Warming Trend Should Put Bass On The Move Just In Time For Nc Bfl On Lake Norman
David Williams of Maiden, NC
What a difference a week makes!
A week ago the area around North Carolina’s Lake Norman was covered in snow and ice with nighttime temperatures well below freezing. This week, the skies are sunny, the snow is gone and nighttime temps are a lot more comfortable.
“We are getting a little warming trend. The next couple of nights the temperatures will be in the upper 40s to low 50s and that is a huge deal because it gets the fish on the move,” said David Williams of nearby Maiden, N.C., who has a pretty solid record on Lake Norman this time of year.
Last year on Feb. 23 he finished 14th, but the year before he finished 5th in the BFL on Norman on the first Saturday in March, and in 2011 he won the N.C. Division points title after starting the year with a win on Lake Norman the last Saturday in February. Williams finished 3rd in the N.C. Division points last year, but he was 29th in 2012 because he only fished three of the scheduled tournaments – finishing 5th on Norman and 10th and 15th on High Rock in two tournaments.
He has not fished too shabbily in bigger tournaments, either, finishing 5th in the BFL All American last year in June on Tennessee’s Lake Nickajack and 3rd in the All American the previous year on the Potomac River in mid-May. So far, Williams has earned almost $230,000 in FLW Outdoors tournaments, with 25 top 10 finishes including three first places.
“I have not been on Lake Norman all year, but I am going out for a little bit on Friday to see if I can put something together,” he said. “From what I’ve heard they have been catching some good bags, mostly on jerkbaits and Alabama rigs.”
When he gets on the lake Friday, Williams said he will probably just ride along and look for bait to help him key in on areas to fish.
“I’ll concentrate on anything that warms up pretty quick – stumps, rocks an stuff like that,” he said. “Most of the time when you find bait it is out in the deeper water, but what I will look for is where they either run the bait up on a shallow point or into a shallow pocket.”
Williams said he will target largemouths to begin with, but if that does not work out he feels he can go out in the deeper water and bring in a limit of spotted bass.
“You can definitely see some water getting 5 to 10 degrees warmer by Saturday morning. We are almost into March so they are going to get on the move and start feeding up before the spawn,” he said.
“Saturday it’s going to be whoever can find them the quickest. More than likely whatever you found last week is not going to do you any good this week.”
Walmart BFL North Carolina Division
Sat, Feb 22, 2014
Lake Norman
Midway Marina
