East Central NC Archives - Page 29 of 112

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

Making it weedless

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. […]

Relatively low numbers of bass and lots of blueback herring contribute to an equation that makes for trophy bass like this one.

How do bass grow so big in Jocassee?

Pat Robertson

Although it is the most-infertile of all the major reservoirs in South Carolina, Lake Jocassee in the Upstate mountains has produced the state records for three of the four black bass species recognized by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. […]

This fish has the distinctive markings of a redeye — white tips on the fins and lower tail fin and white half moon in the eye — but it likely is a redeye/spotted bass hybrid.

How “citizen science” is eradicating redeye bass

Pat Robertson

On April 4, 2001, Randy Dickson of Westminster caught a 5-pound, 2.5-ounce redeye bass from Lake Jocassee that stands as the state record for the species and has been recognized by the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame as the world record. […]

A big, broke-back swimbait is often the best lure with which to target Lake Jocassee’s lunker bass.

Tactics for Jocassee bass

Pat Robertson

The 11-pound, 2-ounce largemouth that Rob McComas caught in November 2008 fell for a big swimbait, a lure he believes is key to landing trophy bass in Lake Jocassee. […]

Greg Darr and George Buckner catch plenty of nice smallmouth and largemouth bass on winter trips to Lake Monticello.

Making winter water warm

Terry Madewell

Lake Monticello is unique in many ways, one being that it’s a pump-back type reservoir that puts warm water into the lake during cold weather. […]

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. […]

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. […]

Catching multiple reds without moving your boat is common during the winter, as redfish tend to school in larger groups for protection, comfort and availability of food.

School days! Huge gangs of red drum make for some great winter action in the Sneads Ferry area

Jerry Dilsaver

“The tide is pretty low, and we may bump the bottom getting across this bar and into this creek, but it will only be a tap or two,” Allen Jernigan said as he left the channel of the New River and headed into a small creek. […]

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. […]