I stayed at Longbranch - Yates Place on 08/16/2019 & 08/17/2019 and stayed 2 nights in the guest house. I highly recommend everyone to stay in the guest house. It is 5 star lodging that has everything a person, group, or family needs. The beds are comfortable, huge full size kitchen with a huge island, beautiful view of the lake from back porch, covered area with BBQ Pits, kitchen area, fishing dock behind the house, and there is a ton of room in the house to fit at least 6 people comfortably. Only negative I noticed and to me this is a positive difficult cell phone reception and no internet. Total peace and quiet except for the crickets, frogs and bass chasing schooling shad.

Now lets get down to fishing. I spoke with Mr. Yates the owner and he is one of the nicest men I have ever meet. If I didn’t talk with him so much I probably would have fished more, but it was time well spent getting to know him. He told me the shad were schooling and bass were feasting. He was not kidding. He told me to use a Chrome & Black crankbait or rattletrap and throw beyond where the shad break the water. I did exactly as he said and I caught a total of 7 fish from 8am to 12pm. My biggest was 3.33lbs, 2 @ 2lbs, and 4 fish under 14 inches. I did have a number of fish that shook the hook and if I had to guess they were between 1.5 lbs and 3 lbs. Once it got to 12pm it was extremely hot and was time to take a break and cool off inside the guest house. I resume fishing from 4pm to 8:45pm and the shad action was nonexistent. I wanted to catch a big fish and started fishing deep along the dam and the brush piles in the creek channel. I threw everything in the box and did not get a single bite. It was just to hot. I read every August fishing report for the past 4 years and compared to others this was not a big day on Yates Place but I will be coming back when it gets cooler in the fall & winter.

On a sad note when I first got on the lake Saturday morning looking for shad action, I noticed something white floating on top of the water in the middle of the lake. I went over to check it out and it was a huge bass with its lower jaw crushed and mangled. It must had just died because it was still limber. I scooped it out and showed Mr. Yates and we both think a snapping turtle killed him. We weighed the fishing and it was 7.33 lbs. On a positive note Mr. Yates said there are a lot more fish that size and bigger in the lake.