Locating fish...

[C_wernett]

Has anyone been locating any fish in the Cape Fear or Neuse river systems. I've been having trouble locating good quantities of cats here lately, and am wondering if it's just me, or if this is something that others are noticing. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places, pretty new to fishing these areas at this time of year.

[ponykilr]

bro, welcome to reality. when i was young, it seemed cats were more abundant. i still catch plenty, but i think the overall numbers may be down even though the state says the opposite. i have found that i have to be much smarter in hunting the big ones now. many more people are catfishing now than a few years back and i think that the population explosion has hurt the water quality.

[joe0580]

i was not able to go on friday but some freinds went down here at the lock and caught one over 30 lbs and 5 in the 20 lb range. right at the ramp. during the winter yo need to find breaks with a shallow shelf with bait on it into some type of deep water. the flatties are gone into a sleep mode. but the large blues can be caught. they dont eat all the time but have noticed that 3 days before a front and 3 after are great time to catch them. call me we can try to meet up and try something. plus remeber that shad should be in within the next month or so and really good here by arpil.

[ponykilr]

joe, me and mack want to come that way when the shad start running. maybe bring the pontoon boat back. we'll bring the hamburgers, grill and watermelon again:)

[Seabreeze]

I dunno, it might have somethin to do with that 46 degree water temp, but like they said the shad normally show up about this time so who knows.

[joe0580]

the shad are starting to show up at lock one. they are catching them in nets right now. some guy showed me 8 that he caught that could have went in the 8 lb range. hope they get this way real soon.