As surely as the Dogwood trees bloom annually in the spring; so also do the fresh water fish start to bed and migrate up the streams. Crappie and Bream are bedding close to shore while Bluefin Suckers and White Bass are making their annual runs up small rivers and creeks to lay their eggs.
I enjoy fishing for most anything that bites, but catching my limit of White Bass is probably my favorite type of fishing. They are a good eating fish that can be caught on light tackle with small artificial jigs or any type of silver spoon. Their average weight is a pound or more but I have caught some up to three pounds and for their size they can put up a good fight.
Springtime brings them out of main river channels into the mouths of creeks on their way to lay their eggs. In the mid-summer, they can be found in large schools in lakes or rivers like the Pee Dee.
Use to, before all the private gates and posted land, I would drive in or walk to the mouth of Cartledge Creek. Fishing only from the bank, I’ve caught several stringers of White Bass. In fact I caught the biggest one I ever caught weighing in at three and half pounds in that creek.
When fishing in the mouth of the creeks, you throw your lure into the main river current (usually a little muddy) and then reel your lure into the clearer water of the creek. Just about where the color of the water changes, is where you get your strike. Bam!!!. You’d better be prepared because after the White Bass hit they will usually head out into the stronger current of the main river, using it to their advantage to get off.
When fishing for White Bass it pays to have a bunch of lures. Occasionally the fish will break your line but most of your lures are lost on under water limbs, roots or rocks.
Talking about losing lures, one spring day I took my wife bank fishing, for White Bass, up on Little River. Now she is a pretty fair fisherman, and she caught a few fish, but before this day was over she had lost every plug in my tackle box. Now I’m not kidding folks, why it cost me a few hundred dollars to replace all those nice shiny lures.
Talking about Little River, you used to could put a small boat in below the bridge and make your way to the mouth where it runs into the Pee Dee River. The trip was about a mile to the main river and offered some of the most beautiful scenery of tree canopy you’ve ever seen. Wildlife like deer, turkey, and otters were often spotted along the banks of the river.
So happened, one spring evening I was fishing in my boat at the mouth of the river. I had tied on my favorite lure, a Lazy Ike, hoping to catch my limit of White Bass. Using this particular lure I had caught many a White Bass and I was careful not to lose it.
As the evening went by I had made many a cast and even changed to different lures but with no luck catching any White Bass. What was I doing wrong?
The sun was going down over the trees in Anson Co. I decided to re-tie my Lazy Ike back on my line and give it one more cast into the depths of the Pee Dee. Standing on the front of the boat I tried a slow retrieve, bumping the lure off the bottom of the river. Just as the lure was coming into the mouth of Little River, I felt a huge tug on the end of my rod. It was me and that fish, mostly the fish. Could this be a record White Bass, I thought to myself.
As I fought the giant fish, I could already envision myself in the record books for the largest White Bass ever caught on a rod and reel. My picture would be in all the fishing magazines and folks would want to know how I managed to catch this record fish on such light tackle. All the major tackle companies would want to know what type of rod and reel I was using and was I using monofilament or braided fishing line. Sunny days were ahead of me if I could only manage to land this large fish.
Five minutes passed and I was unable to get this fish off the bottom even though it seemed to be pulling in all directions.
Finally after about ten minutes I decided the fish just wasn’t coming to me, so I had to go to him. I pressed the control button on my trolling motor and headed toward the large fish while keeping my line as tight as possible.
Hoping to bring the fish to the top of the water, I stopped my boat right on top of the fish. Why never in my entire life have I wrestled so much just to land a fish.
Finally the water around my boat began to swirl, the boat began to rock and I could feel the large fish coming to the top. I reached to get my landing net, hoping to land this record catch.
To my utter surprise, the first thing I saw, coming to the top of the water was my Lazy Ike hooked to someone’s long trot- line. Now folks, you ain’t gonna believe this part, but after removing my plug and with some further investigation, I discovered there were two thirty- pound catfish and five ten- pound Bluefin Suckers dangling from that trot line.
I don’t know for sure if’en that hundred and ten pounds of fish is a record fresh water catch on a rod and reel but this Ol’ Boy sure had himself a ball reeling them in. But being the sportsman I am, I gently lowered the trot line back into the water. My hope was that some fisherman would soon come to check his trot lines and remove all those large fish that I left on his trot line before they got off or died.