Published: August 13, 2009 11:12 pm      

Southern hospitality and slab soc-e-lait!

Pat Sycz of Johnstown, Pennsylvania recently made a visit to the Magnolia State and Lauderdale County on a business trip. Though Sycz was here on business for a month or so he really didn’t know anyone from the area. Lucky for him that he was befriended by one of the best anglers in our state, none other than Roy Gentry!

Gentry and his wife Terri quickly became friends with the friendly Pennsylvanian who was ultimately impressed by the friendliness of many of our local people. The Gentry’s made a few trips to some of the finest southern eateries in this part of the country.

If you know Roy, however, it’s not a stretch to believe that he finally got around to taking Sycz on a fishing trip. Though it was blazing hot in late July, Gentry suggested a late afternoon fishing trip to a local angling hotspot.



Getting under way



After arriving at the lake Gentry quickly launched his boat and headed for the nearest honey hole. Though he had considered catching bass, Gentry spotted large soc-e-lait, aka crappie, on his depth finder along a creek channel in 13 feet of water. The veteran angler of many bass wars knew just what to do; break out the crappie rigs.

Gentry located the crappie holding alongside of and on top of submerged brush in and along the creek channel. Though the air temperature was scorching, the water temperature down deep kept the crappie nice and cool. As it turned out they were also very hungry.

Gentry went into his bag of tricks and pulled out a blast from the past; Roadrunner jigs, fitted with 3” chartreuse or pumpkin, chartreuse grubs tipped with Berkley Power Nibbles in chartreuse or yellow color. It didn’t take Gentry and his new fishing partner long to catch a fish as they both got in on the action pretty quickly.

As Gentry worked the submerged creek channel and brush tops, he kept one eye on the depth finder and the other on his rod tip. It was imperative to keep the boat in the channel while working the edges with the Roadrunner jigs. Many of the strikes came by feel and the accomplished angler made quick work of most of them.



Big ones



While Gentry caught his share and showed Sycz how it’s done in deep water during the dog days of summer, Sycz was surprised and excited about catching such large slab crappie. “We were catching slabs that averaged around a pound and a quarter,” related Gentry.

Continuing on down the creek channel Gentry felt a solid tap and set the hook. He was met by a resistance the felt like a bass. After a pretty good fight, the expert angler landed one of the largest crappie of his life, a nice 2 and a half pound slab!

“We ended up keeping 17 slab crappie ranging from a pound and a quarter to 2 and a half pounds,” exclaimed Gentry! It’s almost unbelievable that someone can catch that size crappie during the heat of the summer in Lauderdale County, no less. If there’s anybody that can do it, however, then Roy Gentry’s the one.

Thanks to Roy and Terri, it’s a sure bet that Pat Sycz will have fond memories of his new found Mississippi friends and his fishing trip down South. Fine foods, fine eating, friends and catching fish, it just doesn’t get any better than that!