By now I’m sure you’re wondering about the great crappie expedition to Lake Weiss, Ala. I’ve told people the trip was great, the company was a blessing, fishing was fine, but the catching left a bit to be desired.

We arrived there on the tail end of a cold front a little before noon Thursday and settled in at our fishing camp. Soon enough we were on the lake in a tributary called Yellow Creek. To say it was slow would be too kind. I think I had one bite. Bill and Todd Logsdon, who let me tag along, caught a few but the wind was still blowing cold and the crappie at the crappie capital of the world just weren’t cooperating.

After a spectacular meal that night at a place Bill knew called Fibber’s, we settled in hoping for a better day on Friday.

I was fortunate to fish in the company of a professional guide, Stan Reynolds, on Friday along with Tommy Wray and the three of us managed to boat 30 nice crappie including a few in the two pound range. Bro. Richard Martin and Rollie Carey also fished with a guide and caught a like number. We were using a method they called “pullin’” which is akin to trolling in our parts. Meanwhile some of our friends were stuggling to boat a few keepers.

Three of our party, Wray, Bob Strickland and Perry Martin, had gone down earlier than the rest of us and had been shooting docks, which involves carefully placing a lure under a dock. I tried that briefly but soon learned it takes experience I don’t have. That method paid off for them and they ended up with a decent catch at the end of the day.

Some of the group, including yours truly, decided to forego the half-day fishing on Saturday and traveled home Friday night. Those that stayed said Saturday was not that much better.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience, especially the company of a group of Christian men. It’s something that I would like to do again sometime soon. One of our goals was to catch enough crappie for our “Young At Heart” fish fry in June. I think we accomplished that in good fashion. My personal thanks to Todd Logsdon, who volunteered to filet all our fish. We look forward to frying them up.

While we were at Weiss, old buddy Ed Darst and some fellows from the newly formed oldtimers fishing club were smallmouth fishing on Dale Hollow with John and Johnny Rush. The weather here wasn’t all that good either but they managed to catch 10 smallies with Wilbur Carroll securing big fish honors on a 20 3/4 incher. As you read this, some of the group is at Kentucky Lake fishing for crappie out of Camp Currie.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife will have a special stocking of lake sturgeon into the Cumberland River near Corbin on April 17. More than 200 fish will be released at the Mouth of Laurel Boat Ramp 11 a.m. While states to the north have stable populations of lake sturgeon, this species has not been caught in Kentucky’s interior waters for more than 50 years and is considered critically imperiled in the state. Kentucky is embarking on a 20-year program to restore these fish. The year-old fish being released next month were hatched from eggs obtained from stable lake sturgeon populations in the upper Mississippi River. The 6- to 10-inch fish are being raised at the Pfeiffer Fish Hatchery near Frankfort.

How to get there: From Interstate 75, take exit 25 at Corbin to U.S. 25 West. Go west, away from Corbin. Near Greenland Baptist Church, take a right onto Ky. 1193. After several miles, this road meets Ky. 1277. Continue straight onto Ky. 1277 (Ky. 1193 bears to the right and continues onto the Laurel River Lake dam). Ky. 1277 ends at the boat ramp. It will take approximately 45 minutes to reach the stocking site from the interstate.