Well this could be an interesting spring I got my permit and went exploring lol with three thousand acres of water, there must be something to find. The place is nothing short of wilderness laced with gravel roads. From tiny mud holes to 100 acre lakes are visable as you drive the roads used to haul the coal away. No big boats here, but lots of places to drop a jon boat or a good pound pounder into most lakes. Sadly some areas look abit trashy, C'mon guys we can do better. so i plan to take some trash bags and make each place i stop at look better than it did when i got there. The big lakes like Ken, south and island lakes are fished the most, but I like the narrow, long lakes that twist and turn. The first drive down was a scouting trip back in Feb. My brother and I wandering all over the map but mostly the T.V.A and Ken Hopewell areas. So finally the day arrives i get up , oh , about 3 am after loading the boat and stuff into the truck the night before , ready to roll. After making coffee, filling the thrmos and travel mug, I race off into the darkness of the county roads for the 30 mile trip. Feeling kinda rednecky, I hit a pot hole in my ole ratting ford truck and spill hot coffee on my ....errrr ...leg and find myself whistling " momma's don't let you babies grow up to be cowboy's" geeess, i don't even like country music lol. You know? , it's funny but i felt we looked that place over good in the daylight... but just before sunrise it all seemed to change and all i see are pot holes and possums. ( really, i never saw so many possums in my whole dang live hehe) Finally i see a nice place to drop my boat in , the fog rising off the water, a very pretty mine , lots of weeds on the edges and downed trees laying in places. i fished around it till the sun came up good and got to thinking about all the lakes out there , after not having got a bite( it was kinda cool yet) i loaded up and went a huntin'. About 8 am i unloaded and put in on a nice spot and as i floated out from the edge, before i had even started the trolling motor , i glanced over the edge of the boat and was shocked. wow these mines can get deep quick. the water was clear as gin and i could see 25 0r 30 feet as the rocks fell off into a greyness i almost expected to see some little chinese guy in a little boat with a fishin' pole , looking back at me. at the other end of the lake was three small islands surrounded by a maze of showwlows with lots of cover , big enough to get my boat in and around , by the end of the day i had caught several nice bass errr ...... but i haven't found the crappie ...yet , ...but i will hehe