Badin Lake Fish Report 4-25-04

Heard there was a comet in the sky. So I got up early and hit the lake
just before 6:00 am. No comet. Too many clouds. Silly me thought it
was going to be warm like it has been for the last week or so. I
under dressed and was COLD. Despite the cold I fished anyway and
didn't catch anything more than a single 6 inch striper before
breakfast at 9:00 at the marina.

After breakfast I went up the cove past the marina and tried my luck
there. No go. Got a couple bites but that was it. Headed up towards
Tuckertown dam and caught 3 more by 11:00. By then the sun had came
out and it had gotten nice and warm. So I puttered over to Skier's
Cove to see if there were any fish there. According to the fish
finder, there were literally thousands of fish right out in the middle
of the cove. The water was thick with them all the way down to ~45ft.
No bites though. Can't understand that. Fish all the way down and no
bites. What, my worms bitter or something? I was starting to get
frustrated and was thinking about pulling out the old giant treble
hooks and seeing what I could trawl up. (My dad caught a trophy brown
trout with a treble hook and no bait. It can be done) Then I realized
I left my treble hooks linked up and on the front porch. (They hold a
plant. I call it "The Chain of Pain" ) So I went over to a little
island on the other side of the lake from the cove. There is a shallow
area where it gets 2ft deep coming off the island in a sandbar type
thing. I anchored there and proceeded to catch 8 fish in less than a
hour. Most were catfish in the 3-4 lb range. A couple bluegills
worked their way in there too.

I got tired of hearing the people in the pontoon boats parked at the
island so I started working my way back to the dock. I stopped at the
entrance to Uwharrie cove when my fish finder signaled large groups of
fish. I stayed there for an hour and caught one more. There were tons
o fish where I was. Still don't know why only one of them was hungry.

By then it was nearly 3:30 and I had to quit. However, as I was
making way back I passed an area of shore that had large rocks just
off shore and felt I had to try just one last time for another fish.
Sure enough, about 2 minutes later I had a taker.

This was one strange bluegill. It had all the markings of a bluegill.
Including the blue lobe at the end of it's gill. But it had the body
of a bass. Mouth and all. If it hadn't been about 4 inches long I
would have kept it so someone could ID it. I just can't keep or kill a
small fish. I always want to wait until it is big and catch it again.

So that is my report. Didn't get to go by Deer Rock and take pictures
yet. When I do I will post a link both here and in an archeology
group. Strange that that rock would be sitting there for thousands of
years with a deer carved on it and no one else has ever noticed
before. Maybe it will make the news, who knows?

Till next time.