Toby Jones Fishing

Bringing in the new year with some TEETH! :)

2012-01-22T02:35:00.021-05:00

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......

2011-12-22T01:14:00.022-05:00

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)

Fun, Fish and Fur..... Man I love Fall! :)

2011-11-16T03:02:00.012-05:00

If you are an outdoorsman, Fall has it all...... For those who love to fish and hunt, this time of year is often jam-packed with choices. And if you are like me--as I'm sure most of you are--there is a good chance that you also have to deal with a limited time schedule. Family, work, and other commitments often take priority over our outdoor pursuits (as they should). For me, the result is often a juggling match of balancing my limited free time, and trying to pick and choose the right activities and budget the necessary time for the ones that I feel will be the most productive (and enjoyable).

Fortunately, things have been working out quite well as of late, as this has proved to be a wonderful fall so far...... If you've been spending much time fishin around central PA lately, I am sure you've noticed that the flows on our local waterways have been receding for a while now. I love dropping flows on our local rivers, and we have been blessed with some awesome conditions to fish. Likewise, the weather has been pretty mild (minus one nasty snow storm) and it seems like a lot of local hunters have been enjoying a great fall in the woods as well.
My Dad was one of those lucky hunters this past week. On Tuesday morning I got a call while I was on my way home from work... On the other end of the phone I heard my Dad whispering to me: "I'm looking at a bloody arrow"... Needless to say we were both pretty excited! A few hours later, after a surprisingly long blood trail, Dad and I finally stumbled upon his beautiful (and very dead) buck--a nice 8 pointer. Way to go Dad! This is two years in a row that he has killed a nice buck with the bow.

We have also been pretty fortunate to experience some wonderful fishing lately... Dad has spent a lot of time along the river bank, and it seems like every day I get another text message with a picture of a large smallmouth in it. Personally I haven't been able to fish as much as I would have liked to lately, but I have been able to spend a couple (very successful) days on the river with my Dad. I also had the privilege to fish with my friend Jeremy one evening as well, and it has been fun to find a few nice smallmouth biting during my daily commute home from work also. I will spare you all of the details from our trips, but hopefully you will enjoy the pics... The musky pics are extra special to me, as they are from an awesome afternoon outing with my Dad... He caught his "ski" first (a 41 incher) and about 20 minutes later I landed mine (a 37). Woops, I guess I said I'd spare you the details, ha ha! Anyway, I hope you enjoy them.... And best of luck to you guys and gals in your own outdoor pursuits this fall! :)

Some Erie steel....... :)

2011-11-05T05:23:00.014-04:00

Believe it or not, this past week I was lucky enough to have a couple of days off work in the middle of the week. And you know what that means--- GONE FISHIN' ---Lol!

Dad and I loaded up the Pathfinder on Tuesday around noon, and by 5 PM we had our waders on and were waste deep (Okay, maybe ankle deep) in Elk Creek. My Dad and I have been making steelhead fishing road trips to the great lakes region for nearly 20 years now... So every year when the heat of summer begins to fade into the longer, cooler nights of fall, it is a pretty sure bet that both of us are starting to think (at least in part) about steelhead.

Fortunately, on this trip, we were able to encounter a good number of those steelhead that we had been thinking so much about... The trib conditions weren't perfect, in fact they were very low and clear--which actually equates to being pretty tough. Still, there were good numbers of fish in the creeks, and the numbers of fishermen didn't seem that bad honestly (considering we were fishing Erie in the fall).

Given the low/clear conditions, getting a proper presentation is of the utmost importance if you want to get bit... So we both spent our entire time float fishing, which tends to produce the best (IMO) when things get tough. As far as bait and terminal tackle goes, we had to fish very light leaders (like 4 lb, flouro) to get a decent number of bites, and you had to use very small hooks, small shot, and you needed to have the right bait for the type of water you were fishing.As far as the fish go, it seemed that there was a pretty good mix of fresh (chrome colored) fish and dark battle worn veterans in the creeks... And with the weather being on a warming trend during our stay, the fish were fighting pretty hard as water temps rose throughout the day. We encountered a lot of great jumpers on this trip... In fact, my best fish of the trip (a nice 30" hen) put up an awesome fight--twisting and turning and launching itself into the air probably 5 or 6 times. I was probably lucky to land that fish on 4 pound leader.

This was probably the only trip we'll be able to make to Erie this fall... And lucky for us the fish cooperated well enough to keep both of us looking forward to making another trip again come late winter or early spring, if all goes well.

I guess that is all for now... As always, I wish you all the best of luck in your outdoor pursuits, and thanks again for stopping by and reading. I hope you enjoy the pics! :)

Some more Martha's Vineyard pics... and a sneak peek into some fall PA action! :)

2011-10-27T05:36:00.020-04:00

Hey guys! I know it's been a while, but I just wanted to drop back in for a few minutes so that I could share a few more of our Martha's Vineyard trip pics with you.... Unfortunately I don't have too many fish pics to share with you as the striper fishing was really tough this year during the derby. In fact, it was the toughest striper fishing I've ever experienced on the island. Given the stellar fishing that we've experienced in past years, it is hard for me to believe that we only managed to land 2 striped bass in almost an entire week on the island.

Still, the trip was awesome! And the fish we landed were even more rewarding than usual due to the difficult circumstances...

My wife Marianne was the hero of this trip, as she caught the one and only keeper striped bass--a beautiful 31 incher--which was almost big enough to weigh in for the derby. Even though we couldn't weigh it in, we did fillet it up for a delicious striped bass dinner. She made me a VERY proud husband! And she did a great job breaking in her new purple St. Croix mojo inshore rod also.

As luck would have it, on the last night of fishing, I landed the only other striper of the trip--a scrappy little 25 or 26 incher. I was never more excited to catch a short striper in my life, lol! :)

Still, in spite of the slow fish catching, we kept plenty busy on our trip... We ate a lot of awesome food, took in all the great sights (some particularly spectacular sunsets), and enjoyed some good time just chillin' on the beach and hiking/exploring some new areas. I truly believe it is impossible to have a bad trip to the vineyard--no matter what the fishing holds--and this trip was proof enough of that for me. I can't wait to go back.

Oh, and btw... The local fall fishing has been heating up here in PA. We've had a lot of high water lately, but we've also had some decent windows of fishable water as the creeks and rivers have been receding from their high flows. Now is the time to get out there if you aren't already busy in a deerstand. Best of luck to you guys and girls in your outdoor pursuits this fall. Who knows, maybe I'll see you out there...
I hope you enjoy the pics.

And now for your sneak peek...

Just a quick update...

2011-10-10T06:40:00.007-04:00

I'm still working on getting our pics together from the vineyard trip... I apologize, as my intentions were to have a post up by now, but alas, it still hasn't happened... So here are a couple pics to tide you over. I'll try to post a few more in the coming days.

Hope you all are doing well!

Guess what... It's almost fall! :)

2011-09-15T04:30:00.024-04:00

If you've been outside much lately, I'm sure you've noticed the air has been a lot cooler. But it's not just the air that has been changing... the days have been growing much shorter as well, and the nights seem way longer. Our air conditioners haven't been running nearly as much at the house either. Without a doubt, fall is in the air! In fact, in a few more days it will officially be fall... Every year about this time I start getting excited!

Many of us throughout Central PA have endured some tough times the past couple weeks due to wet weather and some major flooding. There really hasn't been much to get excited about. Still, with fall soon upon us, hopefully we will be able to focus more on the good times and good weather that is still ahead of us this coming season.

There is so much for an outdoors-man or woman to do in fall... And we live in the perfect region to make the decisions even harder. "Let's see... Should I go fishing or hunting? Well, the steelhead are starting to run up in Erie, but the bucks are starting to make scrapes up on the ridge." Or, "I could make a run down to New Jersey and do some striper fishing, but then I'd probably miss a weekend of great bass angling at home!" In fall, the choices are many... But we truly are blessed to be able to make these "tough" choices! :)

I can tell you that Marianne and I have a plan for getting our fall started out right. Next week we will be headed to Martha's Vineyard for a nice, week-long trip with my Mom and Dad. The Vineyard is one of my favorite places on this earth, and if you have ever been lucky enough to spend much time there, I am sure it is one of your favorite places as well. I imagine that heaven is not all that unlike Martha's Vineyard.

I know, I seriously cannot wait for this trip! We have a lot of fun stuff planned--mostly involving fishing, but also a good bit of eating too, ha ha! Hopefully I will be able to keep all of you informed about our trip as it is going on... So stay tuned! But for now, here are a few pics that bring back some great memories from previous trips to the Vineyard through the years. :)

Pre- and Post- Irene... Man, she was MEAN!

2011-09-02T04:24:00.013-04:00

Hi guys! Welcome back to the site... :)

Since my last entry we have experienced some excitement here in PA, and all along the East Coast of the US for that matter. Last week Hurricane Irene came to visit us... And unfortunately she turned out to be a very UN-welcomed guest for many. Hurricane force winds, torrential downpours, battering waves, and a massive storm surge caused billions of dollars worth of damage across the East Coast of the US...and left many without electricity for days.

Fortunately for those of us north and west of the city of Harrisburg, the storm wasn't too bad. We received just over an inch of rain at my house, and although the winds were pretty bad at times, we were

lucky that our power remained uninterrupted.

Looking at the USGS Stream Flow Data, basically all the waterways from the Susquehanna on east are currently running high and muddy. Still, the nearby Juniata River is one of our local flows that was spared any significant amount of runoff from the storm... In fact, it never really rose more than about 6" according to the Newport gauge. So, lucky for us, we were actually able to do some fishing this past week.

We hit the river twice this past week--once right before the storm, and then again a couple days later. My Dad and I had high hopes that our local smallmouth would be putting on a major feed right before Irene arrived at our doorstep. In the end, we did catch a few fish each, but the bite never did turn out to be what we were hoping. Our second trip to the river didn't turn out much better either... In fact the fishing was a little bit slower than normal, as it seemed the fish were lying low and had not yet recuperated from the storm. Still, we did manage a few fish--with my nephew Bailey catching the nicest.

Hopefully all of you guys and gals were able to come through the storm OK. Let's hope that our weather will stabilize and remain favorable through the next couple of weeks... If it does, before long we will all be able to get back out there and do some fishing. Until my next entry, best of luck to you all and thanks again for reading! :)

Can of Corn and Summertime Smallies! :)

2011-08-15T04:19:00.025-04:00

Hi all, and welcome back! If you've been following along lately I'm sure you've noticed that it has been a while since I've posted a freshwater fishing report. The truth is, until the past couple of weeks, I really haven't done much freshwater fishing to speak of this summer. Fortunately, that will change with this report...

If you live around central PA you'll know that the past week or two have provided us with a pleasant change in weather... This past July was sizzling hot! But now that August has rolled around we've been fortunate to enjoy some unseasonably mild temps and some great opportunities to get outside and enjoy the outdoors.

I've almost always found the end of August to be a very productive time to get out and pursue the various species that inhabit our local rivers. Fortunately we have had a few successful outings on the river recently, and it has been nice to see a few signs like this one posted out there... My only suggestion would be to print them also in Spanish--seriously it just makes sense. Now, getting to the specifics... The first trip I'd like to share with you is one that is very special to me.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to accompany my brother-in-law Chad and my nephew Caleb on a mission--one that is an important stepping stone in every young man's fishing journey--Caleb was on a mission to catch his first carp!

In fact, this trip was our second outing in pursuit of this worthy opponent...And while our first trip provided a lot of action and excitement, in the end the carp were victorious. We had high hopes that the tide would turn in our favor on this, our second trip.

After a quick journey to our "secret" spot, our evening started out as many carp fishing trips do--with the ceremonial cracking of the can of corn. After the can was cracked (open), we then proceeded to broadcast a fair portion of its contents into the area as chum. Before long we had our rods baited up and cast them out--covering a nice section of the fishing hole. Now it was time for us to wait...

It didn't take long!

After about ten minutes of anticipation, a carp picked up one of our baits... with a couple quick movements and a solid hookset, Caleb was hooked up with a strong fish.

The drag was screaming as the carp took a lot of line... In what seemed like seconds, the fish was almost 40 yards upstream. In the following minutes Caleb's carp battled hard as it swam all over the pool we were fishing--from top to bottom. Caleb even had him in close to bank a couple times before the mighty fish would turn around and swim back out again. It took almost ten minutes of fighting, but in the end Caleb won the battle and landed his first carp... Definitely a fish to be proud of Caleb. Congratulations on your first carp! One you will never forget. :)
For you bass guys (myself included)... Don't worry I have some SMB action to share with you as well! :)

Though not as exciting as our local carping adventures, we have found the smallies biting pretty well lately. My dad and I were out on one occasion this past week and did pretty decent (well actually he schooled me--something like 10 to 3). I also made a couple early morning ventures to the river myself in the past couple weeks.

This time of the year I generally like to fish larger, minnow style baits... Usually either soft plastic jerk baits, plugs, or topwater spooks. I've caught some of my largest river smallmouth this time of the year, fishing baits like these, and although there weren't any giants this past week (best was 19 inches) I was able to hook into a couple good sized fish.
One of the things I love the most about summertime smallmouth fishing is being able to watch the strike, and then experience the fight. Smallmouth are strong fighters all year round, but after a winter of catching nice bass I often forget how much stronger they can be this time of the year.

This big girl fought like she was on steroids. She jumped about 3 feet in the air and then tried to swim between my legs a couple times... Roid rage!
Until my next entry, thanks again for reading and best of luck to you on the water... :)

Oh and btw, I've grown very fond of the new KVD "grip pin" hooks for fishing soft baits. Check them out... just FYI.

Delmarva--hot weather, warm water, and SLIME!!! :)

2011-07-27T01:12:00.014-04:00

Through the years I've found that if you keep fishing long enough, and spend enough time in the field with your friends and family, every now and then you will experience some unforgettable moments that stay with you forever. This past weekend my nephew Bailey and I were fortunate enough to create some of those memories together...

Bailey and I had been trying to get out on the water for a while now. In fact, for a couple of years we had been attempting to plan a striper fishing trip together. Unfortunately things just hadn't worked out for us to go. Luckily this past weekend, in spite of my strange work hours and his demanding schedule as a high school athlete, we were finally able to piece together a couple of days to make a trip to the beach for some nighttime striper fishin' fun.

The weather was hot and humid (and if you live anywhere near the mid-Atlantic states you know what I'm talking about)... The water was very warm, and the bulk of the striper migration had passed by our area in Delmarva since back in mid-June. In all honesty, things weren't looking very good... I had a few tricks up my sleeve that I knew had produced nice summertime stripers for me in the past, but given the conditions I wasn't extremely hopeful.

