08-03-2014, 05:52 PM
Greetings all,
I decided to check out The Knolls Saturday morning and was pleasantly surprised. I'll begin by saying that the road down to the lake at Mile Marker 19 has been graded (including the washed out bit right before the lake so your truck or even your car can make it down to the shore. I spoke to a Sheriff a couple weeks back and he told me that the gravel road just above high water mark is fair game which gives a couple hundred yards of access. It's an easy 15-20 yard pack to get your tube/boat/chair to the water (note: you're not supposed to drive below said road hence my conversation with the sheriff (who was very nice about it by the way)).
Now the good bits. I launched at the crack of 8:00 AM from the north end of the access area (give me a break, I get up early all week). It was breezy and I rowed into the wind for a good bit north to the first big bunch of phragmites. I anchored up and tossed a worm with a piece of shrimp out on my catfish rod and started to rig my light rod with a sweet Tube Dude jig. It took almost an hour to get that rod rigged because those pesky kitties wouldn't leave me alone. I released the first three or four but then decided to take some home for a change.
I finally got the light rod going when there was a lull in the action and managed a couple white bass too. There was a little excitement when a 24" catfish attacked my light rod jig and took off on a wild jumping spree. I got said kitty boat side after a few minutes and was about to net him, when my other rod started singing. First rod under my leg and off we go with number two. I was a much shorter battle (proper rod for the job) and soon I had two kittes frolicking in my net.
At about 2:00 I was out of worms and out of almost out of beverages so I headed back toward the truck. By then the wind had died and water was smooth so I looked for carp slurping on the surface. They weren't everywhere, but when I found them, I was rewarded with a couple hours of fun shooting. I would row up-wind from the fish and let the wind push me through them while I steered with my fins.....good stuff.
I will say the nice thing about The Knolls is that the power boat traffic doesn't usually make it down that far which makes for a very pleasant and quiet spot to fish. Final score 10 catfish (all 22"-29", I only kept 5), 4 white bass (all smallish) and 8 carp (in about 100 attempts)...a very nice day.
After looking at the catfish picture, I realized I should have put something in it for scale (I'll work on my photography).
[signature]
I decided to check out The Knolls Saturday morning and was pleasantly surprised. I'll begin by saying that the road down to the lake at Mile Marker 19 has been graded (including the washed out bit right before the lake so your truck or even your car can make it down to the shore. I spoke to a Sheriff a couple weeks back and he told me that the gravel road just above high water mark is fair game which gives a couple hundred yards of access. It's an easy 15-20 yard pack to get your tube/boat/chair to the water (note: you're not supposed to drive below said road hence my conversation with the sheriff (who was very nice about it by the way)).
Now the good bits. I launched at the crack of 8:00 AM from the north end of the access area (give me a break, I get up early all week). It was breezy and I rowed into the wind for a good bit north to the first big bunch of phragmites. I anchored up and tossed a worm with a piece of shrimp out on my catfish rod and started to rig my light rod with a sweet Tube Dude jig. It took almost an hour to get that rod rigged because those pesky kitties wouldn't leave me alone. I released the first three or four but then decided to take some home for a change.
I finally got the light rod going when there was a lull in the action and managed a couple white bass too. There was a little excitement when a 24" catfish attacked my light rod jig and took off on a wild jumping spree. I got said kitty boat side after a few minutes and was about to net him, when my other rod started singing. First rod under my leg and off we go with number two. I was a much shorter battle (proper rod for the job) and soon I had two kittes frolicking in my net.
At about 2:00 I was out of worms and out of almost out of beverages so I headed back toward the truck. By then the wind had died and water was smooth so I looked for carp slurping on the surface. They weren't everywhere, but when I found them, I was rewarded with a couple hours of fun shooting. I would row up-wind from the fish and let the wind push me through them while I steered with my fins.....good stuff.
I will say the nice thing about The Knolls is that the power boat traffic doesn't usually make it down that far which makes for a very pleasant and quiet spot to fish. Final score 10 catfish (all 22"-29", I only kept 5), 4 white bass (all smallish) and 8 carp (in about 100 attempts)...a very nice day.
After looking at the catfish picture, I realized I should have put something in it for scale (I'll work on my photography).
[signature]
