This Land, Your Land

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is draining Upchurch Lake in Hoke County to repair a broken standpipe in the dam, the Commission said in a news release. The lake is a public fishing area managed by the Commission on the Nicholson Creek Game Land.

Repairs to the dam should be completed by mid-spring, and the 37-acre impoundment should reach full pool about two months later. The Commission will restock the lake with channel catfish in late spring or early summer of 2010, bluegill in the fall and bass in the spring of 2011, Keith Hendrickson, a fisheries technician with the Commission, said.

Two other ponds to the right of the main access road before Upchurch Lake remain open and have good largemouth bass and bluegill populations, according to Hendrickson. Lake Rim, another Wildlife Commission public fishing area, is located about 15 minutes north on U.S. 401, across the street from the John E. Pechmann Fishing Education Center in Fayetteville.