04-29-2020
Booker Creek in Chapel Hill, where the creek goes underneath a Starbucks and a shopping center.
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A few days ago I was out exploring and found this interesting place where Booker Creek literally goes underneath a Starbucks and the associated shopping center. This kind of stuff fascinates me, so I got some pictures.
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I marked this down in the "explore some other day" category and moved on.
Today, looking for something to do after work, I decided to drive around back and see if I could find where the creek comes out from under the shopping center on the other side. It took some poking around, but here ya go:
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At this point, I wasn't actually all that committed to fishing here. But I looked down off the edge and even without my polarized glasses, I could immediately see a bunch of fish right below me, in front of the tunnel opening. So I figured "what the heck" and grabbed the ultralight rig from the truck and threw a Rooster Tail out there. I got a few sunfish or something small swiping at it, but nothing swallowed it. After a few minutes of this, I switched to the black Beetle Spin, but that got no attention at all.
I decided to switch up to that Netbait plastic Crawdad on the Shakeyhead jig that worked so well at Mud Creek the other week, and see if I could catch at least one of those little sunfish. First or second cast, dragging it along the bottom (a rocky bottom mind you) and something picked it up. It was on for a second or two, but shook loose. Dang. The thing is, I could tell it was something a little bit bigger than the average little sunfish. Hoping I'd get a second shot, I threw the crawdad back out there a few more times, and BAM, it picked it up again, and this time it stayed on... a little bit longer. But he managed to shake free *again*. (I'm assuming it was the same fish, but you never really know about these things). Now I'm depressed, because I know there is NO WAY this fish is going to go after this crawdad again. I'm thinking it's time to switch to a crankbait or something, but just for grins and giggles I flipped the crawdad out there a few more times, and HE PICKED IT UP AGAIN! Woohooo!! FISH ON! This time I made a much more assertive hookset (keep in mind, I'm using an ultralight rod here, so I don't have a ton of hook setting power available to me) and he stayed on. And put up a heck of a fight. And of course I'm 7 or 8 feet above the level of the water, using 4# test line, and I have no idea if I can lift this fish straight up out of the water or not, and I didn't plan ahead for where to land a (slightly) larger fish. So as he's wearing down and not thrashing as much, I start looking around to see how I can get down to the water. Luckily I was able to find a path to work my way down there, without stepping on a snake, tripping and falling in the water, getting snagged up in a briar-bush, etc.
When I lipped this guy and pulled him out of the water, I was stunned. No, he's not a huge fish. Far from it. But it's a much nicer bass than I expected to catch out of this little hole that leads under a freakin' Starbucks.
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He weighed in at a whopping 1.68# on my new scale.
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This gives new meaning to the term "urban fishing."
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My old war wagon doesn't look like much, but it gets me and my gear to the fishing hole.
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The people that work in this shopping center probably have no idea that they are working above a creek that holds nice largemouth bass.
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Also, I think I found out why NC struggles with winter weather. Apparently this is the one snow plow for the entire state.
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Booker Creek in Chapel Hill, where the creek goes underneath a Starbucks and a shopping center.
--
A few days ago I was out exploring and found this interesting place where Booker Creek literally goes underneath a Starbucks and the associated shopping center. This kind of stuff fascinates me, so I got some pictures.
I marked this down in the "explore some other day" category and moved on.
Today, looking for something to do after work, I decided to drive around back and see if I could find where the creek comes out from under the shopping center on the other side. It took some poking around, but here ya go:
At this point, I wasn't actually all that committed to fishing here. But I looked down off the edge and even without my polarized glasses, I could immediately see a bunch of fish right below me, in front of the tunnel opening. So I figured "what the heck" and grabbed the ultralight rig from the truck and threw a Rooster Tail out there. I got a few sunfish or something small swiping at it, but nothing swallowed it. After a few minutes of this, I switched to the black Beetle Spin, but that got no attention at all.
I decided to switch up to that Netbait plastic Crawdad on the Shakeyhead jig that worked so well at Mud Creek the other week, and see if I could catch at least one of those little sunfish. First or second cast, dragging it along the bottom (a rocky bottom mind you) and something picked it up. It was on for a second or two, but shook loose. Dang. The thing is, I could tell it was something a little bit bigger than the average little sunfish. Hoping I'd get a second shot, I threw the crawdad back out there a few more times, and BAM, it picked it up again, and this time it stayed on... a little bit longer. But he managed to shake free *again*. (I'm assuming it was the same fish, but you never really know about these things). Now I'm depressed, because I know there is NO WAY this fish is going to go after this crawdad again. I'm thinking it's time to switch to a crankbait or something, but just for grins and giggles I flipped the crawdad out there a few more times, and HE PICKED IT UP AGAIN! Woohooo!! FISH ON! This time I made a much more assertive hookset (keep in mind, I'm using an ultralight rod here, so I don't have a ton of hook setting power available to me) and he stayed on. And put up a heck of a fight. And of course I'm 7 or 8 feet above the level of the water, using 4# test line, and I have no idea if I can lift this fish straight up out of the water or not, and I didn't plan ahead for where to land a (slightly) larger fish. So as he's wearing down and not thrashing as much, I start looking around to see how I can get down to the water. Luckily I was able to find a path to work my way down there, without stepping on a snake, tripping and falling in the water, getting snagged up in a briar-bush, etc.
When I lipped this guy and pulled him out of the water, I was stunned. No, he's not a huge fish. Far from it. But it's a much nicer bass than I expected to catch out of this little hole that leads under a freakin' Starbucks.
He weighed in at a whopping 1.68# on my new scale.
This gives new meaning to the term "urban fishing."
My old war wagon doesn't look like much, but it gets me and my gear to the fishing hole.
The people that work in this shopping center probably have no idea that they are working above a creek that holds nice largemouth bass.
Also, I think I found out why NC struggles with winter weather. Apparently this is the one snow plow for the entire state.
