By Maggie Beamguard
Insider Editor
The spring-fed waters of Lake Auman brim with aquatic life. For bass anglers like Adam Minicucci and Denny Penrod, the waters are a well of hope, holding the promise of the “big ‘un.”
Lake Auman Dam, constructed between 1983 and 1986, took eight years to fill with water. To create an ecosystem suitable for bass fishing, the lake requires stocking.
The underwater world is home to a diversity of freshwater fish: chain pickerel, channel catfish, black crappie, white crappie, sterile triploid grass carp, redhorse sucker, sunfish (bluegill, pumpkinseed, redear/shellcracer and warmouth), threadfin shad and of course, largemouth bass.
The Alure of the Lake
Minicucci, a chef by trade, hears the old-timers say the fishing is not as good as it used to be.
“If it was better than it is now, I can’t imagine how good it would have been,” he said.
According to Minicucci, some of the best lakes in the country for bass fishing are within a one- or two-hour drive.
“A lot of times even though we have these amazing lakes only an hour away, we catch ourselves just coming back and just staying here because it’s such a great fishery.”
Since it is a private lake, it isn’t overfished.
“On any given day you can really catch something world class,” said Minicucci who will take friends visiting from his home state of New Jersey on the water.
“I can put them in a couple of honey holes, and I’m pretty confident every time I get you out there, I can get you on one or two good fish.”
Some of the fish are the biggest ones people have caught in a lifetime of fishing. He tells his son Kierce, age 12, “that’s your Wednesday.”
Minicucci, who serves on the Lake Committee and is a member of the Lake Auman Sports Club, grows giddy talking about his hobby. While he fished his whole life he says he caught the bug while working at the Sailfish Club in Palm Beach Florida.
“As the chef, I became really close with all the captains because they would come in with fish and we would cook it for them,” he said “On our off days instead of going out deep sea fishing, we would do a little bass fishing in Florida.” He was hooked.
He moved his family to the Sandhills to take a job at the Country Club of North Carolina about 10 years ago. The fishing and boating available at Seven Lakes was a selling point for them.
Now he is up to his gills in rods, tackle and gear. Bass fishing can be an expensive sport. But as the fisherman’s saying goes, “I spent a lot of money on fishing gear. The rest I just wasted.”
Gone Fishin’
Penrod probably has more fishing time on Lake Auman than anyone else in the community. He’s fished Lake Auman since the early days, five days a week. He has a wealth of knowledge related to bass fishing but denies being an expert.
“I’m sure there’s expert fishermen out there,” he said. “I am a dedicated fisherman. I am very persistent. And I just love being on the water. I don’t have to catch fish. I just like to be out there.”
He grew up in western Pennsylvania in a coal mining family. “We lived in the middle of nowhere, so we did two things. We hunted and we fished.”
He has fished throughout North America, including the beautiful Delaware River in New Jersey and Canada.
He led his first Canadian fishing trip in 1974 with a large group of college friends. Over the years the trip boasted 30 to 40 anglers. They missed one year due to the pandemic. But this August a smaller group of 14 plan to head up U.S. 81 between Gananoque and Smith Falls, Ontario.
They will enjoy the fish but also the food, beverage, poker games and company.
“I got into bass fishing,” he said. “And it’s an addiction.”
And Lake Auman is stocked well enough to feed it. There is nothing like the convenience of fishing right in your own backyard.
Tackling the Ecosystem
As a past president of the LASC, Penrod contributed to the goal of diversifying the stock of the fish. “Our lake is 100 percent spring fed, so we don’t get any nutrients from a stream or anything like that,” he said. “We have to stock our bait fish to feed the bass population.”
Minicucci has been involved with many projects to enhance the ecosystem of the lake for fish, including stocking and securing habitats.
“In the last 10 years we’ve probably done about seven to eight total projects of putting habitats in the lake for the fish,” said Minicucci.
Local divers have taken Minicucci’s GoPro down to document their activities. He says the goal is to help educate people who don’t fish. Care is taken to strategically place fish habitat to support the population while making the lake safe and enjoyable for swimmers and boaters.
Minicucci has noticed a big difference in how the fish are reacting and spawning. He hopes when his son is his age that it will be back to the days of lore. “If it gets that good, you’ll be catching instead of fishing,” he said.
Getting a “toad” on the line is the goal, but the payoff for Minicucci is the chance to enjoy the great outdoors with his family who all cast lines.
He delights in his son’s passion for the sport. Kierce fishes daily when he gets home from school and has expressed an interest in pursuing a pro career.
Father and son won the LASC Bass tournament in the spring of 2023 and have finished high in the leader board in the other years they have competed.
Casting Away
The marina at Johnson Point and Lake Auman Dam provide the best fishing for Seven Lakers who do not live on the water or have boat access. But those locations limit the fishing season to spring and fall when the fish are spawning and the surface temperatures are favorable.
If you have a boat, bass fishing is a year-round endeavor if you know where to look.
Technology has made it easier to find the fish, says Minicucci, but catching them remains ever the same. “Just because I can find the fish doesn’t mean that they’re gonna eat my worm,” Minicucci said.
He recommends YouTube for researching gear and techniques for different kinds of fishing. To manage costs, anglers can learn to mold their own plastic worms and service their own rods and reels.
Penrod has been building his own high-end rods for 10 years.
Every day brings new circumstances to navigate. Minicucci compares the sport to golf. “The same course is different every time you go out — the wind, the grass, the temperature, the hardness of the ground, where they put the cup — it changes,” he said.
“That’s what it’s like fishing if you do it every day. Is it windy, sunny, or cold? Did it rain yesterday or is it gonna rain tomorrow? All those things contribute to if you are going to catch a fish on any given day. That’s the real catch to people. That’s what keeps them coming back.”
Reeling It In
The big prize in Lake Auman is the largemouth bass. The lake is full of four- to six-pounders and a handful of ten pounders. Bass culture is catch-and-release so that they can keep growing big and strong.
Sunfish, bluegill and brim are good feed and still fun to catch.
“Kids love to catch those. You could put a worm on a bobber and catch 300 brim in an hour,” said Minicucci.
Aggressive and skinny chain pickerel with big teeth are an invasive species. Any that are caught are to be removed from the lake to the woods where raccoons and other wildlife might make a snack.
There are many catfish, which can be both good and bad for the lake. They eat a lot but they do a good job of cleaning the lake. It’s not great to have too many of them.
Crappie are a little bigger than brim, and they are a delicious fish, according to chef Minicucci.
The sterile, triploid grass carp were introduced to control grass without the use of herbicide. They cannot reproduce.
But it really is all about that bass.
The Big ‘Un
In 30 years of fishing, the biggest bass Minicucci has pulled out was an eight pounder.
“Every fisherman’s trying to catch a 10 pounder or bigger,” he said. “We’ve seen 13 pounders come out of our lake. But they’re rare because they’re very old fish. They are twice as hard to catch.”
Last May, Penrod caught a 10 pound, 2 ounce bass in Lake Auman. He thinks it was the largest he has caught, though he has had several in the nine pound range.
The elusive big one is always out there looking to bite. “It’s a never ending feeling,” said Minicucci “You’re always chasing hope.”
The “big ‘un” is really the dream.
“I’m so happy my son spends half his day at the lake,” he said. “Its almost a relief as a parent that he has found this.”
The moments on the water are mounted in their memories. “We’ll see eagles on the lake. The other day we saw an eagle come down and catch a fish out of the water and fly away with it. You know like you would never see that unless you were out here fishing. The lake is such a great resource, and it’s been well cared for.”
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.com.
