Often overlooked because of its size and location, tiny Mountain Island Lake is a real hot spot for big, North Carolina blue catfish, especially during the coldest months. Here are the details…
Many fishermen believe big lakes hold big fish. That may be true, but small lakes can hold big fish, too.
North Carolina’s Mountain Island Lake, a diminutive winter stronghold for blue catfish downstream from sprawling Lake Norman — another winter stronghold for blue cats — illustrates that big things can come in small packages.
With 3,281 acres and 61 miles of shoreline, Mountain Isle is dwarfed by Lake Norman’s 32,510 acres and 520 miles of shoreline. Despite their stark differences in size, both Catawba River reservoirs yield a prodigious number of burly blues capable of popping the strongest of lines.
The two lakes regularly produce blues weighing from 10 to 25 pounds. Blues from 30 to 50 pounds regularly show up on the scales in tournament son Norman, and the record for total pounds in an N.C. Catfish Association Tournament Series (NCCATS) event came from a February tournament several years ago: 5 fish weighing 106.96 pounds, capped by a 49.25-pound blue.
An 85-pound Lake Norman fish once held the state record, while a Charlotte angler boated a 70.83-pound blue from Mountain Island in 2015.
While Norman gets most of the publicity and fishing pressure, some fishermen prefer fishing for blues at Mountain Island because of its small size and lack of fishing pressure.
“It’s my favorite winter lake for blues for two reasons,” said Kevin Custer of NCCATS. “Its small size makes it easier to find blues. They have no place to hide. And who wants to motor around a large lake like Norman in the cold of winter?”
Guide Dieter Melhorn also loves Mountain Island for blues, which he said feed all winter.
Custer, who is from Statesville, N.C., and Melhorn, of Cramerton, N.C., know there’s more than one way to catch a Mountain Island cat. Custer discounts current as a major factor for catching blues, while Melhorn utilizes current to catch blues.
Custer targets creek channels and the backs of creeks in 4 to 16 feet of water where current plays a minor role.
“I don’t fish past what’s locally known as The Sandbar, a sharp bend where the waters beyond it feature current when the lake is pulled,” Custer said. Instead, he looks for fish and forage within the creeks and anchors if he can.
“I catch bigger cats when I anchor,” he said. “I don’t know why.”
After anchoring, Custer sets out as many as 16 Shimano TDR 96 trolling rods paired with Ambassadeur 6500 reels spooled with 30-pound Stren Hi-Impact monofilament. The outfits are arranged around his boat, spider-style. For terminal tackle, Custer uses Carolina rigs with 2-ounce, no-roll sinkers and in-line floats positioned a short distance above No. 8/0 Gamakatsu circle hooks.
A special wrinkle he employs is a double leader composed of two sections of 30-pound line with two of the ends tied to a swivel and the opposite ends tied to the hook.
“The double leader keeps most cats from twisting and cutting my line,” said Custer, who uses white perch or gizzard shad cut into chunks for bait, always discarding the tail pieces, which lack the juice and blood to attract cats. His in-line float keeps his bait about 2 feet off the bottom where the blues can find it.
If strong winds prevent him from anchoring, he drifts through likely places, expecting to catch numbers of cats but not the biggest cats.
Conversely, Melhorn loves the current flow when waters are released from Cowans Ford Dam.
“For every inch that Lake Norman is lowered, Mt. Island rises one foot, creating an almost riverine fishery that is strongly driven by current and water flow,” he said. “This can be a good thing if you are there when they release water from Cowans Ford Dam, but if water has been moving through the lake for several days, it can make fishing tough.”
In the colder months, water releases occur in the mornings, so Melhorn likes to be on the water for the early bite. He targets the numerous mid-lake outcroppings of rock, ledges and points because blues seek breaks from current.
“Fishing rocky points is a very productive method of catching blues when there is a constant flow of water through the lake,” he said.
Melhorn’s favorite cut baits include white perch and spotted bass; the latter can be used for bait as long as they meet length and creel limits and are taken by hook and line.
He slices the perch and spots into fillets, then cuts the fillets into small chunks; he uses the heads as larger baits to attract trophy blues.
Melhorn’s gear consists of medium/heavy Big Cat Fever casting rods paired with Ambassadeur 5000 and 6000 reels filled with 30-pound Ande Monster monofilament. He either anchors or drifts depending upon the strength of the wind and current.
When the water is not flowing, he slow-trolls deeper channels using Santee rigs with 5/0 Gamakatsu Octopus circle hooks with smaller baits and 8/0 circle hooks with larger baits.
“Anywhere from the waste-intake plant at Gar Creek south to the island above the dam can produce catfish by drifting,” he said. “Speed is critical; you can’t go too slow, but you can go too fast. I try to stay 0.6 mph or slower. If the water drops into the 50s, I don’t go faster than 0.5 mph.”
Mountain Island’s blue history
How blue catfish got into Mountain Island Lake remains a mystery. Lawrence Dorsey, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said they were either stocked by individual anglers or migrated downstream from Lake Norman, where the Commission stocked them in the mid-1960s.
The Commission conducted its lone assessment study of Mountain Island blue catfish in 2014. The study indicated that blues there exhibited a slower growth rates than blue catfish in Badin and Tillery lakes on the Yadkin chain but a slightly better growth rate than blues in Norman. Most fish were in average or above-average condition for their size.
The 70 blues collected in the survey ranged in age from 5 to 18 years, with the majority between 7 and 11 years old.
The survey revealed a viable population of blue cast, but as the only catfish survey, the results may be an incomplete picture of the blue catfish fishery.
Blue catfish at Mountain Island and other state reservoirs have come under scrutiny as a result of the 2019 Catfish Management Plan, which focuses upon conserving native catfish populations while managing invasive catfish, such as blues, within restricted areas.
The Blue Catfish Management Unit, which includes Mountain Island as part of the Catawba River Basin, dictates current or future management efforts directed at blue catfish. Because of the popularity of blues, fishermen have requested that blues be managed as a trophy fishery.
There’s no daily creel limit or minimum-size limit on blues, but only one blue greater than 32 inches may be taken each day.
A consumption advisory for blues applies to Mountain Island because of excessive levels of PCBs. Pregnant women should not eat any blue catfish from the lake, and others should not eat more than one meal of blue catfish from the lake per month.
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