Bringing in the new year with some TEETH! :)

Now that it has officially been a month since our winter solstice... it seems like ole' man winter has finally decided to come pay us a visit here in central PA. If you live anywhere nearby, you can probably attest that it has been pretty chilly outside lately! Most mornings have been well below freezing, with temps down into the low teens, and this past week we finally saw our first significant snowfall of the season.

Still, we continue to be fortunate to have flowing water here on our local rivers... Only once have I arrived at a spot and not been able to fish it due to ice. In fact, fishing has been pretty good for us lately.

My Dad and my nephew Bailey decided that January 1st would be the perfect day to get the new year started out right... I spent that day sleeping in bed due to my work schedule, but I awoke to a very interesting text message--it was a picture of a nice musky, hahah. It seemed that Dad and Bailey had picked the right spot for their afternoon angling adventure, as my Dad scored a nice 35 inch muskie... What an awesome way to bring in the new year, congrats Dad!

In my own pursuit of fish with teeth, I had been doing a good job of striking out since mid-December. Still, I had been depositing a fair amount of time in my musky fishing bank account--fishing a few evenings, but mainly stopping on my way home from work to hit a few likely looking eddies. Fortunately, this past week, my time account at the musky bank decided to pay some big dividends... Big, for me at least, haha!

We had a nice front roll through central PA early one morning, which brought with it some rain and milder temps. I happened to be off work that day, so Dad and I decided to make a quick trip out, hoping to find a biter at one of our spots. We fished for about 20 minutes before I happened to make the right cast at the right angle... I could tell that I had a nice fish on at first, but assumed that I had just snagged a carp (which happens quite often) until the large fish came up to the surface and boiled. At that point I got REALLY nervous because I could see that I was hooked up with what was probably the nicest musky I had done battle with in a long time--all I could think about was not loosing it, haha!

Moving on, the fight continued for a few minutes as the fish circled the eddie. The fish was surprisingly strong considering the cold water, and it was hard to find the right moment to lead it in to shore. Eventually, after a bunch of thrashing and nervous moments, the beast came in at the right angle and I was able to slide it in past the outer weedline to the shore. I quickly grabbed her, and that was it... I had my first toothy fish of 2012! She measured 42 inches and was really fat--weighing 22 lbs. Needless to say, I was totally psyched about it and it was equally as exciting watching her swim back to her home after our brief encounter.
If you would have asked me after that fish, I would have thought that my good luck would have ended there... and that I would have needed to start building up more time in my muskie fishing account again before another withdrawal. Still, ya just never know how these things will work out... And somehow, a couple of days later, I was again at the right place at the right time, tossing the same bait that my 42"er ate on my previous outing. This time the fish wasn't quite as big... but it turned out to be a very respectable 35 1/2 inches and put up a great fight with lots of head thrashing. At one point I got really nervous when I saw my 60 lb fluorocarbon leader in its mouth, and it started thrashing its head. Still, all worked out in the end, and my leader actually came back unscathed. I was also very fortunate to meet another, very kind angler on this outing who was happy to hang out with me while I fought the fish, and then take a couple pictures of me with it. Thank you sir! As always, the best part of the experience was watching the fish swim away afterwards.

Well, I guess that concludes this entry for now..... I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, and re-living the memories. I wish you all a very happy new year! Enjoy the pics, and thanks again for stopping by the site.

Wow, it's officially winter......

I know it is hard to believe, but as of yesterday (December 21st--our Winter Solstice), we have officially moved from fall to winter here in central Pennsylvania..... "Boo, Hiss," lol. Still, we have been lucky in that our recent weather has not yet started to reflect our changing seasons. In fact, I would have to say that so far in 2011 we have experienced one of the mildest Decembers that I can remember.

If you haven't noticed, it seems like our recent weather patterns have been going from one extreme to the other lately... Will it be extremely cold? Or unseasonable warm? Extremely wet? Or bone dry? It is hard to know.

You river anglers can probably remember back to last December. Last year we were blasted by extremely frigid temps in early December, with lots of snow and ice. The result being the majority of our local waterways were locked up by ice early and stayed that way basically all winter long--from mid-December on through early March--major bummer!

Fortunately for us, this December has been the opposite of last. While we have been receiving a good bit of precipitation so far, we haven't seen much snow. The temperatures have remained fairly mild as well, which has served to keep the rivers wide open, and flowing quite well. This has been a great fall for fishing our rivers. Aside from a few frosty mornings, I haven't had any problem with ice at any of my fishing spots as of yet. It has been a joy to fish the fluctuating river levels... And at times we have seen some very productive fishing.
Aside from a couple of short lulls in action, the fall of 2011 has turned out to be the season for large smallmouth for us. My Dad, in particular, has had an awesome season for large, 20 inch + smallmouth, and I have been fortunate to add a couple in that same "C-Class" size range as well.

One morning this past week Dad gave me a schooling on the river... We arrived at our spot, and before I even hooked up on one fish he had already released a 21 inch bass, a 19, and then another 20 incher, lol. I don't think I would have believed it had I not been there... I even threatened to not buy him lunch! :)

Bass haven't been the only name in the game this fall, however... Generally, I 'm not completely happy until there have been at least a couple toothy fish added to the mix, and we have been fortunate to find a few fish with teeth this fall.

When I think of fall, a lot of times I think walleyes... But so far this fall the only way I've been able to have any luck at all with the eyes is to go at night... And even that action has been slow. Since the beginning of November, I have gone on 3 separate occasions at night, and landed one walleye on each trip. I was lucky in that one of those fish was a nice 25 incher, but also unlucky in that it was raining and I didn't get any decent pictures of it to share with you guys. I did get a decent shot of a nice fat 19+ incher that I caught a few days later however.
No report on toothy fish would be complete without muskies... So fortunately, I do have a couple of esox masquinongy to share with you as well. It is a bummer that they aren't as big as the skis from my last entry, but a musky is a musky in my book, and like my buddy Zack says--"Every musky counts." So with that said, I have a couple pictures of the two muskies I caught one afternoon last week to share with you. Neither fish was a giant--one was 29 inches, and the other 32--but each one got my heart beating pretty fast. Every time I hook a fish that I know for sure is a musky I immediately go into panic mode, trying (and hoping) so badly not to loose it... If you have been fortunate enough to hook one of these beautiful creatures, I am sure you can relate, ha ha. Both fish swam away happy.
For now, I guess that is all I have to share with you from our fall on the rivers in 2011. Let's continue to hope that the mild weather we've been experiencing lately decides to stay with us through the following months until spring. I wish you all the best of luck in your own outdoor pursuits this winter. Hopefully I will see some of you guys and gals out there on the water. Thanks again for reading and MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Also p.s., GO STEELERS! (Had to throw this one in, a pic from last winter)