East Central NC Archives - Page 29 of 112

Andy Wicker’s go-to bait for Lake Monticello’s winter bass is a drop-shot rig with a Zoom trick worm.

Get the drop on bass with a drop-shot rig

Andy Wicker said that his go-to lure when conditions are tough on Lake Monticello in January is a drop-shot rig with a green-pumpkin Zoom trick worm. […]

With most Lake Monticello bass in deep water during the winter, knowing how to locate them on your boat’s electronics is of paramount importance.

Plug in to the latest in marine electronics

Terry Madewell

Being a civil engineer for the S.C. Department of Transportation has more than a work impact on Andy Wicker. […]

Shotguns in the smaller gauges are about all a hunter needs to kill woodcock, a small, fast-flying upland gamebird.

It’s in the bag

Pete Rogers

Like hunters who target different gamebirds and small-game species, woodcock hunters have bag limits and possession limits to think about during the season. […]

For the best red drum fishing the winter has to offer, seek out creeks with dark bottoms that get a lot of sunlight.

Why go to school in the winter?

Dan Kibler

Lee Paramore, a biologist for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries who specializes in red drum, said said they are a schooling fish for a variety of reasons and will school year-round, but they’re not as noticeable as in the winter. […]

A bait-keeper spring allows anglers to rig a soft-plastic bait weedless on a standard jighead.

Making it weedless

Jerry Dilsaver

Guide Allen Jernigan said that many times he gets far-enough up creeks looking for winter drum and speckled trout that he fishes water that features many layover trees, limbs and other potential snags. […]

Chuck Porter caught this nice Lake Wateree blue catfish drifting shad over a big pod of baitfish he was marking on his depth finder.

Stripers have turned off at Wateree, but a great blue catfish bite has taken over

Terry Madewell

A funny thing happened during a hunt for schooling stripers on Lake Wateree for veteran fisherman Chuck Porter. […]

Gracen Melhorn, 8, caught this 60-pound, 9-ounce blue catfish from Lake Wateree on New Year's Day.

Young NC angler lands 60-pound blue cat from Lake Wateree

Phillip Gentry

An “horrible day of fishing” is how Dieter Melhorn of Cramerton, N.C., described a New Year’s Day catfishing trip to Lake Wateree. During the outing, he and his 8-year-old son, Gracen, only got six bites. […]

Guide Rob McComas hoists a 9 1/2-pound Lake Jocassee largemouth bass that hit a big swimbait.

Solving Jocassee’s mystery – South Carolina’s Lake Jocassee shouldn’t produce big bass, but it does — and plenty of them.

Pat Robertson

The big swimbait sailed through the air and landed like a dead — or at least stunned — trout on the surface of Lake Jocassee. It lay there motionless for a few seconds while Rob McComas shrugged his shoulders to loosen up and focused on the water around the lure. […]

Lake Monticello is one hot, cold-weather bass fishery in South Carolina.

Don’t forget Monticello for great winter bass-fishing

Terry Madewell

According to plenty of fishermen across South Carolina, one of the better — and often overlooked — winter bass fisheries in the state is Lake Monticello. […]

Woodcock are an often-overlooked upland game bird in South Carolina, but they can provide bird dogs with plenty of exercise and hunters with a great antidote to cabin fever.

Time for Timberdoodles – Belfast Plantation WMA is Midlands’ top spot for public-land woodcock

Pete Rogers

A few years ago, I found myself along Mud Lick Creek in the heart of the Belfast Plantation WMA, meandering along, looking for game. […]