"Fishing Holes"

[CWtheMan]

Pan Fish

When traveling I just love to find a nice fishing hole, so to speak. So much so I carry a little Walker Bay boat atop my truck cab and a nice little trolling motor to push it around. I carry fresh and salt water fishing gear. Never can tell what’s biting.

All around the southern states right now the elusive, delicious crappie are becoming active. A really hard boiled crappie fan will find them year round. But, in the spring and fall months they are most active and a lot easier to find.

Merritt’s Mill Pond near Marianna, FL is a clear, spring fed pond and is home to most of the popular fish you’ll find in southern lakes and ponds. However, the pan fish just seem to grow larger there than at other places and the state record “Red Ear” has been caught there. We normally stay at the Arrowhead Campsites where I can launch my little boat and fish in close where I find the crappie. I can’t say much good about the campsites. If the place makes any profit they don’t put much back into upkeep. But, our utilities (FHU) have always worked well without popping circuit breakers and the trash was picked-up daily. And, the fishing is always satisfying and that’s why I stop there.

The first picture is just a file picture showing the Walker Bay and how I carry it. The boat and rails are less than 100#.

The next too pictures were taken at Arrowhead and show our parking site and one of the small fishing piers the Campsite has for anyone to use.

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[busterbrown]

I like the little boat idea. I've been racking my brain trying to find a way to transport something small like this. I may look into it further. Are the rails easily removable on your RAM?

[CWtheMan]

I like the little boat idea. I've been racking my brain trying to find a way to transport something small like this. I may look into it further. Are the rails easily removable on your RAM?


I special ordered the rails. They are very sturdy and are designed to clip-on. They come with a special tool and are very easy to put on/take off. I take them off when not taking the boat, they whistle at highway speeds.

[CWtheMan]

This place gets booming four to five times a year. NASCAR racing at Talladega Motor Speedway and fishing tournaments in the wonderful chain of lakes are the draw.

There is a Chevron fuel station, convenient store, conference room, laundry room, over 200 full hook-up sites, boat storage, mini storage, swimming area, picnic grounds, liquor store and boutique, diner, boat dealership and repair, and fuel on land and by water just to name a few! And the fishing is great.

We will normally visit there a couple of times a year. We visit between events and during week days when we can get our pick of sites. Just walking along and fishing under the numerous fishing piers can be very productive during those times. There is a great selection of live or artificial baits at the convenient store year round.

You can always get a half dozen (better than 12 oz) pan fish for supper every day. We usually freeze a two day supply for later on down the road.

http://lakesidelandingmarinarv.com/index.html

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[JRTJH]

As for "fishin' holes" there's a pretty big one right up the road from us. We don't usually take the trailer since it's so close, but fishin' is darn near excellent every time we've gone.... Right out of Petoskey in the bay are some of the biggest salmon and lake trout in Lake Michigan.

[CWtheMan]

Second only to the natural beauty of the beaches in this park is the fishing/observation pier.

At the entrance to the pier there is a large trinket store with a variety of fishing bait, restrooms and a sit down snack shop. Across the street is a modern “outhouse” building with restrooms & showers for bathers, etc.

We had no problem getting a site for our 38’ trailer. As you can see in the picture there was even room for visitor parking in our site.

Topping it off was a nice catch of reds.

http://www.keystoneforums.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1083&pictureid=6227

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[CrazyCain]

As for "fishin' holes" there's a pretty big one right up the road from us. We don't usually take the trailer since it's so close, but fishin' is darn near excellent every time we've gone.... Right out of Petoskey in the bay are some of the biggest salmon and lake trout in Lake Michigan.



Great catch John and Terry..I love fishing for those bad boys. Love me some Lakers from Lake Michigan :cool:

[Ken / Claudia]

Nice photo's CW.
My fishing hole is named the Pacific Ocean going out through the Columbia river. A friend says the river has too many sand bars as he was found many. In the Ocean the nearest sand bar is Hawaii. I won't go that far to check.
So, I will take him at his word.
The truth is I go into the ocean in bigger boats than mine.

[CWtheMan]

Nice photo's CW.
My fishing hole is named the Pacific Ocean going out through the Columbia river. A friend says the river has too many sand bars as he was found many. In the Ocean the nearest sand bar is Hawaii. I won't go that far to check.
So, I will take him at his word.
The truth is I go into the ocean in bigger boats than mine.

Mine were aircraft carriers....31 years USN.....LOL!

[gkainz]

Mine were aircraft carriers....31 years USN.....LOL!



