Learning the Water: Kayak Tournament Fishing at Lake Mackintosh

I. The Question

Some lakes are like old schoolmates or a friendly teacher who lives nearby; we just don’t see them all too often. When we do see them, we feel good. We leave after the visit and ask “Why don’t I visit more frequently?” Perhaps it’s because if we did, the magic might wear off. We would have too many good times and the rest of life would pale by comparison. In short, we’d become spoiled.

Or it might be that no matter how many times we go back, we always have a good time. The friendship gets stronger and every day is a new adventure. Even the quiet days are memorable. That’s being spoiled, too, in a good way.

Mackintosh, I confess, has spoiled me in the latter way. As we will see, some important kayak tournament fishing moments in North Carolina happened on the lake – and not only for me. The lake has shaped me and us like a good teacher does – it forms us, challenges us and makes learning a pleasure.

In previous articles in this series, I described El Dorado (Shearon Harris) and The North Pole (Falls Lake).  

I turn now to Mackintosh, or “Mack” as it is affectionately known. I will discuss some of my history on the lake below and try to identify some lessons. Identifying weaknesses, blind spots and flaws has been a goal of this “Learning the Water” article series. Admitting ignorance is also a key factor – to paraphrase a former U.S. Secretary of Defense, we have to sometimes announce that “we know that we don’t know.”

There is much I don’t know about Mack and its tributaries. One thing is for certain, however: Mackintosh is currently the best Largemouth fishery in the sport of kayak fishing in North Carolina. It has officially knocked Shearon Harris from the top of the list. It has taken a while for everyone to see it, but now we have the data to confirm it.  In order to understand how that happened, I will also assess the lake as a whole for kayak fishing, as I did in my previous posts.  

I would argue for now that the decisions made by wildlife officials, lake managers and other officials impact every lake, for better or worse. Artificial impoundments (“human-made” lakes) are never naturally “good” –artificial bodies of water require conscientious management. In the case of Mackintosh, the results have been spectacular.

Remember that every lake is unique, but they all share certain habits, too. As we will see, the structure of Mackintosh is part of what makes it special, and how it is managed by the city of Burlington is also a factor. These are two reasons for why it is the most kayak friendly lake in the region and also one of the best fisheries.

Long voyages can break friendships. They can also reinforce them. In the case of learning Mackintosh, it’s easy to feel like Lewis and Clark – it’s an amicable adventure and every drop of water contains a lesson. What then, could the problem be?

II. Lake Mackintosh

Mack stretches from eastern Guilford County to just south of Burlington in Alamance County. If you look at it on some maps, however, it does not appear as a lake but as a river (I have seen this on digital maps, too). I am not sure why it appears that way, but it does, and that glitch tells you what you need to know about the lake: it is basically a long, slow river.

More precisely, it is two rivers that merge to make a lake. The first “river” is composed of two creeks on the western end of the lake, Alamance Creek and Rock Creek. At the lake’s southern end, Big Alamance Creek pours into the lake. Once upon a time, the two arms (known as Little Alamance and Big Alamance) joined at the point that is west of Wheeler Road and flowed from there down to the Haw River at Swepsonville.

You can see the creek in the 1893 map below. The Haw River is the long vertical line on the right side. Alamance creek is the tributary running horizontally through the middle of the image.

And that is another clue: if you know the Haw River, you know it is filled with big fish. It was polluted by textile mills once upon a time; Alamance Creek was not. So when Burlington opened the lake in 1993, it must have been loaded with big river fish that lived upstream of the mills. I imagine a lot of lasting friendships were made on that lake as anglers enjoyed Mack’s unpressured early fishing. I know for a fact that several anglers in our kayak fishing scene learned to fish on the lake during those years, and it shows: they know it as well as anyone could.

But artificial lakes tend to age quickly. It is said they hit their peak productivity 10-15 years after they open. The City of Burlington manages Mack well, however. The lake is thirty years old and it is seeing a renaissance of late.

For purposes of contrast, consider Mack in relation to Falls Lake. Falls Lake is long, narrow and over-crowded with boat traffic.  Mack is long and narrow yet it sees moderate boat traffic. Boats are only allowed to run engines in the middle of the lake – the east and west ends are for paddlecraft and electric motors only. As a result, about one half of the lake is quiet and safe for kayaks.

The lack of big engines reduces aquatic noise pollution. As a result, fish are not as easily spooked, they venture shallow and roam more often, and the modest wave action does not erode shorelines or strip banks of cover. The lack of ambient noise also improves the quality of life for other species in the eco-system. In environmental terms, Mack is free of residual industrial pollution from the old nearby mills, and it is also free of noise pollution from excessive boat traffic.

