Hunt for places where big cats can get out of the current and wait for dinner to be swept past.
The first thing you notice when you board Clinton Bardner’s 18-foot flat-bottom aluminum boat — besides a cinder block tied to a sturdy rope — is a landing net large enough to hold a a 9- or 10-year-old kid.
The net is for hoisting flathead catfish that may weigh as much as 80 pounds from the Neuse River west of Kinston. Only the Cape Fear River among eastern North Carolina’s rivers produces specimens that rival the Neuse’s flatheads.
But nowhere else are these fish found in such a narrow stream as this section of the Neuse. In places that can be crossed in three or four steps, a huge flathead may be hiding under a log in 6 to 10 feet of water.
Along with his fishing buddy, Michael Paxinos — an enforcement officer with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission in Lenoir County — Bardner spends plenty of time during the summer dreaming about and targeting these magnum-sized catfish.
“I started catching flatheads 13 years ago in high school,” said Paxinos, 29, who lives in Goldsboro. “I was working after school, and if I wanted to do something fun, I had to do it at night. That’s when you usually catch big catfish, and it was something I wanted to do.
“I started from scratch, a lot of people helped,” said Paxinos, who gave major credit to Ronnie Powell, whom he referred to as a Goldsboro catfishing legend. “My step-dad told me about Ronnie. He met me on the river one day when I was 11. By then, he’d caught 60 flatheads weighing more than 30 pounds. He gave me a lot of good advice.”
Every deer hunter knows the main requirements to kill a big buck are to hunt where whitetails live and recognize the places they haunt. Targeting trophy flatheads follows the same pattern, a lesson Powell taught Paxinos.
“Ronnie told me what to look for,” Paxinos said. “Everybody thinks you need to look for deep holes to find flatheads, but they’re not always the best places.”
Some of Powell’s tips include:
• If you’re on the river and see a good-looking (overhanging or submerged) tree, fish it.
• Keep baits fresh.
• Look for current that’s rolling over or through logs or rocks, under trees and across sand bars. Blue cats love to lie behind sand bars.
• Put baits on the sides of logs or rocks with current (fishing in front of submerged structures allows the bait’s scent to float to the catfish).
Paxinos and Bardner, 54, who lives in Danville, Va., after retiring from the U.S. Air Force after a 20-year career as a fuel specialist, frequent the narrow sections of the Neuse south of US 70 and west of Kinston.
The swampy terrain along the river’s banks is somewhat different than most rivers in eastern North Carolina. It has shoreline bluffs high enough to deter rising water from flooding houses along the river. For a sandy-region river, the Lenoir County stretch of the Neuse surprisingly has large submerged rocks at some undercut banks near outside river bends, favorite flathead ambush spots.
Some fishing equipment is basic, while some is specialized for night fishing. Although Paxinos has a 14-foot aluminum flat-bottom boat, he and Bardner use an 18-foot model to accommodate three anglers. It has a raised bow and stern, a steel bar across the back fitted with high-mounted rod-holders, medium-heavy baitcasting rods with Tidewater reels spooled with green 50-pound Berkley Big Game monofilament, 80-pound braid leaders, a supply of circle hooks, a 20-gallon livewell, a child’s small plastic sand bucket for each rod and other terminal tackle. Non-fishing spare parts include extra fuel lines, fittings, hose clamps, light bulbs, heavy-duty gloves, insect repellent and cinder blocks for anchors
“Some places we fish are a 10-hour drift to the next ramp, so you want to be able to fix a broken fuel line,” he said.
That happened once when they hoisted a big flathead into the boat for photos, but it got loose and began to thrash.
“One of its spines went through the fuel line,” Paxinos said.
Because Paxinos and Bardner — and sometimes Paxinos’ wife, Lauren — fish at night, they need lights to avoid tripping over equipment and each other. Fishing at night in August and September also means mosquito swarms, so bug spray is a must.
“You want to keep (equipment) on the sides of the boat so you won’t step on it,” Paxinos said. “But stuff does get broke, so we have extras of everything.”
The lights include a 40-watt naked bulb and an old pole lamp shade about 9 feet above the deck connected with alligator clips to a battery and lashed to the console. The lights also provide a necessity — ability to see fishing lines.
“That’s why we use the green Berkley Big Game line,” Paxinos said. “With the lights, you can see that line because it’s almost fluorescent.”
The cinder blocks are anchors.
“They’re cheap compared to expensive anchors, and we use them because we often get hung,” Paxinos said. “If you can’t get one loose, we cut the rope and tie on another one.”
