Hot Spot of the Week: Hybrid and spotted bass are boiling on the surface above Marker 18B in the main river channel and in Mountain, Little and Reed Creeks. Best bets are top water poppers, buzz baits and jerk or crank baits. Late afternoon seems to be better than early morning. When fish aren’t surface feeding, they can be caught on drop-shot rigs, bucktails and jigging spoons.

Crappies have become more active with the cooling water temperatures. Limits of eight to twelve inch fish are being taken around bridges and over deep brush piles. Most white perch activity is at depths to thirty-five feet in creek runs and on the edges of the main river channel.

Lake Norman’s water level is about 2.7 feet below full pond. The surface water temperature is in the high sixties and low seventies in waters not affected by power generation.