Rain, rain, go away! That’s been the buzz word all summer.

In fact, just the other day I was scheduled to do an interview with a local television news anchor. The subject was about how all the rain has affected fishing on the lake. You guess it! The interview was delayed for almost an hour due to rain.

Like anything else, too much of a good thing is not good. And bad things make people start talking.
For example, two fishermen were buying crappie minnows at an area tackle shop and were overheard talking about the weather. One said to the other, “It’s rained so much this year, I think the lake’s going to sink.” And, there were also three guys soaking wet from fishing in a rain storm with no bites all morning. The one with the rain dripping from his nose said, “Let’s go home. The fish have all drowned.”

It‘s funny how things change. It wasn’t that long ago when we experienced a drought. People feared the worst when the lake level dropped every day, and the long term forecast was hot and dry. One day, the talk at the tackle shop was about how shallow the lake was. To make his point, one angler said; “The Lake is so low that the fish taste dusty.”

In spite of the rain, fishing has been pretty good. On one outing the white perch were biting, but they were very small. As one angler on board was reeling in his second or third little fish, his buddy said, “You got a bigger small one!”

What do people do when it’s raining and they can’t fish? From the sound of things, a great number of them watched “Shark Week” on television. One segment that caught my attention was about the movie “Jaws” and how it affected the lives of so many who saw it. During the course of the show, one man said, “I haven’t been swimming or taken a bath since that movie first came out. Wow, 1975 has been a long time without a bath!

Tips from Capt. Gus! - Remember, the most important thing about fishing is to have FUN.

Upcoming Events:
NOTE: The fishing seminar scheduled for August 21 at Gander Mountain in Mooresville, NC has been postponed until September.


Fishing Report:

Spotted bass are hitting top water lures on rip-rap points at daylight and around lighted docks after dark. During the day, use shaky heads and swim-baits off river points and humps. Anglers trolling Alabama Rigs along the channels in Mountain and Reed Creeks are catching a mixed bag of white perch and bass, along with a few small stripers and hybrid striped bass.

White perch fishing, while not as good as earlier in the year, is still a fun and an easy way to fill an ice chest. Best baits to use are live crappie minnows and Sabiki rigs.

Water Conditions:
The water level on Lake Norman is approximately 1.8' below full pond. Mountain Island Lake is 3.6' below full. As mentioned earlier, watch for floating debris, particularly if you’re boating above the highway 150 bridge on Lake Norman.

Surface water temperatures are in the low to mid-eighties, depending on location or proximity to a power plant.



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