Posts by Brad Bailey
Showdown At The McPhee Farm: The Conclusion
Clint jumped off the front porch and raced across the yard. He sprinted toward the trail through the pines with his heart choking his throat. “If anything has happened to that dog…” He had to block the thought from his mind. He was uncertain of exactly where the shot had come from after Mitzi had…
Read MoreTroll Deep And Slow For Clarks Hill Winter Crappie
“Year-round, there are fish in this hole,” said Clifford Swygert, who was keeping track of eight rod tips, his depthfinder and his GPS as we slow-trolled over a deep area far up Little River on the South Carolina side of Clarks Hill Lake. “There’s one bumping it,” he said, nodding toward a 12-foot rod off…
Read MoreShowdown At The McPhee Farm Part 4
Silas drained the last of the coffee from his cup and pushed his chair away from the restaurant table. “That is one beast of a storm,” he said across the table to Zack, Cody and Jenna. Raindrops pelted like hail against the diner’s plate-glass window, and flashes of lightning periodically lit up the room with…
Read MoreShowdown At The McPhee Farm Part 3
The pair of coyotes pursuing the deer were so focused on catching the white-rumped fawn running in front of them that that they did not notice the dog closing in rapidly from behind. The exhausted fawn was blowing hard and beginning to flag, falling farther behind the doe that bound ahead of her. The lead…
Read MoreShowdown At The McPhee Farm Part 2
Silas McPhee was dead. He just knew that was going to be the outcome of being trapped in his truck with the rattlesnake. Petrified with fear, he sat bolt upright in the truck seat, afraid to move even to take a breath, but he was certain the drumming of his heart alone would surely trigger…
Read MoreShowdown At The McPhee Farm
Clint McPhee sat on the ground with his back to a fence post and his binoculars resting on his knees. The rusted barb wire fenceline, grown up in Johnson grass and blackberry briars, was the high point on the edge of a cut hayfield that sloped away to a dark treeline 200 yards away. The…
Read MoreCrappie Like Micro Spoons On Lake Lanier
Fish Like To Be Spoon Fed. That’s the company slogan and belief of a pair of entrepreneurial crappie anglers who have come up with an innovative, downsized way to catch crappie. Keith and Jessica Pace of Gainesville are the crappie anglers behind the internet company Crappie Micro Spoons and Jigs, which markets tiny spoons for…
Read MoreBowfishing Night On Lake Russell
The carp finning through the shallows of Lake Russell fairly glowed in the glare of floodlights lighting up the dark. The fish was in range. Jason Cathey drew his bow, aimed some- where under the moving fish and released his arrow. The white fiberglass shaft launched from the bow like a white Polaris missile, a…
Read MoreBlue Moon In June For Savannah River 2-lb. Shellcracker
The bobber and worm sailed over the water and dropped into the water 10 feet from the far bank. Farrell quickly reeled line back onto the spool, dragging the bobber and the trailing red worm back until it was over a light spot on bottom. He stopped the bobber, and the worm settled to the…
Read MoreBlackshear Crappie On Minnow-Tipped Jigs
For many successful anglers, the difference in their ability to catch fish depends on the little things. For crappie fisherman Jerry Pheil, of Cordele, the little things that help fill his livewell with crappie are minnows. Jerry has lived on the lake since 1970. He has been fishing Blackshear for whatever swims in the lake…
Read More