[gentle orchestral fanfare] - [Joe] Ah, man, he whacked it.

Oh, Oh, yes.

- [Paul] Yes.

Very nice fish.

- [Joe] Right, right there.

[water splashes] Yeah, he eat that swim bait up.

- [Paul] Yeah.

Yeah, nice fish.

- [Joe] Oh, yeah.

Man, that's why we come bass fishing in the spring.

- [Paul] That's why we come bass fishing.

- [Joe] Look how he got it, he come.

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

ncwildlife.org/winc.

- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

[light instrumental music] ♪ - Hello, and welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

Well, today's program is gonna take us to the Randleman Reservoir.

Joe, we're gonna be fishin' for large mouth bass, and this is a fairly new fishing territory, right?

- It is, it's new reservoir here in North Carolina.

It's a, actually it was built to supply water for Greensboro and some the cities around in the triad.

It's been open to bass fishing for the, and crappy fishing since 2010, May 2010, is when it officially opened.

A great lake, it's probably one the best lakes in North Carolina for bass fishing right now.

We're fishing it pre-spawn period Mid-March some fish were already on the bed, most of them, I think, were just before, and so today they're having to fish a variety of lures, which in near time they'll talk about.

- [John] We'll talk about that as you said in near time.

Now, a recipe today, Donna's got a recipe that we haven't tried, Sweet and Sour Oysters.

- Well, I like oysters just about nay way.

So, I am excited about, this is a new recipe from her, so I'm excited to try it.

- You folks might want to get a pen and paper for this one, let's go to work.

It's time now for the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- Well, good morning, Joe, here we are at Randleman Reservoir.

Got an overcast day, mid-March, you know, water temperature's startin' to come up.

We're out here to fish for some bass.

You know, see what we can get into.

What are your thoughts today?

You know, I mean, what kind of patterns are you, are they spawnin' yet, or I mean, pre-spawn, what are your thoughts?

- Okay, a majority of the fish are pre-spawn right now.

The water temperature the last three or four days has made it up to 70 in some of the little backwater cuts.

So, there's some of these bass startin' to move it and startin' to spawn, and I think, today with it being overcast, water's not gonna warm up a lot.

Probably pre-spawn is gonna be our best best, but I know some of these fish are in these coves spawnin' and hopefully we can catch some like that.

We're gonna try to cover a little water this morning with a buzz bait and spinner bait, and maybe hone in on exactly where they're at and maybe we'll use a technique like flippin' or fishin' a lizard around the cover slower to catch some of these fish that are spawnin'.

- So, anglers this time of year, you gotta be flexible, try some different baits, you know, try some variability, find what's workin' and then go from there.

- That's, that's right.

They're gonna be pretty close to spawnin' areas because the majority of fish are gonna be spawnin' within the next two weeks, so we're gonna kinda stay in the protected areas and move around a little bit.

Fish the little points and fish around the cover, there's a lot of rocks in this lake, a lot of wood in this lake, we're primarily gonna stay in five foot of water or less.

- Okay, well, let's get on it.

Sounds like we got a good day planned.

- I'm lookin' forward to it.

- [Paul] All right, let's do it.

- All right.

Okay, Paul, basically, what we're gonna try to do here is, uh, we're gonna fish this shoreline.

The fish, you know, they come in this are pretty good and spawn, and we're gonna, since we got a early mornin' in low light, we're going to cover a little water and see how aggressive the fish are gonna be today.

I feel like with the cloud cover, maybe they'll chase some baits.

So, I'll get you to fish that little minnow plug on the surface, and I'm gonna throw this little buzz bait here, which is actually a little different than most buzz baits.

It's kinda like these new umbrella rigs we have now.

We'll see what the bass think about these.

- I think they'd be happy with this traditional jerk bait, which I have used a lot, but that technique you're showing me working it more as a top water, in this type of water, see it's pretty appealing.

I have not tried it that way, I mean, is that something you do often?

- Yes, it is, especially with the fish that are coming in to spawn, there's a lot of fish that will be cruisin', and fish that are cruisin' will bite that lure.

