Paylaking Southern Style through the eyes of a Long Rod

By Mark Metzger (introduction by Tom Brooks a.k.a. Mr. Big)

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North American Carp Angler

What happens when avid wild water Carp Anglers (Long Rods) share bank space with a few Southern Paylakers at a North Carolina Paylake? Well, I can honestly say that everyone's head was turned. As I watched Mark and Alex getting their first taste of Paylaking 101, I couldn't help but think of James Bond being briefed for a secret mission. One thing for sure, Mark and Alex had come South on a mission. Paylaking Southern Style through the eyes of a Long Rod.

Alex and I got a late start leaving Washington and we arrived at Walsers at 2 am. It was very quiet as Mr. Big was asleep in his truck and Buster and his son Sam were asleep in theirs. Buster woke up after hearing us walking about and came out to greet us. He showed us the lay of the land as we walked around the lake.

The lake is about 175 or so yards long by approx. 50 yards wide with 20 fishing spots on each side. The fishing spots all have sheds to put your stuff and bait in and provide a bit of shelter from the elements when necessary. There is a rope the separates the lake down the middle and attached to the rope at intervals are jugs. It is between those jugs that each fishing space must fish. As it was now very late about 3:15 am Alex chose his spot to set up camp and I chose mine. We set up our umbrellas bed chairs, etc., and got ready for a good but short nights sleep. I set up my pod and put out one rod with a range cube as bait and climbed into my sleeping bag. A few hours later at 5;45 my bite alarm went off and my first fish of the weekend was on the very cold shore. A scrappy 6 or 7 lb fish. It was as I was reeling it that I realized how cold it had gotten mid 30's brrr. Quickly I dispatched the fish into the water and climbed back into my now very cold and damp from sweat, sleeping bag. After shivering for about ten minutes and trying to drown out the sounds of roosters crowing in the distance I fell back asleep.

Daylight came way to quickly and we arose to the lake covered in fog and a clear crisp Saturday morning and my sleeping bag covered in frost. Mr. Big, Buster and son and Alex were up and Buster got started on cooking up some sausage and eggs for a hearty start of the day. After we all got a little something into our bellies we were ready for a day of paylaking.

Mr. Big and Buster proceeded to explain the rules and regulations and started showing us the ways and means of paylaking. Mr. Big opened up the tailgate of his truck and it was filled with numerous containers of different colored and flavored puffs, pops. These are what are known as pickups and are the primary items that are covered in pack bait. The pack bait breaks down in the water in a prescribed amount of time depending on what is used and the pop or pickup is what is left for the fish to suck in and get hooked on.

During the day we had lessons on puffology, packbaitology. There are as we learned very strict seasons and times that different pack baits work. Why they work like that I am not sure and while the paylakers know what works when and how I am not sure they totally know why either. They just know and that's what they use for that particular time.

We were in the season of CHOW. Just about everyone who was fishing was "throwing chow" as this is chow season. Each angler while starting with the same base #3 chow, has their own recipes from the very simple of adding some pond water to the chow to very complex and very secret recipes.

Mr. Big shared his special recipe chow with us and while he could tell us a little about it there was much he couldn’t/wouldn’t tell us. The ingredients are guarded similar to the recipe for coca-cola. All I know is that when packed around a puff it makes a perfect little bomb to throw. it packed perfectly and as we saw it had a 2-minute breakdown time. We did some margin testing of pack with a puff. The pack sent up bubbles from the bottom as it broke down, no doubt a fish attractor and then almost on queue at 2 minutes the puff comes floating to the surface.

Speaking of throwing pack. The paylakers fisherman are by far the most proficient anglers with bait casters that I have ever seen. They throw the pack baits with ease and accuracy like no others. There was no picking out of bird nests. They could put each of three rods worth of pack within a small circle of space each and every time. While they are amateur anglers they are certainly professional in their abilities. I was way impressed. I had brought my bait caster to use and, I decided it was best to leave it in the car. As a "wild fish" fisherman we/I are spoiled in that we need not be so accurate. The paylaker has to put his bait between the jugs each time.

