NC Angler Forums banner

Lake Adger 3-21-20

13K views 38 replies 8 participants last post by  gambusia 
#1 ·
Since Lake Julian has been no good for me lately ( and they have the lake shut down so you can't get on it). I decided to hit Lake Adger the last 2 weekends. Both week ends have been pretty good, but this last one was the best of the 2. The pictures posted are from yesterday.
 

Attachments

See less See more
9
#4 ·
White Bass are rather indiscrimnant about what they'll hit. The lures shouldn't be too large. I frequently have caught them on spoons in the 1.5 - 2.5" range trolling for Trout in Santeetlah. They'll hit Doll Flys, small plugs, and soft plastic jigs. I was trolling Chilhowee Lake for Trout and Bass with a friend some years back. She pulls out her spinning rod and started casting out to the sides a leadhead with a 2 inch plastic minnow. I told her she was wasting her time but about a minute later she caught an 18" White Bass. There weren't many Whites in Chilhowee but she nabbed one.

When I was younger and the White Bass schools were vastly larger, I fished Whites occasionally. We'd find the surface action and cast the small Little Cleo Spoons. We'd put one or more Doll Fly up-line and I'd often catch two at a time. I never landed three on a cast but had three on a few times. I helped a buddy land a threesome one time. It was rather like catching one big fish.
 
#7 ·
I went today. It was a bit windy out in the main body so I stayed in the coves. Tough in a kayak. Fishing was pretty slow. Bass didn't want a worm or lizard. I did manage to land one white bass. Right at 14" (released) on a 2" jig. Good fighter! Lost one other. I'm gonna have to figure out how to catch these guys.
 
#8 ·
In the summer, in Santeetlah, the Whites will be out in the channels that I troll for Trout. They like cool water in the summer heat and they'll follow the bait balls. I've caught 'em at 20-40 feet on spoons. Now might be a challenge to follow 'em in their preffered tributary streams. I saw a video of somebody catching 'em from the bank on the 'Tuck River in spring. It was far enough up that the water was flowing. I know they go up the Little River arm of Fort Loudoun Lake near my house this time of year. They have free love on their minds about now.
 
#9 ·
White Bass, our neglected fish. Some years back, right after we came to Lake Adger, for a while a couple of us specifically targeted them. Don’t know why we stopped, they are great fighters on light tackle and when you find one there are usually others close by. I looked for but couldn’t find a forum dedicated to them so if anyone knows of one please let me know. Trout girl is right, this time of year they should be headed up the Green River. Paddle up to where the old sand plant used to be, we caught a bunch in the hole there while they were spawning.
 
#10 ·
Good info, thanks a lot. May try again this weekend or early in the week. After that I'll be out of commission for a bit. I actually caught the one on a light rod, 4 lb line with a soft crappie jig. Stayed in that area for a while but any others had apparently moved on. I've done some investigating and yes, I think I should be over at the mouth or even on up Green River about now. How far up is the "old sand plant"? Above the bridge that crosses at the head of the lake? Really want to learn to catch these & never really had the opportunity before. Thanks again!
 
#11 ·
I went back to Adger this past weekend and only caught some tiny crappie. I checked out the river, I went almost to the mouth but it got to about 2 feet deep and couldn't get up any further. Drifted back down the bank casting a shad colored square bill. Must have drifted 200 yards of bank without 1 hit. It's strange how you can do pretty good one week and totally bomb the next. I have to say the lakes are being beat up pretty bad right now. For the last 3 weeks I haven't ever seen Adger with this amount of boat traffic on it.
 
#13 ·
Yeah I went last Monday and the fishing was pretty dead. I think maybe the fronts coming through over the weekend and changing weather may have shut them down. Even the local pond was dead, when the previous weekend I had caught some small bass and one 4+ pounder. Not a hit on Monday.
 
#14 ·
The white bass population at Adger is declining but they run up as far as the gas pipeline right of way on the game lands above the lake.

This is the boundary where the trout waters end. Below that to the lake is where you will find the white bass and a few smallmouth and sunfish.
 
#15 ·
You can't get up into the sand pit area with out a canoe or kayak can you? I tried a couple of weekends ago and it got to around 2 feet deep and I was probably still a good 50 yards from the mouth of the river. Didn't want to press my luck. Also when I go over the bridge early in the morning and if the lake is down any at all the water around the bridge looks to be less that 2 feet deep. I thought the wildlife had been talking about dredging that area for seems like 3 years now.
 
