Carolina Fall Line River Bassin

Started by Onslow, July 03, 2021, 06:59:28 AM

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Onslow




Jeff fired off a text last Monday inquiring about fishing Thursday at a place we fished a couple years ago that's generally a consistent producer of good bass.  I managed to make this all work.

The 7 mile float does take some time to work, and one could easily spend 20 hours dissecting it. The flow was also pretty low and very clear. One must not fritter away time, or sleep in on the day of. The alarm was set at 3:45, grub was fixed, and was out the door a 5 AM.

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Takes about an hour and 50 to get to this river.  Shuttle isn't bad, and we were on the river around 7:45 which is late.  We could have floated down 3 miles, and paddled up, but the best part of the river is about 4 miles in.

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The catching was very slow.  Jeff managed to stick a 3 pounder working a white deceiver near the top, but it broke off within the first two hours.

Checking out one of the major tribs. This place is obviously crawling with wildlife.  Those are not human or cow prints.

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First pune of the day.  I was mostly working a white articulated streamer.

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After Jeff lost his deceiver, he proceeded to jack around with some popping bugs.  Surprisingly he managed to catch a couple. Many moons ago, I was fishing Big Alamance Creek and the only thing the bass would hit were fat Alberts.  I should have processed the the emerging facts, and started fishing lighter, and on top.

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As the morning wore on, the wind machine began to fire up and made things difficult.

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Things were painfully slow until we approached a section with a series of rapids. Bass normally fire up on rivers between 3-5 PM anyway, but this area is pure heaven. The rapids are wide with pockets of deep water separated by wide pools.  I caught a 17 incher at the head of this section.

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Jeff had tied on a cone headed balsa bug at my behest after seeking some advice, and he was really starting to see some results.  He was actually doing better with this than using a the finesse fluke rig which blew my mind. He was catching them in eddies, push water, and even nailed some in shoal type runs. For about 30 minutes, the bass were all in the rapids smashing stuff on top.

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Jeff had a good one on the line, and the damn bass dove deep into the rocks and wedged himself.  Thinking fish was gone Jeff was trying to find his magic bug.  He discovered the fish was still down there hooked. He put the flyrod in the canoe, and dove down to get the fish, and....

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The next mile of river sucks.  The river is braided and shallow, there are fish in this stretch, but it is very difficult to traverse at low water. This area his wildlife heaven.  Eagles, Herons, coons, tall grasses, etc.

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Just below the 1.5 mile long braided section, another large trib comes in. Jeff caught several on the fluke, and I fought one in the 3.5 pound range, and lost it right at the net.  This would have been the fish of the day. It took the white streamer.

The trip is almost over.  It is nearly 6:30 PM, but the scenery is still captivating. A Bald Eagle was circling up high as I gazed at the clouds and scenery.

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It was a tough day, and the catching was disappointing. Next day, Spork shoots me a text, we chat, then he shoots me a text of a pile of 3 pound bass he caught on a nearby. Rubbin that salt, lol. In hindsight, I should have brought my fat alberts and  foam frogs for this outing. The fish were not hitting the whopper ploppers and other heavy topwater junk, but instead seemed to favor things that could be presented delicately.

I did see some carp on this trip and even a few tailing.  Most looked to be rather small.

The next warmwater will take place on the Rocky down near Charlotte where Richardson Creek comes in.






Trout Maharishi

That looks like a pretty good day. I love catching all kinds of fish on a fly rod. 'c;  :cheers
"We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing."
― Charles Bukowski

Stone-Man

I thought that I had fished 3/4 of the lakes and streams in N C  but this one escaped me. Where is this river ??
Damn nice report and pretty fair catching for sure

  JT

Onslow

Quote from: Stone-Man on July 03, 2021, 20:38:58 PMI thought that I had fished 3/4 of the lakes and streams in N C  but this one escaped me. Where is this river ??
Damn nice report and pretty fair catching for sure

  JT

Alamance/Chatham/Orange county area.


troutrus

#4
Perhaps He was on the Haw.

troutrus

Regardless of the river, that style of Bassin' is sure hard to beat. 👍

driver

#6
Quote from: Onslow on July 04, 2021, 09:48:59 AM
Quote from: Stone-Man on July 03, 2021, 20:38:58 PMI thought that I had fished 3/4 of the lakes and streams in N C  but this one escaped me. Where is this river ??
Damn nice report and pretty fair catching for sure

  JT

Alamance/Chatham/Orange county area.

Well that narrows it down....  :laugh:  Should have just said the ***. I won't say what section though.