starts congregating in that area, waiting for the big push into the creeks.”
A shoal marker keeps boaters from lower-unit damage, but it also directs anglers’ efforts.
“Typically, you pull live baits up in the shallow water early, then move out and fish deeper as the day goes on,” Price said. “Or, you can sit in the creek channel and just watch for surface action. If you see some, you cast to them with your usual topwater baits and bucktails.”
5 Island at Sailview
35 31 540 N/80 57 634 W
This island at the entrance to a residential area called Sailview has extremely deep water around it.
“You can actually dive off that island into 80 feet of water,” Price said. “Of course, you can dive off it into 1 foot of water, too.”
The main river channels sweeps past one side of the island, and there’s a deep channel behind the long point that the island is part of.
“This is a really good spot in the fall as the bait congregates in the main river channel,” Price said. “This is one of those places where you can catch anything: stripers, white perch, spotted bass, catfish.
“Over the years, it’s proven to be a place that fish will get on.”
Price approaches it by starting on top of the point that extends downstream off the island.
“You can cast or pull baits in the shallows, then keep moving out a little. As you go out, the gradient really starts to change about 20 to 30 feet deep on top,” he said.
6 Long Point at D10
35 32 091 N/80 53 337 W
Reeds Creek and Work Creek both feed huge Davidson Creek on Lake Norman’s eastern shoreline, and they’re separated by a long point that sticks outward at marker D10 in Davidson Creek.
“The creek channels sweep down both sides of the point,” Price said. “There’s deep water on both sides, so it’s a classic, long point — 10 feet deep on top and 60 feet deep within casting range of the top.”
On the right side, Price said a flat extends off the seawall out to the creek channel.
“You can fish parallel to the creek channel on the right side of the flat,” said Price, who will drag live baits or fish topwaters or crankbaits.
7 The Radisson R5
35 27 401 N/80 54 341 W
In the back of Ramsey Creek, which is east of Cowan’s Ford Dam — the farthest downstream of any of Lake Norman’s tributaries — Price and fishing buddies have named a particularly large house that sits on the tip of a point “The Radisson.”
It just happens that the point is a good one, and the R5 marker sits just off its banks.
“This is another place with a lot of options in an area of a quarter-mile,” Price said. “It’s got a flat and little drops, and it’s great in the fall and early winter. At that time of year, on a west wind, you get the influence of the McGuire hot hole on the west side of the lake.”
The point sticks out to the south and east of the marker. “Even though the marker is up close to the bank, the point comes out to the side; you can look at it and see,” Price said. “You want to fish to the right of the marker.
“This is really just a big, bulbous point with a flat. The hole bank to the right of the flat.”
Price usually casts topwaters, stickbaits and shallow-running crankbaits on the flat, starting shallow earlier and moving out the point as the day progresses.
8 Lucky Creek Island L1
35 27 818 N/80 58 411 W
The mouth of Lucky Creek on the lake’s western shoreline just upstream from Cowans Ford Dam is marked by the L1 marker, which sits just offshore of an island that’s the only part of a long shoal that protrudes through the water’s surface.
“This is one of the first places where I started catching spotted bass; it’s where I figured out they were here to stay,” Price said. “I’ve always liked to fish this area on a north wind because it’s protected, and if you get a sustained north wind, it pushes a lot of stuff into this little corner. It’s one of those places where the bait will pile into.”
Price fishes from the tip of the island out to the marker, on both sides of the point. “You can work up on the point and fish around the marker,” said Price, who will both cast topwaters, stickbaits and crankbaits toward the shallower water.
A bonus is that, from the island and marker back toward the main lake, there is a series of several underwater humps along the southern shoreline before you get to the next major point.
“The water will go from 20 to 50 (feet deep), 20 to 50, 20 to 50,” Price said. “I like to just circle around them and slow-troll with live bait.”
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