I never could get a rig in the water from the fantail and the skipper never got the speed right for trolling. :)

[CWtheMan]

This was one of those “by chance” overnight sites we took and ended-up staying 2 nights. That’s because they let us drive thru and pick our site. We would never have taken a water only site without first seeing it.

It was late spring and we were just meandering along highway NY37 on the St Lawrence River when we spotted the entrance to the park. We had just finished boat touring the thousand islands and were headed to our next lay-over at an RV resort on Apple Island, VT. The weather was beautiful and we roughed it for two nights. They had super dump/flush stations for use on departure. In the picture of a park road there is a blue hydrant. That’s a fresh water outlet.

While cutting fresh sticks for roasting marshmallows I noticed some fish swimming close to the rocks. Most were about 10” – 14” and looked like bass. I got out a light crappie rod & reel with 5” test line, used a black crappie jig and had some fun trying to get one, which I did.

We spent our whole time there right at our site on the water. Played some corn hole, did a little fishing and enjoyed the fire ring – the park attendants delivered fire wood on request. (We didn’t eat the fish. They were released right back into the river).

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[Northofu1]

The great lakes have great fishing. Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) Pike, Walleye, Muskellunge are second to none. Those along with Bass are my fish of choice. Nice pictures guys.
:)

[CWtheMan]

I’ve been known to fish for gold. Here’s proof. These were taken at a stream out behind the 1880s train station at Keystone, SD. Don’t let someone hold your camera when prospecting, LOL!

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Dang, no luck!

[Msmith2054]

Mine were aircraft carriers....31 years USN.....LOL!
We call them “Targets”!...........24 Years USN Submarine Service.......also LoL!

[Fishsizzle]

We try and do a spring and fall trip to the coast.

The spring trips I fish the lakes around for Bass or Trout.

The fall always revolves around Salmon. This beaut was caught fishing off the rocks (jetty) I don’t always get to take the boat, but always have gear in the trailer

[lindy46]

Lots of boats fishing for Crappy on Caney Creek which flows into the Tennessee River (Watts Bar Lake). They're just getting started now and will continue into May.

[CWtheMan]

We try and do a spring and fall trip to the coast.

The spring trips I fish the lakes around for Bass or Trout.

The fall always revolves around Salmon. This beaut was caught fishing off the rocks (jetty) I don’t always get to take the boat, but always have gear in the trailer

The grin tells it all. (ty)

[Fishsizzle]

The grin tells it all. (ty)


When I’m happiest

Same river, but HW drug boat over for me

[CWtheMan]

Next time you’re traveling I-40 in TN and want to relax for a week or 10 days this is the place. The brochure link below tells it all.

https://tnstateparks.com/parks/natchez-trace

The last time we were there we had the largest FHU site we can remember ever having. Each of their CGs have names. Ours was Pin Oak. There were a lot of tall trees blocking our dish signal but the site was so large I just kept moving the antenna until I had a signal. They also allowed one wash day.

The receipt for your site is your fishing license for all park waters during your stay. Right across the road from our site there was a nice path down to a cove off the lake. Great fishing and I got a limit in Bass in less than two hours with the largest about 20” in length. On another day I ventured down near deeper water near the dam and got a nice catch of medium size crappie. They were finicky and would only take smallish live bait.

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[kksfish]

CW, here is another one for you to try. Navy Lake Sites Lake Allatoona. It is located about a half hour north of Atlanta on lake Allatoona. They offer the usual canoe and kayak rentals as well as pontoon boats! They have four docks with covered slips for authorized users offer fuel sales. There area limited number of Rv sites all wooded and shaded water and electric only. The only negative to the sites is that they are relatively small areas cleared. This lake also had COE campground, boat ramps, picnic facilities and several public CG and ramps.
I can’t say how good the fishing is but I saw a lot of fishermen on the lake ! We were only there one night on our way back to Savannah froth Nashville, but I plan on going back!

[CWtheMan]

When traveling in AZ & CA Aqueduct areas you may find that your RV Park is bordered by one of them. They are loaded with fish. The ones I’m familiar with had a variety of fish including black bass, stripers, pan fish and cat fish. All were very clean and very eatable. None are very big. The bass may get to 15-20”. Catfish average about 3#.

We have wintered twice in senior parks in Yuma. Both were bordered by large Aqueducts. But, in that area the best fishing was at the Imperial Sand Dunes area just across the border into CA where you can find designated fishing areas.

Here is a picture taken from a frontage road at an area of the Imperial Sand Dunes that borders I-8 and the Aqueduct flows beside I-8.

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