“Watch my cork this time,” Josh Devlin said as he threaded a fresh cricket onto a small hook while fishing on the Little Pee Dee River.
Devlin, who hails from Florence, lobbed out an easy catch with his ultralight spinning outfit, smiling from ear to ear with anticipation. The cork hit the water, and without so much as a hesitation on the surface, it went straight under as though it was a weight instead of a float. The bream bite was hot.
After a battle with largemouth bass virus that infected about 40 percent of its population before running its course, John H. Kerr Reservoir’s largemouth bass have recovered, as fishermen discovered the past couple of years. And while the spawn ends for most North Carolina chub chasers on most lakes by the end of April, there’s still plenty of reason to visit John H. Kerr Reservoir, aka Buggs Island, in May.
In wake of Lake Gaston’s ascension to catfishing fame, it’s important to remember that the 20,500-acre lake along the Virginia border north of Raleigh is still one of the finest bass lakes available during May, according to guide Joel Richardson of Kernersville.
This month on High Rock Lake, local anglers follow the golden rule. If the water is in the buttonwood bushes, fish the bushes.
If you ask Bryan Alexander of Morrisville what could make his hunting season any better, he will laugh and tell you nothing. He guided his 13-year-old daughter on a turkey hunt during the youth season, and she killed her first turkey, a gobbler with a 10-inch beard and 1 1/4-inch spurs.
Wild turkeys with beards measuring close to 10 inches long are considered trophies.
Especially if the bird carrying such a rope hanging from its chest is a hen.
A Greensboro hunter ended a year-long quest last week when he killed a rare, silver-phase turkey gobbler on a hunt in Stokes County.
Roger Rumley has been an avid turkey hunter for many years, but he’s already decided that this year has been his best turkey season yet, hands down. He doubled up on birds with his younger son on April 9, then duplicated the feat with his oldest son on April 14. It’s an experience he never imagined would happen.
Rhonda Snyder, of Orange County, killed a jake on her first turkey hunt 13 years ago within the first hour of setting foot in the woods, and while that gave her the impression that turkey hunting was a pretty easy sport, she has failed to bag a longbeard every year since then. Until this year.
A Greensboro hunter ran into a huge turkey gobbler this past Saturday in Caswell County that may wind up being the second-heaviest tom ever killed in North Carolina.
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