The End Of An Era

After more than 35 years of flying my Cessna 172, I finally decided to let this old friend go. Now someone else can enjoy its comforts. Using the airplane to travel about gathering data for my last book, and my recent fishing trip to Hatteras, put the final touches to a great flying story. I flew this airplane as a young man, all the way through a great career at Grumman and now well into my golden years. My pal Ron and I will never forget the great times that we had together in old 79241. Good Bye old friend.

This Time it Was Salt water

A few of us from the Harbour Fishing Club went to Hatteras for a few days this week and had a spendid time doing some off shore fishing for a change. I did manage to be lucky enough to be in the fighting chair to catch this certificate Wahoo. It was 55 inched long and weighed 40 pounds. Our thanks to Dr. Rich Goering for arranging the trip and doing most of the work. Now it's off to Miami next week to seek out my trophy Peacock Bass and some monster largemouth.

Don't laugh at garlic soaked baits

Since Mac Byrum and I published our new book "The Catfish Hunters", we have received many humorous comments about our garlic soaked chicken as a catfish bait. Folks, this is serious stuff. Garlic has been used as a flavor enhanser for years. Check the ingredients on many of the plastic baits used for bass fishing and you'll find that garlic is one of the main incredients. There are a lot of fishermen who actually inject garlic juice into their plastic worms to increase their catch rate for bass. Catfish have sensing devices all over their bodies, and when they get within smalling range, the odor of garlic really turns on the bite. Check the photo below for technique. Cut pieces of raw chicken into quarter size chunks. Put the pieces into a plastic bag and cover them with garlic powder. A little salt can also be added. Store this meat in the refrigerator overnight for use as a bait the next day.

The bait schools are moving in

This winters warm water has confused everything in the lake but the fish are finally getting their normal pattern established. The larger schools of shad are moving into the shallower water inside the coves and creeks.The bass and other predators will be close behind. The Blue Catfish are already starting to get more active in the shallower water of these coves and channels.This looks like the beginning of the real good fishing on Lake Norman

Check out this book endorsement

Click on this link to go to an audio clip of Luke Clayton of Dallas Texas.Click on the link, then click on the 3 minute clip, then open the download.

Fishing is still hot

Despite some reports that the fishing on Lake Norman is still lousy, I tested the water again on tuesday. I had a nice bass in the boat on my first cast and despite some trolling motor problems I got 11 bass and three crappie in a two hour period, including a nice 3 1/2 pound spotted bass.

The bass are shallow

Many of us have been wondering what has been happening to the Bass here at Lake Norman. for the past two weeks the bite has been erratic to say the least. Generally we consider late February or early March too early for the spawn to begin but this year we have had a very warm winter and the water temperatures are now just right for the spawn to begin. That's what has happened. The larger males are up in the shallow water working on the nests and they will soon work on forcing the females to move into the nests to deposit the eggs. While the fish are in this state of mind they don't do much eating so that's why the bite has been light. Keep in mind that not all bass spawn at the same time, so there are still many nice fish that have not yet entered the spawning pattern. Don't get discouraged, just keep fishing and when the spawn is over we will be back in to the feeding frenzy again.