GENERAL NORTH CAROLINA BASS FISHING

[bobski]

for the last 8 months i have heard about how 'different' bass fishing in North Carolina has become..ok before you scream 'WHAT;.. let me tell you(not that it matters).. that i co manage Salem Lake in winston salem NC...yes, its not High Rock or Jordan or Baden,,, but i have contact with lots of fisher folks ....and i hear it every day...bass fishing is changing in NC...as an example..at High Rock folks are catching bass on finesse rigs/shakey heads/spot removers...?? this at a lake that has the like of Fritts/Beck/Wright/Lohr/ bending over the bow cranking ?? any comments?? ( just a question from an old man)..

[Yammie]

It is for sure changing
Fish getting smarter I guess

[bobski]

thx for responding.....i dont think the fish are smaller but i do think that the amount of fish caught are getting smaller....smaller in that fishing is ( ok here's where i open up a bag of worms)...a 'dying sport'.....in NC hunting licenses are down 25%...fishing licences are 'barely' holding their own....young folks are not fishing.....any thoughts???

[chris c]

I think one thing that has to do with fishing "changing" is that the quality of the average fisherman has increased over the last decade, especially in tournament fishing. The fish have seen every tactic in the book, some more than once. I will also say that the lakes in the Piedmont have been hit alot harder since 2001 when all the coastal rivers went to hell from the flooding. Fishing pressure def. changes fishing. I can't speak for the western lakes like high rock, exc... What bass want tends to be cyclical for some reason, maybe they'll come back around to power fishing techniques before long.

Chris