In between lessons on puffs and pack Mr. Big’s alarms were going off on a regular basis and he was catching fish. Buster and his son were also catching. The lake started to fill up with anglers as the day went on. Newt Vail NC chairman and his wife, Bj and her family, Bait Slinger (Dale) and his family, Chipmacdale John and his son, Gary Shears and his son Josh, a number of the Walsers extended family and a few other regulars. We watched one of the regulars latch onto a fish and it was giving him a great struggle. Up and down the side of the lake he went with what certainly had to be a monster carp. The paylakers all use short rods and bait casters usually with 15-17 lb mono. We all looked with excitement as he struggled with the fish. His buddy he was fishing with had the net ready and each time it got close away it went again finally the beast was tamed. Much to most of ours amazement it wasn't a carp at all. The lake has a few catfish in it. . The 38-pound Flathead had only been caught once before. It was neat to see as I have never seen one except in pictures before.

By now you may have noticed that I haven't talked about how frequently my bite alarms were going off and all the carp I was catching. They weren't and I wasn’t, about midday the bite had almost stopped completely with just a few fish being caught around the lake. Alex had caught a couple of small ones earlier on but he too had slowed down and now it was his turn to catch a rare denizen of the paylake. He called over that I should bring my camera as he had a fish for me to photograph. Once again the Walsers gives up a fish I have never seen a very cool albino catfish. Well all this catching of catfish and smaller carp and still my alarms are silent. I had one line out with a snow man boilie rig with Nash whisky boilies, and one rig paylake style with Mr. Bigs pack bait and puff and one out with depending on the hour, either meilie bom (valdaam flavor with matching pips as pickups) or buckeye blend with mustard coated sugar pop pickup, or last but not least a pack of liquidated bread and Kool-Aid with a plain pop that Calvin had told me to try. He was feeling sorry for me, as I wasn't catching any fish.

As night time started in us, the lake started to fill up a little more with anglers. The contests run from roughly 6pm till 2am and there are a few ways to play. There is a big fish pot $10 and a second big fish pot $5(if I mess up here someone please correct me) and then there are hourly pots for the biggest fish during a given hour $3 dollars if I remember right. As fish are caught they are announced over the loudspeaker so if you catch a fish that say is 6 lbs and you know a 10 lbr has been weighed in b4 that no need to get yours weighed. at the end of each hour the lake boss announces the winner, their fishing spot and the weight of the fish. There was a lot of action with fish being carried over from the other side of the lake. It was a great scene with fires burning in fire barrels and fishermen up and down the banks having a great time. The Shears were catching and they have these little electric scooters that they use to bring the fish over from the other side in optimum time so that they could get their fish weighed and then back to fishing as fast as possible. It was like a combination of Peter Fonda meets Babe Winkleman in Easy Rider.

There was a constant flow of anglers coming to get their fish weighed and the announcers mike was oh so busy. I was entered in the big fish pots and in the hourly and had an 11 pounder in for one of the hours only to be beaten by a 13 lber with 10 minutes left.

I liken the whole event to the "boys" getting together for a card game on Saturday night yet instead of cards its fishing. A good time was had by all, both winners and losers.

The night was getting on and Shears made a gentleman's wager that if I switched my paylake rig to a one side single hook paylake rig and the other side a hair rig I would catch a fish. This was suggested as I was in a drought. He mentioned that Buckeye Bob had good success that way when he had visited some of the paylakers well sure enough I switched up and 25 minutes later that is what I caught the 11 pounder on. Unfortunately the fish came unhooked in the net and I wasn't able to see which rig got it but I did catch one that way. The paylake folks know their fish and their lakes very well.

Now I guess it’s about 1:15 am and the action is slowing up a bit as the temperature was dropping too. The groups were gathering around the fire barrels to keep toast except for one person. Our very own BUSTER was fighting a fish. And from the looks of it was a good one. Like the saga old man and sea he played the fish, his son Sam at his side net ready to capture the beast. Into the net it went and over to the scales it was carried. It tipped the scales at 21 pounds plus a few ounces if I remember correctly.

Buster was now the reigning heavyweight champion of Walsers Pond for the night. It’s a tough belt to hold on to as the fishing was still going on for 45 minutes. One of the Walker kin was fishing to the left of Buster and he had been catching fish all night on bread. He was making a bee line to the scales a few times in that very long 45 minutes luckily for Buster it was to weigh fish for the hourly pot as none of them were big enough to dethrone the mighty Buster!

And as a parting note once again Alex and I want to thank all involved in making this weekend happen. We had a great time and look forward to sharing bank space with all of you again whether it be here or there. I recommend to all who read this that they should try out a weekend of paylaking. The comradery was unforgettable and good times and laughter was had by all.

I have been quoted as saying it’s the same just different and after a lot of thinking it isn’t really the same it is different and in a real good way.