Feisty white perch will hit small spinners, crankbaits, live bait — and it doesn’t take much to get them going.
If Lake Waccamaw was in the Piedmont, you probably couldn’t find a parking space at one of its two boat ramps on the weekends. However, the 8,934-acre lake is almost unknown outside of its Columbus County home, largely due to competition from other nearby lakes, rivers and saltwater fishing destinations. It is seldom crowded in comparison to a piedmont reservoir.
Despite its low profile, it is first among the Carolina bay lakes because it’s the largest as well as the most fertile, because of its proximity to a large formation of limestone. Other Carolina bay lakes, including nearby White Lake and Bay Tree Lake, are extremely acidic and lack many of the species present in Lake Waccamaw, or are less abundant.
Fishermen catch largemouth bass, chain pickerel, bowfin, gar, several species of catfish, yellow perch and bluegill, redear and pumpkinseed sunfish from Lake Waccamaw, but the lake’s hallmark species is white perch, which are not present in other Carolina bay lakes. The white perch of Lake Waccamaw are native fish that reach large sizes in a population with a good age structure. In fact, it may be the best place in North Carolina to catch a white perch measuring more than 12 inches long or weighing more than a pound, according to Rick Neisler of Whiteville, who spends half of the year living in a house on the high bluff overlooking the lake’s northern shoreline.
“It’s not unusual to catch a white perch that will top a pound,” Neisler said. “But like fishing anywhere else, you may have to catch a lot of little fish before you catch some big ones.”
Neisler, 56, operates Oakland Plantation, a family sod farm along the bank of the nearby Cape Fear River. He has fished the lake his entire life and often fishes with a member of his extended family, Bill Boone of Hatteras, who returns the favor of Lake Waccamaw white perch trips with trips to the Gulf Stream out of Hatteras.
“I like to catch anything that bites,” Boone said. “Some of these fish can go 10, 12, even 14 inches. It’s not like catching a marlin, where you may wait days for a single bite. We can catch dozens in a few hours of fishing, and the action is non-stop — once you find them. I cast one type of lure, and Rick casts another, until we see which one they like best. Most of the time, it doesn’t seem to matter, as long as it’s shiny and moves fast.”
Anglers use many methods for catching white perch. Some troll, some anchor and cast, and others drift along dangling live baits. Once a year, Neisler hosts an informal gathering of anglers for a personal event he calls the White Perch Open.
“We have 16 guys who put $20 in the pot,” he said. “The payouts are for the most white perch over eight inches, the largest white perch and the largest other gamefish — I once caught a 5-pound bass to take that category. Everyone fishes for white perch differently. I like looking for them. When the lake is calm, I just ride around, looking for something that makes me want to cast.”
That something can be baitfish skipping across the surface, birds working the baitfish schools or slicks created by schools of white perch feeding beneath the surface. However, Boone and Neisler said the best thing they can see is a school of white perch tearing up the surface, chasing a species of baitfish, found nowhere else: Waccamaw silversides, aka skipjacks.
“If you see bubbles, it usually means small white perch are chasing the skipjacks,” Neisler said. “But when you see big splashes tearing up the water, it means they are big ones. Once you the big white perch chasing minnows, you won’t forget it. If you want to catch bigger fish, the best thing to do is cast a bigger lure or a lure that runs deeper. Bigger fish run below the smaller fish and are more likely to strike bigger lures.”
Neisler uses a GPS/sonar unit to navigate his 17-foot Carolina Skiff a few hundred yards from his dock. He searched the area, looking for fish marks on the screen and splashes at the surface.
“I like to fish the places where I recently caught some big white perch,” he said. “They are attracted to structure because it holds schools of minnows. I look for the structure in seven to eight feet of water, which is about as deep as the lake gets.”
To an outsider, there is not much structure at Lake Waccamaw, which is essentially a shallow, sandy bowl, except for Big Creek, the only watercourse entering the lake. Shallow sandbars grow grasses and lily pads. Some of these submerged islands give anglers visible clues as to where they might find schools of white perch. The islands offshore of the mouth of Big Creek mark the beginning of some of the deepest spots in the lake’s southern end. Grass beds away from shore near the dam — the tailrace below the dam marks the beginning of the Waccamaw River — show the beginning of a drop-off along the western edge of the lake that runs northward for about a mile, parallel to the shoreline.
Beneath the surface are lots of cedar trees, barrels, tires and other structure that anglers have planted, as well as some natural anomalies such as sloping drop-offs and springs. The man-made structure can be the most difficult to find. Neisler has found some over the years by trolling around and snagging them with lures, seeing them during periods of low water and by other people showing him their locations.
“I’m a diver, so when I find something on the depthfinder, I mark it on the GPS then come back with SCUBA gear and dive down to see what it is,” he said. “I’ve found a lot of interesting features. Some of the most important things I found are temperature changes, which show me the locations of springs welling up from the bottom of the lake. The springs flow along the southern shoreline after a summer rain, and the cooler water concentrates schools of white perch.”
Neisler trolled around an area that had some sunken trees and caught one small white perch. He saw a few fish breaking and trolled in that area for a while before heading to another location.
“I give it about 30 minutes,” he said. “If I haven’t caught anything, I go somewhere else.”
Heading nearly all the way across the lake, he slowed the boat at a place he called “Scoggins Pond,” which is near the dam. He used GPS and sonar to search for a tiny bit of structure.
“The diameter of the depthfinder’s search area is so small, seven, it’s almost impossible to find a small object like a tire,” he said. “If I can’t find it, I start trolling.”
Setting out several rods with small crankbaits, he trolled around the coordinates he had stored in his GPS. It wasn’t long before he snagged a pair of big white perch.
He immediately tossed out a marker float, headed back and anchored about 40 feet away.
“We will cast over there,” he said. “It might take a few minutes until they start biting. If a boat gets too near the structure in this shallow water, it scares them away for as much as 30 minutes.”
A few minutes later, the fish began striking on nearly every cast and they were not only white perch, but crappie and largemouth bass. After breaking off a crankbait, he changed to a jighead with a gray/white Fluke-style trailer, and soon, the livewell was brimming with fish.
“I like keeping them in a livewell rather than a cooler,” he said. “It makes them taste better when you get them back home.”
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE/WHEN TO GO — To reach the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s boat ramp from Whiteville, go east on US 74 approximately 10 miles and turn right on SR 1735 (Chaunceytown Rd.), then cross NC 214 to Flemington Dr., then Canal Cove Rd. The access is 2 1/2 miles on the left. The best time to find schools of white perch feeding on the surface is June through September.
BEST LURES/TECHNIQUES — White perch will strike any small crankbait, spoon or jig. Excellent lures for trolling and casting include a ¼-ounce Rat-L-Traps and No. 3 Shad Rap in black/silver. Ultralight spinning rods increase the excitement, mated with reels spooled with 4- to 6-pound monofilament. Bream Buster rods can be used to drift live minnows several inches below a split shot.
FISHING INFO — Waccamaw Outdoor Supply, 910-646-4700.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Lake Waccamaw State Park has campsites with a bathhouse. Visit http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/lawa/directions.php or call 877-722-6762 for reservations. The nearest motels are in Whiteville: Quality Inn, 910-641-0644; Econo Lodge, 910-642-2378 and Holiday Motel, 910-642-5162.
MAPS — DeLorme North Carolina Atlas and Gazetteer, 800-452-5931 or www.delorme.com. Waccamaw State Park, www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/lawa/directions.php.
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