It turns out that I have one of America’s finest championship bass fishing lakes less than 15 minutes from my house. I’ve sort of known this for a while, but I didn’t really notice the place till we went camping there in October.

The story behind the place is that it’s an artificial lake, but its special feature is that it provides all of the cooling water for a zero-emissions coal power plant that sits like a fortress over to one side of the lake. It’s quite beautiful to see at night, with the lights from the power plant mixing with the fog from the above-average warmth water.

It was pretty amazing to watch the shad teeming in the shallow waters by our camp. It was a sign to me that this would be a great place to fish in the right weather.

I went out to that spot today and gave it a shot. I have a new pole, about 6’ long and pretty stiff. I was able to really launch some trap bait from the shoreline, which gives me a lot of confidence in this new equipment. Sadly, the weather was pretty overcast and the water choppy so the fish didn’t seem too hungry.

I do think I will continue to try as long as the weather holds. I generally prefer afternoon fishing, plus I think the mornings are a little cold here as the winter is coming on. Not sure what my success rate will be, but either way it’s a pretty relaxing way to spend an hour or so.