My trip to Blairsville and Lake Nottely two weeks ago was to go out with guide Will Harkins and get information for my June Georgia Outdoor News Map of the Month article. Although Will is in college he is a great fisherman and knows Nottely and Chatuge well, guiding on both.
I stayed in a nice fifth wheel camping trailer through brooksiderv.com in a retirement camper community. It was cheaper than area motels and more comfortable and quieter than a motel would have been. It was only a few miles from Nottely and Blairsville.
About a mile from the camper and Nottely Dam is Papaw’s Bac-yard BBQ where I got some of the best brisket I have ever eaten, delicious and tender enough to cut with a fork. He has a wide variety of sauces and his Brunswick Stew was very good, too.
Next door at the Amish Store some interesting jelly is available. Frog jelly is fig, raspberry, orange and ginger. Toe Jam is tangerine, orange and elderberry. Traffic jam is mostly strawberry for some reason. There are also many other things, from furniture to funny signs, for sale too.
The first night I drove into Blairsville and ate at Mike’s Seafood. The scallops were delicious, cooked just right, and the bite of grilled tuna I tried was excellent. I always like walking into a place like Mike’s and see you order at the fresh seafood counter.
I planned on eating there on Saturday night before I left. Although Google Maps said they got less busy after 8:00 PM, an hour before the close, at 8:00 that night the wait to order was 90 minutes!!
Sicily’s Pizza & Subs Pasta was just down the street and there was no wait. The pizza I got was great but it was not the scallops I wanted!
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Two trips to West Point last weekend produced very different results, one amazing and one not too bad.
On Friday I met Payton Caldwell to catch crappie. In the early 2000s GON did an article on shooting docks at West Point with Peyton’s grandfather, Joel Chambers. https://gon.com/fishing/run-run-and-gun-for-west-points-deep-shade-crappie He and GON editor Brad Bailey landed an incredible 273 crappie that day, a magazine article record that I think stands until now.
We got into his boat at 7:00 AM. When I had to leave at 2:00 PM we had landed an unbelievable 351 crappie. Paton went back out and fished until dark and his final total for one day was 485 crappie in the boat! All came “shooting” docks, sling-shotting a light jig far back under docks.
It took me about two hours to re-learn an old skill, I had not fished that way in at least 20 years. But it was fun. Payton said he thought I caught about 100 of the 351 on his clicker but I think it was more like 60 – 70.
Payton’s skill meant he caught way more than I caught. He probably outfished me 20 to one the first two hours when I could not get my jig in the right places. It was fun either way. Later in the day he was outfishing me “only” four or five to one.
The details of how to find the right docks and what to use will be in the June issue of Georgia Outdoor News.