Now, what you want to do is keep that bait comin' on the surface, so you're gonna have to wind it real slow.

- [Paul] So, we're wakin' it instead of jerkin' it.

- [Joe] We'll ne wakin' it.

- [Paul] Wakin' it.

- [Joe] Yep, you're gonna be wakin' it.

- So, our rod tip's up high.

Oh, I can see it, yeah.

- Rod tip up high.

Just a steady, slow wind.

[water splashes] - [Paul] Look like a good fish.

- [Joe] Awful good size fish in this lake.

- [Paul] Oh, yeah.

- [Joe] The fish seem to like a swim bait on this lake when they're spawnin'.

Fish come off of a big rock about right beside that stob over there.

There's a lot of fish this size in the lake, but there's a lot of good fish in here.

- Look's good and healthy.

Yeah, it was well fed.

- Well fed.

[water splashes] You can't hardly make them do that.

More than once.

See if you can get one, Paul.

I'm a tell you right, that could be the male.

It could be a big female over there.

Go a little slower, get that thing, let it come to the surface.

All right, now come on with it.

Little slower.

There you go.

That's the way you want it right there.

There could be a big female over there, that might have been the male bass on the nest.

That's the way I like to see it coming right there.

They will really bite that bait that way.

Sometimes them big fish will bite light like that.

- I don't think I ever got the hook in.

- Especially when they're spawnin'.

He got it that time!

Or did he?

He got away that's a spawnin' fish.

- I never felt it, maybe I'm.

- See if he'll bite it again.

That is neat.

Maybe he'll bite somethin' layin' there on the bottom.

It's a good bass.

- Surely he won't do it three times in a row.

You wanna see if he bites a lizard?

Let's see if he bites this lizard.

- I set it because him coming up, I never really felt it.

- You know what happens a lot of times, when they're spawnin' like that they're not tryin' to eat it, they're tryin' to run it away, and that you'll just miss them a lot.

But maybe, maybe this won't run away from him here.

This lizard.

He's got it.

He's got it.

[water splashes] - [Paul] Oh, yeah, look at that nice healthy.

- [Joe] Green.

All right, got him on the lizard.

- [Paul] Put him the live well, that won't hurt him.

- Oh, we'll catch bigger ones than this.

- All right, if you're confident.

- I'm serious.

- I'll keep one.

- We're fishing all day, ain't we.

[Paul laughs] I promise you, don't worry about that one.

But that is a fun little catch.

I thought he was bigger than when he hit the bait.

- Isn't that something, he hit is one, boom, boom, lizard, boom, catch him.

- Yeah, that fish was definitely defending that little spot there.

- I like that.

That was cool.

Oh, god, right around that stick.

Oh, that's a good one.

- Nice bass.

See how we get in the wind and we just get a bite immediately.

- [Paul] You called it.

The wind, sticks, point.

- [Joe] You want me to lip him for you?

- Let' see where he is, he's comin' up.

Oh, he's a healthy one.

Oh, yeah.

[water splashes] Gettin' bigger.

- Yeah, they're gettin' bigger, that's a white one.

- He's got some marks on him like he's been diggin'.

Is that what that's from on the side there?

- [Joe] Yeah, he's got one on the other side, too.

They say them birds do that to them.

Them big birds.

- [Paul] You can take him off.

On, the birds pickin' at it.

- [Joe] Yeah, a bird been, them big birds will get him.

Look, he's got another one on the other side.

- [Paul] Huh, huh.

- [Joe] He's scrabbled.

Good job, Paul.

- [Paul] Yeah, man.

You, man, you said, you called it.

- [Joe] Let's see if we can do that some more.

- That hit the water, bang.

- He had it soon as it hit the water.

- Soon as it hit the water.

- All right.

- There you go, another good one.

[water splashes] - All right.

- Spunky.

- On the spinner bait in the wind.

All right, he got that good.

- [Paul] He did.

- A lot of little fish in here, they're spawnin' good.

I believe that's probably one of the ones that they stocked, they seem to be runnin' between a pound and two pounds, the ones they stocked, and then a lot of the fish that was already in the lake, some big ones.

