Watuaga Lake, TN May 2007

Brian and I tried to meet at a lake in between our homesteads, that would appears to have some fish.

Watuaga Lake in TN was a nice lake that had some good cabin rentals, so we gave it a try. It was a hot day (in the 80s) the first day on the lake and second day was in the 60s, big difference.

We were able to pull in a few cats as well as a few nice smallmouths.

Overall lake score: good

Annual Trip: Claytor Lake, VA 2006 October

For this trip we only had 4 guys: Steve, Brian, Ed and Keith

This was one of our best trips. The cabin right next to the water with a dock. Fishing was excellent. The first day we hit some high winds which caused us some problems in keeping the boats still as the steep lake bottom didn't catch our anchors. Saturday and Sunday, were great. We hit some great crappie sports up near the dam. We also tried our hand at night stripers and got one in the boat.

Overall Lake Score: Excellent
It just about has it all

Claytor Lake State Park

Annual Trip: South Holston Lake, TN 2005 Sept

This trip was our first TN lake and first one on a mountain lake (apart from the WV ones).

Regulars were there with: Brian, Steve, Paul, Ed and Keith. The hillside house we stayed at was nice, if you were a 70 year old woman. It met our needs though. The killer 7 flights of stairs to the water could have been done without.

The three days of fishing was far. We had a hard time locating the smallmouth, crappie and walleye on the lake (which we were expecting to find). Just happens in the last hours of our trip, we hit the crappie hard.

Overall lake score: Good
It has potential, though accommodations are not great for those gaining in age. And we aren't getting any younger.

South Holston Reservior

Annual Trip: Sept Stonewall Jackson Lake, WV 2004

This was our first house boat experience (and may be our last). It was sort of nice being on the water full-time but would have been better to be a bit more nibble. We had Steve, Brian, Paul, Keith, Ed and Nomar on the large barge. Fishing was fair to poor, Brian had a bit of luck out in his kayak, especially towards the end of the weekend.

Overall lake score: Fair
It has very good potential, we just didn't experience it first hand.