Fortunately, it only took about an hour of fishing time for my doubts to be washed away on this trip... It was dark, the tide was slack, and I was tying an eel rig onto another rod when I heard the excitement in Bailey's voice as he said "Tobe, I got one on!" I turned around and saw his rod bent over with the drag screaming out. A couple moments passed as I scampered down the rocks to where Bailey was set up fighting his fish. By the time I made it down to him, the fish had finished peeling line off of his reel and was now busy thrashing around, throwing water on the surface of the inlet. By the size of the splashes and the deep sounding swirl of its tail we could tell it was a nice fish. A few minutes later, after a couple nice runs, a few nervous moments, and a lot of surface thrashing...Bailey's striper was up on the rocks. It was a beautiful, fat fish--measuring 34 inches long and weighing 15.5 pounds on my boga grip--not a bad way for a budding striper angler to start out. His first fish and it's a keeper... A nice one at that! We decided this fish would be a good one to keep for the dinner plate as it had swallowed the hook. And boy, were we right--Deeelicious! :)
Our trip continued on as we jumped around to a few different hotspots in Delmarva. Along the way we were fortunate to find stripers at every spot we fished. As always, we did experience a few heartbreaking losses... But they were more than made up for by a few more moments "in the ZONE." In fact, Bailey bested his first catch of the trip by putting a nice, long 37 incher up on the rocks at another spot. We snapped a few pics and watched as his second keeper swam back to the depths after some revival efforts.
All-in-all, it was a crazy awesome trip! Had we been "stripah" fishing in New England, it would have been a "wicked" awesome trip, lol... Bailey kicked my butt, caught all the big fish, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Until my next entry, thanks again for reading and I hope you guys and gals enjoy your time on the water as well.

From Stripes to Specks! And some Flatties too... :)

2011-07-11T02:43:00.051-04:00

As a guy who has grown accustomed to spending most of the year freshwater fishing... This past spring and summer has been a real treat. If you've been following my blog lately, you've probably noticed that I've actually spent a decent amount of time saltwater fishing this year--something I haven't really done much of since moving back to PA from Maryland four years ago. That is why I am psyched to have yet another saltwater entry to share with you...

Just this past week, Marianne and I returned home from a wonderful week-long family vacation to the OBX where we stayed with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law and my two nephews. The house we stayed in was a beautiful three story rental home in the town of Rodanthe, that was just about a hundred yards from the beach. This place had some amazing views, and it was a special treat to be able to wake up every morning and look out over the Atlantic as you were sipping your breakfast coffee.While this trip was way more than just a fishing vacation, we did spend a good bit of time with a line in the water. In fact, we covered a nice long stretch of ground--hitting a plethora of spots from the sound in Nags Head; on south, to the beachfront in Buxton.

While I had fished the Outer Banks before and had become somewhat familiar with the area in years past, the majority of my time spent there had been in the colder months--targeting mainly stripers. On this trip we spent a lot of time poking around different spots looking for flounder, specks, and reds (and the whole host of other species that inhabit these warmer waters)... I have to say that it was very nice to spend a lot of time in shorts and flip flops on this trip--wet wading, tossing jig heads w/ gulp, and kayaking out some large baits with hopes of a shark or two from the beach. These are the memories that will come back to me when it is freezing cold this coming winter and all I can think about is warm water, sand, sun, and summer time.
As far as the fishing goes, it wasn't "great" by OBX standards, but there were plenty of fish around to keep things interesting. We caught quite a few different species (I have pictures of most of them) and we only missed a couple from our list of hopefuls--including sharks and reds unfortunately. Still, the big southern sting rays provided plenty of pullage for our heavy beach outfits...enough to keep our arms tired and our knots tied true. The flounder also proved themselves to be fairly cooperative on this trip, at least cooperative enough that my wonderful wife Marianne was able to catch her first couple of flatties--earning her new nickname: "The Flounder Pounder"... Make sure to call her that when you see her, she'll appreciate it... :)
All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful trip... The weather was good, the food even better, and it was great time spent well with our family--memories that will last a lifetime. It doesn't get much better than that! I hope you guys enjoy the pics... :)

Some more fish with stripes...! :)

2011-06-22T03:09:00.020-04:00

This blog entry is long overdue...

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to accompany my good buddy Chad and a couple other fine gentlemen (Neil and Scotty--who have just become two of my newest fishing buddies) on an afternoon striped bass fishing charter in Raritan Bay.

I am truly a surf fisherman by heart, so it's not very often that I make it out on a boat to target striped bass... Still, whenever the opportunity arises for me to board one of these fiberglass jetties, I am always psyched to make the most of my opportunity.

Fortunately for us, the fish were willing to cooperate with our high hopes for the trip as well, and by the end of the day we were able to put some good numbers of real nice-sized fish in the boat.

Our day was spent fishing w/ Captain Joe Scotti of Staten Island, NY who had no trouble proving to us that he is a live bait specialist... Drifting over top of submerged structure with live, adult bunker (menhaden) was the name of the game on this outing--and it worked like a charm.

Captain Scotti certainly new were the stripers were hanging out, because it didn't take long for them to find our baits once they were in the water. As an angler who has grown accustomed to striper hunting in the dark, it was a serious blast to watch these fish come up from underneath our baits and engulf them on the surface. Oftentimes our bunker would be swimming frantically on the surface, somehow hoping to escape the danger lurking beneath them and what must have seemed like their impending doom... It was totally awesome!
Needless to say, the trip was action-packed. In fact it and almost seemed too short... By the end of the day we had landed 3 fish in the 30 pound range and a bunch of other smaller fish (still really nice fish for this surf guy) in the high teens to 20 pound range.
Personally, I know that I can't wait to get my butt back out on one of those fiberglass jetties to chase some more striped bass.

Until my next entry, thanks again for reading and best of luck to you on the water...

Good times w/ my buddy Pete... :)

2011-06-17T02:27:00.018-04:00

It had been entirely too long since my good buddy Pete and I got together to do some fishing. We tried many times to plan something over the past few months, but we just weren't able to put our schedules together. So, I can definitely say that I felt very fortunate that we were able to meet up last week for a couple days and nights of saltwater fishing in Delmarva.

Over the years Pete and I have spent countless hours chasing stripers together--starting way back in college. In fact, I think it would be no exaggeration at all to say that we have covered the vast majority of the East Coast at one point or another in search of linesides. So, whenever he and I get a chance to hit the water together... there is a good chance that stripers are on the menu.

Fortunately for us, we had great weather for our trip...And even better, the fish decided to play along this time as well. We did end up dodging some nasty waves on our 2nd night, but that just added to the fun.

I will spare you a lot of the details, but I should say that things started out as they often do--with Pete catching the majority of the fish, haha. I should also add that by the end of the trip I think I caught back up... ;)

All of our fish were caught on artificial lures... Most on plastic swimshads, but also one or two on a bucktail jigs. We didn't measure any of our fish, but we each had fish that were in the 35 to 36 inch range... Although I think Pete caught more keeper size fish than I did total.

Needless to say, it was an awesome trip... The fishing was really good, and it was even better to finally spend some much-needed time on the water with my good buddy. Thanks again, Pete!
Oh, and we caught a bunch of other species as well--not just stripers. I will include some in the pics.

I guess that is all for now... Until my next entry, thanks again for reading and best of luck to you on the water.

Welcome back! To well, ummm, ME... :)

2011-06-03T04:18:00.010-04:00

Believe it or not I am still kickin'... I know, seriously, it's hard to believe considering it's been almost a month since my last post.

For all you guys who check my page regularly, I apologize that I've taken so long to update my blog. I have been considering making some changes to the frequency in which I update my page. I believe that I might go to bi-monthly format--posting once at the beginning of each month and then again a summary at the end of each month. I haven't completely decided on this yet... So we shall see I guess.

For now, my intentions for this entry are just to provide a brief re-cap of this past May's fishing.

If you live anywhere near central PA (or the east coast USA for that matter) you can attest that this spring has provided some of the strangest and most extreme weather that we have experienced for a long time. We have had tons of rain, some nasty storms (numerous tornadoes), and now extreme heat... this has been such a weird year.

Likewise, the fishing has been strange as well... River conditions have been blown out consistently, with just small windows of fishability opening at times in certain locations. For the most part I've been trying to dodge the high water flows by focusing the majority of my attention on local lakes, chasing mainly muskies... w/ no luck (big surprise, lmao)! Still, Marianne, Lucy, and I did have one really nice evening trip, were Marianne caught 3 nice largemouths--she is becoming quite a fishergirl!

As far as the river goes, we have been picking up some nice smallmouth here and there, but only at our "high water" spots--which are few. My dad has been putting in a lot more time than I have on the river, and I should mention that he sent me a pic of a beautiful 21 incher that he caught a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately the pic was pretty blurry, so I won't post it... But definitely know that the big fish are still out there. Nice one Dad!

Also, I was fortunate enough to make a (VERY) short trip out to visit my buddy Zack and fish the Allegheny river for muskies. Luckily, I must have hit a feed window just right as I was hooked up to a nice low 30 inch range musky within my first 20 minutes of fishing... Unfortunately, the fish threw the hooks as I was trying to land it. However, an hour later I was hooked up to another (slightly larger) fish that I did end up landing... It measured 37 inches, and had a ugly mug with it's injured upper jaw--not very photogenic! I also caught a nice little norther pike to round out my toothy fish action for the trip.My buddy Zack also connected with a beautiful 41 inch musky later that evening, when we were fishing on our friend Mike's boat. This was Zack's new PB musky, and it was great to be a part of the experience... and real nice to watch her swim away.Mike and his dad Mario also landed some really nice fish in the following days after I returned home... One of their fish was a 45 inch giant! A really FAT fish. I wish I had the pictures to share with you... seriously impressive! Nice work guys!

Of coarse I forgot my camera on this trip, so the only pictures I have are cell phone pics... a bit lacking I know!

Well, I guess that about wraps it up for this past month... I will try to do better next month at keeping things updated and will hopefully focus a bit more on capturing quality photos when the opportunities present themselves. I wish you all the best of luck in this upcoming month. Let's hope June is much more stable than May, and that the fishing is even better! That's all for now.

May flowers? Well, we are getting there... :)

2011-05-09T05:39:00.011-04:00

Since my last entry, things haven't exactly dried off... This past April turned out to be the wettest on record here in PA. At times the rain just seemed to keep coming, and the rivers just seemed to keep rising.

The tough weather this spring hasn't helped our river fishing much--especially here in the central part of the state. There have been some short windows of opportunity between storms, but they haven't lasted long... And most of our best spots have been unfishable since early March.

Still, this kind of thing can't go on forever... And in fact, things have been starting to look up this past week as we experienced a few days w/ sunny skies and very little rain. I know it's hard to believe but our local weather forecast is calling for more of the same this coming week.

In spite of the past high flows, we have been able to hit the river (occasionally) and have put some decent fish on the bank at times. Most all of our fish have been coming on jigs, tipped w/ soft plastics... and darker colors that present a decent profile in the muddy water.

Here are a couple pics from this past month of smallmouth fishing in Central PA. Also as a bonus, I will let my last pic provide you with a sneak peak into the subject of my next entry--which will be about a quick trip I made to visit and fish w/ my good buddy Zack... :)

Until my next entry, thanks again for reading and best of luck to you on the water.

April Showers...

2011-04-22T19:28:00.012-04:00

Man, is it ever going to stop raining? Don't get me wrong, after last year's hot, dry weather it is nice to see things starting out cool and wet this year... But man, I haven't been on the river in almost a month. Even the lakes I like to fish have been messed up by the heavy rain. Let's hope these April showers lead to some very nice flowers (and fish) come May... :)

This past week I finally had enough of watching WFN, cruising fishing websites, and just plain thinking about fishing... I had to get out. Fortunately, I got just the right opportunity to sneak out for a quick trip on Tuesday morning.

There was a break in the rain, so I quickly put my hip boots on and headed to the creek... A good opportunity to re-visit some of my old brown trout friends.

Just as I arrived at the stream it started raining again--figures, lol. Fortunately the creek looked nice, so I decided to fish in spite of the rain.
Luckily, it didn't take long to get into my first fish. Actually it came on my second cast--a beautiful, hard-fighting brown in the 13 to 14 inch range. After landing and releasing that beautiful fish I was happy and could have left the stream content with the awesome fish I had just caught. Still, I decided I should fish a little bit longer. So I gave it about 20 minutes and hit a couple more likely looking holes. After I had landed my 4th pretty little brownie it was time to head home--best to minimize my interaction with this small, delicate system on this day.

Hopefully by my next entry, things will have cleared up and dried off a little bit... But until then, thanks again for reading and best of luck to you on the water.

Finally, it's time for a fishing report!!! :)

2011-04-04T19:36:00.013-04:00

Yes, believe it or not my Dad and I actually did make it up to Erie this past week... And boy am I glad we waited as long as we did to go. Conditions were very good (almost perfect really) for float fishing--which is my favorite way to target steelhead.

Last week's rain had produced some high flows, but by the time we arrived on Tuesday things had receded. Still, there was plenty of water in the creeks for us, and the visibility was just right IMO--with a nice green color in the deeper holes.We ended up fishing a half day on Tuesday and then a full day on Wednesday. Our previous plan was to fish Thursday morning also, but when we awoke we were greeted by a couple inches of fresh snow... So we figured it best to forgo the morning fishing and concentrate on a safe drive home.

As far as the fish go, it seemed like there weren't quite as many fish as in most years past. But we did find a decent mix of fresh and battle-scarred veterans... It was obvious that a lot of the fish had already spawned and were dropping back downstream, but we did catch a good number of chromers--fresh from the lake.

At the end of our fishing, we totaled 25 steelhead between us... Dad had 12 and I had 13. The vast majority of the fish were caught on jigs (like the ones in my post from March 18th) that were tipped with minnows. My largest fish of the trip was a beautiful chrome hen that measured 30 inches, and I believe Dad's best fish was almost identical in size to mine.

Man, looking back it seems like such a long time since Dad and I had fished the tribs... In fact, throughout our trip we were constantly commenting to each other about how nice it was to be back in Erie--watching our floats drift downstream again. Of coarse, the best part of the trip is always hooking a fish and feeling that strong head-shake of a large trout on the end of your line... Spending some great father-son fishing time was pretty darn nice as well.

Until next entry, thanks for reading and best of luck to you on the water... :)

A sneak peek into my 2011 Tackle Box... Part II :)

2011-03-28T18:33:00.028-04:00

Welp, unfortunately I don't have any steelhead to share with you this week. Last week's trip ended up being rained out, so we decided to stay home and fish our local rivers (which turned out to be quite productive thankfully)... We ARE planning a trip for this coming week however, so if everything goes right I will hopefully have some steelie pics to share with you soon.

For now, I promised I would give you guys a second sneak peek into my 2011 tackle box... so I guess I should follow through with that.

This entry will be a little bit different than the last. It will be mostly pics. I've picked out a few cool new baits to try this year. These are not necessarily baits that are brand new to the market, rather they are new to me. An example would be the first lure I would like to share with you. It is the Booyah Boogie Bait:

The Boogie Bait is a type of chatterbait. These baits have been around for quite a while now... and are one of the those lure types that I have just kind of skipped over for some reason. Well, I'm going to fix that in 2011. In fact I started fishing them a couple weeks ago... and I caught a nice 19" smallmouth on one last week (pictured at the top). I love the vibration that these chatterbaits produce, they are sure to get a lot of time in 2011.

