This December has been an unusual one to say the least. For starters, it has been one of the warmest on record in the southeast. This translated to water temps which were much higher than normal for this time of year. Secondly, it was the wettest December I’ve seen since I’ve been fishing the lake. Kerr Lake suffered widespread flooding in mid December, as the Dan and Staunton rivers flowed out of their banks. This resulted in the temporary closure of many boat ramps on the lake. At least three bridges I know of were flooded as well, resulting in road closures. The state parks were forced to close all the campgrounds, as the Army Corp of Engineers did their best to manage the water without flooding all of the lakes downstream. The strong currents in the rivers also washed tons of trees and debris into the lake, making it difficult to fish and dangerous to boat. At a time when we normally see the lake at it’s lowest levels of the year, we’ve seen the opposite. So how did this affect the fish? It pushed them into the larger creeks and secondary creeks, where the water was less muddy and the current wasn’t so strong. The warm temps also kept the fish shallow through December, with most of our fish being caught in less than 15 feet of water. It is an unusual pattern for this time of year, but we were able to figure it out and stay on the fish. I had two December trips where we put over 20 fish in the boat! Not bad for this time of year. We’ve also been putting quite a few striper in the boat, as they seem to be in the same creeks as the cats. All in all, it’s been a strange December weather wise, but we were open to trying different things until we found what worked. Check out the double hookups in this video! 🙂
