Sept 03, 2007 - Upper Cape Fear

[Jeffonc]

Fearless adventurers Lefty and I set out early on the cape Fear this morning. I braved the steep drive down to the waters edge, but Lefty chose the path of wisdom and left his car at the top (not sure if the pic will do it justice).



A cool and crisp morning with lots of fog rising from the base of the Buckhorn Dam.


We started fishing in the spillway. Nothing doing on crankbaits, 1 blow up on a horny toad, but finally a smallish (but lip-able!) LM on a finesse worm. (I hope lefty was using his zoom from back there!)



Nothing else doing at the spillway so we headed downstream toward the rocks. I went through my entire arsenal of shallow crankbaits without a single bite. Lefty was having similar luck. Lots of nibbles on the finesse worm though. Finally, I missed a good fish on the worm, then got this unlucky fellow - he was foul hooked in the worst way, but plenty wiggly when he left. Had to be the smallest bass I've ever "caught".



We headed back up to the spillway around 11am where I had the brainstorm to go even smaller and bust out a small Rooster Tail. I unlocked one secret of the Cape Fear - caught at least a dozen more of the little bass and one sunfish (greeny?).




Most were unbelievably small like this guy - I put him in a can to show some little kids who were kayaking around with their parents (released after a minute).



So, when Hisheirs says he's been catching fingerlings, he really means fingerlings. You can sit under the spillway and catch these little guys all day long on a rooster tail. They fight at least as good as lake fish twice their size, for what that's worth...