Next, are some hard bodied swimbaits... All three of these baits are BBZ models from SPRO--one is a 6 inch trout and the others are the 4 inch shads. If you've ever fished with me, you probably know that I am a swimbait fan... But until now I haven't spent much time fishing hard swimbaits. Most of my time and success has been with soft models. Hopefully 2011 will change that as I put these baits through their paces. I can tell you one thing.... They all look amazing in the water.Your last and final "sneak peak" for 2011 is going to be at a nice little musky glide bait that I picked up recently. It is the 4 inch Phantom Softtail...

And here it is next to its older (6 inch) brother... I have fished the 6 inch model in the past and really liked its action, so when I had a chance to pick up a couple 4 inch phantoms I did. Pictured is the "sucker" pattern bait, but I also picked up a "white-belly perch" model. These guys look real nice and their action is great in the water... Exactly like the larger sizes, just in a smaller profile. I know of a few muskies and some large bass that will get a look at these lures this coming season. I can't wait to try them out!

Btw, it is only the hard body of this bait that is 4 inches long... When measured from the nose to the end of the soft tail, the bait measures almost 5 1/2 inches in total length.

Well...I guess that concludes your sneak peek into this year's tackle box. And hey, just so you know--there is a lot more that I haven't shown you... HA HA HA!!! :)

Great Lakes Steelhead... Gettin' Jiggy with It! :o)

2011-03-18T20:54:00.018-04:00

In light of a nice little "road trip" that my Dad and I are planning for early next week... I thought I'd do a short post regarding steelhead.

Often times, when drift-fishing for steelhead, we use small jigs (usually tipped w/ bait) and run them underneath floats. If you have never experienced this type of fishing, you should know that it can become a very exciting (almost addicting) experience watching your float drift downstream through a good run of fish--knowing that at any moment a big girl could slip up and take your jig... Unfortunately, I haven't done much steelhead fishing the past couple of years, but believe me when I tell you this is one of my favorite types of fishing.

In this entry I'd like to share with you a very simple, yet effective method of tying steelhead jigs. This is a pattern that I have been tying for quite a few years now and have found it effective on both the Erie and Ontario tribs.

First, you'll need some tying supplies and a few small jigs (with no collar)... These are 1/32 oz, but you can use smaller or larger for the conditions you fish.Next, place your jig in a vice, and wrap your thread onto the hook--bringing it back to a position that is slightly past the hook point.
Then tie in your tail... For this jig I used some black rabbit fur and a few strands of pink Chrystal Flash, but you can use any material you want (marabou is another I use quite often).Last, you will dub in your body color/s (you'll see I used a combination of black and purple on this jig)... And then tie it off.This pattern can be made in any combination of colors. My favorites have been black and purple or pink and white, but any color combo can be effective depending on conditions and the mood of the fish.

Man I am ready to go! The forecast doesn't look to good for Monday and Tuesday, which are the days we are planning to fish... But Dad and I were already rained out twice on potential trips this season, so we might just go ahead in spite of the forecast and hope for the best.
Now that I'm officially rigged up...here is to hoping my next entry has some pretty steelhead in it! Lol... :) Until then, thanks for reading and best of luck on the water.

The Flood of March 2011...

2011-03-13T01:59:00.017-05:00

Well guys and gals... We waited all winter for these warming temps and free flowing rivers--and boy do we have them now!

The rivers have gone from being totally unfishable due to ice, to being totally unfishable due to high waters...lol! Oh well, such is the life and times of a river angler I guess.

Needless to say, I haven't really done any fishing this past week, but I did spend a little bit of time along the river bank yesterday morning. I grabbed my digital camera and made a few stops at familiar places along the Susquehanna and Juniata on my way home from work. The water was raging, and there were a few places under water I have not seen that way before.The Juniata itself did not reach flood-stage on either the Newport or the Lewistown gauges this week, but the Susquehanna did. Both the Sunbury and the Harrisburg gauges crested above flood stage (indicated by the red line in the graphs below).
Yesterday morning Front Street was closed by the Fort Hunter boat access area, as the river backed up into Fishing Creek and covered both the parking lot by the ramp and the roadway with water and debris.
"The Wall" down by the mouth of the Juniata was also completely submerged--as was the campground on the opposite side of the river. The Rt. 849 bridge was also closed, cutting off traffic from Rt. 322 heading to and from Duncannon.
This obviously wasn't the flood of the century, but it has been the largest that we've seen in the past few years. I tried to get a few pics of places that some of you might recognize... I wish my camera work would have been a little better, but it is what it is...lol.

Let's hope these waters recede quickly and we are back to chasing our favorite river fish in no time. Thanks again for reading and best of luck when you finally can get back out there!

A sneak peak into my 2011 tackle box... Part I :)

2011-03-05T02:20:00.018-05:00

Here in central PA our fishing season never really stops. Rather, it just transitions from one phase to another. Still, with spring only a few weeks away, I can't help but feel like we are at the doorstep of something new.

After a long winter, it is undeniable that the upcoming warmer months bring with them some inherent excitement... and for me that excitement is deeply rooted in the plethora of possibilities for angling. There are so many different places to fish, so many different fish to target, and so many different techniques to employ--I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

In my last blog entry I promised that I would give you a sneak peak into my tackle box for this upcoming season. Every year I try to experiment with some new lures--some new lure types, as well as some new versions of familiar lures. This year will be no different. I'm not going to show you everything that's in my tackle box this season, but here is a glimpse at a few of the lures I am looking forward to trying out.
In this entry (Part I), we will take a look at a type of lure that I am sure is familiar to many of us here--the swimming plug. These are not just your average "run of the mill" swimming plugs that I will be testing out this season, however. As luck would have it I received a few of the new custom, wooden swimmers from Tuscarora Tackle in my Christmas stocking this year (thanks again, Honey! I mean, "Santa")... :)

Since unwrapping these plugs and inspecting the beautiful paint jobs and high quality finish, I've been dreaming of feeding them to some hungry fish.

If you have not yet heard of Tuscarora Tackle, it is a local business that is owned and operated by Jeremy Wagner of East Waterford, PA. Jeremy specializes in building unique, custom fishing rods and hand-carved wooden lures. If you are interested in checking out some more of Jeremy's work, click on this link to go to the Tuscarora Tackle website.

Jeremy builds shallow and deep diving plugs as well as some larger-lipped lures designed for trolling, but the plugs I own I would classify as primarily shallow-diving swimmers or twitch baits.

I have only been able to swim these plugs a few times so far--just enough to inspect their action really. Still, what I have observed thus far has been very promising.

From what I have seen in my short testing sessions, these lures perform just as they are designed... They will swim nicely as a wake bait--just under the surface--and can be pulled or twitched down to about a foot in depth. They have a nice wiggle and a very hard roll. In fact, the roll on these plugs is so hard that they almost turn 180 degrees from side to side... You have to see it to believe it really, and they look great. The plugs I own are floating models, but they are not extremely buoyant--when stopped under water they rise slowly to the surface.

As far as aesthetics go, the paint jobs on these plugs are beautiful... And the hard epoxy finish is excellent--giving the impression they will be quite durable as well. One paint pattern that I am particularly fond of is Jeremy's perch pattern. While it looks great to the eye when out of water, it is truly impressive when seen swimming underwater--the dark bands really stand out, and the colors seem to blend perfectly to match that of a live perch. One thing I can tell you for sure, is that I know a few largemouth bass and tiger muskies in a particular lake that will be given the chance to pounce on my perch-colored, Tuscarora Tackle twitch bait this upcoming season.
Before I close, I should also mention that in addition to his custom painted lures Jeremy also builds some extremely-unique, large musky plugs that are wrapped with actual snakeskin, adorned with taxidermy quality snake eyes, and are finished with 6 coats of hard epoxy. I have seen these plugs in person and have been able to photograph a few of them. Upon inspection it is painfully obvious that you really need to see them in person to fully appreciate their aesthetics. It's my hope that as the season progresses and some of our local muskellunge get to see these lures, there will be some nice tooth marks in that smooth epoxy finish as well... :)

Well, that concludes Part I of your sneak peak into my tackle box this season... Hopefully I will see you back here soon for Part II. Until then, I hope you are able to get out and enjoy some time on the water this month. Thanks again for reading, and best of luck on the water.

Got a text message yesterday...

2011-02-18T21:02:00.010-05:00

It said, "Just released a nice 30 inch musky." Instantly I had a smile on my face... :)

Man what beautiful weather we've had the past couple of days! Finally, we got a break from the cold. Unfortunately I had to work both days... So I didn't get out to fish. But my Dad did. Man I wish I would have been there with him.

It has been a while since I've gotten out, but we did a have a decent morning of fishing about 10 days ago--with a couple 19 inchers landed. Mostly I've just been test swimming lures and getting geared up for fishing this coming summer.

In my next blog entry, I will try to give you a sneak peek into some of the lures I'll be fishing this coming season. Until then, thanks for reading and good luck when you get out on the water. Hopefully you all were able to enjoy some of this great weather.

Wintertime windows... Hit 'em when you can! :)

2011-02-05T21:51:00.012-05:00

Welp... In spite of the wind, the rain, the sleet and snow we actually did make it out to do some fishing this past week! :)

I had off work last Tuesday and Wednesday, but the weather forecast wasn't all that favorable with predictions of snow for Tuesday and then sleet and freezing rain Wednesday. No matter how much I wanted to fish, it didn't seem like it was going to happen. I had high hopes the weather man would be wrong, but when Tuesday and then Wednesday rolled around, oh boy, it was icy! However (and against all odds) by mid-day on Wednesday things began to warm up, most of the ice had melted and the roads were clear. So... my Dad, my nephew Bailey, and I were able to take advantage of our short window of opportunity and we hit the river.

We fished a nice ice-free zone for a couple hours, and found some decent fish biting. Dad caught the most fish out of all of us, but Bailey turned out to be the hero of the trip when he landed a fat 19 inch smallmouth. All our fish came on jigs and plastics or a hair jigs... I tried, but could not entice any strikes on a suspending jerkbait. Interestingly, the fish seemed to be set up a good distance away from the shoreline--probably set up behind rocks or some sort of bottom structure--likely the result of the low clear conditions.

Hopefully soon we will get a decent warm rain to warm up the ground, break up the ice, and get some good runoff into our local tribs. This should kick the fishing up a notch when it happens... However, I should say that I am somewhat impressed with this winter's fishing so far. It has definitely been better than last year, imho. February is one of our best months here in PA for big fish, so I'm looking forward to what this month has in store for us. Until next entry, thanks again for reading and good luck on the water when you get out there.

The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl!!! :) And oh yeah, we caught some fish...

2011-01-26T04:16:00.015-05:00

I'm going to keep this one short... But I have to say, this past week has been great! I learned a good bit about some new water, I got to spend some good time with my Dad, we found some hungry fish, and best of all--the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl! Ha ha... :)

Man by the end of this past week, it sure seemed like it had been a long time since I had last gotten out to do some fishing. Fortunately, my schedule and my fishing drive finally came into sync this past week, and I was able to hit the river. Three times I fished a nice ice-free section of water--twice solo and once with my Dad. All three trips were productive with numerous types of fish. Dad and I each caught a small musky this past week, and he landed a nice walleye as well. As usual, the majority of the fish caught were smallmouths, and most were good-sized fish in the 15 to 17 inch range--the largest being a nice 19+ incher.

Also, as usual, most of our fish were caught on jigs and various soft plastics. However, I did actually land a few bass on a suspending jerkbait--including the largest fish mentioned above. Considering it's January and conditions were pretty brutal at times, the bass were pretty aggressive and fought surprisingly hard this past week. I really couldn't have asked for more.

It is days like I experienced this past week that remind me how lucky we are (here in central PA) to have such great fishing for these awesome creatures year-round here in our local waters. To have 15 degree temps, with a stiff breeze blasting in your face and still have a nice smallmouth bass jumping on the end of your line is not something to be taken for granted. Keep that in mind the next time you are out enjoying some wintertime smallmouth fun on our local waters. Until next entry, thanks again for reading and good luck on the water! :)

Welcome back... It's 2011!

2011-01-08T20:44:00.012-05:00

It has been a while! But now that the holiday season has passed, it's my hope that 2011 finds you all happy and healthy and looking forward to what this new year has in store for us (hopefully lots of fishing, ha ha)... :)

It seems I took a little break from fishing around the holidays... In fact, until this past week, it had been almost 3 weeks since I last wet a line. Fortunately, however, I was able to get out this past week--with hopes of bringing in the first fish of 2011, and also soaking in a little bit of "river therapy" to ease the mind and wash away the stresses of the holiday season.

I had Tuesday and Wednesday off work this past week, and it only seemed fitting that the first trip of the year would be with my Dad. So when Tuesday rolled around we decided to hit the river, and as luck would have it... We did get those first fish of the new year! The morning was cold and blustery (and our fingers were frozen), but fortunately the good Lord smiled on us, and we were able to find a few Susquehanna smallmouth who were willing to come out and play. The action wasn't fast and furious by any means, but by mid-afternoon we had totaled 11 bass between us. Most were small, in the 11 to 13 inch range... But we did get into couple nice ones--the largest being a nice 18 incher caught by yours truly... :) All fish came on jigs with soft plastics, and you really had to work the areas hard to get a bite.

I also fished a little bit on Wednesday afternoon. Since I had caught a good number of bass the previous day, I decided to fish larger lures and focus a little bit more on muskies. As luck would have it, I didn't put any toothy critters on the bank Wednesday... but I did catch a nice, football-shaped smallmouth.

In closing, I just wanted to state a reminder that as of January 1st smallmouth bass are now catch and release only in lower parts of the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers... So if you are planning to do some bass fishing this coming year, definitely check out the regulations for the areas you intend to fish.

But for now, I am just happy to have spent some time on the water this past week. Even though the conditions were cold, the time spent on the water was therapeutic in many ways. It is also always a good thing to get those first few fish of the new year in as well, and we were fortunate to do so this past week. So until next time, thanks for reading and best of luck to you when you get out there on the water.

Quality... Not Quantity :)

2010-12-20T05:43:00.008-05:00

If you happen to live anywhere near central PA, you know how cold it has been lately. We have been pounded by northwesterly winds and freezing cold temps... With daytime highs in the 20s and nighttime lows in the single digits, most of our open water is now slushy or frozen--making things really tough to get out there and fish.

Still, if it sounds like I'm complaining... I'm really not. I actually caught two of my best fish of the year in the last couple of weeks. I was only able to get out twice, and both trips were short... but they were productive.

My first trip was a nighttime excursion for walleye--and believe it or not, I actually found a couple... Conditions were pretty nasty and it was raining and freezing so photo opportunities were not great, but I pulled in two pretty walleyes in about an hour. One was just over 20 inches and the other measured 26 inches and was really fat--6lbs. + easily.

My other trip was a quick little stop by the river following an afternoon of Christmas shopping... I fished a small open water section for a little over and hour just before dark--with the end result being two nice bass. One bass in particular was especially nice--measuring 20 inches and very fat.

This winter's fishing has been pretty tough due to the cold so far, but the action has been quality not quantity... And I will take that any day of the week, at any time of the year.

