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Lake Norman Catfishing

1K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  devonaddison 
#1 ·
Hey guys! Weather is warming up and I am getting ready to start fishing again, but I'm hoping to get a little guidence! I have always been a bank-fisher when going for cats, mostly at night along Mountain Island by the hwy16 boat access, but I got a boat last year and will be much more mobile now instead of waiting 4 hours for 1 bite!

Any tips for locations in the south parts of Lake Norman? I'm keeping the boat up around the Lucky Creek area, so for starters, since I don't know the lake too well, I'd like to hang within a short ride of that area. I'll probably go out more in the evening, so not too worried about boat traffic and being rocked around. So, just looking for some ideas on good spots to look into anchoring up, like areas that have a bunch of cover, or large drops. I checked some maps, but you can only see so much from the depth charts, can't tell really well the difference of drops and gradual slopes!

Also, any tips for rigs in Norman for cats? I usually just use a slip weight down to a barrel swivel and about an 18 inch leader with circle hook at the bottom, hooked up with some fresh cut bluegill. Works fine for bank casting, as just leave it on free spool and they can run a bit, but wondering if free spool won't work too well when my rod is going to be moving around a bit, won't it be hard to tell if there is a nibble vs. just the boat rocking and the line going out a tad? Also, I use like 4-6 ounces from bank to get some distance, but I assume 2 ounce is fine to hang on the bottom since I don't have to cast a few miles to get to deeper water!

Any help would be great, just not sure where to get started, so want to, if I can, avoid too much of a learning curve during the nice spring nights!
 
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