Western NC Archives - Page 54 of 73

Abigail Johnson of Charlotte, 11, caught this bream fishing at the McDowell Nature Preserve on the shores of Lake Wylie.

Mecklenburg County parks full of fishing opportunities

Numerous fishing spots dot the landscape of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, offering urban anglers a chance to wet a line without having to set aside a whole day for it. […]

Fly-fishing baits for bream

Phillip Gentry

While the lion’s share of bream across North Carolina fall prey to natural baits, many fly-fishing enthusiasts turn to bream during the summer when trout can be less then cooperative. One of the most popular lure choices is Accardo’s Ligon Bream Killer. […]

Guide James McManus targets rock bass around the rocks around the dam on Wolf Creek Lake during the summer.

East Fork reservoir basics

Phillip Gentry

Often overlooked as fishing destinations, Wolf Creek Lake, Tanasee Creek Lake, Bear Creek Lake, and Cedar Cliff Lake are small impoundments of the East Fork of the Tuckaseegee River that are hardly remote by today’s standards but remain off the beaten path. […]

Guide Ronnie Parris of Bryson City fishes for bream on all four of the small lakes on the East Fork of the Tuckasegee River.

Mountain bream gems – Summer sunfish are headliners on small lakes on East Fork of Tuckasegee River in North Carolina mountains

Phillip Gentry

Fishermen looking to escape the August heat and still keep their rods and reels in working condition should consider a trip to the North Carolina mountains, Jackson County in particular. […]

Lake Norman has a good topwater bite going these days for bass along riprapped banks.

Bass bait really on at Lake Norman

Craig Holt

Anglers who still talk about Lake Norman as the “Dead Sea” have, as Mark Twain once said, greatly exaggerated its demise. “Lake Norman has an awesome bass bite now,” said Andy Fox of Fishers of Men Guide Service. “Lake Norman is coming back.” […]

The other WNC fish

Robert Satterwhite

Western North Carolina streams may be best known for trout, but many of the larger ones offer another excellent and often overlooked fishery: smallmouth bass. When it comes to action, few fish can match the fighting ability of a smallmouth, and to hook one using light spinning tackle or a fly rod has to be the angling equivalent of paradise. […]

A reward of $20,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who killed a black bear and desecrated its carcass in Buncombe County this past week.

Big reward offered in bear poaching/desecrating case in Buncombe County

North Carolina Sportsman

A reward of $20,000 has been offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and N.C. Wildlife Federation for anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who killed and desecrated a black bear this past week in Buncombe County. […]

Hybrid bass, not stripers, will become a top-level predator at Lake Norman once stockings by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission take hold.

Commission stocking hybrids; will replace stripers in Lake Norman

NCWRC Release

Fisheries biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission on Wednesday stocked 162,500 hybrid striped bass into Lake Norman, marking a shift in the agency’s management of the 32,510-acre reservoir from a striped bass fishery to a hybrid striped bass fishery. […]

Illegal bear-hunting activities accounted for many of the convictions announced last week as part of an undercover wildlife sting.

Ten sentenced in four-year, bear-hunting sting

North Carolina Sportsman

Ten defendants were sentenced on Monday, June 10, in U.S. District Court in Bryson City for illegal hunting activities involving black bears and other wildlife and related offenses uncovered by “Operation Something Bruin,” an initiative involving agencies of the federal government and wildlife agencies in North Carolina and Georgia. […]

Wild brook trout live in small, hard-to-reach streams high in the mountains, like Moses Creek.

Bless the wild brook trout

Robert Satterwhite

Brook trout are easy to locate and easy to catch; getting to them is the hard part. Native brooks inhabit the headwaters of mountain streams, the wild, hard-to-reach sections of creeks accessible only by foot where the water is pure and cold, places choked with rhododendron and mountain laurel. […]