Carters Lake Fishing Report – March 2009

Carters: Level: 2.5 feet above full pool. Temp: 42-48 degrees. Clarity: Clear to slightly stained.

Bass: Good, but many fish are suspended. Guide Mike Bucca reports, “I am strictly throwing the Float N Fly. There are a lot of quality fish being caught at Carters right now. Try the main-lake points around Doll Mountain and the mouth of the river area with the float N Fly. Typically on Carters I use a deeper leader length due to the clearer water. I’m typically anywhere from 11 to 13 feet on my leaders, and I am using 6-lb. Triple Fish Fluorocarbon line in the clearer waters of Carters. I am using both spot-candy and duck-feather custom-made Lester flies from Natures Tackle Box. Be sure to vary your cadence to determine what the fish are looking for. Sometimes no movement is best, but often times a stop-and-go and pull seem to produce. Be creative with cadences and don’t under estimate the importance of it. The bite is very soft, and in post-frontal conditions you will get more ‘lift’ bites than normal, so pay close attention to your cork for those lift bites. In March it’s going to be big fish time. Once the temps get into the mid to upper 50s in March I would start throwing big swimbaits for those prespawn largemouths. Typically the big largemouths are the first to spawn. I wouldn’t throw anything less than 7-inch swimbaits for these fish like the 7-inch Bull Shad swimbait as well as the 7- or 8-inch Triple Trout. Concentrate on the mouths of spawning pockets and around any timber and wood cover you can find.”

Linesides: Poor. “It’s the March blues” said guide Robert Eidson. “The shad kill has started, and when that happens it goes pretty non-existent.” Robert fished a few days before press and caught three fish in eight hours. Look for hybrids on main-lake humps and points and on DNR structures. Look in Wurley, Camp Branch and Harris Branch for stripers, and fish a 1-oz. jigging spoon. Dead shad are everywhere. You just have to find where the stripers are feeding on them. You can also try pulling small trout or shiners. DNR Fisheries did shock up a new lake record hybrid from Woodring that went 14 pounds. Robert said the fish had a 7-inch Red Fin in its side, an indicator that one angler had the lake record on for a brief period.