I'll call it the Rush 2112 tour!  So I rushed through a 2112 mile tour of the South and ended it at Rose Trail General Store, Bait Shop and RV Park.  It's located at Bear Creek on Pickwick Lake.  It is essentially the best kept secret in all of Alabama.  It's a great place with some fantastic fishing.  Yes, Jacklyn, the word is out!  Your little secret is over, everyone is going to learn about this little hide away. 

Jacklyn runs the whole operation with a little help from her friends. They fed me some awesome steak, put me up in their mobile home (thanks Jacklyn), and Keith Dodd took me to some great little honey holes on the lake.  And we even had a good old fashioned campfire at the end of my stay.  A fantastic way to end my 3 week fishing expedition through some of the "all too hospitable" South.  Believe me when I say "I'll be back".

On the drive to the Rose Trail store you drive 9 miles into no-where along a scenic route that takes you through a winding road next to beautiful Pickwick Lake.

Keith Dodd took me fishing on Pickwick.  He runs the Shoals Area Crappie Association. They have a forum right here on crappie.com.  Check it out, they hold low entry fee local crappie fishing tournaments.  You can also visit Keith at his Guide Service website.  Needless to say, the water level was a little high.  You could not even jump to get to the docks walkway. 

Keith catches a nice one.

Turns out, Elvis used to own this home on Pickwick Lake, at least this is the house we think it is!  I understand he used to race across the lake in his super loud race boat and wake up the few other lake home owners that lived there back then.

We long lined for Crappie and I laid into this catfish.  I got him in with only 6lb test line.  I'm sure many have gotten bigger fish in on 6lb test line, but I felt proud.

Keith has a Humminbird 998 side imaging unit.  It was so neat seeing what was in the water 75 feet off both sides of the boat.  I think you can set it to look 150 feet in both directions, but Keith like the 75 foot setting.  We marked fish left and right, but they were tough to bite.  We switched up jig colors, tried live bait, but we could not establish any pattern.  IT was just tough going, but we did catch fish, including that catfish pictured above, and even stripers.  It was a fun day on the water catching multiple species, and some nice sized crappie as well.

Here are a few pictures I took of pictures in Jacklyn's Rose Trail show.  Some "noodled" catfish.  All jewels of Pickwick Lake, really a spectacular fishery.

Here's where I stayed.  A real nice, real clean little place.  She has a few of these she rents out as well as her RV spots on her property.  I really enjoyed my time there.  In the last photo here you can kinda get the feel of how laid back this place really is.  The people are such fun , I swear my cheeks hurt for days from laughing so hard at times.  Jake, Mike, Jacklyn, Keith and many more I met, I thank you all for a wonderful time I won't soon forget.