We had choice of 7 lakes - Higgins, Brandt, Townsend, Mackintosh, Riedsville, Belews and High Point City Lake. I fished Belews with the Hardcore Kayak Fishing Team from Charlotte. Belews is the only power plant lake on the list, and the Hardcore guys are accustomed to hot hole fishing.
Under normal mid-March conditions, I would expect the bigger fish to come from one of the the smaller, unheated lakes where the bass should be in peak pre-spawn feeding mode. With the weather being so cold and wet the last several days, I was hoping that the bite would shut down on the cold lakes, and I'd be able to get bites at Belews. I was also counting on conditions being less miserable sitting on 70 degree water than it would on 50degree water. My plan worked - I got plenty of bites, didn't freeze to death, but I wasn't able to get the fishing shut down on the other lakes.
I didn't get many pictures from the water. For one, the anglers were split across at least 5 of the 7 lakes (I didn't hear of anybody fishing Reidsville or Townsend). There was no group launch/landing. But its also hard to over-emphasize how cold and wet it was out there. Anything exposed to the elements was soaked and frozen, so it was chancy to get the camera out. At Belews we had the addition of fog from the warm water - couldn't see much, couldn't hear anything for the rain on my hood, and wanted to save the camera for that prize-winning bass when it showed up.
Here's an action sequence where I was able to get the camera out: Stukayakfish fighting a monster in the fog at Belews:
Stu had pitched his plastic worm up into the shallows under the tree, got a solid hit, set the hook and got pulled around a bit. You can't make it out in that last pic, but the monster had whiskers. Not sure how big, but I suspect as long or longer than the tournament winning bass.
Most of my fish came in a wave between 11am-12. Here's my biggest:
I've started a thread for contestants to post their pictures [here].
I am pretty sure I remember yak4fish saying he got it at City Lake.
YEAH Jerry, I know, You told us so!
I was still happy with the hothole. Without being able to hang my hands in 73 degree water I wouldn`t have made it. I`d prefer they be dry and warm but very little stayed dry that day and the option of warming them in the water was the only thing that kept me able to feel the paddle much less tie knots. It was brutal. I fished til 1:30 and anybody else that fished that long is at least pretty well equipped and hardcore.
I`m thrilled to be on the front page!
Just wish it wasn`t a 3lb catfish.
Jeff was beside me. I didn`t notice him snapping pics.
Jeff picked a qualty spot on the downstream corner of the hothole. It had the best flow. The other side had a eddie of backflow due to a little cove.
It was warmer on the other side but Jeff sat in the wind on the banks edge and would cast out deeper and let the current help it bounce down and come back up the ledge. It was working for him. The finesse worm must`ve made a difference.
Thanks to Get:Outdoors and everybody who signed up and is crazy enough to call a day like that fun !
Well, wasn't like we weren't trying. The bite slowed down around the time the water started warming, then came the cold and rain. Again gotta hand to you all, it was a very poor day to fish.
Rachelle and I were pretty miserable out there in that weather. We got to humphreys ridge/belews at 6:45 and it was 36 degrees and snowing. Snow coming down, steam rising up - tough launch conditions. I'll try to post some pics of the snow/team mix. The steamy belews is a little on the dangerous side for yak - on the paddle over to the hot-hole area we had a bass boat pass ~30 ft off my bow (we were running lights but we didn't see each other until maybe 30 yards). He did us the favor of veering (but not slowing down) and gunning his engine just as he passed me giving us a nice white-cap to nose into and navigate. He was the guy fishing right there in the hothole with the hardcore team. We fished the cove just north of the hot-hole pretty much the whole time. The cove was running about 62 degrees. We fished carolina rigged worms, crank baits, and weighted flukes. I came up with a 15" LMB about 45 minutes into fishing on a fluke in 5' of water. Very lethargic guy. I felt a little weight on the end of my line and set the hook and he put up very little fight. Saw a very large 1 in about 2 feet of water but we spooked her. There were fish holding on cover in about 20 ft of water in the center of that cove but I couldn't get them to bite anything (mostly tried jigging them with a pig & jig, then a spoon). We caught nothing else (couple of maybe bites) and decided we couldn't handle the conditions any longer (we were wet and frozen) - headed in about 12:30... A friendlier bass boat on the way back to the dock was catching them right and left right there by the boat ramp (figures). He said he had 12-15 in the 1-3 lb range and said he had a 4.5 lber in the live well. All in fairly shallow water, on wood, w/ shakey head/finesse. Finesse seemed to be the way to go on Belews. Weighed in about 1 and got to the bar in time to watch my tarheels lose to florida state. I wasn't feeling well so we headed back to holly springs to thaw out and sleep. Pretty miserable day, but great job/ great event by get outdoors. Many congratulations to the folks that were able to hang in there, catch fish, not complain, and show up for weigh-in and awards! Thanks very much to Will and the Get Outdoors team! Looking forward to next year!
Scott
2009 GetOutdoors Kayak Fishing Tournament report
03-15-2009 07:41 AM
