LEE ROY RODGERS
Along about 1987 my
wife's Uncle Lee Roy introduced me to the
great sport of
Crappie Fishing. We had float-fished on several rivers in
the
area by canoe and I had taken him spear fishing a time or two
so he
new I liked to fish. I clearly remember the day he made
the prophetic
statement, "Next Spring I'm going to take
you out to Lake Greeson
and "ruent" you on the
crappie."
I still remember the
first place he took me the following Spring
- right up
in the
middle of a large patch of buck brush - and put the longest
fishing
pole I had ever seen in my hand and began patiently
showing me his
method of plucking huge, tasty crappie from
the shallow water where
they were spawning.
It seemed like a lot of trouble trying
to get a tiny 1/32-ounce jig swinging
from the end of that long, cumbersome
pole into the openings Lee
Roy
was pointing out as places where a hungry crappie might
be. I stayed
wrapped up on limbs above the water and snagged
on things I couldn't
see under the water most of the time but
when I finally started getting
the hang of it and got that
first real good THUMP I was definitely "ruent".
Lee Roy had crappie
fished in the Spring and Fall all his life and shared
his
vast knowledge about their habits and the ways they can be
caught.
The spawning season wasn't nearly long enough for me
though and Fall
was way too far off so Lee Roy and I began
putting a lot of cover in the
lake at different depths,
studying the bottom contours to find the
different locations
and depths where crappie are likely to congregate
at
different times of the year.
Lee Roy started calling me
the "Angry Beaver" because I always wanted
to cut
more trees and bushes to put in the lake. His wife Neva said
on more than one occasion that if we didn't stop sinking
brushpiles
the woods would be bare and the lake would be
filled in with trees.
Before long though we could catch
crappie any time of year
and nearly always get a
"mess".
Lee Roy passed away on
Friday, May 13, 2005 and I still think about him
every day I
am on the water. I hear him quietly saying, "watch
this" when I
ease a jig down into a small opening in the
brush where "there's got to be
a goodun" or
"hold your head up Muley" when I know I've got a
"sure
enough goodun" on the end of the line.
He would say "well I never........"
when they got a case of "lock-jaw" and
we couldn't get a bite anywhere or
"well you can kiss my ass" - always
with a big smile - on the rare occasion
that I would catch several in a
row
when he was "snake bit" and hadn't had a bite
in a long while.
I also think about him
when I fish some of his favorite areas where he
used to
"tear them up" like the other morning when I was
doing a little
scouting by myself in "Little Cove"
Lee Roy always enjoyed catching a good mess of crappie
and he always had time to take his sons and grandkids fishing
Although he was my uncle
only by marriage he always treated my
kids and me as family.
Here he is with my sons Emmett
and Owen
Lee Roy and I talked for years about
trying tournament fishing and
we finally did when
we entered the 2003 TeeZur Jig Tournament on
Kentucky Lake in
Tennessee where Lee Roy won the big fish award
and we finished 2nd Place overall
I feel very fortunate to have known Lee
Roy and treasure the memories
of the many camping and fishing trips we
shared. If it weren't for him I
likely would never have developed a passion
for crappie fishing and
surely would never have started guiding.
My hope is that guiding
will give me many opportunities to pass
along the passion for fishing and the Great Outdoors to
others
so they too will gain as much enjoyment,
relaxation and
satisfaction as I do from spending a day on
the water.