I was in the shop this morning around 10AM and Barbara came in and said we should have gone fishing today. It’s really nice outside. What you want to fish for, I asked, she said crappies. After getting everything done we put the boat in at Flat Swamp on High Rock lake around 12:30 and something suddenly reminded me, we had a LOT of rain yesterday, the Swamp was muddied up the worse I had ever seen it, but I have been gone from this area for nearly 30 years so I might have seen it before and just didn’t remember it.
Talked to a couple fishermen that were leaving when we got there and the bite report was not good at all. Oh, and why were they leaving, well, like I said, it was very nice when we left the house, but by the time we got to High Rock lake the wind was howling and the lake was white capping. Now here’s where we were at, the wind was blowing hard, the water was in the 40’s, the water was muddy, it had risen over 2 feet over night, and to top all that off, it was a full moon rise today and did I mention that they were pulling the lake hard today with around 12,000,cfs going through the dam making a cold water current . I’ve said before tough conditions keeps you on your toes finding fish and cold and muddy water together in itself is a big challenge…. but all this at the same time… give me a break……..oh well, we were here let’s see what we can come up with.
I hit several places down the creek where the water was actually more fishable, you guessed it, not a bite!!!! I was heading to another area and stopped and told Barbara these fish are so confused right now I think they headed to the deepest water they can find and are in panic mode.
I actually surprised myself today at the fish we caught. I’ll never worry again about fishing in muddy water in the winter time. You just got to figure out where they are and make the right presentation to them, and todays presentation was “Dead still” no movement in the baits at all. If we worked the baits any at all we came up with a white perch, but that’s not bad either!! If you go to the Swamp tomorrow, give it a try. This is a tactic I’ve used for years in winter time, but I’ve never had any confidence in cold and muddy water. It just goes to show you’re never too old to learn something new. Last week they were suspended about 10 to 12 feet down, but today they are on the bottom or Just inches off the bottom in around 25 feet of water. Drop down and crank up about one round off the bottom and keep your baits, minnows or jigs, as motionless as possible and you might be pleasantly surprised as well.
Thanks for stopping by to read our fishing reports. We appreciate you all and hope you the very best in 2023. Till next time, God Bless You All!!!!
–Capt. Butch Foster, 336-309-5900
Be the first to comment