With the holiday's coming up, there is a good chance that this will be my last report for 2010. So for now, I would like to wish you all tight lines and a very Merry Christmas! Thanks again for reading, and following my blog in 2010. I will catch you guys and gals later in 2011... :)

Christmas came early this week... :)

2010-12-11T00:24:00.014-05:00

Somebody must have forgotten to ask Marianne, because somehow I made the "nice" list again this year... :) It turns out that Santa (actually the Good Lord) left a nice, toothy-little present for me in a local river eddy this past week. It was nice to have the many hours of fishing and not catching pay off. She measured 37 inches, and swam away strongly after our brief encounter.

Dad and I fished on three separate afternoons, and scored some good smallies too. It was cold, but definitely worth it. Not too bad for freezing cold December weather... :)

Before the rain...

2010-12-06T20:11:00.007-05:00

Here we are. It's early December, the rivers are blown out, and it has been COLD and windy lately. I wish that I had a nice up-to-date report to share with you guys, but the truth is... I don't. Honestly, the only outdoor activity I've been taking part in lately has been hunting.

However, about a week and a half ago--before deer season started--I was able to get out a little bit one afternoon. The river was on the rise, and the fish were being pushed into the eddies. Lucky for me I picked up one nice walleye (my first since September) and snagged a bunch of carp.

I wasn't able to fish the next day, but my Dad and nephew Gabe went out after them. They returned to the spot I fished the previous day and had an awesome trip. Instead of walleyes, they caught bass. I don't think they caught a lot of bass, but boy did they get quality. In fact, Gabe reeled in the largest of the trip that measured 20 inches! Great work, gentlemen!

I wish I had more for you guys, but as far as the fishing goes, that's all I have to share right now... For the time being I am patiently waiting for the river levels to recede and some milder temperatures to return (hopefully).

Before I close, I do have one more "shout out" to make, and that is also to my nephew Gabe. Last Tuesday morning Gabe shot his first buck. He was hunting with his Pappy John Coder when the 8 pointer walked by, and Gabe made an excellent shot. Congratulations on what will hopefully be the first of many bucks, Gabe! Nice work!

In closing, here is to hoping that my next report will include a little bit more sunshine and hopefully some warmth instead of all this cold stuff... Until next time, thanks again for reading and good luck staying warm! :)

I wish I had more to share....

2010-11-23T01:28:00.007-05:00

It's mid-November, and I wish I had more to share with you. In past years, this would have been peak time for our local fishery. Still, I have been out a fair amount the past couple of weeks without much to show for it.

The majority of my time on the water recently has been spent musky fishing... and that fact in itself does lend to poor catching, but aside from a few stray smallmouth here and a there... the majority of my fishing time has been time spent with the skunk. There have been no signs of musky for me, and no walleyes either... which has also been a disappointment.

This past week, we finally got some rain to boost the low/clear flows in the river. It was my hope that this would really kick the fishing into gear (specifically the walleye), but so far it seems like things have been a bust... At least for me. Time will tell, and action should turn on at some point in the next few weeks. It would be nice to put a couple good-sized eyes on the bank this coming season.
Aside from the fishing, I did get to spend some time in the woods chasing bucks around during the last couple weeks of archery season. Though I didn't harvest a buck, it was nice to see a couple... And it was even better to help my Dad with the nice 6-pointer that he arrowed. Congrats, Dad!

To all you guys that will be heading out into the woods for the PA firearms deer season next week... I wish you the best of luck, and please stay safe and be responsible in the woods! Also, to all of you faithful readers of my blog, I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving! Don't forget to thank our creator for His provisions, and His many, many blessings... :)

The temps are cooling down, but the fishing has been warming up! :)

2010-11-04T19:46:00.013-04:00

It's been getting colder here in Central PA lately... And it's not just the air temps that have been dropping, the water temps have been dropping too.

Consequently, the fish have been falling into their coldwater patterns... bunching up in certain areas, and putting on the feed bag to prepare for winter.

My Dad and I have found them biting a few times in past couple of weeks... And some really nice fish have hit the bank. Most of our luck has come on jigs and soft plastics, but some nice fish have also come on jerkbait.

The coldwater months can provide some of the best opportunities of the year for the larger fish. So if you haven't been fishing lately, now is the time to get out there after them!

Ocean City with My Girls :)

2010-10-29T21:13:00.019-04:00

Marianne and I actually had a couple of days off work that we could spend together this past weekend. So we decided that it would be fun to pack up our pupper dog, load up the Pathfinder, and head south to Ocean City... It was time to breathe in some of that salty air!

We both love the beach in the off season... And we were fortunate enough to have great weather for our trip. The only thing else we could have wished for were a few extra days so that we could have stayed longer.

This really wasn't a fishing trip, but we did get a little bit of fishing time in. I got to try out a nice new rod and reel. And in fact, I was lucky enough to catch a pretty little speckled sea trout on the new outfit. I have caught many weakfish (grey trout) in the past, but this was the first speck I had ever caught. Although they are very common further south, specks really are a special treat to catch in Delmarva--as this is pretty much the northern-most part of their range.

All in all, it was just a wonderful trip... We soaked in a beautiful sunset, spent some nice time on the beach, ate some great food, and had a nice long walk on the boardwalk. Lucy would also like to add that she got to dig some nice deep holes in the sand (her favorite thing to do at the beach)... :)

We didn't get a lot of great pictures, but I will share with you some of what we have. Until next entry, thanks again for reading!

On the water with Pops :)

2010-10-19T20:45:00.006-04:00

Man it seems like the past couple of weeks have been tough for finding time out on the water... Still, Dad and I were able to get out and spend a few hours chasing some smallies around the river one morning last week.

The river levels had finally receded to the point where we could wade fish an area that is often productive for us... So we donned our waders and hit the water.

Fortunately for us, the fish were there... :)

We fished mainly jigs and soft plastics... tubes, grubs, and small swimbaits. When we finally finished up, I had around 15 total bass and Dad had 10. There were a couple nice fish around 16 inches or so, but for the most part they probably averaged 12 to 13 inches. No monsters, but it was a great day.

One of the keys we found to getting the most bites, was to constantly switch the color and profile of the plastic baits we were using. It seemed like the fish would get locked on to one type of plastic for a little while, then they would totally abandon it completely. After a quick change to a different type of bait, the bite would pick up again... This type of behavior is something that I have noticed quite often with smallmouth. So the next time you are on the water, and the bite you are on suddenly dies, keep this in mind.

Until next entry, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the pics!

Falling waters...

2010-10-11T18:23:00.005-04:00

After a long, dry summer here in Central PA, we finally got the rain that we have needed so badly. Unfortunately for us, it all came at once. Tropical Storm Nicole dumped buckets of water while passing over our part of the state last week, and the result was fast rising streams and rivers with mild to moderate flooding in some areas. Our creeks had water in them once again, but this time it was almost too much!

Still, I've found throughout the years that some of my best fishing generally occurs when our local streams and rivers are recovering from high/muddy water events. You have to pay attention, know how quickly your local waters recover from storms, and play your cards right... But if all of your stars align and you are in the right place at the right time, falling waters can make for some great fishing.

If work had not kept me tied to my desk for the most part this week, I would have been out there as much as possible. Still, I did get out for a quick trip on two occasions. One trip in-particular rewarded me with a very nice smallmouth, that ate a 6.5 inch swimbait. I do love fishing in the colder months!

Until next entry, keep your eye on our streams and rivers... Watch the waters rise and fall, and fish when you think it's right. Eventually you will pick up on certain patterns that occur at certain levels on the waters that you fish. Good luck out there! And again, thanks for reading.

Rhode Island Tides

2010-10-07T01:19:00.017-04:00

Holy smokes its been a while! I know I've been slackin' on keeping up with my blog lately, and I hate to keep you guys waiting. But fortunately for me, I have a good reason for it--I've been fishing! :)

After a pretty long dry spell on the fish front, this past weekend was much needed. I had a couple days off work coming up, and my gracious wife had given me the fishing "go ahead." So I hit the road late on Friday, and made a quick trip up to NYC to visit my good buddy Pete who I hadn't fished with in ages... Pete also had some free time for the weekend, so we decided it was officially time for us to hit the beach!

After Tropical Storm Nicole had finished soaking the Eastern United States late Friday night, we pointed the Pathfinder North up Rt. 95, and set out towards our fishing grounds in South County Rhode Island.

We arrived with the sunrise early Saturday morning, and found a falling tide ripping out of Charlestown Breachway. At first we were a little bit unsure of how the fishing would be, due to the affects of the recent storm... But fortunately for us, our worries were soon dissolved as the tide was right, and Pete and I both hooked up with scrappy little stripers only minutes into our trip.
The good fishing continued on the dropping (ebb) tides again Saturday night and early Sunday morning. We fished a few different spots, and found decent fish almost everywhere we wet a line. Our best action came late on Saturday night, when we got into a school of very large (12 lb. plus) bluefish at a different South County breachway... These blues were mean, and extremely strong in the hard falling current. Both Pete and I (and a bunch of the other guys) lost a fair collection of plugs to the fish that night. It was a great time!

I wish I had more fish pics to share with you from the trip, but conditions just were not great for taking many pictures. Still, I'll be happy to share with you what I have... I hope you enjoy them.

Until next entry, thanks for reading!

Finally some teeth! :)

2010-09-17T02:32:00.018-04:00

If you've been following my blog lately... you probably know that I have been a little bit fixated on muskies the past couple of months. Unfortunately for me, I haven't been able to catch one all summer long--and not for lack of effort.

Well, I had a couple of days off work this past week, and the weather had been very "fall-ish" lately... So I decided to deposit some more time into my musky hunting bank account--who knows, maybe I would get lucky and find a hungry one that was thinking about fattening up for winter.

Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day. The sky was blue, the morning started off cool, and there was a nice breeze blowing that put some decent chop on the water. I spent the better part of the day throwing lots of big, noisy lures hoping to draw some interest at a nearby lake... And believe it or not, I actually did. About 1 PM I had a beautiful tiger musky follow a large spinner bait back towards my perch up on the bank. He didn't hit it, but the follow was at least enough to get my blood pumping.

I wasn't able to get out fishing on Wednesday, but I couldn't help but think about the nice fish that I had raised the day before... So, when Thursday morning rolled around I was ready to fish!

My plan for Thursday was to try a local bass/walleye spot for an hour or two in the morning before returning to the spot I had seen the nice tiger at two days earlier. As luck would have it, I didn't need to return to my previous spot, because I found a nice, hungry-little musky at my first spot of the morning. It wasn't a monster, as it measured somewhere in the 3o to 32 inch range... But it put up a very exciting fight (leaped completely out of the water), and I was happy to watch it swim away healthy after the release. FINALLY, some teeth!

I also picked up a nice little walleye on the morning as well. Both fish came on a new type of soft plastic swimbait that I am experimenting with... I think I like it! :)

So the moral of the story is... If you really want to catch a musky, just go walleye fishing. Lol!

Obviously, I'm not serious. But it did work for me today... and I'll take it! I wish that I would have had my better camera along (for better picture quality) and that I wouldn't have been alone. Still, it is nice to finally have a couple toothy critter pics to share with you--I have been trying to get them for a while now (but don't expect many more too soon, ha ha). Until next time, thanks again for reading and good luck on the water!

Labor Day Blues... the fun kind :)

2010-09-09T17:28:00.015-04:00

"When life gives you lemons... you make lemonade." I believe that's how the saying goes right? Lol... With Hurricane Earl churning up the Western Atlantic this past weekend, we were all forced to do a little bit of juice making.

Marianne and I had been planning a nice trip to Rhode Island with my parents for this past Labor Day weekend. All of us had been looking forward to the trip with high hopes for great weather, fine dinning, and fun fishing. Still, our best laid plans are often that--just plans. Hurricane Earl was headed straight towards Cape Cod, and the weather forecast for Rhode Island wasn't looking very promising.

Our solution? We headed south to Ocean City Maryland where the storm had passed quietly the night before.

Luckily, our choice turned out to be a pretty good one. We enjoyed great weather our entire trip, ate lots of excellent food, visited with some good friends, and we caught some pretty decent fish.

The water was a little bit messed up from the storm, but Dad and I were still able to pick up a couple of flounder from the Rt. 50 Bridge on Saturday afternoon. Our best fishing came on Sunday night however.

Sunday was the last full day of our trip, so as far as the fishing was concerned, it was "now or never." The four of us decided to head on up on the bridge in hopes that we could possibly find a couple summertime-resident striped bass. As luck would have it, we didn't catch any stripers... but we did get into some pretty decent bluefish--especially for mid-summer. When it was all said and done, we fished for a couple of hours and sacrificed a generous collection of soft plastic lures to the yellow-eyed demons. Marianne took top honors with the most and the largest bluefish, and we all had a great time! (Her hubby was VERY proud of her!)

Right now it is cool and a little bit windy outside. Fall is in the air here in central PA. Since returning from our trip, I haven't been able to do any fishing around home, but I did get to spend a little bit of time in the woods preparing for hunting season. I have to say that I am seriously looking forward to getting back out on the water though. The weather has been beautiful the past couple of days. So get out there now if you can, you won't regret it. Until next entry, thanks again for reading.

Gearing up! And a quick trip... :)

2010-08-31T20:33:00.014-04:00

If you have been fishing for a while like me... I would say it is a pretty safe bet that somewhere (or many places) in or around your residence, you have accumulated some fishing gear.

It's nothing to be ashamed of... In fact, if you have visited my place, you will know that I have mountains of lures, piles of reels, and forests of fishing rods growing up all around my house... I've been gearing up for years, and for a serious angler, it really is a never ending process... and it is one of my favorite things about fishing! :)

Tackle manufacturers are continually coming out with new fishing "stuff"... Cooler, nicer-looking stuff, stuff that is stronger, lighter, and undoubtedly works better and is more durable than our old stuff! :) I know that if it were up to my wife, sometimes she'd like to tell me where to "stuff" my fishing stuff, lol... (Lucky for me, she is a very understanding woman)

Still there is always more gear (stuff), and there is always (at least for me) a new type of fish that I am interested in chasing. Usually, when it comes time for me to target a new species of fish, I've found that the quest often requires some specialized equipment... which leads me into my current situation.

Lately, I've had muskies on the brain... MUSKY MADNESS!!!!!! I've been fishing for muskies, watching musky shows, visiting all the musky fishing websites, checking out all kinds of musky gear, AND even purchasing some musky fishing "stuff" (lures, tackle bags, hooks, cutters etc...) It's been a lot of fun! The only problem I have run into, is that I can't seem to catch one. I haven't landed a musky since February...!

Central PA is not the best place in the world to be a musky hunter, but it's not the worst place either... This summer I have drawn nothing but blanks chasing muskies. But I keep telling myself that our local fishery is better in the cooler months. So, hopefully I'll have some decent reports about some feisty toothy critters to share with you this coming fall and winter.

As far as recent reports go, I haven't been doing much fishing lately. But I do have one successful fishing report to share with you.

Last Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day, and Marianne and I knew that we had to get outside and do something. The air was warm and the sky was sunny, so we decided to go out and do a little bit of wet wading. The fishing wasn't fast and furious, but we did end up having some action. Marianne scored first, with a nice little smallmouth bass that put up a good fight and showed off some aerial acrobatics.

