Carolina Bays can be hidden fishing lakes, like Lake Drummond

Every year I try to take a trip to Lake Drummond. It is a Carolina Bay that is the largest natural lake in Virginia. The water is black and gets very hot, it is also very acidic making most fish blind after a few years.

Their is one fish that thrives in these conditions and that is the Flier. These little fish fight as hard as fish 3 times there size and are very aggressive hitting almost anything. I try to fish for crappie but kept losing my jig or minnows, I thought these crappie were the smartest fish on the planet. No that was not the case it was these fliers attacking everything I threw at them.



I down sized and had a ball with the fly rod. I think I have a 5 wt 10 foot rod and these feisty guys will bend it double.

This is a very difficult lake to get to as it is a 5 mile paddle against a 1-2 mph current to a berm, then you carry over and up into a canal that leads to the lake. It is 11 miles around the lake then 5 miles back to the boat ramp on the dismal swamp canal. If the wind is over 10 mph the shallow lake can become very rough, 20mph SW wind and it will swamp about any jon boat as the chop can get to 3 feet with a short distance between waves. This is the most beautiful lake in Virginia as the water surface acts like a mirror reflecting the sky.

There are ancient cypress trees that are over 10 feet across at the base but only 30 feet or so high, storms keep breaking them off.