By Aaron Kephart
Most people associate mid-summer with water sports, pools, beaches, boat rides, cookouts, etc., more than they think of fishing. Conventional wisdom, among most southern freshwater anglers, is that summer fishing simply isn’t as good as other seasons. This couldn’t be further from the truth…In fact, summer offers some of the best opportunities of the year for multiple species of fish on our Murphy area lakes. I would like to take a brief moment to look at those opportunities.
Stripers-by far, the majority of my summer guiding revolves around stripers. They might go deep in the summer, but they don’t stop biting. In fact, they often congregate in summer mega-schools of sometimes hundreds of fish, and it is not at all uncommon to hook up multiple fish at a time. Put simply, summer is one of (if not the) best time(s) to target these fish.
Bass (smallmouth/largemouth/spotted)-Spotted bass bite year round, have done irreparable damage to the smallmouth population on most of our mountain lakes, will bite all summer long, and are delicious. There is a reason the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources has removed the size and bag limit from spotted bass in our local lakes, and I would be happy for you to come fish with me and take a bunch home. When it comes to smallmouth and largemouth, we still have some lakes with sizable populations of both, and current is the name of the game. Under the right conditions (I don’t want to give too much away in writing) the smallmouth and largemouth fishing can be phenomenal in the summer. Call me if you are interested in more information on this fishery, and please remember we are 100% catch and release on smallmouth and largemouth.
Crappie-One of the most overlooked, laid back, family friendly fisheries that exists on our lakes is night time crappie fishing. In fact, I much prefer summer night crappie fishing to spring daytime crappie fishing. There are certain conditions that make the bite more favorable, but a typical trip usually yields 20 to 40 keeper fish, with some nights giving up considerably more (depending on how many people are in the boat). Remember, the bag limit is 20 per person, and the minimum size limit is 8 inches.
Other Species-Walleye are one of the other species that we encounter a lot in the summer. We typically catch them 60-100 feet deep in the hottest part of the year, and we usually encounter them while fishing for stripers. We also typically encounter a lot of large brown trout on another fishery while we are targeting smallmouth. A final species that interests some people are catfish. We run into some big flatheads while night fishing, and catch a lot of channel cats and a few blues while fishing for stripers and bass.
To sum it all up, summer fishing on our Murphy area lakes is phenomenal. A lot of your success depends on the conditions, timing, and quite frankly local knowledge and history on the lakes, but if everything aligns, the fishing can be fantastic. If you are interested in a trip please call me at 865-466-1345. I look forward to hearing from you!
Aaron Kephart is the Owner of Mountain Lakes Guide Service. To book a guided trip on one of the Murphy area mountain lakes, contact him by phone at 865-466-1345 or by email at mtnlakesguide@outlook.com Check out his website at http://www.mountainlakesguideservice.com and catch him on facebook@mountainlakesguideservice