I was the high bidder for donation of $125 to Catfish Site and Sandy put up the hospitilaty ! What a great weekend we had !! I got to his house around noon or so on Friday and we were fishing by 3 pm !!

Hit the water and goofed around catching bluegills for bait and went to his secret spots ! We had a quality outage right off the bat ! 6 keepers around 22 inches or so, let go several smaller fish, and he sneaked a 4 pound largemouth in on me too. all released except the 6 for the cooler.

Started dinner late, several pounds of boiled schrimp, then Shiskebabs of steak and MORE schrimp !! Thne he broke out the CATFISH FILETS from his freezer and fried up enough to feed an army !! 28 pieces - WOW......
i ate and ate and ate till i thought i was gonna pop.......man its late- go to bed around midnite ( at home i go to bed around 9ish ) so needless to say I am worn slam out.

Saturday we goofed off and checked out Briery Creek Lake where the world famous bass live but we didnt fish- also saw the Twin Lakes State park and know for sure the little woman & I will camp there next spring.

Headed back out on the water saturday afternoon around 3 to get lots of bait and pre-fish for the tourney. We had 3 dozen shiners,6 dozen nite crawlers and a cooler full of drinks and more fried catfish,schrimp and steak.......if we didnt catch any fish we sure were gonna eat good !!

Met the flyfish_va fella from Roanoke- Mark drive over for the tourney too.....

we set out about 4 and caught some channels but had to let em go cause we aint starting no tourney with fish in the boat already !! popped over in the shade and i caught a dozen or so gills for bait while Sansy rigged his rods......back to the ramp at 5 30 and met the tourney people- 7 boats headed out at 6 01 pm. we made a beeline for the spot Sandy caught his birthday 10 pounder. forst few minutes I landed a 3 pounder or so and we were siked and look ing for the 15 pound channel........he wasnt home,prolly out catt'n around trying to get a little "fin" somewhere else. moved across the lake and set up again.......the wind died completely off and turned out to be an aweosme nite to fish...... he gets a 4 pounder,then a bullhead, i get a 3 pounder, he gets a bulhead, i get a 6 pounder, he gets a 5 pounder then off goes my drag !! it took what seemed 15 minutes to get the big fish to the boat and 4 try to net it !! just under 8 pounds........i KNOW i got the "big fish" money now even if we dont win the tourney !! lost more small fish, a turlet or two kept us entertained while nothing on our end of the lake was going on........on the other end mark - flyfish_va - was busy catching dozens of bullheads himself and a few channels mixed in.........ding ding 11:45 time to head to the ramp........first team- big fish 8 pounds 15 ounces and like 24 with all 5 fish- second team had a big fish 8 pounds even and 23ish - then we were up and my big fish was 7 pounds 9 ounces and we had 22 pounds of fish in the basket then every one else went or didnt depending IF they had 5 fish to weigh- a few dropped otu cause they didnt have 5 fish to weigh, Mark ended up 5th I think with around 9 pounds for his 5 fish total.

Not a bad nite for 3 guys going up against all the other local boys,Sandy aint been fishing for catfish less than 2 months and us other 2 never had been there - so Sandy and I end up 3rd and Mark was 5th by himself......brought home around 18 fish and been cleaning all afternoon !! What a great new friend I have and an awesome place to fish - good to meet you too Mark !!