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| Pickwick Lake - April 8th-13th, 2012 Dave Schabell and Paul Rauch |
| This is the second year that Paul Rauch and I teamed up for a Pickwick Lake trip. Pickwick is part of the Tennessee River chain, located at the juncture of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. The tailrace of Pickwick is the headwater of Kentucky Lake. It is one of the few major impoundments where I can go, confident that we will catch plenty of fish, with the chance for a personal best smallmouth or largemouth bass. |
| Paul Staying Connected, Even in the fog. |
| We literally caught hundreds of fish on this trip, the majority were 10 to 14 inch smallmouth or largemouth, but there were the occasional channel catfish and drum (sheepshead), which Bill Hagedorn nicknamed "Fresh Water Permit." The crappie caught were in the 15 inch range. Almost 100% of the fish caught on this trip came on 3 inch or 4 inch Yum or Kalin Grubs, in some shade of green. No, we didn't eat any, or bring any home. Paul had designs on bringing home some catfish, BUT we were staying in a standard double sized motel room, with no fish cleaning or storing facilities. The weather was quite cool in the mornings, dipping down to the mid-thirties, but by the time the sun came up it quickly warmed up to the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. We had one brief rain shower that lasted about ten minutes, and high wind on Thursday, other than that it was gorgeous. |
| One of the several 19 inch smallies caught in the gap on Tuesday morning. |
| Rocky outcroppings, shale, underwater rocks, and downed timber make up the majority of the fishable structure. |
| Paul with one of those "Freshwater Permit" |
| That's a Pickwick Black Crappie folks! |
| Some of our most productive structure is flagpoles. They sit on points that attract fish. |
| When I first went to Pickwick, the island below was about 200 feet long and had three tall trees growing on it. |
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| Each year the Mader clan gathers at Pickwick for a week of fishing. I'm not sure how many made the trip this year, but I'm thinking about six or eight. The Maders like to keep a few for the table. The fish displayed below were caught Friday. The majority are largemouth bass. |
| Not the Caribbean - Just Pickwick |
| Bill Hagedorn and perhaps Chris Hagedorn and I will be returning to Pickwick next week, starting April 22nd and will stay through April 28th when we will return home for Derby Week. Another report will be filed then - on a daily basis, IF I can remember to take along my laptop power cord. |
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