11/28/2010 Duke Power State Park

Went shore fishing today in Duke Power State Park.  I had driven through the park numerous times but had never fished it.  The water always seemed too stagnant to me to hold any real quality fish.  But I was bored today and picked up some really nice tackle cheap this past week at the local Gander Mountain so I figured I would give it a shot.

My wife dropped me off at the first bridge you come to when you enter that park and told me to call her when I wanted her to pick me back up.  I had noticed the water was down and visibility was up so I started walking the shore looking for key spots such as lay downs and stumps to see if I could get any bass to bite.

I casted a 5 1/2" Chartreuse Bomber Badonk-A-Donk topwater plug and a Yum 4"  Green Pumpkin Wooly Hawg Craw up the entire north side of the bank with no luck.  Changed the top water to an orange/pearl Rapala DT-3 and also had no luck.

I then decided to try the south part of the shore with the crank bait and the plastic with no luck as well, so I called my wife and told her to start heading my way.  For some reason after I got off the phone I decided to change the  Pumpkin Craw to a Yum Watermelon Red Wooly Hawg Craw of the same size and immediately got a bite, but missed the hook set.  I continued down the bank with no luck.  About 5 minutes before she got there I returned to the same exact spot I got the bite at and got another, this time with a successful hook set.  Not sure of the weight but to me it wasn't a bad fish for never fishing this spot before.

I will definitely be going back this Sunday and will have another post.

Wes

The fish looks dead here but released just fine.

First Post

Well this is my first post ever.  Just a little bit about myself.  I am 28 and married.  I grew up fishing with my father in NC and FL.  Took a long break during high school and college and in the past year caught the bug again.  I try to fish on the 8 acre pond we have in our backyard at least twice a week and in the nearby Lake Norman at least once a week.  Every once in a while my Father and I will take a trip to Cherokee Lake in TN or Rhodhiss Lake in Granite Falls.

This blog will help me track my trips and how successful they were.  If at all.  Thanks for looking.

Wes

We had a terrible fish kill this year at Lake Norman.  The last I heard N.C. Wildlife Officers pulled out over 7000 dead striped bass.  This small guy was caught slow trolling a gizzard shad near Long Island on the north part of the lake.  

A halfway decent Smallmouth that my grandfather caught on Cherokee Lake in June of 2010.  Caught slow trolling a threadfin shad.

Two decent Cherokee Lake stripers caught by me and my brother-in-law Sid.  Again caught slow trolling gizzard shad.  Mine was in June.  His in September.