Debbie and I headed over to Tippett's Mill this morning. This is an old mill pond that used to be called Taylor's Mill Pond, back in the day. This is BIG place, fed by Moccasin creek and several smaller feeders. At the entrance / boat landing, there's cool old building...may have been part of the original mill house, but I don't know. It's basically a country bar where a lot of locals hang out. Nice place to grab a beer at the end of the day, with a very scenic roaring dam next door. .
Anyway, this place has a wide variety of fish...large mouth bass, bluegill, black crappie, chain pickerel, catfish...I don't know what else. during the heatof the summer, there's LOTS of cover to fish off of (lillypads, etc). This pond is llooonnnngggggg.... We had the boat at least a mile or more up in the head end, and could have gone further. Piles of structure, etc. It was a good day for me, here's a few pics...
A pic as we were headed into the pond, looking back at the bar/millhouse. The water was calm, just a tiny breeze, and the temps were already near 70 degrees (on February 8!!).
I picked this black crappie up as we were cruising along, throwing a beetle spin rigged with a Strike King Smokey Shad grub.
I started throwing a watermelon Zoom Super Fluke, rigged weightless with a 4/O Skeet Reese wide space hook, skin hooked on the top. Throwing to the bank and pulling it back, this guy hit it right at the bank... Never caught a pickerel that close to the bank, before.
A shot up the lake, as we continued to move along. Beautiful place!
Debbie was casting for Black Crappie. Barefooted on Feb 8, in a NC pond. Crazy weather, but we'll take it any day!!
This is the biggest beaver hut I think I've ever seen. This one was waayyy up in the head of the pond, where Moccasin creek comes in. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's at least 15 feet across!
Still throwing the fluke, this guy rolled out from some cover and hit it hard. I wish I'd have taken a shot of his belly, it was unusually wide, like he had been eating at the buffet a lot :-)
This pic belongs to the fish below. Totally couldn't believe this one!!
We were at least a mile up in the head where
Moccasin Creek runs in. Caught this girl on a Zoom Fluke, rigged
weightless and skin hooked with 4/O Skeet Reese hook. Casting up into
all that marsh growth, she was laying only maybe 15 ft from the boat and
nailed it. Pulled like a Mack truck! I was really surprised by the fact that Debbie and I were that close to her, laughing and talking, making noise, and she wasn't spooked.
