Fished a nice swath of the Catawba below Wiley Dam with my friend Doug, made for a great Sunday.  The fish weren’t cooperating at first but we lucked onto a pattern after lunch – Doug landed a nice 20″ LMB on a trick worm…

I followed suit with a respectable 18″er of my own but that’s all she wrote.  Doug eventually bagged another one on the same bait in the same type of cover.  Frustrating though, we both saw fish everywhere all day but even after we found the bait, they wouldn’t commit to the strike…  Tap Tap Drop and that was about it.

Still had a bangin’ good time and learned a little more about fishing a flow – Even took my first rapids, backwards even!

Rolled down to Mt. Holley to fish with Patrick this morning, snakehead was out for a while too…  Utterly beautiful day for it – Little breezy, not too hot, and just overcast enough.  Water above Dutchman’s Creek was clear enough to see 8′ down and between 63-65 degrees (cooler closer to the dam).  Around Bobby’s it was a little muddy but not terribly so.  Plenty of pickerel rolling near the fork and lots of cruising bass (some of very good size).

Fishing was kinda slow though.  Watched some guys slay’em at the dam early on herring but I can’t remember if they were catching bass or perch (I think it was the latter).  Between Barry and Patrick they landed some bream, warmouth and a bass each.  I managed a mediocre bass on some structure and a pre-spawn perch.  Anyway chartruese was the colour du jour…  My bass took a chartruese crankbait, Patrick’s took a chartruese lizzard and Barry had bass attacking his charturese bobber.  Go figure.

I got treated on the ride upstream to seeing something appearently unusual – Several dozen (100?) diving birds gave me a flyover.  Patrick told me what species they were but I can’t recall it…  Anyhow, he noted it was very strange to see them that far up in those kind of numbers.  Whatever they were, it was a beautiful sight.

Also saw lots of other yakkers out there and Luke (2011 Hardcore Champ) was on the water too.  The atmosphere was as easy and friendly as it always is down there and Barry even gave me a crash-course in the Indian heritage of the area…  After just a few moments on the bank, that guy had already located 1/2 dozen ancient artifacts and pottery pieces on the shoreline – Straight-up cool.

Dispite the slow action it still made for a terrific morning, I never get tired of that water or fishing with those guys…  Thanks for having me!

…Well at least that was the intention and we were on the same lake at the same time.  But since ding-dong here wasn’t aware there was more than one ramp, Guffey was the only man without a gas motor south of 62.

Had a great day nonetheless…  Water was 65f, average clarity and fairly calm.  Threw a variety of crap in shad, greens, chartruese and red that didn’t work. Changed to a craw color weightless Yamamoto Kreature and it was on, boated a couple of dinks then these guys came out to play…

Picked up another dink shortly after then it died off about 1:30, couldn’t buy a hit.  Boat traffic picked up so I called it a day around 2:30 satisfied and ready for a cheeseburger.

I had an incredible time!  Got to put faces with a bunch of names, caught a few fish and put another top-notch reservoir on my radar.  It was an honor to have a couple of NCSU’s best bass fishermen in my boat – Those guys fished hard, took great care of the boat and have an open invite to use it again anytime!

Thanks to BassMasterWannaBe for hosting this thing, WELL DONE.  Should be noted that that the day began with a prayer which I, for one, very much appreciated.  Thanks too for trying the CPR format and working us kayak guys into the game.

Water was a balmy 71 degrees.   All the reports I got were a little strange, but constently so…  Bass were caught in 8-12 FOW, but immediately headed for the shallows when released.  I had the same results – Occasional taps in the shallows but no hits.  My bass was on a dropoff but headed straight for the bank when I released him.

I managed two white perch, two white bass, one LMB and a bream that took a 6″ topwater spook like it was an everyday thing.  Here are some fish that did NOT win but felt good on the line after two consecutive spankings this week.

And the catch of the day.  At least I matched the hatch…

After the beatdown I took Saturday at the CNCBA Tourney, I was ready to send some fish to the hot oil but HA HA not so…  Hit the water Tuesday with my buddy Patrick and took another ass whuppin’ from the spots.  This time of year it’s hard to find a pattern and the little bastards just weren’t in the mood for foolery.  For the record the water was around 60 degrees, about average clarity for Bobby’s and the spiggot wasn’t on all day.

Patrick managed to land a couple of white perch and fouled one in a most unusual way.  Evidently the perch was super happy to see him and left compadre with a boatload of love gravy.  For my part, I toted the skunk all day save a couple of wussy taps on weightless plastics.  Grrr.

After a good 6 or 7 hours of pure frustration, Patrick took me up to HoJo and CC’s for “Al’s Heart Attack on a Bun” and a couple of beers…  I cleaned the basket which is appearently a rarity but DAMN it was good haha!  I had a blast dispite the lack of fish so thanks to Patrick for a helluva day on the water!