We continued fishing for a while with no luck. After what seemed like ages, I finally I got a bite and came tight to a nice fish. I fought it for a while and eventually ended up landing a nice looking channel cat... After fishing for a while longer I ended up landing another nice channel cat. Both fish came on soft plastics and they fought hard in the strong current where we were fishing. After the channel cats, it seemed like somebody officially turned off the switch and we were done for the day--no more bites.
If you have been paying attention to the weather lately, I'm sure you've noticed that nights have been getting much cooler. Everywhere I look, it just seems like the woods and waters of central PA are beginning to prepare themselves for a transition towards Fall... That get's me excited!

I love fishing in the cooler months, especially Fall. There are so many different options, and so many different species. Fall is such an exciting time of the year to fish! So here is to hoping that this Fall brings with it good weather, fun times, and success on the water. Until then, I hope you enjoy gearing up for whatever species of fish you may pursue (I know I will) and I also wish you the best of luck on the water! Maybe I will see you out there. Thanks again for reading!

Fall is JUST around the corner!!!

2010-08-22T19:20:00.014-04:00

In fact, one month from today will be the autumnal equinox--our first official day of fall! Can you tell that I am looking forward to it? :)

This summer has been one of the hottest (and driest) summers that I can remember, and thinking back to last year's comfortably-cool and wet summertime weather provides no relief. Still, I believe we have made it through the worst of it at this point. The end of August is now upon us. The days have been growing noticeably shorter, and the nights have been growing longer. Before long we will be seeing signs of fall, and it is my hope that seeing some more fish on my line (SOON) will be included in those signs of fall.

As for the past couple of weeks... fishing has been S-L-O-W (at least for me).

Last week Marianne had some time off of work, so we decided to break out the kayaks and hit the water. On our first outing we spent a few hours fishing and exploring a local lake, and on our second adventure we made a nice float down the Juniata River.

We did a fair amount of fishing mixed in with the paddling on both of our trips, and we did do some catching as well. We each got a few small largemouth at the lake, and we also caught some smallmouth on the river as well. Marianne caught the largest bass, which was a healthy 14 inch smallmouth and I got a nice quillback carp.

The river fish were particularly tough during our float. We each saw good numbers of some very nice bass, but most of them were not quite aggressive enough to be caught. Oftentimes they would chase our lures, but would pull up just short of biting. I tried numerous lures and techniques hoping that I could figure out how to trigger a bite, but in the end I just couldn't quite put the pieces of the puzzle together. The water was VERY warm during our float, and I think the high temps had much to do with the tough fishing.

Marianne and I also had a nice evening picnic at a local lake this past week as well. We met up with my family and ate some good food and did some fishing along the shoreline. My nephews each caught a couple bass (Bailey is pictured at the top of the page) and I got a couple small ones as well.

Moving on from freshwater to salt, this past week my buddies Brad and Chad accompanied me on a quick trip to Assateague Island where we met up with my good friends Zack, Jenny, and a large portion of Jenny's family for some shark fishing. Every year I try to make it down to the beach to spend some time chasing sharks with these guys, and we always have a blast!

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate very well for us this year. Monsoon rains made tent camping very impractical and uncomfortable (especially for three 6 ft. tall guys). So we decided to come home early, after only one evening of unproductive fishing and looking at a very unfavorable weather forecast. In hindsight we should have stayed longer, as the rains stopped and the shark fishing turned on for Zack soon after we left... In the words of my wife, "Ya win some and ya loose some." :) I guess we lost that one.... Still, I'm looking forward to next year. Here is a pic of Zack with a nice sandbar shark that he caught earlier in the week.
I guess that is all I have to share with you in this entry. Hopefully things will turn around soon... In fact, I believe they will. In the past I have always seen an increase in smallmouth activity as the summer comes to a close, so look for things to start turning around in the next couple of weeks. With any luck I will get back to you with a more positive report soon! Until then, thanks again for reading and hopefully I'll see you on the water.

A Quick Trip and a Quick Report :)

2010-08-06T16:38:00.011-04:00

I'll keep this short. Dad and I hit the river for a quick afternoon trip a few days ago... The water was low, clear, and very warm--a perfect afternoon for wet wading.

We targeted a semi-deep stretch of water that has some nice structure in it, and we fished mainly weightless soft plastic jerkbaits. Luckily the smallmouth cooperated. We didn't catch a bunch of fish, but we did manage double digits between the two of us... with a few pretty nice ones mixed in! There were some great surface strikes too, which is what I love the most about summertime fishing.

Other than our nice little afternoon trip to the river, I don't have much else to share with you this week. I fished a couple of midnight sessions, hoping for some hybrid stripers or largemouth... but all I got was the skunk. Thank the Lord it's August, and in a few weeks we will be seeing signs of fall... I'm looking forward to it :)

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Not much happening... But not for lack of effort :)

2010-07-28T19:52:00.019-04:00

It has been a little while since I last posted. My hope has been that one of these days (or nights) I would strike it rich with numerous trophy-size fish and then I'd have some great success stories to share with you. But, unfortunately the stars haven't been aligning for me lately, and things just haven't been working out very well on the water this past week.

The only success that I really do have to share with you comes from a morning trip I took last week with my nephew Bailey. We headed out fairly early one morning to fish a certain stretch of river where I had done well previously. When we arrived to the area however, we found someone else already fishing it. So we decided exercise a little bit of angler courtesy and head to somewhere else. It was a bummer for us, but proof that oftentimes the early bird does get the worm... at least he did that day.

The area that we did end up fishing wasn't a complete bust however. I had a great time wading and fishing with Bailey, and in the end we did catch 5 or so fish a piece. They were pretty small fish and the action was a little slow, but it was action nonetheless. We also got inundated by a huge pod of float tubers, who floated right through what could have been the best water we were going to fish that morning... It was another bummer, but at least they gave us a decent excuse for not catching more fish, ha ha.

In addition to losing our first spot to another angler, and then having the float tube brigade spoil our new spot, we also had a third (that's right THIRD) bummer occur during our trip. I had hooked a scrappy little smallmouth, fought him in to my side, and when I leaned over to grab him, my cell phone slipped out of my front shirt pocket and went right into the river. "Plop!" The plop heard 'round the world...Bummer number THREE!

Still, this occurrence did prove one thing to me--that I am truly, without-a-doubt 100% a fisherman... I have come to this conclusion because instead of feeling remorse when I watched my nice new cell phone sink to the bottom of the river. My first reaction was that I couldn't help but admire the enticing flutter and side-to-side action that it had on the fall. Heck if I was a fish, I would have bit that cell phone! Lol... That was my initial reaction, and I'm kind of proud of that, ha ha.

Aside from my trip with Bailey, I really haven't been doing much catching this past week. I did pick up a decent largemouth one day on my way to work, but that is about it. I have been fishing mostly at night, and I've been targeting mostly largemouths... but I have done a little musky fishing, and some hybrid striper fishing as well. With the full moon that we just had, I though the night fishing would have been a little bit better, but it wasn't... Still, I can chalk it all up as lessons learned and time spent on the water. I'm constantly getting one trip to closer to catching that monster.

Well, I guess that is all for now. Hopefully by next time I will have a little bit more success to share with you. Until then, thanks again for reading and I hope to see you on the water... But don't get to my spot first! ;)

Some skinny water smallmouth... :)

2010-07-16T18:53:00.018-04:00

If you have been around central Pennsylvania lately, you know that it has been hot--hot and dry! Up until a few days ago, things were starting to get pretty bad. Local creeks were drying up, the rivers were getting scary low, and practically all my grass at the house had died.

Because of my work schedule, I have only been fishing a little bit lately... and mostly at night. But fortunately I was able to get out on the river in the daylight a few days ago. I only had a couple hours to fish, so I spent the majority of my time wading around a semi-deep stretch of river, were I knew the fish would be concentrated due to the low water. The time was mid-day and with relatively sunny skies. The fishing was excellent!

I love summer topwater strikes, so I fished mainly weightless soft plastics... jerkbaits and lizards/creatures baits on or near the surface. I did try some other lures though, and ended up landing one nice smallmouth on a trout colored X-rap. Thankfully the bite was pretty good, and at the end of my trip I had landed 20 + smallmouth anywhere from 6 to 16 inches. I also enjoyed some awesome topwater explosions!

One of my other goals for the day (aside from catching fish) was to make use of my waterproof camera and finally get a couple decent underwater shots of smallmouth. I took a few shots... but I found out there is definitely a learning curve in dealing with current and fishing/shooting solo.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I hope you enjoy the images, and I hope to see you on the water soon as well! This can be a fun time of the year to fish... So get out there! Thanks again for reading.

Conditioned fish...

2010-07-07T21:20:00.012-04:00

When it's too hot to go fishing, why not sit inside and watch fishing shows right? Ha ha! Seriously though...it has been really hot lately. But in all truthfulness, has it ever gotten too hot to go fishing?

All joking aside, I have been doing some fishing recently in spite of the heat... But, I have also spent my share of time sitting at home in the A/C watching the TV as well. I have seen some great fishing shows lately too--one in particular sticks out in my mind.

It was an episode done by the Linders of "Angling Edge." The subject of the show was focused on something that I find quite interesting--"conditioned fish." If you have been fishing long enough, you surely know what I am talking about. Conditioned fish are those fish in a certain spot (i.e. river, lake, stream, ocean) that continue to see the same lures (or bait) over and over again, and eventually become conditioned to not bite those certain lures.

My first lessons in dealing with conditioned fish came when I was a kid--fishing in the farm pond across the street from my parents house. Back then, whenever I got a new lure, the first thing I would do is take it over to the pond. Generally I found that on my first couple of trips over there the fish would absolutely crush my new lure... even if it was something crazy that did not resemble any of the natural food the bass in that pond were eating. They simply ate it because it was interesting and they had never seen it before. It triggered a positive response.

Fast forward a couple of weeks--after I had caught practically every bass in that pond with my newly discovered lure--my bites would go way down. I could still catch a few fish, but the action was nothing like it was when none of the fish in the pond had ever seen that type of lure before. My lure was now triggering a different type of response.

So, why am I typing all of this...? And why do I find it interesting? Because, in one way or another, you and I are dealing with conditioned fish in practically every angling venue that we face. Sure the fish on your 250 acre local lake might not be conditioned to the same degree that the fish were at my neighbors farm pond, but I think you get the picture.

Through the years I have seen fish become conditioned to different degrees in streams, lakes, rivers and even in saltwater. The different degrees to which fish actually become conditioned I would consider short term and some long term. Obviously, the smaller the body of water and the higher the fishing pressure the more likely fish are to become conditioned (long term) to ignoring our lures... Likewise the larger and less pressured a body of water is, the less likely fish will become conditioned to our lures. Also, we must consider that fish biology comes to play in this as well. Some species of fish, and some individual fish within a certain population, are just more likely to bite than others.

Moving on, you might ask what is the solution to dealing with conditioned fish. The Linders answer that question on their TV show, and I think they are right on the money... In my opinion (and the Linders'), the answer is quite obvious--show them something different! It doesn't have to be something radically different from the norm, but maybe just slightly different. A smaller or larger version of a lure that you are familiar with and is known to work, or something with a slight variation in color or shape. A change in retrieve of an already familiar lure is something else worth a try. Sometimes the smallest difference can change what would have been a negative response to a lure into a positive one.

I've been spending some time fishing larger lures lately, and I have been impressed (actually almost stunned really) at some of the baits that largemouth bass will actually hit. I have had musky lures that are larger than what I would have even considered to be bass tackle, getting clobbered by small and medium sized bass... Not even big bass. Why? Because these lures are different, and the fish haven't been conditioned to stay away from them yet.

So, the next time you get out fishing, think about the water you are on... Think about how you fish it. Think about how others fish it. Then consider how the fish in your body of water may be conditioned to react to your lures. If you are already doing great, that's awesome! If not, maybe this will help. Until next time, thanks again for reading and good luck staying cool... Maybe I'll see you on the water.

A little fun in the sun... :)

2010-06-26T20:17:00.026-04:00

It certainly seemed like a long time coming, but FINALLY... I made it to the beach this past week! Marianne had off work all week and I had a couple days off mid-week, so we packed our beach clothes, our fishing gear, and our pupper dog; and pointed the Pathfinder south towards Ocean City Maryland.

Our time was limited so the trip was only a couple days long, but we had a great time. It was Lucy's first trip to the beach, and we had a lot of fun with her. We found out that she loves the sand and especially loves to dig holes to find the cooler sand down deep. We also found that she likes to chase the receding waves but is a little bit scared of them when they break. Either way it makes for a lot of fun chasing her down towards the water and then running away again when they break, ha ha.Of coarse we did do some fishing while we were there as well... On Tuesday evening Marianne and I spent a couple hours fishing with my good friend Captain Skip Maguire, who runs Skip's Charter Service as well as Skip's Bait and Tackle on Talbot Street in Ocean City (one of the places I worked, when I spent a couple spring/summers living in Ocean City). Skip has a sweet 29 ft. Mako center console, and spends a lot of his days guiding striped bass charters in the Ocean City inlet. Skip and I have been keeping in touch and he has been telling me how good the fishing has been this past spring... So, I was psyched when he offered to take us out for a nice evening of Ocean City striped bass fishing. Skip's good friend, Captian JW Powell accompanied us on the trip as well, and it was a good learning experience to watch JW's live baiting technique as he consistently hooked the larger fish (up to 37 inches) when Marianne and I were generally hooking up smaller fish, 30 inches and under. It was an action packed trip... In the end I don't have a clue how many fish we landed, but I would guess between 15 and 20 during a two hour period, maybe more. It was rare that we had a drift without a fish. We had many doubles and, in fact, on one drift all three of us landed stripers at the same time. I don't get down to Ocean City enough, so it was great to see Skip, and to see Anthony, Dominic and JW as well. It was also great to watch my wifey, Marianne, catch some nice stripers... We had a really great time!

Since this is a fishing blog, I tend to focus more on the fishing, but I should mention that we did spend some good family time at the beach as well. Marianne's mom, twin sisters, and nieces and nephew came down to meet us for a fun day at the beach on Wednesday. We had fun watching a big school of dolphins swim by, and we all spent some time soaking up the sun and playing in the waves. It was very hot weather the two days we were there, but I guess most would consider that good beach weather so we definitely could not complain.At this point I feel like I'm starting to get a little bit long winded so I think I'll just keep things short and close by posting some of the pics from our trip. I hope you have been able to get out and do some fishing recently as well. With the heat that we've had lately, definitely look for fish in their typical summertime patterns wherever you are fishing. Also, with the full moon... nighttime could be the right time. Summer is one of the most important times to pay attention to lunar phase IMHO. Thanks again for visiting the site and for reading! Maybe I'll see you out there on the water.

It's summertime! Lots of little largemouths and one wet pupper-dog... :)

2010-06-17T01:35:00.012-04:00

Man, it's hard to believe that it is mid-June already... The past couple weeks have gone by so fast. Summer is definitely here, and with it has come a lot of busyness. Marianne and I have been doing a lot of work around the house lately, and also some traveling... to a friend's wedding on the island of St. Lucia (unfortunately no fishing involved... bummer!) I seriously wish that I had a lot of success and big fish reports to share from the past couple weeks, but the fact is I've only been on the water twice.