Additionally, Mack also has strict rules regarding tournament fishing. Tournaments that employ livewells are not allowed during the summer months any longer. This rule reduces fish mortality and has done wonders for the fishery since it was instituted a few years ago.

In these ways and others, Mack is the most kayak-friendly lake in the region: its rules diminish boat traffic, it has two well-run, accessible launches at either end and its fishery is protected from unnecessary stress and pressure.

Furthermore, the lake’s banks are loaded with cover, it has deep water and road beds galore, and dozens of smaller creeks provide nutrients and fresh water. It is also open year-round to boaters, a rarity for a publicly managed lake.

In twelve years of fishing kayak tournaments, I have fished Lake Mackintosh eleven times. The main lake has sometimes baffled me, especially during the spawn. But overall, the lake has shaped me as an angler in some important ways. It’s hard to explain how we interact with things like lakes, but I will do my best.

III. No Problem?

I fished Lake Mackintosh for the first time at a Carolina Yakfish tournament on April 28^th, 2013. I finished in third place on a hot day. The bite was tough. Even with a three fish limit, many anglers failed to fill a bag. I managed to cash my first check that day – a stupendous sum of one hundred and thirty dollars. I felt like a millionaire.

Since that time, I have fished Mackintosh most often for CKA’s Gate City Classic in September of every season. Sometimes I may not fish it for a season and then I fish it twice in a single year. In 2022, I fished the lake in three tournaments with three different fishing organizations (CKA, CCKF and KFL). Here are a few basic facts that shape what I will say about the lake:

• I have fished a tournament on Mack a total of eleven times. In those events, I only failed twice to catch a limit of either 3 or five fish (in September of 2020 and in the spring of 2022).
• I have fished the lake 8 times during mid-to-late summer (July-September).
• I have fished the lake three times in mid-to-late spring.
• In eleven tournaments, I have launched four times from the eastern Alamance ramp and seven times from the western Guilford ramp.

In addition to cashing my first check there in 2013, there are several other firsts on the list:

2015: I caught my first fish on plastics in competition, while dragging a T-rig on a very hot day. Later that season at the Gate City Classic, I landed my first 20” bass in competition in Little Alamance Creek, on a small tributary creek. I capped my limit in Rock Creek, and that last fish qualified me for the 2016 KBF National Championship.

2016: I fished the lake again in late summer and again for the Gate City Classic. I finished in 6^th place in CKA’s Angler of the Year race (my first top 10 finish) as a result.

2017-2021: I fished the lake for every Gate City Classic. My best finish was 10^th place (in 2021), when I was runner-up to the Angler of the Year (also a first). I had my first top ten finish on the lake in 2021.

2022: I had my worst day on the lake in the spring of 2022 (CKA), a 6^th place finish (in an August CCKF event) and I came close to landing my first 100” limit during a KFL team event (I had 99.75”). I fished Little Alamance Creek for the first event and Big Alamance Creek for the following two.

2023: In the spring of 2023, I landed my first five-fish limit over 100”, finally joining the century club. My limit of 102.25” is second best only to Rick Rowland’s 104.75” on Mack in 2021. It was my first win on Mack and my fourth win in CCKF competition.

That’s a lot of firsts. Note a few trends, however:

• After focusing on the deeper east end of the lake in the early years (three of four events between 2013-2016), my attention shifted to the western end. In those seven events, I have three top ten finishes (including a win).
• Here is the interesting wrinkle, in my opinion: those three top ten finishes all came from different areas of the lakes, with fish spread out over several locations. When I review all eight events on the west end of the lake, my catches have been spread out over several miles of water, and I have caught significant fish from all three major tributaries as well as some of the smaller creeks that flow into them.

With this record of success, you would think “no problem – the entire lake is great!” The problem in fact is that while Mack is productive, its peaks areas of productivity move. They are subject to water levels from tributaries, and also a wild – roaming schools of big bass that can appear at any place, and at any time.

An angler fishing the lake will sometimes witness astounding feeding frenzies as the lake’s bass attack baitfish near the surface. From a distance, these can resemble Striped bass blitzing bunker in the open sea. Feeding schools can appear anywhere, at any time, but they do seem to happen in some areas more regularly than others.

So, we have a long, narrow lake, multiple tributaries and unpredictable schools of bass. There is one more item to consider: Mack is productive from end-to end.

As they say, that’s a good problem to have.

IV. The Evidence

Instead of examining Mack in terms of my personal history, or considering the topography of the lake, let’s examine the bigger picture. How does it stack up in the history of kayak fishing tournaments in North Carolina?

