Carters Lake Fishing Report – February 2010

Carters: Level: 3.6 feet above full pool. Temp: 45-47 degrees. Clarity: 2 to 4 feet visibility.

Spotted Bass: Eric Crowley reports, “The spots are on and off compared to last month. Big fish have been caught at night on live trout and 4-inch and bigger spoons with and without feather trailers. During the day, spotted bass around the Doll Mountain area are coming in schools with most fish running within a pound of each other. Limits over 18 pounds have been the norm at the tournaments. During the day, fish will move out to wood or brushpiles and then move back in the afternoon. The fish won’t hardly eat while in transition, but as soon as they go shallow again, the bite is on.” Mike Bucca reports, “The first part of the month of January I had some outstanding trips on the float-n-fly. The bite was off the hook, and almost every client I had caught the biggest spot of their life in January. Then when we got the ice storms, things started getting on the tough side. Concentrate on the long, main-lake points, and don’t be afraid to fish your fly over 30 feet of water off the end of these points for the bigger spots. I am using a 10 foot Silstar spinning rod and putting my 8-lb. Triple Fish fluorocarbon leader at about the 10 foot mark. Fly colors were Nature’s Tackle spot sushi and bold bluegill. The best of the float-n-fly bite on Carters has yet to come and should be strong in February. We will need some cold snaps to get it jump started again. Same colors and techniques described above, and also throw a Staysee 90 in chartreuse shad in the mix, and you will have it covered. Main-lake and secondary points and also the short pockets off the creeks should be your best bets. Be careful running up the river — there are a lot of logs that got caught in the ice line up the river, and when the ice melted all the logs pushed through with the current generation.”

Stripers: Eric reports, “Stripers are starting to look for that down-sized bait. Smaller shad are the main forage on Carters in February, so look to copy that with live threadfins or small shiners. Fisher Creek will hold fish as well as the surrounding area down to the dam. This will be even more effective when they are pulling water. Both stripers and hybrids will be present in February, and don’t be surprised if that hybrid record gets busted in the next couple months. If artificials are what you prefer, try a Smack Tackle Flitterbait in gizzard grey or white. These blade baits have been getting a lot of attention from both stripers and hybrids in Carters. Fish them like a jigging spoon deep on fish that are holding in 20-plus feet of water, or rip and stop them when the fish come up shallow. I even caught fish trolling them around 1.5 to 2.5 mph. over points on the lower lake about 22 feet down.” Robert Eidson said there’s a shad kill going on up the river, but the bite on the south end of the lake is pretty good. He said the best concentrations of fish on the lake are from the marina across to Woodring Branch. He’s been catching some very good hybrids and some big stripers, as well. The best bite has been from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on U-rigs. Robert said to clip the points and humps right where they come up to about 35 feet of water. Early, from daybreak until the U-rig bite picks up, it’s all downlines. Downline shad or 5- to 7-inch trout to 40 feet. If you’re looking for shad, Robert said there are tons of them in the back of Worley Creek.