First, was a quick evening trip that I made to the Juniata a couple weeks ago with my good fishing buddy Mike. Mike and I fished some excellent water that has produced some great results for us in the past, but we only scored just a couple of small fish each on this trip. The water was still pretty cool and slightly dingy from recent rain. I think the flow was a little bit more than optimal for the area that we targeted as well. The few fish that we did catch were on top, with soft plastic jerk baits.

Second, was a nice trip that I made with two of my other favorite fishing buddies... my good friend Chad and my best pupper-dog, Lucy. We trailered the boat to one of our local lakes, and spent about 5 hours motoring around fishing various edges, shoreline structure, and creek channels--targeting largemouth bass. We caught a lot of fish with both of us easily in the double digits... Most (well actually "all") of the fish were small, with the largest being around 12 or 13 inches. Our fish all came on a variety of soft plastic lures--jerk baits, swim baits, and lizards.

Probably the greatest highlight of the trip (at least for me) was finding out how well Lucy could swim, lol. Lucy was standing with me on the front deck as I was fishing and operating the trolling motor. Suddenly, as if on a whim, she decided to leap out of the boat and into the water. She is still a pup, and we really haven't had her in the water defore... but I was happy to see that she had no problem swimming. She doggy paddled a little loop away from the boat and then came back to me... with a lot of yelling of coarse, ha ha. When she got back to the boat I picked her up and pulled her back in where she decided to sit on my lap shake herself off and totally soak me... Oh what fun, lol! In spite of her few moments of misbehaving, she was great the rest of the day and was a lot of fun to have in the boat. She's gonna be a great fishing buddy.

Well, I guess that is all for this entry. Hopefully it won't take me quite so long to get back to you with the next one. As I mentioned before, summer is definitely here. Most of the chores are done around the house, and I am planning to do a lot of fishing this summer... I should finally get to do some saltwater fishing soon, and I'm also hoping to spend a decent amount of time targeting muskies this year. So with A LOT of luck maybe I'll have some great toothy fish action to share with you this summer. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Until next time, thanks for reading and good luck on the water. Maybe I'll see you out there!

Rivers and lakes... HOT weather, with not-so-hot fishing :)

2010-05-29T01:58:00.010-04:00

If you live in central PA, you know this past week was HOT! The sun was shining, the air conditioners were cranking, and my poor little puppy dog was panting. Things sure seemed like summer this week, but even though it was hot outside, the fishing didn't quite keep pace with the weather.

As luck would have it, I was able to get out and terrorize some of our local bass this past week... I hit the water 3 times--one quick trip between shifts at work, one morning on the river with my Dad, and one evening trip with Marianne and Lucy to a local lake. The good news was that all three trips were successful... Each trip was a learning experience, and I or we caught fish on each trip... As far as the fishing goes however, I think I would rate the bite this past week as a little bit slow (even though the fallfish bite on the river was stellar, lol).

Generally after the spawn you hear talk about a "post-spawn funk, " and I think that's what we were seeing this past week. I did hook and land a couple decent fish this week--including one especially nice smallmouth--but in general, it seemed like the most active fish were the little guys...which is typical for post spawn pattern. I think the larger fish just needed something a little bit extra to trigger a bite this week, and for the most part, I missed it. The one large smallie that I did land this week, came up from relatively deep water to hit a large soft plastic jerkbait near the surface... I didn't expect it as the time, but I was happy when it happened! So just FYI... keep that in mind if you hit the river in the next couple of weeks.

To close this entry, I'd like to post a link to the PFBC website involving the upcoming meetings that are being dedicated to smallmouth management in PA. The public is encouraged to attend these meetings. Personally, I'm interested in attending the meeting on Saturday June 5th in Harrisburg. So if you are interested in going, let me know and maybe we could meet up. Either way, hopefully the hot weather didn't keep you inside this past week. There are definitely some fish out there willing to bite, and hopefully things will continue to pick up as we move on from this spring season towards summer. I'll see you on the water!

A Central PA mixed bag... and a pleasant surpise! :)

2010-05-19T03:03:00.015-04:00

What a fun week of fishing! Well, in all seriousness, I really didn't fish all that much this week. Instead, I made a few quick trips that were scheduled around work and/or other household chores and weekend activities. I'll spare you the details of all the little trips... But I will mention that I did get to fish with two of my favorite fishin' buddies this past week--my Dad and my good friend Chad--and I also fished alone on two separate occasions.

Either I or we, hit just about every type of water that central PA has to offer this past week--creeks, rivers, and lakes... And we also experienced many of the fish that Central PA has to offer-- smallmouth, largemouth, rockbass, yellow perch, brown trout, rainbow trout, fallfish and even had some pretty cool encounters with a couple of tiger muskies!

Just yesterday I had a particularly good trip on the Juniata. Both of the rivers have been up a little bit and off color lately, so I haven't been all that interested in smallmouth fishing. But, I had the morning off work yesterday, so I figured I should go brave the elements (cold front w/rain) and try for a couple bronzebacks. I'm glad I did.

It was just a quick little trip to the river--that didn't last much more than an hour and a few minutes--but it was successful. I worked a long eddy that is about 75 yards from top to bottom, and fished jigs and plastic baits the whole time. I picked off 3 smaller fish in about the first 20 minutes, and then went fishless for about 45 minutes after that. I was just a couple casts away from leaving when I hooked a good fish, which I thought was a carp at first... but as the massive fish went airborn--shaking its head violently--I quickly found out it wasn't a carp. BIG BASS!!! As luck would have it, the hook stayed put where it was supposed too, and after about a minute of fighting I slid her up onto the bank . She turned out to be my new personal best lengthwise, at 21 3/8"s. But she was pretty skinny, with her concave belly... a fairly obvious indication that she was a post-spawn fish. I've caught heavier smallmouth before, but none as long as her. She was a warrior, a hard fighter, and was missing her right eye! After taking a quick pic, and watching her swim away strongly, I packed up my stuff and headed home... an awesome ending to a great week of fishing!

A Short Report.... (a little bit of fishing, but not much catching.)

2010-05-12T19:01:00.008-04:00

This will be a pretty short entry, because--unfortunately--I don't have too much to report. I have been doing a little bit of fishing lately, but there really hasn't been much catching involved.

Last week I spent a few hours (on a couple different nights) trying to catch some PA hybrid stripers. On the bright side, I did learn a good bit... but in the end, all I got was frustrated. Shad were flipping around, fish were swirling, but I couldn't get a hit to save my life. It has been my experience that on most occasions when stripers are feeding, they generally aren't extremely selective... unless their is an incredible amount of baitfish present, and they actually have trouble finding your lure. This might have been the case the other night, but I'm not sure. Also, these were hybrid stripers and my experience has been with pure-strain, saltwater fish instead of these freshwater hybrids. Either way, I'm looking forward to targeting and hopefully catching a few of these fish in the near future.

I also spent a little bit of time trying to catch a trout dinner for my Grandma last week. Luckily for my Grandma, I had a little bit more success in this endeavor. In about half an hour's fishing I managed two freshly stocked rainbows, and missed a few others. What I found interesting about this trip was that even though the water was a little bit cloudy and perfect for drifting a night crawler, the fish were not interested in worms at all. The only thing they would chase was a spinner. So that's what I fed them.

The weather has been a little bit cool and rainy recently, but hopefully you guys and girls have been able to get out there and experience the outdoors a little bit. Even when the weather is bad, Spring is beautiful here in PA-- without a doubt it is one of my favorite times of the year. If you love the outdoors, know that the turkeys are gobbling and the fish are biting... at least somewhere. Until next time, thanks for reading and I hope to see you on the water.

Something a Lttle Bit Different...

2010-05-02T19:04:00.011-04:00

After chasing smallmouth bass for nearly a month, I could feel my piscatorial ADD creeping up on me. Don't get me wrong... I love fishing for smallmouth bass, but every now and then it just seems like it's time to try for something a little bit different. Lately my thoughts had been wondering back to my college years, and the fun I had chasing shad around the lower Susquehanna River. Shad were great fighters, and often leaped like a mini-tarpon when hooked. So, when I finally had some time off work this past week, my Dad and I decided to pack up our shad darts and our flutter spoons and hit the road south.

Our target area was the Conowingo Dam and the flowing waters of Deer Creek and the Susquehanna River as they travel through the Susquehanna State Park in northern Maryland. We both had fished this area before, and in the past have had some very good success catching hickory shad as well as a few scattered American shad. As we traveled south on Rt 83, we hoped that the timing of this trip would be right for us to hook into a few American shad along with some of the hard fighting little hickories. Fortunately we were not disappointed.

The fishing was not grand for either of us, but there was enough action to keep things interesting. By the end of the day, we each managed to catch a few members of both shad species, as well as a couple river herring and a fat little white perch as a bonus. All in all, it was a great trip...the travel was just close enough for a nice day trip, the weather was beautiful, the scenery was different, the fish were biting (and fighting hard), and we got to watch a plethora of birds--including one beautiful bald eagle--fishing for the same fish we were after. It was something a little bit different, and it was a great day!

Some Bronzebacks and Some Largemouths...

2010-04-26T19:35:00.010-04:00

It seems like for one reason or another I did not get to spend as much time fishing this past week as I would have liked to... But nevertheless, I did get out a little bit. :)

My Dad and I donned our waders and spent a beautiful morning on the Susquehanna this past week. We fought some crowds, but in the end we had a great time and we each caught a bunch of fish. It seems like the fish are in various stages of the spawn--we've seen some post spawners, some actively spawning on beds, and some that are still quite plump with eggs. Overall, the average size of fish has diminished from what we were catching a few weeks ago, but there are still some big girls mixed in. All our fish were on jigs and soft plastics... though later in the week my Dad returned to the same area by himself and caught quite a few fish on the fly.

In addition to the brozebacks... I also spent a couple hours chasing some largemouths and panfish this past week. I decided to spend the afternoon fishing with my ultralight trout rod, as I was mainly after panfish... I'm glad I did b/c I had a blast, and I was totally outgunned by a couple of the bass that I caught. The first fish I caught was the largest... I had made it a point to be very sneaky upon my arrival to my spot, and I crept up to area hoping to not scare anything away. I used my polarized sunglasses and spotted a small largemouth sunning himself near a sunken log. I quickly tossed him a small soft plastic lizard bait, and I watch him turn and swim towards it. Then I continued to watch as a MUCH bigger bass came out from underneath the log and inhaled my lizard before the small one could get it... I set the hook and it was GAME ON! She pulled hard... and it was all I could do to keep her out of the log jam with my little 6 ft., 2-6 pound test rod. Luckily, I somehow ended up winning the battle in the end. I wish I would have gotten better pictures of her, but I was by myself and admittedly a little bit excited. She measured 19 inches and was very fat. After releasing her, I continued to bass fish for a while and caught a few largemouths--mostly small ones, but I did get one more good bass that measured almost 16 inches. Then I switched over to panfish and caught a bunch of bluegills, and one small crappie that I wouldn't have been able to keep had I wanted to, ha ha.

To conclude this entry, I would like to mention an interesting article that I found this past week. The topic of the article is regarding the American eel and its role in our local ecosystem--namely the Susquehanna watershed. It seems that biologist are finding a link between the eel and a small freshwater mussel called the Eastern elliptio. Apparently this mussel gets its food by filtering the river water as it heads downstream to the bay...a very GOOD thing. Apparently, there has become fewer and fewer of these elliptio's in recent years and as a result they have not been able to clean the water as well as in the past. It has also since been discovered that American eels transported these small mussels throughout the watershed, but of coarse eels have limited travel through the Susquehanna system due to the many power dams on the lower river. So, if you made it this far through that blather of mine, and you are truly interested in the article... Here is a link: Eel Article. Check it out, if you are interested in the science and how it plays a role in the health of our local watershed you should enjoy it. Until next time, thanks for reading and I hope to see you on the water.

Still chasin' them...

2010-04-16T18:02:00.016-04:00

With river levels beginning to resemble the low-flows of summertime, the fishing has been changing this past week. The action has definitely slowed down from its previous madness, but there are still plenty of fish to be caught. I hit both rivers on a couple different occasions this past week, and my results varied from a skunk to over 20 fish on a trip...

What was even better than the fish catching this past week, was the time that I was able to spend with a few of my very favorite fishing buddies. I got to spend a few hours fishing (and catching) with my buddy Chad one evening early in the week... My Dad and I hit the river yesterday... And just this morning, I was fortunate enough to spend some time on the water with my beautiful wife--I cherish every moment she spends in her waders! ;) I don't have all the pictures yet, but I'll share with you some of what I have.

So, if you are thinking about getting out on the water sometime soon... I'd say go for it. The bass are definitely spawning right now as we have seen a bunch of them on beds already. I am sure most of you already know, but I figure I should mention that in PA it is legal to fish for bass during the closed spawning season (which we are now in), but you must catch and release. I'd like to go one step farther and discourage anyone from fishing live bait for these fish (or at least use circle hooks if you feel you must fish live bait) during this season. I've seen it way too often where guys using live minnows are gut hooking bass during the closed season. The end result is usually a dead floater heading down stream. It's really unnecessary. Either way, feel free to take my opinion for what it's worth... But please use common sense on the water and try to do your part to protect our precious resource. Until next time, thanks for reading and hopefully I'll see you on the water.

Bronze Gold! (Striking it rich w/ Susquehanna smallmouths)

2010-04-11T05:35:00.017-04:00

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'd like to start off by saying one of the best lessons I have learned over the years is that there is no substitute for time on the water. If you are a serious angler and are committed to spending as much time fishing as your schedule will allow, eventually your time and effort will pay off. The more time you spend on the water, the more frequently you will be there when all the stars align and you are at the right place at the right time.

This past week my Dad and I were at the right place at the right time. We fished two consecutive mornings this past Thursday and Friday, and the fishing was just as the blog title describes... We struck it RICH with bronzebacks!

I think the bass have gotten a little bit ahead of schedule with the warm weather that we experienced this past week. And lucky for us, this got them really turned on! The males are protecting the bedding areas and the fat females are loading up on food before they begin to spawn. In fact, from what we saw this past week, it's possible that a few of the fish are already spawning, or have already spawned.

Still, the vast majority of the fish haven't spawned yet... and to say they are "plump" with eggs and food is an understatement. I won't mention the total numbers of fish that we caught, because I am not sure I would believe them if I hadn't been there. But I will say at one point I caught 13 bass on 13 casts, and then lost a fish on my 14th cast, lol. All the fish were caught on jigheads with a variety of soft plastics... they were not very picky. As far as size goes, almost all of our fish were very fat, and averaged between 14 and 18 inches... a few smaller and a few larger. My Dad caught the only one that made it to 20 inches.

With the relatively slow fishing that we experienced this past winter, this is the fishing that we have been waiting for. Hopefully this will be the start to a great fishing season for this upcoming year. I hope to see you guys out there! Thanks again for reading.

