Guide Colt Bass said that Lake James is developing and changing as a freshwater fishery because of the presence of two species and the reappearance of another.
“About 10 years ago, if I caught a white perch, I’d mark the spot and make a pass back through that area, with a bait about 10 feet deeper, and I’d catch a walleye,” he said. “I feel like that pattern will come back as the walleye come back.”
White perch are not native to James, but they arrived about 15 years ago, about the same time they made appearances all along the Catawba and Yadkin river systems. Bass said they’re all over the lake, and it’s not unusual for him to catch 20 or 30 a day while trolling for smallmouth bass, including plenty of fish from 3/4 to 1 1/4 pounds.
“I really don’t think people have caught on to how good they are,” Bass said. “They’re fairly good-sized, a good, frying-pan size. They started showing up about 2009 and 2010 in good numbers.”
White perch are a bonus for fishermen who are missing the walleye that once thrived in James. When blueback herring showed up in the lake several years ago, anglers noticed walleye populations starting to fall, matching what’s happened in many western North Carolina reservoirs.
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is stocking 30,000 walleye fingerlings annually to bolster the population, a move that Bass thinks will be successful.
“I started catching white perch about the same time the walleye population started to go down, I guess they’re eating the herring,” he said. “I look for a new dynamic in the fishery because of the herring; the fish are going to start finding that the herring are nothing like the shad, and they’re going to change their patterns to stay with the herring. I look for it to happen in the next five or six years.”
