Falls Lake?

[shemstreet]

Finally, after being here two weeks and having the boats here for a month, got the chance to drop the Arima in a Upper Bartons Creek ramp at Falls Lake. No Fishing yet, since NC makes you wait 60 days to get a resident license, but we got a chance to try out the Navionics Hots Spots chip and the fish finder, and do a little exploring.

Ran down towards the dam to about the pump station, then turned around and did a slow cruise back looking for fishy spots. Marked some fish, but none in quantity until we ran back under the 98 bridge, and marked tons of fish in 15-16' just out of the channel heading towards the main body of the lake (still close to the bridge).

Like a dummy, I did not fill the tank before hitting the water, so we only got to spend an hour or two out there, but it looks like that stretch of water has lots of places that should hold fish. GMCO Chart shows several stretches of that area as striper holes.

So, question of the day: For fishing, especially stripers and cats, is the fishing any better above 98 towards the main body of the lake, or is it just as good (or maybe even better) in the stretch between Upper Bartons and the dam.

From the one time I made it over to the ramp at 50, it looked like lots of non-fishing type boat, but today on this part of the river it seemed to be about even between fishing boats and sports boats.

Saw fish jumping in spots, if I were back on the Potomac I would guess shad, or maybe cats or bluefish, what fish do you guys have down here that like to jump?

Any 3-5 lb cats in the lake? I'd prefer blues, but channels are pretty tasty in that size as well.

Trolling for striper looks doable, but does anyone cast to them? Do they feed on top at all down here?