- Now how long has that fish been in here, though?

They stocked, what, year, two years?

- Yeah, you know what, the ones that are stocked probably in the three pound range by now 'cause they've been stocked for five.

[music] - [Paul] Now, Joe, now this shoreline here, now why do you like this so much?

I mean I can see where there's some stick-ups and what not, but what's the attraction here for the spawners?

- [Joe] Well, it's a good protected area, and a lot of little shallow places, little cover in shallow water here for 'em to spawn by, and you know, it's got a real hard bottom, you can see the red clay dirt there, along the shore and there's a lot of little irregular shoreline ins and outs.

The fish like that when they're spawnin'.

'cause when they're shallow, they really are a lot spookier, and, you know, the better the terrain is, the better they feel about being there.

Last year, this particular area that we're in here, I mean, the water was a lot clearer.

- [Paul] Oo, there you go.

Oh, yeah, that's a good one, too.

- This area that we're in, last year, I mean, you could see a lot of good fish in here on the bed.

That's a nice bass there.

- [Paul] It sure is, very nice.

[water splashes] - [Joe] About a three pounder.

- [Paul] Yeah.

That's a pretty picture.

- [Joe] Yeah, this is somethin' that you can expect on Randleman Lake.

This is a fish that there are so many of in this lake, it's not uncommon for guys to come down here and catch 25 or 30 this size, even larger, but this is what you can expect about a two and a half to three pound bass.

Real healthy.

- Oh, yeah.

Let's put him in the live well.

Let me get my camera, we'll take a few pictures of him.

That's a great lookin' picture.

He's bright colors, spawnin' color, yep.

- Yeah, he'll make a good fish for pictures.

- Yeah, let's take a picture.

Let me get my camera.

- Okay.

- [Paul] Hey, Joe, you know, I noticed that that tree has just been recently cut and chained, what's the deal with that?

- [Joe] You know, I've just noticed it myself.

What they're doin', is they're doin' an enhancement for the fish in the the, they're addin' structure to the lake, I've noticed between today and yesterday, everywhere I go I'm seein' these trees cut down, and they're cabled off I guess so they'll stay put there.

But that is gonna make for really good, for crappie fishing and large mouth bass, I mean, the more cover you got, the more, the more predators there are to hide there, and it's gonna make the fishermen a better opportunity to catch them.

- [Paul] Obviously, for the average Joe coming on the weekend, it's obvious that those are the places to fish.

You can have a fun day.

- [Joe] Yeah, you know, this lake has got a lot of structure in it, a lot of rocks, and there's quite a few stumps, and little stick-ups brush piles, and things that's in it.

Now, they're cuttin' these trees down seems like about every cove I go in, I see a couple of them.

[water splashes] - [Paul] Oh, yeah, good job.

Twice on that stump.

- [Joe] Come back.

- [Paul] Yeah, that's a keeper.

Good job.

- All righty, want me to put him in the box for a picture?

- Yeah, put him in the pool, why don't you.

We took a nice picture of that last one, let's take another one.

- [Joe] Let's take a picture of this one.

- Now, Joe, as far as the time of day, I mean, we're kind of in a later pre-spawn early spawn kind of thing, I mean, do you find that you catch them first thing in the morning, or do you find as the day goes on, low light, you know, midday, I mean?

- You know, something I have always done, and I think it works pretty good, maybe bass for me, I try to catch the pre-spawn fish early in the day, that way I can get away with fishing faster, but it seems like when the sun gets up during the day, them bass that are in there in them coves spawnin' seems like to me, they get easier to catch the later in the day it gets because, you know, they're gettin' bombarded by these blue gill tryin' to get the eggs off the nest, and blue gill, you know, they're dormant at night, so in the day, the longer they get messed with by the blue gill the bass they just get ill, and it seems like to me they get easier to catch later in the day.

And the brighter the sun gets, the more aggressive the blue gill get, so a cloudy day is really not a good day to be catchin' fish off the bed.