Moving sometimes is critical. If the two anglers fish an area for 20 to 30 minutes without a bite, they move to another area with good flathead habitat.
“Flatheads will be where the most bait is, plus you may be fishing a place someone already has been, so you’re at a dry hole,” he said.
The sand buckets, filled with water, keep live baits alive when they motor to a different spot.
“Flatheads like live bait, while blue cats like dead baits,” Paxinos said. “Flatheads like a little less current than blues, too.”
Because the Neuse River drains so much upstream water created by outflows from Falls of the Neuse Lake — including dozens of creeks, swamps and smaller lakes between Kinston and Raleigh — the narrow river portions where Paxinos and Bardner anchor and fish often feature a swift current. And that means weights to keep baits on the bottom.
“I make my own (lead) weights of 2 to 3 ounces each,” Paxinos said. “I put two or three together for sinkers that weigh 6 to 10 ounces on a fish-finder rig. You’ve got to have a heavy weight to keep the current from turning your bream or sunfish sideways.”
With as many as 12 rods in holders and soaking baits — six in front, six in the back — a rod tip’s bounce or reel’s click is a clue of a catfish’s interest. Paxinos sets drags lightly with clickers activated.
“You might see the rod tip jump,” he said. “Sometimes the line will go slack if one starts to swim with a bait, or he might hit it hard, two whomp, whomps. That comes from a big tail shake.”
When they detect interest in a bait, Paxinos or Bardner takes a rod from its holder.
“You make sure he doesn’t feel you, then you reel to him to make sure he doesn’t get into cover and rear back,” Paxinos said. “With circle hooks, you don’t need to jerk hard to set a hook.”
The technique doesn’t always work.
“Eighty- to 90-percent of circle hooks will set in the corners of their jaws,” Paxinos said. “If one’s hooked deep, we cut the line in his throat and let him swim off. We release all of our big fish. We might keep some small catfish to eat. But a lot of times when you pull the bait back to you, it’ll be scaled where he had it in his jaws, but the hook didn’t set.”
Because of flatheads’ slow growth rates, Bardner said they release big fish after taking pictures and weighing them.
“It takes 20 years for a flathead to grow to 40 or 50 pounds,” he said. “Once they’re taken out, they can’t grow anymore.
“We lose a lot to bow shooters. I’m not knocking that sport, but we have some people who kill 30 to 40 (a year). When the river (level) gets low, they can see ’em with lights, and they shoot ’em.”
Bardner painted his 18-foot, including the bottom, in camouflage colors “because you don’t want catfish to see it,” Paxinos said. “You don’t want any white on a catfish boat.”
When they net a big catfish, the heavy-duty gloves prevent cuts and scrapes when they grip a fish’s mouth to hold it for photos and later release it.
“Release flatheads like you would any big fish,” said Paxinos, whose top Neuse flathead weighed 57 1/2 pounds. “Put his head into the current and wiggle the body back and forth to get oxygen moving through the gills. When the tail starts moving, he’ll swim off.”
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE — To reach the upper section of the Neuse River, Kinston is a great jumping off point. Take US 70 east from Raleigh or west from the coast; US 258 or NC 11 will take get you there from the northeastern or southeastern parts of North Carolina. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission opened a ramp on June 13 off Old Pink Hill Rd. near Kinston. Another popular ramp is at the Whitehall Bridge near Seven Springs, about 20 miles west of Kinston.
WHEN TO GO — Flathead catfish are present in the Neuse River year round, and they’ll bite in every season except winter.
BEST TECHNIQUES — Most fishermen target Neuse River flatheads in flat-bottom aluminum boats with plenty of deck space. Heavy tackle is the norm, including Tidewater reels spooled with green 50-pound Berkley mono, an 80-pound braid leader and big circle hooks. Flatheads prefer live baits, especially big bream, so a livewell is important. Bream fillets will, along with live or cut gizzard, American or hickory shad, live or cut eels and natural river baits including small bullheads.
FISHING INFO/GUIDES — EZ Bait & Tackle, Goldsboro, 919-736-2488, www.ezbaitandtackle.com. See also Guides and Charters in Classifieds.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Hampton Inn, Kinston 888-370-0981; Quality Inn, Kinston, 855-849-1513; Holiday Inn Express, Kinston, 877-269-5199.
MAPS — DeLorme’s North Carolina Atlas & Gazetteer, 207-846-7000, www.delorme.com.
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