Western NC Archives - Page 42 of 74

A big jigging spoon is a great bait to rip off the bottom when bass are holding on deep structure.

The ripping technique

The technique of “ripping” a spoon requires energy and stamina and has been used by several legendary fishermen to generate reaction bites from bass. […]

Planer boards serve a variety of uses, whether free-lining spoons, tiny crankbaits or live bait.

Getting the most from trolling planer boards

Phillip Gentry

Free-lining is a natural presentation of either live or live bait. Rigs can be as simple as a line with a hook on the end. […]

The Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians has opened in Cherokee.

Fly-fishing museum has opened in Cherokee

North Carolina Sportsman

The Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians opened last week in Cherokee, giving visitors a chance to learn about the history of fly-fishing in the Southeast. […]

Fishing small, backcountry streams is the key to successful, late-summer fishing.

Late-summer trout fishing requires a slow hand, patience and endurance. Hatches are fewer, and as water temperatures rise, trout seek cooler places in streams: undercut or overgrown banks and deep pools. […]

Using a double-dropper rig, a dry fly in tandem with a nymph, is an effective way to target summer trout in mountain streams.

Tandem rigs will double your pleasure when fishing for mountain trout

Craig Holt

Mountain trout don’t act that differently from other freshwater species. They try to hang out in an area protected from the current, and they don’t want to have to work that hard to feed. […]

Drifting a nightcrawler downstream has been a great tactic for doing battle with Cane Creek rainbow trout.

Beat the heat; drift a crawler for a Cane Creek rainbow

Brian Cope

Anglers looking for a respite from the heat while still catching fish are finding all they can ask for on Cane Creek. […]

Lake Norman catfish have been biting cut white perch all over the lake during the hot weather.

Trolling cut bait, watching electronics, has been key to Lake Norman catfish

Brian Cope

Catfish are biting across Lake Norman in a variety of sizes, and Jerry Neeley of Jerry’s Fishing Guide Service said trolling with cut bait is the best way to catch them during on hot days. […]

Deep-diving crankbaits and spoons are the top weapons fishermen use to target Lake Wylie’s summer bass.

Give a rip – Summer bass at Lake Wylie are deep, and you’ve got to reach down and get them

Tony Garitta

When polarized glasses become an option rather than a necessity and topwater baits and flipping lures get stowed deep in the recesses of tackle boxes, then shallow-water fishing for bass has given way to offshore structure fishing. […]

Brown trout are better targeted by trolling live bait closer to the bottom. Bigger specimens are caught later in the fall as they migrate up the river to spawn.

Keep it cool at Cheoah Lake

Phillip Gentry

In the 1993 Warner Brothers film, “The Fugitive,” actor Harrison Ford plays Dr. Richard Kimble, wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife, who escapes from custody and is declared a fugitive. […]

Rainbow trout in the Watauga River near the Watauga County town of Foscoe have been discovered to have whirling disease, a potentially devastating disease for trout populations.

Commission discovers whirling disease in Watauga River trout

North Carolina Sportsman

Whirling disease, a disorder affecting trout, has been confirmed in rainbow trout collected from Watauga River near Foscoe in Watauga County — the first occurrence of the disease in North Carolina – and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has suspended stocking fish raised at its three cold-water hatcheries until it can confirm that those populations are free of the disease. […]