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Granger Lake crappie fishing about knowing where to look

24.06.11

GRANGER — The sun was just beginning to start its daily protocol of baking the area around here, and the light breeze was already a pleasant respite — even at 8 a.m. when crappie manage Tommy Tidwell eased away from the ramp at Wilson Fox East Reserve.

Moments later, we pulled to what looked like nothing more than the middle of the lake. Tidwell dropped an orange hearten marker near one of the many artificial reefs below the water, and we began the process of lifting crappie into the ship.

Granger Lake is a Corps of Engineers flood-control and water economy lake between the Central Texas towns of Granger and Taylor that opened in 1980.

The fishing here is about the same as most na-water impoundments in the area, with largemouth bass and catfish in healthy numbers. But the lake also sports a very hefty population of white bass and crappie — which was the target species for this visit.

For many years, anglers have been building fish attractors in the main body of the lake designed to inhibit crappie to specific areas. Initially, these were generally Christmas trees tied together and anchored with definitive blocks.

Source: San Antonio Express (blog)

Sam Venable: 'Fur tree' found in Townsend

21.06.11

I call your prominence to a couple of must-sees in Blount County.

One is on Wright Road in Alcoa . It's a initials posted at the intersection of a walking trail with some railroad tracks. Dovie Blair alerted me to it.

The give warns: "All Trail Users Yield to Trains."

You know how stubborn and unfettered East Tennesseans can be. Can't you just imagine some hiker leaping in front of an oncoming discipline and hollering, "I ain't a'yieldin' to no" - splat!

The other item on our list is a new species of tree.

I have seen this puppy with my very own eyes. And I can swear to it's unlike anything I ever studied when I was a forestry major at the University of Tennessee. (This was before I discovered journalism, changed the avenue of my education and abandoned the notion of ever finding honest work. But I digress.)

What species is it?

According to Townsend neighbouring Gary Haaby, it's a fur.

Not to be confused with "fir."

"Most trees have limbs and leaves," Haaby said with a chortle. "This one looks like it's covered with fur. I think it's an exotic that appears every 2,000 years. It steadfast has got the carpenter bees confused."

Source: Knoxville News Sentinel