Fished the Cape Fear for bass again, this time below the rapids. This stretch of river is quite shallow for the most part- 1 to 3 feet, and in lots of places the kayak was scraping bottom. There are a few holes too deep to see the bottom, but I couldn't tell how deep. The bottom alternates between bedrock and rock/gravel, and the current is moderate.
I caught about a dozen bass, most near logs along the bank. Most were 12 to 14 inches, one was maybe 16 inches. Lost lots of fish because I bend down the barbs of my hooks.
A couple of very promising logs didn't produce any bass, and closer investigation showed they all had large schools of carp hanging around them. Once, I cast my spinner to a log, and a catfish around 10 pounds zoomed from under the log, passed under my kayak, and sped to the middle of the river where it splashed like crazy for about 5 minutes. There were several catfish under this log, hanging out with the carp.
If you are one of those people who try to catch carp on purpose, this would be a great place for it. Tons of carp and clear water.
While I was wading this 3 ft water snake swam up to me. Lucky for him I'm not a snake hater! Three bass were following it. The bass were around 12 inches, I think they were trying to figure out how to swallow something that big.
On the way back, I found a couple of hummingbirds feeding on Trumpet Creeper. The bird would crawl all the way into the flower! Also, there were several flycatchers hanging out.
I caught about a dozen bass, most near logs along the bank. Most were 12 to 14 inches, one was maybe 16 inches. Lost lots of fish because I bend down the barbs of my hooks.
A couple of very promising logs didn't produce any bass, and closer investigation showed they all had large schools of carp hanging around them. Once, I cast my spinner to a log, and a catfish around 10 pounds zoomed from under the log, passed under my kayak, and sped to the middle of the river where it splashed like crazy for about 5 minutes. There were several catfish under this log, hanging out with the carp.
If you are one of those people who try to catch carp on purpose, this would be a great place for it. Tons of carp and clear water.
While I was wading this 3 ft water snake swam up to me. Lucky for him I'm not a snake hater! Three bass were following it. The bass were around 12 inches, I think they were trying to figure out how to swallow something that big.
On the way back, I found a couple of hummingbirds feeding on Trumpet Creeper. The bird would crawl all the way into the flower! Also, there were several flycatchers hanging out.