Shakin' down the Kayak... (And chasing down some of the "other" green bass)

2010-04-02T01:34:00.011-04:00

Wow... The past couple of days have been beautiful here in central PA. At my place there has been a whole lot of sun, t-shirts, flip-flops, birds in the lawn, growing grass (Booo! Hisss!)--all of the wonderful things that we associate with Spring. Without a doubt Spring has definitely sprung, lol.

Recently, one of the unfortunate side effects of Spring (for us PA smallmouth anglers anyway) has been the fluctuating water levels in our local rivers. In fact, I just had the past two days off of work and would have loved to have hit one of the local rivers for some fun-in-the-sun, smallmouth action.. But, it just wasn't in the cards for this past week. Still, the rivers aren't the only game in town in central Pennsylvania. We have some beautiful local lakes as well, and this time of the year they are waking up quite nicely. So, when I was desperately taking a break from deciding whether or not to mow the lawn this afternoon, I took a couple hours to splash my kayak in a local lake and hopefully chase down one of those 'other' types of bass.

I had a great time on the lake, and although fishing wasn't fast and furious, it was successful. I paddled around, heard a turkey gobble, did some exploring, some bird watching, some turtle watching, and engaged in some pretty serious fishing for a couple of hours. In the end, I landed three largemouths (one particularly nice football shaped bass--around 17 inches) and a brook trout. The largest bass came on a Strike King spinner bait, and the next two came on soft plastics...one on a tube and the other on a wackey rigged senko. The trout also came on the senko, which I did not expect, lol... I think the headwaters of the lake must be stocked with trout, and the fiesty little brookie got swept down into the lake with the recent high waters.

While we are on the subject of stocked trout, I'd like to close this blog entry with a reminder about the rapidly approaching opening day/s of PA trout season. This coming saturday (April 3rd) is the opening day for several counties in the southern/southeastern part of the state... including the county in which I reside--Juniate County. The remainder of the state will then open up for trout fishing on Saturday April 17th. Here in central PA it is possible for some confusion to exist about where fishing is open and where it is not during the next couple of weeks. If you are concerned about the area or areas you are planning to fish, here is a link to the fish commission website r egarding season dates and stream openings. If you are heading out sometime in the next couple of weeks, good luck... and don't forget that this is a great time to get your children, or your family members--cousins, nieces, and nephews--interested in fishing. Until next time... thanks for reading and good luck on the water.

Los Cabos...

2010-03-26T17:44:00.024-04:00

My arms were on fire! I took a deep breath as I looked at Marianne and sat down on the padded bench seat beside her. "Man I need a break." I said. "Me too!" she agreed. There haven't been many times in my life when I hoped another fish would not bite (at least not for a little while), but this was one of them...

What a trip! It was GOOD when it was good, and when it was bad...boy, it was BAD! Last week we spent 4 days and 4 nights in San Jose Del Cabo Mexico, which was awesome! :) We also spent a night on the floor of the baggage claim in the Philadelphia airport, which was not so awesome... :( Needless to say, it was a trip full of highs and lows--none of which I would trade. Well, okay, maybe I would trade a couple of the lows, ha ha. Especially the part where my first marlin threw the hook--OH! And then there was the windshield of our plane shattering mid-way through our flight into Cabo... yeah I'd trade that one for sure, lol.

Still, we left Mexico with some awesome memories. None of us had been to Cabo before, and the scenery was breathtaking. There is something awe inspiring about steep desert mountains adjoining the deep blue of the Mexican Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. The area is boiling with an abundance of wild life... We saw pelicans, whales, sea lions, porpoises, some awesome types of fish (like flying fish) and we even caught a few fish as well.

One of the main purposes of the trip (at least for me) was to catch my first marlin. Unfortunately, that dream did not become a reality on this trip--but it was SO close! We chartered two days of fishing with Dreamweaver Sportfishing, out of Cabo San Lucas. Captain Ramone and his mate Fernando were both outstanding fishermen, and they tried their hearts out to get me my first marlin. In the end, the unusually slow fishing got the best of us, but we did have some exciting action...
On our first morning of fishing, we spotted a fish right away. Ramone motored over to the fish, and Fernando tossed him a fresh live bait (a cool-looking little fish called a goggle eye). As soon a the baitfish hit the water, the marlin reacted to it immediately. He dove down from the surface and headed toward the bait, chasing it around towards the back of the boat. Once he was directly behind the boat the marlin came up behind the bait and started poking at it with his bill. At this point Fernando dropped the bait right back into the marlin's face--and he ate it! Just like that we were hooked up. Fernando passed me the rod as I sat down in the fighting chair, and I positioned the rod butt in its holster. I watched the line peel away from the reel as the mighty fish jumped and shook his head. Then he jumped again, violently shaking his head and body. Just as the fish re-entered the water, my line when slack. The hook pulled out, and my heart sank...

Unfortunately for me, this was the closest we came to catching in a marlin in the two days that we fished. We saw two other fish but neither one of them was willing to bite. Still, on day two of our adventure, we found another type of fish to chase... TUNA!

Neither Marianne nor I had ever caught yellowfin tuna before, but boy did that change on day two of our trip. We started out the morning heading offshore in a different direction than on day one. The morning started off with us watching an enormous humpback whale launch himself almost completely out of the water, twist in the air, and crash back into the water with a colossal splash--our day was already a success! We continued motoring farther offshore until captain Ramone found a giant school of porpoises, who were feeding on flying fish. Fernando dropped back our trolling lures, and within seconds we were hooked up with yellowfin tuna. Apparently the tuna were traveling along with the school of porpoises. The action continued for about an hour, until Marianne and I had had enough. At times porpoises surfed in the waves next to the boat while we were both hooked up to fish, and at least one other rod was bent over screaming in the rod holder. In the end, we landed 13 yellowfins... and we were pooped! We finished up day two relaxing, and trolling for marlin on our way back in... We didn't have any further luck, but we did sight one marlin who wasn't willing to bite. Still, it was an awesome day and I couldn't have hoped for anything more.Later that night, Marianne, Tillie, and myself went out to a nice local restaurant in San Jose. We brought along a couple pounds of fresh caught yellowfin for the chef to prepare for us. We didn't really know what to have him do with the fish, but we just hoped that it would be good. Fortunately, we did not leave disappointed. In fact, the chef prepared for us a feast that we all agreed was probably the best meal of fish we had ever eaten. It started out with a dish of sashimi, as an appetizer, which was just incredible. Then the main course came as pan seared tuna steaks, flavored with many different seasonings... I really don't know how to describe it other than to say it was spectacular! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
The remainder of our trip consisted of a lot of much needed relaxation... Hanging out on the beach, getting sun burned (some of us more than others... ha ha), reading books, eating food, drinking drinks, and a little bit of fishing from the beach by the resort (without much luck). After 4 days of Mexico, we didn't have enough at all and all three of us were reluctant to head back home.Still, in this world, most good things eventually come to an end...and such was the time we had allotted for our trip to Mexico. Our plane ride back home was without incident, until we arrived late into Philly airport and subsequently got stuck on our plane for an hour--missing our last connecting flight to Harrisburg. Henceforth, we enjoyed the previously mentioned "fun-filled" night spent in baggage claim; before we were able to catch our short connecting flight back to Harrisburg the next morning.

As I mentioned before, it was--without a doubt--a trip filled with highs and lows, and--without a doubt--the highs outweighed the lows. I hope someday to return to Los Cabos and feast my eyes on the highs of the rugged desert mountains and drink up the lows of the beautiful Mexican Pacific. Until then, I have memories... Good ones.

Pre-spawn on the "J"...

2010-03-24T01:24:00.013-04:00

For those of you anticipating the report and pictures from our recent trip to Cabo, I need to apologize. I downloaded the pics from our camera a few days ago, but since then, I have unfortunately run into some issues transferring them onto the computer I use to update my blog. I should get them downloaded in the next couple of days... but until then, the wait continues. Ha ha ha!

This will be just a quick little report. Yesterday, Dad and I hit the river for a few hours in the AM and early afternoon. The water levels were still on the way back down, but there was still a decent amount of flow. We fished the Juniata as it was in a little bit better shape than the Susquehanna... reading 6ft. at the Newport gauge (Susquehanna was still a bit higher).

We put on some miles, and hit 6 different spots in all. We found fish at roughly half the spots we fished. All of our fish came on jigs, with various soft plastics. We didn't catch a lot but ended up with around 10-12 fish. There were a couple of nice ones, but nothing over 18 inches. The average was probably 14 inches. Pretty much all of the bass were close to the bank and relating in some way to slack water--either on the edge of a current break, or located in the slack water itself.

Right now the bass are in their pre-spawn mode... If you are interested in getting out on the river for some of the seasons fattest smallmouth, the next few weeks would be a good time to do it. Hopefully we will get some good, stable weather over the next couple weeks, and some predicable river conditions. I hope to see you out there!

We made it back...

2010-03-17T20:38:00.012-04:00

In spite of their best efforts, U. S. Airways was able to deliver Marianne, Tillie, and myself safely to and from Cabo San Lucas this past week. But, in spite of our traveling debacles, we had an awesome trip. The weather was great, the food was good, and we caught some awesome fish. I don't have all of my pictures downloaded yet, so I'll will write up a full report in couple of days.

Until then, I do want to write about a couple of other things...

First, is my nephew Bailey. Last week Bailey caught his new personal best smallmouth. He was fishing in the river with my Dad, and was breaking in a nice new spinning rod that he had just purchased. Needless to say, he did it the right way. The monster bass was 20 inches long, and was caught on a jig and soft plastic. Way to go, Bailey!

Last, I wanted to bring to your attention the recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announcement concerning the new draft of the Migratory Fish Management and Restoration Plan for the Susquehanna River Basin. Here's is a link to the PAF&BC announcement concerning the new plan. Here is a link to the actual draft of the Susquehanna River Migratory Fish Management and Restortaion Plan. If you are like me, and would love to see fishable numbers of american shad and other anadromous species (like striped bass) return to the Susquehanna River, check it out. It's open for public review until the end of March. The draft is long, but very informative...with some very educational material covered within the draft.

Wont' be long now!

2010-03-09T20:46:00.014-05:00

Tomorrow at this time I hope to be standing on the beach with my wife, enjoying a soft breeze, taking in the smell of the saltwater air, and watching the sun set over the waters of the Pacific... I cannot wait! We have been planning this trip for a few months and the time is finally here... :)

Marianne, her sister Tillie, and I are flying out bright and early tomorrow morning. Our final destination... CABO! San Jose Del Cabo to be exact... We are going to be there for five wonderful days, soaking up the sun, eating awesome food, and best of all... FISHING!

It has always been one of my dreams to catch a marlin, and it is my hope that this will be the trip when it finally happens. The past couple of years Cabo has experienced some of the best striped marlin fishing in history, unfortunatly however, this winter has been different. This year's El Nino has changed the water tempertures enough that there have not been nearly as many marlin caught. Still, there is a chance... and I can't think of a better place to catch my first marlin than Cabo San Lucas. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Besides the marlin fishing, I am planning to do plenty of other fishing on this trip as well. I have my surf-fishing, travel rod packed with a bag full of lures, and a nice new Shimano Stradic spooled up and ready to go. I'm hoping to get into some good beach fishing action for sierra (spanish) mackerel, possibly some big jacks, and if all the stars are aligned perfectly--I might get a shot at a roosterfish. If things aren't going well from the surf, I may try to book a day fishing from a panga (small boat) hoping for better chances.

Right now I feel like a kid on the night before Christmas... Still, whatever happens, we are going to have an awesome trip... Did I mention that I'm excited, lol. Hopefully I will have lots of stories and some great pictures to share when I get back.

Spring is just around the corner...

2010-03-06T01:07:00.013-05:00

I don't know about you, but I have been seriously enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having lately. Sunny afternoons, melting snow, and stable river conditions have made for some great opportunities for anglers to get out there on the water. Fortunately for us here in central PA, our local fish have been enjoying the weather lately as well.

This past Tuesday, my Dad and I hit the river for a few hours. We fished a portion of the river that neither of us had been to for a while, and it was our hopes that some new fish had moved into the area and the bite had turned on. My Dad also had a brand new custom jigging rod with him, and it was our duty to break it in properly... Luckily, the fish cooperated pretty well. We didn't catch any giants on our trip, but the numbers were half decent. We ended up with about 15 to 20 bass between the two of us, and 5 walleyes as well.

On Wednesday, I had to attend some training for work... but I was able to stop along the river for a quick trip on my way home. Luckily the bass cooperated pretty well in the short time I had to fish. I hooked six bass in all and landed three, which came on a new soft plastic that I have been trying out lately and have been very happy with.As the title of this entry indicates, spring really is just around the corner. So if you like to catch smallmouth bass, the next couple of months can provide some of the best action of the year. Wait for some stable weather (like we've been having lately), a warm afternoon, and get out there and hit the river. Bass will be in the pre-spawn mode, and this can be your best opportunity to pick up your heaviest fish of the season. Just treat them nice, as they are fat and full of eggs... With our local smallmouth population down somewhat, we need to do our best to encourage healthy spawns in our river system. So good luck out there. Hope to see you on the water.

It's been a while...

2010-02-25T02:51:00.016-05:00

If you are like me, the "cabin fever" has been setting in pretty badly lately. Since my last post we have been blasted by two different blizzards here in central PA, and sure enough, as I am typing this post the snow is beginning to fly again. Battling the icy-cold temps and snow-covered ground has made for some tough fishing the past few weeks. In fact, for me it has meant no fishing at all...that is, until the past couple of days.

We actually saw some sunny skies this past week, and boy was it welcome. Finally, the snow began to melt in my backyard, and my short-legged puppy dog could actually find a nice patch of grass to go pee pee, lol. Lucky for me, I found a couple opportunities to get out and do some fishing this past week as well.

This past Monday morning Dad and I both had off of work, so we decided to hit the river hoping that the recent warming trend had woken up a few of our local smallmouth. We fished pretty hard, and hit quite a few spots... in the end, we each ended up with one smallmouth a piece. Not great, but good enough to avoid the skunk.

Later on Tuesday afternoon, I was able to sneak away for a couple of hours to visit a section of local trout stream that I have not visited for a few years. It was fun to go back and reacquaint myself with some of my favorite old fishing holes and to revisit some fond memories from my youth. I also took along a new ultra-light spinning outfit that I just built, and it was my pleasure to christen it on a few feisty, stream-bred brown trout.

Overall, it has been a slow couple of weeks on the fishing front... but this past week's warm up got the blood flowing again. Let's hope that our most recent snowfall does not amount to much, and the grass will be peaking through before we know it. One thing is for sure, the days are growing longer and springtime will be here before we know it. But until then, good luck staying warm and who knows maybe I'll see you on the water!

Slump? What slump? :)

2010-02-06T01:17:00.021-05:00

For all of you who suffered through the negativity of my last blog entry, I am proud to announce that my slump has officially ended! That's right, this past week I finally caught some fish... And I wasn't the only person to catch fish this week either--my Dad made some amazing catches this week. He has fished HARD this entire winter (much harder than I have), and a lot of times the fishing has not been easy. As I mentioned in my last entry; eventually, hard work, dedication, and time on the water will pay off. The proof was in the pudding for my Dad this week. But for now... Let's talk about the FISH!!!

