The upside of fishing for bass on North Carolina’s Neuse River comes when the water is low and falling.
The water gauge on the US 70 bridge over the Neuse River in Kinston ends about a foot below the guardrail. Just above that 27-foot mark, someone painted a vertical arrow and one word: “Floyd.”
Eastern North Carolina’s most-destructive hurricane submerged the bridge when it spread flood waters across hundreds of square miles, causing 57 fatalities and $6.9 billion in property damage. Those figures from 1987 didn’t include the destruction of natural resources, especially to the Neuse’s bass population.
The Neuse still overflows its banks, although not at Floyd’s level. These days, upstream rains and the release of water from Falls of the Neuse Lake near Raleigh affect the river’s water level — and fishing success or failure.
The Neuse’s implacable and unpredictable nature is a perfect analogy for its bass fishing — up and down like a yo-yo. But the fluctuations are entirely different from what many anglers have experienced and come to expect.
“It’s exactly backwards from fishing at a large impoundment,” said Danny Joe Humphrey of Kinston, a former bass pro and organizer of the Bojangles Pro-Am Team Tournament Trail. “When water rises at big lakes like Buggs Island, Falls or Jordan, it triggers a shallow-water bite because baitfish go to cover. But at the Neuse — and I expect others rivers — fishing is better when the water level drops.”
Lee Lanier of Snow Hill leases about 200 acres of Neuse River bottomland for deer hunting, but occasionally, his hunting gets put on hold because of high waters.
“That leaves bass fishing,” said Lanier, who said bass fishing in the river is usually terrific year-round.
“The only time it gets tough is when the weather gets really cold or the river’s rising,” he said. “Otherwise, if the river is down or drops below 5 feet, it’s as good in December as it is in July or August.”
Late summer is often the best time to fish on the Neuse, which runs 275 miles from Falls of Neuse lake to Pamlico Sound. River flows decrease greatly during hot, dry summers when Durham and Raleigh siphon water from the reservoir.
“The river’s low in summer and fall because the state usually doesn’t get a lot of rain, and they hold back water at Falls Lake,” Lanier said. “That’s when the Neuse near Kinston becomes a great place to fish”
To navigate the river when its water drops, Lanier has a 17-foot aluminum Triton bass boat powered by an 80-horsepower Mercury jet-drive outboard that allows him to skim across the river’s surface. When he fishes 20- to 40-foot wide ditches that enter the Neuse, he even can bump his boat across half-submerged logs.
Before the Civil War, slaves dug the ditches to drain the swamps around Kinston and manage flood waters. Although the ditches help, the lowlands remain water-logged after heavy local or upstream rains.
“They also are places where baitfish can get out of the river’s current,” Lanier said, “and fish such as bass, gar and blackfish follow them. Ditches also have a lot of crayfish, which bass like to eat.
“In fact, when the river level drops, it pulls water out of the swamps. That’s when the best places to fish are the ditch mouths because bass stack up there, waiting for crayfish, baitfish and insects to drain from the swamps.
“Sometimes I fish the ditches to get out of the strong river current,” Lanier said. “Bass would rather be in slack water if there’s available food. They have minnows, crayfish, worms, little snakes and bugs that fall off the trees. Beavers also have made dams and ponds back in there that are full of bass.”
River bass rarely reach the impressive sizes of reservoir or farm-pond lunkers, but Lanier said anglers catch 7- and 8- pounders each year at the river, just not a lot of them.
“Mostly, they go 1 to 4 pounds, with a bunch of 2-pounders,” he said. “But I take my daughter (Susan) fishing on her birthday every year. Last year, she caught an 8-pounder on Aug. 28, and I caught a 7-pounder last October.”
Again, that bite is triggered by falling water.
“If the river’s rising, the bass bite shuts down,” Lanier said. “You get your best bites when the river’s at 5 feet and falling or there hasn’t been any rain or (dam) releases. Then, and sometimes in winter, the river gets so low you can walk across it. That’s when I like to fish. You can find (deeper) holes; they’ll be full of fish. You can catch a bass on nearly every cast.”
The timing of the best bites also is unlike lake or pond fishing.
“There’s not much point in going at daylight or in the evening,” Lanier said. “We seem to do the best from noon until 4:30 p.m. You might catch a fish in the morning, but they always seem to turn on in the early afternoon.”
Lanier likes three lures for Neuse River summer bass — a buzzbait, spinnerbait or a 6-inch pink floating worm.
“If you’re fishing a ditch and the boat gets blocked, you often can cast lures over that stuff and fish parts of a ditch you can’t get to,” he said.
While floating worms will catch bass, anglers can’t cover as much water as they can with buzzbaits or spinnerbaits. But floaters are effective in one situation — when a bass strikes but misses a buzzbait or blade. Lanier immediately picks up a rod with a floating worm and casts it to the same spot.
“I keep a floating worm ready to throw if a fish misses,” Lanier said. “I’ve caught a lot of bass doing that. If you throw the same lure again, they’ll usually ignore it, but they’ll slam a floating worm.”
In addition to fishing ancient hand-dug ditches, Lanier drifts the main river when it covers rocks and depths aren’t low enough to create pools. Oddly enough, he doesn’t cast jig-and-pigs or skip plastic worms underneath willow bushes that cover much of the Neuse’s shoreline.
“Willow trees grow on the shallow side of the river, so I write them off,” he said. “The river bottom in front of willow bushes is sandy, without structure, and there are lots of sandbars. It’s better for catfish than bass.”
Instead, Lanier targets the river’s steep banks.
“I look for dead spots behind cypress trees, logs or banks,” he said. “Bass in the river usually are gonna be near structure and deeper water.”
Bald cypress trees along the Neuse’s shoreline also are special places, he said.
“Worms fall off cypress trees,” Lanier said. “Bass and other fish will bunch up where cypress limbs hang over the water. They’re great places to fish.”
When he’s fishing in the river proper and fighting the current, Lanier will slow his boat’s drift speed by dragging a rope and chain on the bottom.
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE — Kinston is a great jumping-off spot to fish the Neuse River. Take US 70; a public boat ramp ison the south side of the US 70 bridge.
WHEN TO GO — Bass bite best in the Neuse River when the river depth is less than 5 feet and falling, which most often occurs in July, August and September.
BEST TECHNIQUES — Fish buzzbaits, red/white spinnerbaits and pink floating worms beneath bald cypress trees where worms are falling in the water, at the mouth of ditches that join the river, and steep shorelines with structure.
FISHING INFO/GUIDES — EZ Bait and Tackle, Goldsboro, 919-736-2488; Danny Joe Humphrey, Bojangles Pro-Am Team tournaments, 800-527-0918. See also Guides and Charters in Classifieds.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Hampton Inn, Kinston, 252-523-1400; Holiday Inn Express, Kinston, 855-799-6861; The O’Neil, Kinston, 866-599-6674.
MAPS — DeLorme’s North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer, 207-846-7000, www.delorme.com.