So me and two of my old buddies set out about 6:30 Am Friday morning west bound toward Asheville (thats all your gettin). This was Justin's first time and only my third trip. Bryan goes out there on the regular so we let him drive and show us the way. When we got up there we loaded up with about 8 dozen minnows and 10 crappie rods.
At first I was a bit worried. We trolled around the dock and caught nothing. We headed up the lake a bit to a rock wall that drops straight off very deep. We always catch fish here and the last time up I was catching two at a time on a double rig. Today however Bryan reeled in a few small crappie and one yellow perch but nothing special. We all were running one rod with a bobber about 5-6 foot deep and then one rod straight down off the side of the boat at anywhere from 15-30 feet. We trolled on down the shore and still had no hits. I looked over and saw the worry and frustration on Justins face after we had been talkin this place up so much and now it wasnt producing. We tried deep water, rock points, and finally we rolled up on an old tree that stuck out in the water 25 feet or so. BAM the bobber went down. Then Bryan hooked one off of one of the rods he had off the side. Nothing big but we pulled about 10 fish off that one tree.
We hoped we were on to something and looked across the lake and saw another simular tree. We decided to go straight across and troll up the shore line till we got to the tree. Well we caught nothing all the way up the shore. As we neared the tree I got impatient and casted way up the shore to the tree. As soon as the bait hit the water it went down and whatever it was it was big. I fought it for a few minuted and was worried about my line breaking. I pulled it up to the side of the boat and it was a big 10-12 lbs blue catfish caught off a crappie jig. As we got closer we started to catch crappie as fast as we could reel them in. This was it, they were laying on trees today. We set at this tree for 2 hours and constantly reeled them in. This was how it was suppose to work. The funny thing was Bryan hooked up a 2.5 lbs crappie and then another 2 pounder and I followed him with a few well over a pound. Justin on the other hand caught fish but nothing over 10 inches. He would cast in the same spots but pull out small ones while we pulled out some slab crappie. Finally though his luck turned around and he hooked up a few nice keepers.
We spent the rest of the day hitting trees and brush and catching the fish. As I said we caught well over 200 fish and kept 60 solid crappie. right before we left I hooked up with one that fought for a n=minute and then evidently wrapped up around a log because as I gave it a big pull my rod snapped at the butt. nice way to end the day.
When we got back to the dock we talked to some guys who were putting in and they said they were about to go try to hook up with some bass. I asked the guy if there was many in there as all I have ever fished for there was crappie. He said that there were alot and many around 10 lbs!! Now all I can think about is taking a trip back to see if I can find on of those 10 pounders.
As we pulled back into the driveway about 9:30 all I could say its "this is about the time of day I wish we would have thrown them all back". We spent the next 2 hours filleting crappie.
I guess it was worth it in the end.
Another great day of fishing at our private (though there seem to be more and more people there every time we go) lake in the Nc mountains.
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