Cape below Jordan

[Eddie Bruhn]

Ill never eat a crappie from down that way after last years crappie many of us caught. But to be Honest my friend Junior who died used to bass fish it 3 times a week or more so we always knew when the crappie was smoking hot down below the damn to the split. Again I stress we don’t keep crappie from there but I do enjoy catching 100+ per person all being 1/2 plus lbs. Question is this. Has anyone heard of the bite kicking up down in the river for crappie?

We don’t have pan optics so we can’t find them like you all who do have it. Congrats on having one if you do. But would anyone be kind to let us know when the bite does begin to happen in that stretch from the split up 4 miles to the damn area?

[ncsouthpaw]

Just a question from someone that doesn’t crappie fish. Why wouldn’t you keep any fish from that area? I pretty much fun fish and release all I catch.

Thanks

[Eddie Bruhn]

Last year we had all types of discussions. I gave 5 crappie to the wildlife officers at the ramp to help them try to figure out what was going on above a certain plant on the river that everyone was catching crappie with fungus, deep cuts and sores all over them. There never was a reason giving but they did tell people around the Fayetteville NC area to avoid eating certain fish that had similar on them from that area.

[SFGator]

Last year we had all types of discussions. I gave 5 crappie to the wildlife officers at the ramp to help them try to figure out what was going on above a certain plant on the river that everyone was catching crappie with fungus, deep cuts and sores all over them. There never was a reason giving but they did tell people around the Fayetteville NC area to avoid eating certain fish that had similar on them from that area.

Hi, give the local TV news channels a call. This is the type of thing they do investigative reporting on.

[Eddie Bruhn]

I’ve heard several people that fish the river a lot has already got a reporter set in stone to go with them on a fishing trip with Cameras this spring. It’s seriously something major. People blame the dam, they blame the birds, they blame them getting beat up from the current. LOL well none of that can cause fungus boils on fish. None of that can put punture marks 1/2 deep like a knife stabs them. I myself have never seen it before and I’ve crappie fished for 50+ years and this has me and others scratching our heads. Thanks for the info but someone has that lined up for March or April when their run begins.

[SFGator]

I used to work on Bragg. A co-worker has property near the old Dupont/Fayetteville plant or whatever it is now. His well is contaminated and I think he said he cannot eat the pecans there. Chemical contamination.

[Eddie Bruhn]

That’s about right.

[fynns]

63 yrs old and have eaten my weight in bass and crappy from the river. Life is good. Oh yea, if ya really concerned about this, might not want to eat anything out of Jordan either for that matter. Its just as polluted also.

[kbgfish]

Just a thought. Could it be pfisteria. Years ago there was pfisteria in the Chesapeake Bay that almost wiped out the striped bass. It was attributed to all the nitrogen runoff from the eastern shore poultry farms.

[Eddie Bruhn]

There is several people this year in March that will be in the river trying to catch crappie again next year with sores and deep cuts. The Wildlife department is looking into this for the future of the river.