They're a little harder because the blue gill are not as active on a cloudy day.

- So, you got to make sure you know whether to target the pre-spawners or the actually spawner based on a lot of different things is what you're sayin'.

- Exactly, that's right.

Yep, that's exactly right.

- [Paul] Oh, man, he whacked it.

[water splashes] Oh, oh yeah.

- Yeah.

- Very nice fish.

- That's what we like right there.

[water splashes] He eat that swim bait up now.

- Yeah, nice fish.

- Oh yeah.

- [Paul] That's why we come bass fishin' in the spring.

- [Joe] That's why we come bass fishin'.

Look how he got.

He come out of there and meant business on it.

There's somethin' about bein' on this side to get a bite.

- [Paul] I don't know what it is, but that certainly did the trick.

- Woo, now that's a little deputy sheriff there.

- What do you think, that's a five?

- Pushing five.

Picture?

- I'd like a picture of that one.

- All right, all right.

Nice fish.

Now he come out of there and showed his tail.

[he laughs] That was neat.

- Yeah, that was a very nice fish.

Hoo wee.

- Can we take a break after catchin' fish like that?

- Joe likes it on Randleman with the sun out.

He just, he just likes it better, he said the fishing is better, generally speaking, and we talked to somebody at the end of the day that fished the day before and it actually was really good, a lot of nice fish in that lake and you can see our last fish of the day was right at five pounds.

But all the fish were good, good fish.

Joe has fished all over the country.

He's probably one of the better bass fishermen in North Carolina, he's competed in a number of FLW tournaments and been successful, and he guides now throughout the triad, and if you like to bass fish, give him a call.

- Well, let's go find out, maybe some of his tips.

Let's go to Gear Time.

[cheery guitar music] - Well, Joe, we've had a nice morning, here at Randleman Reservoir, I mean, it's a spring day, we had great weather yesterday, 80 degree temperatures, thunderstorms move in, water cools off, gets a little murky, typical springtime stuff, with your variability and flexibility with these different lures, we were able to have a great, great morning of fishing.

Tell me, what you were throwing here.

- What I was using, was a little soft plastic swim bait about a five inch length and a little weighted hook to keep it where it'll run straight and basically what I am doing is just coming in these little spawnin' coves and it was cloudy and overcast and the water's a little murky, just covering a lot of water with it, just tryin' to see if I could make these spawnin' fish move or come for the bait because what they're doin' is they're tryin' to run these blue gill off their beds, and this, you know, represents that pretty good.

And, you know, some of them bite it and some of them miss it, so if I get a fish to miss it, I'll just follow back up with a Texas Red Lizard, you know, your natural green pumpkin colors, and try to home in on the little areas where the bass are spawnin'.

- And we've seen that with our first couple fish.

- Worked for us a couple of times, and it always does, usually it's better to have somethin' on the bottom to stay put.

But you have to find out where the fish is at.

- Cool.

- 'Cause we can't see 'em and a lizard really works good.

Now, what we have when we get a little wind pickin' up, I go to the little small, like a white spinner bait, that about a three eighths ounce and try to keep it in the wind and down the sides of these little spawnin' pockets and throw it at the cover, and, you know, the fish will bite this really good, and when it's slick I believe the swim bait will work a little better.

- You just use yours on bait caster, and me, I just used a standard spinner rod, and I used my bomber long a, which was combination of covering both the bait fish and search pattern.

I mean, it was able to do double digit duty for us, and pretty straight forward baits.

You know, pretty straight forward patterns for spring, you know, just a little adaptability with the weather, and we been able to have a great morning.

- Yes we were, and I was real tickled that bait there usually works good around spawnin' fish and, you know, it's really a good thing for fishing a pre-spawn fish and spawnin' bass fish.

- I like it especially when you wake it across the surface like we were doin' versus most people just jerkin' it hard.

So, well, let's get out there and try a little bit more.

- All right, let's do it.

- All right.

- I'm lookin' forward to it.

- Thanks, Joe for those tips, I'll give you Joe's number here.

It's on your screen if you'd like to give him a call and go fishing at the Randleman Reservoir.