#17 ·
I paddled up to the bridge Monday. There is some pretty skinny water around, especially in the various old river channels that have emptied silt into the lake. If you go to the far side and hug the bank, you can go up it pretty good following the channel. A smaller flat bottom boat could get up a ways if you paid attention, maybe with a trolling motor but you'd be churning sand and mud with an outboard. And yes, at the head of the lake you could get good and stuck.

Having said that, my trip was pretty unproductive. I had one bass chase a worm and ended with some medium bluegills on a small crankbait. Up in the river, most of it is wide, pretty shallow, and a sandy bottom. Mostly looks devoid of fish with the open and shallow areas. However there are some undercuts and some logjams and other cover that looks plenty fishy and I'm sure holds fish but didn't produce for me. I threw small crankbaits and some curly tail jigs.

Came out of the river and paddled up a cove. I threw drop shot rigged worms, the curly tailed jigs, a few crankbaits. Plenty of fishy looking downed timber. Not much action, this lake kinda has me stumped. Not sure of water temps, I would think white bass should be spawning, maybe crappie too, or at least moving into the bank side brush & around docks. Even bass I would think would be getting active pre-spawn. Like I said, this lake has me stumped. I've spent most of the last 30 years on trout streams with a flyrod all around the country but I haven't forgotten everything about where I started in the lakes chasing largemouths and other warm water fish.
 
#18 ·
Yes siltation is one of our bigger problems. We wish someone could come up with a solution. The old timers around here tell me as a youth they used to jump off of the bridge into the river, try that today! There are a few of us that live here that have formed a rather casual fishing club and we have been involved to a small degree with the WRC to improve fishing conditions. We are also members of Friends Of Reservoirs, a group dedicated to the improvement of our lakes. One thing they offer are grants to help in meeting this goal. If anyone is willing to help us get one of these grants please contact me.
 
#21 ·
Since that is a WRC site, are they the ones who closed it down? It is not listed as closed on the NCWRC website, which does maintian a list of closed sites. To my knowledge there is no new executive order from Cooper's office since #121 issued 3/27 that would expand the restrictions to include boat ramps.

So...why and who says? Now, I'm talking about the public ramp. I don't know about a marina, I just assumed you meant the public WRC ramp. (?)
 
#23 ·
Like the old saying goes those of us that live here are rather like the husband, we are the last to know. From what I understand the reason for the shutdown was lack of adherence to the social distancing standard in the governor’s decree.
 
#24 ·
Sorry, inadvertently hit the go button before I was through. Since the observations of SD errors where somewhat casual it was decided to open back up this morning, observe actions at the marina and on the water through Sunday then make a decision as what to do. SO, You Are Welcome to come but please keep your distance.

Now to see how convoluted the situation is, think of all that have a finger in the pie. First off the main marina and ramp are not a public one. The land is part of the development and under the same covenants and restrictions we are. It was built and paid for by the developer. Technically users of the marina are on private property. Through a complicated arrangement it is managed in conjunction with WRC. For the most part the county owns the lake and I think the dam. There are however a couple of places that are on the water owned by people not in our development, been that way since the lake was built about 100 years ago. If they wanted to they could keep us off of their place. To add to the confusion Northbrook, who first bought the lake from Duke Power, has jurisdiction over power generation and are the one who determines the water level. On several occasions we have asked them to keep it constant, especially during the spawn but get blown off. Which one of theses entities called for a shut down then changed their mind I have no clue but while they mediate come on over and try your luck.
 
#25 ·
Well I knew it wasn't NCWRC and knew the governor had issued no new orders which would close it so I sort of guessed it had something to do with homeowners group or some such. NCWRC manages a lot of things that don't belong to the state I suppose, including a lot of gamelands.
As far as the distancing, last Monday there were 2 cars when I arrived and not much more than 1/2 dozen cars in the parking lot when I left around 1:00. There have been several together launching kayaks but that does not to my knowledge, violate any "guidlines" anyway. Makes no sense the unlikelyhood of being outdoors with the casual contact of people launching boats and kayaks vs 100 people in a grocery store but it doesn't seem to me common sense means much of anything these days anyway, and certainly isn't being applied to the current situation.
Regardless, I'm out of commission for a couple weeks following surgery anyway, just hope they keep it open. It is a welcome escape from loss of personal business/employment/and resulting loss of income.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top