By Capt. James McManus
September is just around the corner as I am writing this. Hate to say it but tourists will be thinning out, at least temporarily, until color change and that will be a good thing. I enjoy fishing with them but despise driving with them. Good news continues as the fish will start coming back to life after a hot summer’s hiatus. Schools in for our scaly friends, which means easier to find bunches and cooler temps driving them to start putting on the feed bag. Early season hunters, football fanatics, jet skiers, and wakeboarders have vacated the water to some degree so calmer, quieter, more relaxing fishing prevails. All in all, it’s coming up on my favorite time of year.
This has been one of my best striper years, after a couple of down years. Numbers, and especially size, have been great. Except for the lake turnover period, I expect this fall will be excellent. Blue backs will still be king but topwater spooks, big strike king spoons and jerkbaits all will be good choices to get those linesides. Our spots on Fontana have had a resurgence after a couple of awful years, where they all but disappeared. Size will continue to improve but the numbers are increasing all the time. Plenty of bait to fatten them, just remember now for a while, baits need to be on the small size.
I haven’t targeted them much but there have been a few walleyes showing up, hard to say what’s up with them but some is better than none so we’ll leave it at that. Trying to get to Nantahala and shoot for some kokes, but just haven’t made it yet, NCWRC stockings are encouraging so kudos to those folks for trying to improve our lakes. All this is to say I am optimistic for the future, looking forward to time on the water in my new Blue Wave ride and give me a shout if you want to hit any of our beautiful mountain lakes. Thank you, God for this and all our many blessings.
Later, Capt. James
Capt. James McManus owns 153 Charters. Give him a call for a great day on the water at (828) 421-8125.