BY DANNY BLEVINS

STAR CORRESPONDENT

The young man’s name was Nathan and he had Cerebral Palsy. I watched him fish in Wilbur Lake for a few minutes before I walked up to him.

He grinned at me from his motorized wheelchair and told me the fish were biting. We spoke for a few minutes before his fishing rod started to twitch, then bend.

Nathan reeled and reeled with his disfigured hands until he had landed the trout, a 12-inch rainbow. Wilbur Lake had made another fan.

 Wilbur Lake, which sets in a pristine hollow below Watauga Dam, can be an excellent place to take the family and camp, picnic or boat. However, the best feature of the lake is its angling.

The lake is one of the best trout fisheries in East Tennessee and every year produces fish in the 23-inch range.

The one drawback to these waters is the lake can be hard to understand, but if you know three keys things about these waters, you will be able to catch more fish.

If you are going to catch fish in this water, you usually need to use natural baits. Though some anglers do catch fish on jerk baits in rainbow and brown trout patterns and some are able to catch fish using a variety of flies, most fish are caught on baits such as nightcrawlers, red worms, corn, salmon eggs, and power baits.  

In last week’s column, I spoke of how the lake is very cold, so cold that you have to change your strategy in how you fish for the lake’s trout. But this is not the only thing that is key to the fish.

When using bait, the second thing you have to remember is the lake has places that have weeds and moss growing in it. To really catch fish, you have to keep the bait above this grass.

Bobbers do not work well because of the current in the lake, so the best method is to use small marsh mellows (yes, I said marsh mellows!).

Place the small marsh mellow about 8-12 inches above your bait, and the marsh mellow will float and keep the bait out of the weeds.

Also, you can drop shot the bait. By this, I mean place a heavy sinker at the end of your line and tie a hook about 12 inches above the sinker.

The sinker will go into the grass but the bait will not, allowing you a better chance at taking a fish.

One other thing that works well is to use a syringe to fill a nightcrawler with air. The crawler will float above the sinker and the grass, and the fish will be able to see it better.

The final thing you have to understand about this lake is the water level changes. This lake will rise and fall based on how much water the TVA decides to release from Watauga Lake.

The lake during normal levels will run shallow and leave dark pools that hold fish. You can catch smaller fish during the times the lake is low, but the real monsters are caught when the lake is high.

When the lake starts generating and the water level rises, something is triggered in the larger fish to feed, and during this time, you can catch them on jerk baits and large natural baits that have a heavy sinker to them.

During generating the current is very strong, and you will have to adjust your sinker and your casting.

Try to place your bait next to the strong current in the slower moving water, and you will have better results.

To find out the TVA water release schedule for Wilbur Lake and Watauga Dam phone them toll-free at 1-800-238-2264 and follow the recorded prompts.

Overall, Wilbur Lake is a very good fishery and a fun place to fish. I especially enjoy fishing it because I never know what I am going to catch.

Isn’t that what fishing is all about?