AUGUST 25TH

Dad and I went to the lake at 6am and cranked the pits for about 25 minutes. I caught 2 nice largemouths in the 12 inch range on back to back casts. At around 7:30 we ran down the lake towards the dam and started looking for breaking hybrids. There were 3 other boats doing the same thing. One boat was Michael Taylor and one was Roger Williams. The hybrids were breaking but they were not in concentrated pockets and they were not staying up very long. I managed to catch one, but I didn't see or hear of anybody else catching one despite the large number of breaking fish. The fish I caught was 19 and a half inches. It was a half inch longer and a good bit heavier than the other 5 hybrids I have caught. By 9:30 the hybrids had quite biting and we went back to bass fishing. We re-cranked the pits and fished down below the marina. Dad caught a big crappie and 4 bass and I caught 1 more bass. The sky was overcast and the bass seemed to be more active. Later that day Dad talked to Roger and he caught a catfish, a smaller musky and hooked and lost a big musky around 1pm down on the Bluestone River behind the Bluestone pool bathhouse.

AUGUST 21st

Jason Brown and I fished the New River below Sandstone at Meador Creek and from 5pm till dark. The water was so low that we where able to wade all the way across. Jason caught 12 or 13 small mouth and I caught 6 smallmouth and a redeye. Jason was catching his fish on a drop shot finesse worm. I caught a couple on a rebel jerkbait and a couple on a spinner bait and the rest on a drop shot, after he showed me how to rig and use it. These bass were the first bass I have ever caught on a drop shot rig. It's an interesting technique. Definetly something I will try again. Jason says it has become one of his favorite techniques especially when fishing vertically in lakes. Most of the fish we caught were around 8 to 10 inches. We each caught one that was 12 to 14 inches.

AUGUST 18th

Brad and I went up to Blustone lake and chased hybrid bass from 6am till 9am. We caught 1 bass each off the pit bank in the dark off of crankbaits. I hooked and lost 3 more bass on the pit bank. We had only 2 pods of hybirds break the surface adn both were right beside the boat. We caught one fish each and one fish from each pot. Both fish were caught on a silver Bill Lewis Rat-L Trap, which seems to be the lure for breaking hybrids. It was a very cold foggy mornign especially for August.

AUGUST 15th

Brad & I had been hearing about the hybrids running up on the lake for about a week now. Dad while carp fishing from the pit bank had gotten the low down on how it was down and he gave us a blueprint to try. We got on the lake that morning and bass fished from 6am till around 8am. We caught 4 bass a peice, including Brads first fish with a bait caster. We each caugh a mixed bag of small, largemouth and spotted bass. At around 8am we started seeing some other boats chasing hybirds. We would see them breaking and would run in and throw Bill Lewis Rat-L trap and spinner baits. We ran in on about 6 or 8 pods of frensied fish. We had 3 hook ups and caught 3 fish. I caught on 19 inches and 17.5 inches and Brad caught one that was 18 inches. They were all good fighting fish. The key to this type of fishing is not to fish while waiting for them to surface. Once they come up fire up the big engine and race right to them. It's really slow and then its really fast action. It's a differnt kind of fishing but it's also a lot of fun.

AUGUST 10th

Brad and I headed up to the lake around 7pm on a Sunday evening. We ran up to the grass beds and threw flukes until dark with only 1 smallmouth and a couple of missed strikes to show for it. Then right at dark we ran down to the pits and spent about 3 hour cranking from one end to the other. I ended up catching 7 and Brad caught 3. All the fish we caught were average to small sized. We caught 2 smallies, 1 large, 1 spot, and a handfull of redeyes. It was pretty slow going. We had a good time but the fishing was very tough.

AUGUST 6TH 2008

Brad & I headed out for some hot weather bass fishing around 5pm. We saw Dad & Roger chasing the carp from a lawn chair at the corner of the pit bank. We were fishing just below the fridge rock and had caught 1 small bass a peice when Brad got "the call". It was Melissa and she was having contractions and was ready to go to the hospital. I ran Brad down to the pit and dropped him off. He headed off and baby Bella was born the next morning at Raliegh General Hospital around 6:45am. With Brad's noticable abscense I called Aleshia and she brought Avery up and we went for a boat ride. I cautht a half dozen bluegills on a flypole for Avery to fondle and look at. At 8pm we headed back to the pits. When we got there Dad had a carp on. He caught it and took some pictures of him and Avery with it. It was like ~ his 42nd Carp of the summer. He has really been working on the carp with his two a day bank fishing method.