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...FROM THE CROWD
Hidden back in the northwest corner of
Randolph County, Georgia, Phillips Pond is far from the rush , noise
and aggravations of the everyday world.
The nearest main highway is 3 1/2 miles
away. There are no Jet-skis, water-skiers, or “thunder boats”.
You won’t find 200 bass tournament fishermen ahead of you or
roaring past you, and pro guides with clients are prohibited by
regulations.
What you will find is 150 acres of clean water from Deer Creek,
with an average depth of 12 feet, 34 at the deepest point. There is
a gated concrete boat ramp with 6 feet of water at its end, a
security light, and a 32 foot boarding dock. Picnic tables, barbecue
area, a new restroom, and ample parking are all close by.
There are numerous hedgerows that we left when pushing up the
pine that came up in the five years the pond was empty, with
ditches, ridges, humps, rock piles, and even a couple of peanut
combines added in for structure.
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...TO YEARS PAST Before Lake Blackshear, before Lake
Seminole, before Lake Eufaula, there was Phillips Pond. The first
Phillips Pond was built in the 1840’s, above the big Phillips Pond
built in the 1930’s.
Not much has changed around the pond
since.
There is still a 10 square mile
watershed, mostly timberland and creek bottom. There are dogwood
blossoms in April, but no housing developments. You may see a deer or
wood ducks, but you won’t find a paper mill or nuclear plant outflow
pipe. It is not downstream from Columbus or Atlanta, and the only
parking lot that drains into it is the grass lawn of 170 year-old
Sharon Church two miles away.
Our philosophy hasn’t changed either.
We want a clean, safe place for gentlemen sportsmen and their families
to enjoy the outdoors.
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...AND RELAX
Thoreau wrote “ Many men go fishing all their lives without
knowing that it is not fish they are after”.
Phillips Pond is a place that becomes part of who you are. It’s
the kind of place that you want to take that friend whom you owe a
favor, or a place you want to take your Dad to thank him for those
foggy mornings and red sunsets on the water years ago.
Phillips Pond can be safely fished from a pontoon boat, bass boat, johnboat
or even a canoe. We don’t have a limit on motor size, but do have a
speed limit and no-wake-around-others policy.
If you plan to just use an electric motor, bring two batteries! It’s
1 1/4 miles long, and takes a good chunk of day to fish all the way
around.
Thoreau also wrote “Heaven is beneath our feet as well as over
our heads”. It is easy to agree with him when the pine trees block
the evening sun, the bullfrogs begin to croak, and a big bass hits
your grandson’s top water lure for the first time……....
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