Anyone on here have experience on Lake Norman or surrounding Catawba lakes fishing for stripers? It's new to me - seems like there is a lot of frustration from what I've read online. I've got an 18ft Mako CC and all related equipment for trolling for Mackerel and bottom fishing reefs. Being 5 hours away from the coast is too far for some weekends.

12/10/2011 7:30:25 PM

i have done a done a little bit on lkn but not much. i swear i have caught less in lkn in 20 years than 1 year on mountian island.

12/10/2011 7:55:19 PM

I don't have any experience at Lake Norman, but I fished striper at Badin and Tillery for years with little success.

12/11/2011 3:18:00 AM

I could have sworn I read an article a year ago in the local Huntersville paper about how they stocked striper all the time in Lake Norman but between the many fishers and poor levels of oxygen the stripers just never held on or grew in population. Iirc they were going to try a hybrid between two diff types of striper that supposedly survived in that lake's conditions.

12/11/2011 12:02:49 PM

My dad goes on LKN and sometimes Lake Wylie. I think most people consider Wylie (and maybe mtn Island) as more productive than LKN, but there are still lots of decent fish in LKN. Its basically the same idea as fishing on a reef. The frustration is because I think they tend to school up and move around the lake. So the place where you were slaying it last week might be boring as hell the next week. Thats always why its a good idea to read fishing reports online, watch where other people are posting up, and maybe make some friends so you can all share info. People that are really into it will follow them all over the lake, but we usually just had 4 or 5 spots we check out and if we didn't have any luck it was better to just head home



If you're planning on eating your catch you might want to check the consumption advisories too (especially mtn island)

12/11/2011 12:21:41 PM

i used to live on lake norman and went striper fishing a solid 30+ times...we only caught 3 keeper stripers, a lot of largemouth, catfish and once a gar

we lived off brawley school rd penninsula and fished up and down there, across mouths with 2 topwater and 2 downriggers. trolled shiners mainly

looking back there are things i would do differently, i was only 12-13 at the time

12/17/2011 3:17:17 PM

father-in-law caught this one from Lake Lanier, GA



apparently not uncommon down there

[Edited on December 17, 2011 at 8:06 PM. Reason : is that a striper? the other "big ones" from the lake have been stripers]

12/17/2011 8:05:13 PM