CHANDLERSVILLE, Ohio — The vast former strip mine lands near here were planted with native grasses and 60 million trees after the rich coal deposits were removed, providing an inviting habitat for wildlife. The hundreds of pockmarks and deep cuts left across the region by the miners’ bucket and dragline filled with rainwater and were eventually stocked with fish.
Those ponds, canyon lakes and wide, open reservoirs number in the hundreds, but no one seems to have a precise count, since the terrain is often rugged and quite remote. American Electric Power has owned around 60,000 acres in southeast Ohio that were reclaimed once the coal was removed, and it is very likely that no one knows those AEP lands better than bass fishing guide Corneilus Harris.
“My dad was taking us here when we were kids, so I’ve fished this area for maybe 40 years,” the Zanesville native and former college football player said. “I’ve been an AEP rat for a very long time.”
About a year ago, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources took ownership of some 31,000 acres of the former strip mine property that is spread across Guernsey, Morgan, Muskingum and Noble counties. Along with the adjacent Jesse Owens State Park and Wildlife Area, the purchase of the former AEP land gives the public continued access to a vast expanse that includes a half dozen campgrounds, a 24-mile section of the Buckeye Trail, outstanding deer and wild turkey hunting, and those often secluded and bass-filled bodies of water that likely number more than 350.
“It is truly an outdoorsman’s wonderland,” said Harris, who landed his first four-pound largemouth bass at the site at around age 15.
“After that, I was hooked, and I’ve made this my primary fishing grounds ever since. Some of the lakes aren’t that easy to get to, but the fish they hold are Florida-caliber bass – largemouth between 10 and 11 pounds. And five-pounders are pretty common on some of the lakes. You won’t find better bass fishing anywhere in the state.”
Harris and his longtime friend Solomon Curtis have been introducing other anglers to this less than well-known bass fisherman’s paradise for a number of years through their Guru Outfitters guide service. Their clients get the full strip mine lake experience, which often includes a trek to an unnamed remote lake after a drive down one of the dusty serpentine haul roads that are remnants of the mining era.
But since so many of the waters in the area are surrounded by trees, Harris determined long ago that the best, and often the only, way to fish these lakes is from a float tube, or belly boat.
“It’s a vast area and the terrain is tough with so few places you can fish from shore,” he said, “But the belly boat opens everything up. If you can get to the lake, then you can fish the whole lake, in every lake.”
A float tube is essentially a V-shaped inflatable inner tube with a raised seat in the middle. The angler usually wears chest waders and flippers similar to those used by scuba divers, and with the lower part of his legs submerged, paddles quietly across the water. The inflated tubes weigh less than 10 pounds and are easily carried on a backpack to the fishing site.
In his decades of scouting and research at the property, Harris estimates that he has fished about 250 different bodies of water in the area. He and Curtis choose the site for each outing based on their historical experiences, recent success, and the expectations and hiking ability of their clients.
“It can vary a great deal. If we have a guest with a slight disability, we have some lakes that are really close to the road, or we can go well off the beaten trail to a lake that maybe nobody has fished in months. We have a lake for every occasion.”
Harris has earned a reputation among Ohio bass anglers for his ability to bring big fish to the net at any time of year when ice is not covering the surface of the water. He has found that fall offers a nice window when the right baits and the proper tactics can produce action rivaling the spring pre-spawn bite.
“You have to know where to go, what time of year, and what approach to use once you get there,” he said. “A lot of people who come here are first-timers and fishing this place isn’t something you can learn overnight, so we want to provide the expertise that leads to success.”
Harris and Curtis recently opened a bait shop/tackle store here in this tiny unincorporated hill country community to supply anglers visiting the area with gear, snacks, drinks and a wealth of information and advice. More details on guided bass fishing treks is available at the guruoutfitters.net website, or by calling 740-319-9107. The Guru Outfitters store is open Thursday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“There’s nothing like that in the area, so I thought it would be nice to have a fixed location,” Harris said about the rustic-looking former grocery store and restaurant facility he has leased.
Harris said one of the best aspects of running the guide service is seeing the reaction of their clients – nearly all of whom have little or no knowledge that such a fisherman’s oasis existed in the hills of southern Ohio.
“The people we take fishing are very much so surprised when they see these lakes, and the kind of fish we catch in them,” he said. “It is written all over their faces — shock and surprise. They find it hard to believe something like this has existed here in Ohio for so long, and they knew nothing about it.”
Despite the hundreds of hikes to lakes hidden by the long-since healed scars of strip mining and the experience he has gained unlocking the secrets and idiosyncrasies of the bass that dwell in those pristine pockets of water, Harris said he remains a diligent student of the game.
“I absolutely look at each trek, each experience, and even each cast as a learning experience. And I learn something every trip,” he said. “Part of the joy in this for me is the knowledge you can build up over time. I am a sponge for that, and I love to share that knowledge. If I ever lose that feeling, it would be time to cut loose.”
He doesn’t expect that to happen — there are still maybe 50 to 100 lakes on the property he has yet to fish, and that next 10-pounder is likely lurking in one of them.
First Published September 27, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
