March 21, 2004

An Adventure in lunker land

By Bobby Cleveland
bcleveland@clarionledger.com

LAUREL — In one five-minute span, we had a perfect example of the business plan of Adventure Lake.

First, there was Andy Olson's excited, but dejected voice crackling over the radio:

"Aw man, I just lost it.

"I had it, and I lost it before I could get the net.

"I had the big one, but she got away. She'd have gone 12, I promise. She was 12 pounds if she was an ounce."

Olson, of Waynesboro knows a thing or two about big bass. He has caught his share in his life, including 18 over 10 pounds and some in the 14- and 15-pound range.

So when Olson says he had a fish in the 12-pound range, there's good reason to believe him.

We looked up to see his boat heading back to shore where his partner, Dan Stringer, also of Waynesboro, was walking down to the bank to meet Olson. We didn't need radios to hear the ribbing that was about to take place.

"If you hadn't eaten that big lunch, and then that slice of coconut cream pie, you wouldn't have had to take a nap," Olson said to Stringer. "And if you hadn't been napping, you'd have been in the boat and you could've netted that fish for me."

Said Stringer: "Don't blame me; blame the chef. It was too good."

Welcome to Adventure Lake and Lodge, where big lunkers live and where guests are treated like royalty, especially at lunch.

Mississippi's latest outdoor business venture — Adventure Lake opened March 1 — is owned by partners Neil Scrimpshire and Jay Fenton of Laurel.

"When we first started building this lake in 1998, we were only building it for us to have a place to fish and ski," Scrimpshire said. "Then, as we started stocking it and waiting for the fish to mature, we developed the idea of turning it into a business opportunity."

Scrimpshire, who loves to fish, had been a customer at a couple of pay fishing operations in Alabama.

"They've been successful over there and I couldn't see why we couldn't do it here," Scrimpshire said. "We decided to do it."

Southeastern Pond Management, an Alabama-based fisheries management company with an office in Jackson, was hired to stock and manage the fish.

"We stocked it with F-1 bass, which is a cross between Florida strain and the native northern largemouth," said Scott Kirk of Madison and Southeastern Pond Management. "The cross gives you the rapid growing tendency of the Florida and the aggressive feeding and strong fighting behavior of the northern bass."

Southeastern introduced shad as a forage base, along with coppernose bluegill. In less than four years, Adventure Lake's bass had grown to nine pounds and its crappie to two pounds.

Clint Pippen of Laurel, owner of Free State Sporting Goods in Laurel and a touring BASS pro, serves as a guide, if needed, and has fished the lake many times.

"Spring is not the best time on Adventure, but it is probably the best time to catch a monster," Pippen said. "I wouldn't doubt that there are 11s and 12s in here when they are full of eggs.

"But in the summer and fall, and even in the winter, that's when you catch 'em till you hurt. You can find where a school is holding and catch a hundred or more between 3 and 8 pounds ... and that was last year's weights."

On our trip March 11, three boats and six fishermen produced four fish over 7 pounds, four more over 5 and 15 between four and five. We didn't count the 2s and 3s.

"And they really weren't biting today," said Pippen. "Not like they ought to, and I think it's because they are in transition to their bedding period."

Scrimpshire is confident that Adventure Lake will succeed, even though he realizes it will take some Mississippians a while to accept the concept of paying to fish.

"You give me 10 minutes and I can tell you why it's a good deal," he said. "I had this one guy, an attorney in Hattiesburg, tell me he was going buy a $30,000 bass boat and take up fishing. When I explained to him that he could come here and fish 120 times in our boats and not spend that much, he understood."

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