Now, Donna's in the kitchen.

She's got a recipe that's gonna be a new one on me, it's Sweet and Sour Oysters.

[cheery guitar music] - Hi, today we're making Sweet and Sour Oysters in the kitchen, and I know a lot of times you go out and you get Sweet and Sour Pork or Sweet and Sour Chicken, well you can make this at home and it is just as great and you can make it with oysters or if you have scallops you can make them with that as well, or shrimp would be great, too, so.

Let's go ahead and get started.

I am going to take my pork breader and place it on my wax paper.

And then I have shucked and drained my oysters.

And I am going to dredge those into my pork breader, To coat those really well and shake off the excess and then we're gonna place them in your hot oil and fry those just for about two to three minutes.

You don't have to do, it doesn't take very long at all to cook these, even though you might think it does, but it doesn't, it's very quick.

So, we're gonna place those in there.

I have some in there already, that I started cooking already, I'm going to give those a turn.

So they get a nice golden brown.

And they're nice, they're just gonna be great.

So, we're gonna cook these for about three to four minutes, just until they're done.

And then we're also gonna be doing a stir fry that goes along with this.

So, we're gonna put in our celery, and then instead of slicing all of the peppers and onions myself, I found in the grocery store, in my store anyway, they're already done for you.

So, I'm all about that because theN I don't have to to slice and to take that time.

So this can be a quick and easy meal that you cook during the week because you are gonna use some convenience items that help you get it done quick and easy, but still gonna do a great meal for your family.

So, we're gonna saute those, you put broccoli in here whatever your family happens to like or you can use them for beautiful colors as well.

So, while that's sauteing we're gonna make a little the Sweet and Sour sauce, so we have some apricot jam or apricot preserves in our pan, and we're just heating that up, and then we're going to add about a cup of cocktail sauce to this.

There we go, and then we're just gonna mix this together until it's warm, and then that's ready to go.

So, we're gonna turn that off, 'cause it's already warm.

We're gonna mix that together.

And you want to cook your vegetables just until they're tender crisp unless your family likes them a little bit more done.

I like my stuff tender cooked, so that's how we serve it at my house.

So, we're just gonna mix all this together.

Make it a little bit of a stir fry, and then we're going to plate it.

So, it's gonna be lots of great colors.

We're gonna have the oysters in here.

You're gonna see that this is just gonna be a really quick great meal.

You can serve it with rice or with noodles, if you like.

If you're trying to not eat rice or noodles, you don't have to.

It's good just like it is.

Plate it on a nice white plate, you can see all these great colors.

And then we're just going to top it with our sauce.

Let's see.

And we can toss that or we can just leave it like this.

So, this is a quick and easy meal for you during the week or on the weekends, if you just want something quick and easy.

So, I hope you enjoy, the Sweet and Sour Oysters, and I look forward to seeing you next time here on Simple Cooking.

- Thanks, Donna, for that recipe.

That's one I've got to try.

Joe, let's go back to Randleman.

They only allow so many people there at a time to fish, there are some restrictions.

- That's right, this is a water supply reservoir, as we said earlier, and so there are restrictions.

We're gonna give you a website that you can go to and then we'll give you all the regulations, they're open certain days of the week, they allow 100 boats on the lake at one time, and there's some other restrictions, too, but it's really turned out to be, as a lot of new lakes, as we've seen through the years, Jordan comes to mind, when it first opened it was one of the great destinations for bass fishing, but with Randleman right now, the bass fishing is good, really good crappie, or croppie fishing, is going on right now.

Like I said, of you haven't fished the lake give it a try, if you've never bass fished before or crappie fish and want to try it there give Joe a call, again, he guides throughout the triad in a number of different lakes that we have in that region of the state, and you'll have fun.

- And something to remember, they only allow 100 boats at the time.

- That's right.

- So, you need to keep that in mind.

- Exactly.

- For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore, thank you for joining us today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- [Announcer] Make sure to visit our website for more information.

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

ncwildlife.org/winc.

- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

[light instrumental music] ♪