If we were to examine the best kayak fishing tournament results in the era of the three-fish limit, I suspect one lake would hold the top spot: Shearon Harris. As we will see below, Harris does not hold up as well in the era of the five-fish limit. However, it might have been the case that it produced similar or bigger limits had there been a five-fish limit back then (it produced one in a KBF Trail event in 2017). We don’t know, and we can’t know – we can only make an informed guess. But asking how Shearon Harris compares to Mack is a false analogy.

What we can do, however, is examine the data from Mack since 2020, and compare it to other lakes in the era of the five-fish limit in kayak tournament fishing. By doing so, I will situate my own history within the lake’s broader, recent history.

Another danger persists: it is that I will risk giving credit to the lake instead of the angler. We all have to learn the water, and there is always a give-and-take between the fisher and the fishery.

But as I noted above, Mackintosh is a generous lake. It makes every angler look good.

Let’s look whether the numbers support the claim.

Below are the six biggest limits caught in live, in-person single day kayak tournaments in North Carolina since 2020. Both clubs have a five fish maximum limit.

CCKF stats

CCKF began holding in-person tournaments in late 2020. Since then, it has held 25 live, single day events. In those, there have been four limits caught that measured over 100”. Two were caught at Lake Mackintosh, one was caught at Jordan Lake and another at an indeterminate lake in the Raleigh area:

Lake	Angler	Date	Length	Link
Mack	Ricky Rowland	July 2021	104.75”	Standings
Raleigh Area Lake	Will Lambert	July 2023	103.25”	Standings
Mack	Hank Veggian	April 2023	102.25”	Standings
Jordan	Will Lambert	May 2022	102”	Standings

CKA stats

CKA adopted a 5 fish limit in 2020. In 32 live, single day events since that time, two limits over 100” have been caught in CKA competition:

Lake	Angler	Date	Length	Link
Thom-A-Lex	Bryan Tsiolkas	July 2022	102”	Standings
Mack	Jeremy Hicks	April 2022	101”	Standings

I am going to publish a longer analysis of these numbers at the end of the season (and it will include the results of the remaining 2023 events, one of which is on Mack). In the meantime, let’s note an interesting fact: in a total of 57 combined CKA and CCKF events, Mack accounts for 50% of the 100” limits caught to date (three out of six).

So, with these gaudy numbers, what’s the problem? And what is the solution?

My history on the lake favors the western end and it also favors the late summer months, as bass move closer to their autumn ways, when they roam and chase schools of bait. As a result, I have learned to fish the lake by accepting the fact that it is unpredictable.

Mack has taught me to never fish history and to always keep looking. It has also taught me that when I find fish, I should stay with them.

V. In Conclusion

First, Mack is a generous lake. It has big populations of big bass that wander its riverine structure. It is narrow and long, with multiple tributaries (unlike many lakes, it even has a tributary on its south end). In fact, it is itself an impoundment of a tributary of the Haw River. Now, it’s not the Mississippi River, but anglers will be surprised when they learn that Mack’s tributaries are many, and a consistent factor in why the lake fishes so well.

Additionally, the lake is healthy from end to end. For instance, tournaments have been won from both ends of the lake. No matter where you are on Mack, there is a chance you can catch a long limit.

And those roaming schools of big bass make for additional surprises.

With that being said, Mack has its moods. A dedicated angler must learn the lake’s rhythms. For me, moving water is a key, but many anglers will attest that the deep bite at Mack is as good as any.

Can an angler predict the activity? No. But you can be ready to capitalize on it –  always have topwater or a spoon in hand should a school surface nearby.

On a personal note, it’s important to acknowledge that while Mack is the most kayak friendly and productive lake in the North Carolina Piedmont, the catch data only tells a part of that story.

On a peaceful morning, Mack is as serene at quiet as any remote mountain lake. Its shorelines are mostly undeveloped and it is surprisingly quiet despite its proximity to major roads and highways. Natural structures like rock formations make for attractive fishing areas, calm tributaries can be fished at every end of the lake and the “no motor” rule that governs large areas of the water makes for calm water on even the busiest days. It is the rare instance of a large body of water that is very friendly to paddlecraft, and we should all be thankful that the City of Burlington manages the lake as it does.

Mack really is an angler’s lake. Because I am not looking over my shoulder in most areas for speeding boats or reckless jet skis, the lake is conducive to both fishing and reflection. I can think through what I am doing and learn, even when I don’t catch many fish. It’s a fun classroom in which to learn and make a friend. If you are lucky, you will catch the limit of a lifetime, like I did in 2023.

First published July 16, 2023. The author did not use any machine to generate written content in the composition of this article.

© Henry Veggian 2023. This material may not be copied, broadcast or re-published without written consent.