Tag: guide

The new year has finally brought with it winter! Well….sort of. Despite some freezing nights and a few blustery days, the water temps are still higher than normal for this time of year. The fish don’t seem to mind though. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I have seen larger concentrations of shad this year than I ever have before. Why is this?
Well for one thing, we got a ton of rain last month. The rain washes vital nutrients such as iron, nitrogen, and phosphorus into the lake. These nutrients are essential for the survival of phytoplankton, microscopic organisms that live in the upper part of the water column. But why do we care about phytoplankton? Well if you dig out your old biology textbook, you will remember the good old food chain. Phytoplankton are the bottom of the food chain, which means that they are vital to the rest of organisms higher up on the chain. Shad rely on phytoplankton as their primary food source, so more plankton means more shad. And more shad means more catfish! Another reason we are seeing such a large number of shad this year, is that water temps have remained mild. During a harsh winter, it is not uncommon to experience what is know as a shad kill. Smaller shad are not tolerant of extremely low temperatures, and after a hard freeze you can usually see them washed up on the banks by the thousands. Unless we have a brutally cold February, I seriously doubt we will see a shad kill this year. That is promising for the future, as shad make up the primary forage of most other fish in the lake. Now that we’ve talked science, let’s get to the fun stuff! Here are some pics of our January catfish so far…..

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! 🙂

This has got to be my favorite time of year to be on the water. The weather is great, the scenery is beautiful, and the fishing is on fire! Congrats to Brett Meager (Creedmoor, NC) who caught her new PB yesterday. This behemoth blue cat was caught drifting a piece of cutbait in 35-40 feet of water. Call me for your chance to catch one of these monsters! Click here for more pictures and a video of the release 🙂

It’s that time of year again! The leaves are changing, and the fish are making their move down the lake towards the areas they will hunker down for the winter. The good news for anglers is that the fish are gorging themselves along the way! I took some folks out last weekend and we used this pattern to put this citation flathead in the boat! We also landed a few striped bass and a cooler full of smaller catfish for the frying pan. It was definitely a trip that I will remember for the rest of my life, and I hope the same is true for J.T. Tate of Durham, NC, who landed his new personal best of 31 pounds! Pictured below is J.T., along with his uncle, brother, and father. Congrats guys! To see more pictures and a video of the release, click here. 

September is a great month to fill up your cooler. These post-spawn fish only seem to have one thing on their mind…eating! We’ve mostly been catching 5-15 pound fish this month, but we have managed a few better ones including this nice flathead caught on an evening trip by Heather Alhanati (Baltimore, MD). As water temps continue to cool, the fishing should only get better and better, so give me a call and let’s put together a trip!

This June has brought with it a major heat wave! Multiple days now with temps in the upper 90’s have put water temps through the roof. However, the fish don’t seem to mind too much. Catfish, like all fish, are cold blooded….which means that their metabolism is controlled by external conditions such as temperature. This translates to a lot of hungry fish! However, this month is also complicated by the fact that most catfish will spawn, making them harder to catch. The plus side of this is that the egg-laden females will probably weigh more this month than any other month. In fact, it was in June that the world record was caught from these waters only a few years ago! While this June hasn’t produced any record breaking fish for us, we have been staying busy with the eater sized fish. Most of these fish have ranged from 5-15 pounds and they can be caught drifting or anchored. The best times seem to be at night and early morning once the water has cooled off a few degrees. Pictured below is David Tidwell (Burlington) and step-son Derek with a mess of fish caught this week. School is out, so bring those kids fishing!