My wife Kara and I headed up to Kerr Lake on Friday evening with our friends to camp overnight and do some fishing.  After catching a little bait under one of the many bridges on the lake, we headed to a nice sandy beach and cooked some hotdogs and marshmallows. 

While we were relaxing by the campfire, I managed to pull in 2 channel catfish with a helping of Catfish Dynamite ‘Cheese’ dipbait.  That is some nasty stuff, but catfish can’t get enough of it.  One of the fish pulled the rod down off its prop-stick and we didn’t notice it was gone until it was almost too late…completely submerged and headed towards the depths, I picked up the rod at the last second and reeled in one of the catfish. 

The wind picked up a little, so we moved the boat to a sheltered cove and laid out the sleeping bags.  Great night’s sleep under the stars…woke up several times to critters swimming in the water, a barn owl hooting, and the startling grunts of a great blue heron. 

Next morning, we headed to one of our favorite fishing holes and tossed out 8 noodles and drifted with 7 baits of our own spread around the boat.  Nothing.  Next spot….noodles and drift….nothing.  Repeat 2 more times….nothing!  The catfish were absolutely not interested in biting.  It must have been a combination of a full moon, abundant forage source (baby shad??? EVERYWHERE!…gar were having a hayday!)  I’m assuming the catfish were bloated after a night’s gorging on prey, but who knows.  Bottom line, I’m glad the Catfish Dynamite produced on Friday night or we would have gotten skunked. 

A promising rocky point with nearby deep river channel, light colored specks to the right of the point are our noodles…’promising’ is the deciding word here….no fulfillment!

We did get the treat of watching 2 fawns play around the water’s edge about 150 yards away from one of our fishing holes.  In the photo, you can barely see one between the 2 logs on the edge of the water. 

All in all, it was a great trip and the weather was beautiful.  Great campfire food and some time spent with friends.  What more could you ask for?…except a few more catfish.