“I’m usually successful at catching something,” he said. “Yesterday I caught six, and I ate two and gave the rest away because I have a full freezer.
“But I keep going because I just love fishing. I’ve been fishing for years. I did it with my granddaddy. I sometimes walk the trail and just look for an open spot.”
He’s lost a lot of poles in the river, but sometimes he pulls poles out of it, so it evens out.
Lisa “Cricket” Perez shared a picture from several years ago when she caught a large smallmouth bass while fishing below the dam behind Woodall Auto Mall. She worked at a dental office on West Main Street and would fish on her lunch hour and after work. The fish was quickly released after the photo was taken.
‘Trophy fishery’
The Dan River is a “trophy fishery,” according to Lisa “Cricket” Perez, an avid fisherman, a term which also applies to women. The dental hygienist is also a volunteer with the Dan River Basin Association, a independent fishing guide and fly fishing instructor.
“I have caught so many different species of fish out of the Dan River along the walking trail — smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, gar, bream, walleye, striped bass, blue catfish, flathead catfish, channel catfish and even a rainbow trout in the winter,” she said.
She’s still in search of one of the huge carps she knows are out in the river, though.
Her favorite spots to fish off the Riverwalk Trail are the Dan Daniel Park former steam plant dam area, the railroad trestle, the U.S. 29 north bridge and behind Woodall Auto Mall.
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