I wanted an overnight trip in the Piedmont or Foothills of NC over the holiday weekend. Shuttle coordination, user friendly access points, and hopes for catching a ton of fish, all factored into the selection process. I ended up selecting the Cape Fear because of the rumors I've heard, legal camping, boat ramps. I regret not selecting the Ararat or the Yadkin. More on that later.
Set the alarm for 5 AM Sunday, collected myself and my son. Brian joined us for the trip as well, and we all made the 2.5 hour trip to Lillington. Shuttle took a about 35 minutes for this 17 mile trip.
Brian had about 80 pounds of gear in his Jackson Cruise, which I might add, is one of Jackson's most versatile boats recreational SOTs. The Coosa and Cuday simply lack internal storage, and are too damned big and heavy. I had about 35 pounds of gear in the nose of my Disco 119. My son's yak has no internal storage, so I was carrying his gear as well as mine.
We put in at Buckhorn dam just before 10. Certain times of year, Buckhorn produces stripers, but after flailing for 30 minutes below the dam, we proceeded down the river. I learned later that Buckhorn dam, and the islands between the dam and Buckhorn rapid should be a carp destination,
@Fin.
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Buckhorn rapid guards the river downstream. This rapid is almost as technical as Double Shoals on the New below Fries. The rapid looks like a class I shoal in the pics, but this is a large river, and the total drop of the rapid is about 8' over 200 yds.
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The area above the rapid was populated with anglers, but the water was decent there, and immediately below the rapids. Little did we know that for the next several miles, the water rarely exceeded knee deep, and flowed over a relatively flat quartz bottom. We did find a few pockets of deeper water near the banks, and plucked up some spots. I caught about 7 on day one which was a very poor showing. I was expecting about a 50/50 largemouth/spot ratio. No largemouth were caught or seen on day one. Quite a few carp and catfish were observed, but mostly carp. The lack of largemouth was a huge disappointment. I did manage to get a solid hit from a 30 plus inch channel cat while stripping a clouser 10' from the boat,
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As we neared Lanier Falls, about 6.5 miles in, some deeper water was encountered, but the fishing did not improve. The deep rock bottom undercuts were probably home to some monster flatheads that keep the area thinned out.
Lanier Falls appears to be at some sort of geological collision point. The river bottom is quartz, and the falls appears to be dam caused my molten rock. The smooth rounded rocks would certainly create some stiff hydraulics at higher flows, but today, it made a great place for swimmers, and rock lizards. Once again, this rapid is much stronger than what pics would indicate.
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We ended up setting up shop near Fishtrap falls. Twas a very cool spot.
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Burritos were prepared.
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Soaked up the surroundings briefly before calling it a day. I slept in the open air, Caleb made a shelter, and Brian did the hammock thing.
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Drinking a quart of AM coffee was much more satisfying than fishing. The water came straight from a creek.
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Some Raven Rock park pics. Numerous grottes and outcroppings were present for about 3 miles at the park area.
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The bites were slow to come Monday morning. Once past Hecter Creek some deeper water was encountered. Plucked a couple spots from the water, had a hit from a 17 incher, and a follow from an 18 incher. These were very nice fish to be Kentucky Spots. I also lost a 3 pound largemouth due to getting wrapped up in brush, one of two noticed during the whole trip. About noon, I did see one about 22" swim withing feet of the canoe. That being said, the fishing was horrible. The water became slack towards the end of the trip, and this moved us to paddle quite a bit.
It is a pity the NCWRC stocked spotted bass in Avents Creek, Parker Creek, and the Upper Little River. This stocking has ruined the bass fishing in the CF watershed down from Jordan Lake, and Moncure. It is just a matter of time before they show up in the Deep and Haw. Once was recently caught in Swift Creek in the Neuse watershed. No one knows how it got there. [