I'm going down to fish a tournament on Kerr Lake, NC this weekend and I've never been there before. From reports and just figuring the season the fish should be settling into their summer pattern. I was planning on staying in the Nutbush creek area and other arms on the south end of the lake. Going to throw topwater in the morning and then probably crankbaits, jigs, and big worms til I figure out what's working. Any advice, or thoughts on my strategy? I appreciate any help you can give,

If the water level is high (in the bushes) you'll have a blast. Topwaters in the morning, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and jigs after the sun gets up. But, if the water level is down, good luck. I hope you're better with electronics than I am.

What kind of tournament are you fishing?

Yeah I am really hoping it's high, cause I'll pitch cover all day with confidence. Thanks for the tips. It's an FLW college fishing regional qualifier. The thing that sucks is launch is at 6:30 and weigh in is at 1:00. Hopefully my teammate and I can figure something out fast!

Water dropped 2' over the weekend. Starting to run out from under the bushes, but with a lot of rain in the forecast over the next two days it could go up. Only thing is that the lake is drained to maintain a constant at Gaston. Gates were open Saturday and I'm sure the rain won't change Gaston's level quite as much.

Clearing up finally around Clarksville and really clear down towards the dam, but again that will change with the rain.

Soft plastics - natural colors, green pumpkin especially.

thanks for the info

Can't beat the bite on a carolina-rig right now!

I've fished Kerr alot but its been a long time ago. Won a few tournaments there several 2 second place finishes so if the summer pattern is on you can get five good fish fast pitching the log jams up the river but be careful get there. I won a tounrament in Aug. with 24 lbs fishing a big texas rig worm on main lake points (stumps) while water was down my big fish was 7.14 caught in sight of the old Clarksville bridge.

Keer must be comming back, they had a lot of diseased fish that kept the bass from reaching decent size, glad to hear it's comming back to life.

nutbush creek is good crappie fishing