Lake Norman Midday Update – Day 1 - Major League Fishing

Lake Norman Midday Update – Day 1

Schooling bite tapers off fast
Image for Lake Norman Midday Update – Day 1
Chris Fiore Photo by Rob Newell.
October 1, 2020 • Rob Newell • Toyota Series

Day one of the Toyota Series on Lake Norman dawned bright and sunny this morning with a morning low of about 52 degrees. A light breeze had the schooling fish popping early and anglers were taking advantage of the fall feed. A lot of topwaters, swimbaits, jerkbaits and spy baits were being offered to the schoolers on main lake points.

Morning story

Complete details 

The mid-lake section was pretty busy with boats zipping point to point. Interestingly, only five or six boats chose to run up past the 150 bridge early on. Evidence of fall turnover could be seen in the water color on Norman’s main lake as the normal crystal clear water had turned to more of a dark blue.

Once the morning breeze laid down and the lake slicked off, anglers moved to docks, brush piles and offshore rock shoals.

After boating a nice fish early on a shaky head, pro Michael Stephens said he had not planned on going to a shaky head so early, but the high skies and no wind left him little choice.

Many pros started the day with one or two keepers right off the bat. Those who had three bass early on included Bryan Thrift, Matthew Mollohan, Preston Harris, Todd Fulk and Robert Grabow. Veteran North Carolina pro Chris Baumgardner seemed to have the best start with four bass including a 3-1/2 and a 2-1/2 pounder. 

Weigh-in starts live online at 3:30 p.m. ET, and plenty of limits should hit the scale.