This past Wednesday was the day I broke out of my slump. Dad and I had been talking about hitting a few spots on the river for a couple of days, but it just hadn't happened yet. I had some chores to do around the house in the morning and Dad had to work, so we gave the mid-day sun a few hours to warm things up a little bit before we tried our luck Wednesday afternoon. About 1:30 or 2 PM we finally began fishing. We struck out at the first two spots we fished, minus a couple of carp... but the third spot turned out to be just the ticket. About midway through the retrieve of my second cast at the new spot, I felt my lure stop---I set the hook and I was hooked up. My first thought was that I had snagged a carp, but soon I felt headshakes and saw my line moving erratically and reversing directions as if it were attached to the head of a fish. At this moment, I remember feeling a little bit of hope rise up in my belly. Within a few moments I saw a nice-sized musky come to the surface. My lure was in his mouth, and he was shaking his head violently, trying to get rid of it... Now I was EXCITED! I fought the fish for a couple of minutes before my Dad slid down over the steep bank to the waters edge. I passed my boga grip down to him as I tried to lead the fish over toward the bank. A few moments later Dad had him on the boga and passed him up to me. We were both ecstatic. I don't catch a lot of muskies, so every one I get is a special treat. We took some pictures, weighed him (at 9 lbs.), and taped him out at 32 1/2 inches. Not huge, but respectable... and exactly what I needed to get out of my slump, lol!

After taking some time to revive my fish and watching it swim away happily, I was freezing cold but on cloud nine. Dad and I walked back over to the spot where I had hooked my fish and I stood with my hands in my pockets trying to warm them up, while Dad said to me, "Okay... now I'm going to catch a bigger one." We both chuckled as he made a couple of casts back into the same area where I had hooked my fish. Near the end of his second retrieve, I watched as his line stopped and he set the hook into a large fish. Within seconds a big musky came to the surface, made a few headshakes and then spit the lure right back at us. Our hearts both sank, but we laughed in disbelief as Dad's prediction had almost come true. A few moments later, I watched again in disbelief as Dad made a cast back into the same hole and hooked the same large musky again! Luckily this time he stayed on the hook. It was an awesome battle. The fish was very strong and thick bodied. It fought hard, and took a few minutes to bring him to the shoreline where I was waiting with my boga. It was a bit of a struggle to get the fish on the boga actually, but it became an even bigger struggle for me to get the fish back up over the ice and mud-covered, slippery bank. We both slipped and fell down in the mud a couple times during the process, and I filled up both of my knee-high boots with icey-cold water, lol. After some picture taking, weighing, and measuring the fish; I watched as Dad walked her down to the water and revived her for a while before she regained her strength and swam away strongly. His fish measured 37 inches and weighed 15 lbs. As you will see from the pictures, she was a very thick-bodied fish--very healthy, and probably full of eggs for the upcoming spawn.

As I sit here typing this blog entry, we are getting hammered with snow in central PA. A strong nor'easter blew into our area this past evening, and the winds have been blowing hard and the the snow has been falling ever since. However, right before the snow began falling this evening, I received a curious text message from my Dad. I could tell that it was typed quickly and with cold fingers, but from what I could decipher it said, "Just caught 22 inch smallie." Instantly, I got a big smile on my face as I new Dad had just caught his new personal best smallmouth. I quickly gave him a call, and before long we met up to take a few pictures of the beast, which is now the largest smallmouth bass I have ever seen. I will post some of the pics here for you, but honestly they don't do it justice. The bass taped out at 22 1/4 inches, with a 16 inch girth, and weighed in at 6 1/2 pounds. It looked like a giant, great lakes' fish from Erie or Ontario instead of a central PA river bass. All I can say is congrats to my Dad. I can't be happier for him. He has had a quite a week!

Hopefully this report wasn't too long winded for you. But I do realize that if you are in central PA like myself, you probably won't mind having some extra reading material to help pass the time during the next couple of snow-filled days. If you are out and about, please be careful on the roads and if you find yourself getting depressed b/c of this nasty weather... keep on looking forward to warmer days ahead. Before long there will be clear skies and some more time on the water. As always, thanks for reading!

So far, NO good... :(

2010-01-22T17:22:00.009-05:00

"You should have been here last year..." I keep thinking to myself. Luckily I was... But as for fishing this winter, it has been pretty slow thus far. Since my last entry, I have hit the river a couple of times... But I haven't done much at all in terms of catching. One bass is all I have been able to manage. Last winter, our local river fishing was on fire, with good numbers of bass and walleyes on practically every trip... It sure hasn't been the case this year. My experience so far has been a lot of fishermen and not too many fish, unless you happen to hit the right place at the right time--even then, it hasn't been that great.

I need to change things up--badly. Confidence goes a long way when you are fishing, and right now I have lost it. It is a terrible thing to make a cast, work your lure, and not expect any type of bite or reaction from the fish (if there are even any fish out there). That is where I am at right now... sifting my spoon through an empty bowl of cornflakes. I am in a slump.

If experience has taught me anything, it's that sooner or later I will snap out of it. One of the greatest lessons one can learn as an angler, is that there is no substitute for time on the water. You have to actually be on the water to catch fish. And (generally speaking) it's the guys that spend the most time on the water that end up catching the majority of the fish. It's simple common sense really, but when you are in a slump or down in the dumps, it is too easy to give up and throw in the towel. So just remember, this is a good lesson to come back to--especially when things aren't going your way on the water.

Hopefully, by my next blog entry, I will have had the opportunity to change things up a bit. I will have spent a good amount of time on the water, picked up on a few things that are working, and broken out of my slump. So until next time, no matter what your success has been... keep at it! Thanks for reading and good luck on the water.

First fish of the year...

2010-01-09T17:17:00.007-05:00

It has been absolutely frigid lately... not exactly great fishing weather... But as luck would have it, we did have a slight warm up this past week on Wednesday and Thursday-- enough to make fishing bearable. Fortunately for me, my scheduled days off were timed just right for my Dad and I to get in our first trip of the new year (and the new decade, for that matter).

Thursday morning we headed to the river with hopes of finding a few smallmouth holed up in the eddies along the riverbank. The first spot we checked turned out to be iced up too badly to fish, but after relocating we found a nice stretch of open water and fortunately for us, we caught a few fish. We didn't catch a lot, but found just enough to keep our spirits up and our hearts warm enough to continue fishing for a few hours. At the end of our outting, Dad had out-fished me with 5 bass to my 3. He also landed the nicest fish of the day--a fat 18 incher that had a huge head and a scrawny tail. Along with the smallmouth, we also caught quite a few fallfish and a couple of carp as well. All the fish came on jigs and soft plastics.

Right now temps are back down in the 20s during the day and possibly the single digits at night. It is cold out! The forecast is looking promising however, with temps in the 40s for the upcoming week. Hopefully the ice will stay off the river and we'll be able to get out a couple times next week. Until then, good luck staying warm and here's to hoping the weather man's predictions are right on the money for this upcoming week.

Brrrrrrr.... Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T20:56:00.006-05:00

It has been COLD lately... I wish I had a decent report for you, but I don't. As for me, fishing has been very slow. But I really do not have much to report as I haven't had a chance to get out in almost two weeks.

When I did get out (a couple weeks ago), I fished for 2 or more hours on two consecutive evenings. My grand total for the combined 4-5 hours of fishing time was 1 small walleye. Since then, I haven't been able to get out at all... Either the weather has been just too dang cold or the river conditions have not been fit when I have had the opportunity to go.

I did talk to my Dad today, and received a positive report from him. He and my nephew Bailey hit the river for a few hours this afternoon. They didn't catch a lot, but my Dad did manage a couple quillback carp and a big sucker. My nephew Bailey also scored a nice 22 inch walleye, which I think is his first walleye... not a bad way to start out! Dad emailed me a picture, so I'll post it for you.

Bailey and my Dad also witnessed another gentleman land a small musky this afternoon. So, obviously, there are still some fish out there that are willing to bite. I'd say if you don't mind the cold and you get a chance to get out there and fish before things ice up, definitely go for it! Good luck, and maybe I'll see you on the water in 2010... Happy New Year!

There's still a couple out there...

2009-12-15T20:09:00.005-05:00

But fishing's been kind of slow. Between work, deer season, and the holidays coming up, it has been tough to find enough free time to spend on the water. Luckily I was able to spent a little bit of time at the river this morning with my Dad...

The fishing wasn't great but we did see a little action. We only managed one gamefish today (a decent smallmouth), but there were a lot of quillback carp in the hole we were fishing and that made for some fun action to pass the time.

I haven't been able to fish much lately, but my Dad has been hitting the river some, and from what I can gather fishing has been rather slow. He has been picking up a couple bass here and there and an odd walleye or two, but the action is nothing compared to last year at this time. Hopefully things will pick up soon. The river conditions are pretty good right now, but with the COLD weather forecast for the next week, it's hard to say what might materialize.

It has been a slow winter so far on the river, but from the reports I have been reading online, it sounds like this has been a great fall/early winter for those fishing the salt water in the mid-Atlantic states. For the most part, we've had reasonably mild temperatures so far which has allowed ocean temps to remain high enough for decent fishing to continue. Unfortunately for me, I haven't been able to do any saltwater fishing since late September, but for all of you guys that have been out there chasing them, I'm envious and I hope you had a very successful fall.

I have a couple days off work coming up this week, so I hope to spend some more time on the river soon... If there is anything good to report I'll be sure to post something. Good luck to you all! Maybe I'll see you on the water.

It's deer season... and the fish ARE still here!

2009-12-05T17:48:00.008-05:00

Even though it's the middle of deer season, I decided to make a stop by the river today... I needed to see if the fish were still here. As most of you know, the majority of outdoorsmen in central PA would just as soon forget that there actually are fish in our local waters during deer season. But, I am here to tell you that the masses are mistaken--the fish are still here... And they will actually bite! You just have to go fishing instead of hunting to catch them, ha ha.

Actually, my original plans for today were to spend a few hours in the woods hunting this morning before work... But, after a last minute change in schedule, I decided to spend an hour or so hitting the river instead. I'm glad I did. I didn't catch a lot, but I did have a few hits and managed to land a nice 19" walleye and a pretty smallmouth bass around 17". Both fish were caught on swimbaits that were rigged on jigheads.

Conditions were good today, and I wish I would have had a little bit more time to fish the area more thoroughly. I think if I would have had a little bit more time I probably would have caught a few more fish this morning. A storm front just moved into the area and began dropping the season's first snowfall. A lot of times, fishing the beginning of a storm or unsettled weather condidtions can be very productive, and today was no different.

Still, even though I didn't get to fish as much as I wated to today, I know the fish will be around somewhere the next time I get a chance to hit the river. Hopefully you have had a chance to get out to enjoy the woods or the water recently as well. If you are planning an outing in the not to distant future, please don't forget that fall and winter is not just a time for hunting... there are still plenty of fish to be caught. Be safe and good luck. Thanks for reading.

On the river bank... smallies, walleyes, muskies, pike, and perch :)

2009-11-24T04:00:00.015-05:00

Unfortunately for me, I don't have any great success stories of my own to share with you this week... But, I would like to take a little bit of time to congratulation my nephew Gabe on a couple awesome catches he made recently.

Gabe and my dad had a great trip to the river this past week. They didn't catch a lot of fish, but it was quality over quantity. Gabe caught 2 walleyes, a northern pike, and his first musky! All in one morning... incredible! Gabe spends a lot of time fishing throughout the year, and has made some excellent catches. He has a lot of patience and fishes hard. Needless to say, he earned these fish. I have a couple of the photos from their trip, so I'll post them for you here. Enjoy.

Personally, I did get out a couple times this past week. Dad and I hit the river one day and caught a few walleyes and a couple of bass. I also caught a nice, fat yellow perch, which was a first for me from the river. I also found an exciting new spot to fish, and I was lucky enough to land a few fat smallies there one afternoon before work. This spot should be a producer for both bass and walleyes when the conditions are right, and I'm excited to spend some time fishing it in the near future.

PA antlered deer season starts next Monday, so this week I will most likely be spending most of my spare time getting prepared to whack a big buck, ha ha. Still, I'm never sure when the fishing urge might strike... So hopefully I'll have some good stories and reports to share with you soon. I wish you all good luck if you get out there, and maybe I'll see you in the woods or on the water. Thanks for reading.

Hot fishing...Cool Weather... :)

2009-11-13T02:37:00.020-05:00

With the awesome weather that we have been blessed with lately, I have been chomping at the bit to get out on the river. It doesn't help that my daily commute takes me along both the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers, so I am constantly watching the water conditions and observing anglers fishing at various locations.

Over the past couple of weeks, the water levels have been receding from previous high flows. And as the levels have dropped, I have noticed the number of boats (and anglers) on the water increase exponentially. Last week, every day on my drive in to work I couldn't help but think, "It's November, the water is cooling, and fish are fattening up for the winter. Lots of guys are out there and I haven't been... Something special is going on and I'm missing it!"

Needless to say, after working 7 days straight, when I finally had a couple of days off this past week it was time to fish. Dad and I had been talking about hitting the river, so I knew he would be up for it also. This past Tuesday morning we headed out to the river, with high hopes of finding some bass and maybe a couple walleyes.

The morning started out a little bit slow, but before long we were picking up a few fish. After we reached the end of the stretch that we typically fish, we decided to head a little farther upstream to see what we could find... Luckily, we found a very nice looking hole. The hole was made up of a deep eddie against the inside bank and a strong current seam on the outside that pushed up against (and then around) a floating dock/log-jam at the bottom of the hole. It was a beautiful spot, and we were both pretty sure it would hold a couple fish. Sure enough, on my first cast I was on. After a short struggle, I landed a nice mid-teen length smallmouth... We both took a few more casts with only a couple bumps (but no fish) to show for it. Then, BAM, I had a nice hit as I bounced my jig along the current seam towards the back of the hole. Immediately the fish took off fast, and headed for the logs at the bottom of the hole. I put some extra pressure on the fish and luckily it turned and came back upstream to the upper end of the hole for the remainder of the fight. I knew it was a good fish, but not until I saw it did I realize it would turn out to be my new personal best smallmouth... When I finally grabbed her, I couldn't believe how big she was... She was colored up beautiful, and was thick and very long--measuring 21 inches in length. If I had to guess a weight I would probably say 5 lbs or a bit better. We took some pics, and then got her back in the water and watched her swim away. Dad and I each took a couple more casts after that, but we quickly decided it would be tough to top what just happened... so we decided to call it quits and go check out a different spot.The move turned out to be a good one. It wasn't long before Dad hooked up and landed a beautiful 18" smallie at our new spot. A few minutes later, I had a good hit that ended up with a wiff on the hookset... my leader was bitten off! Musky! I re-tied (put a plug on this time) and began fishing some more. About twenty minuted later I had another strong hit, followed by a wiff, and another bite off. This was getting frustraiting, lol. Next I bumped up the strength of my leader in case this were to happen again. Luckily, on my next strike the hooks found their mark and my line did not part. I fought the fish for a few moments and when I first saw the fish I though it was a small musky.... but I was wrong. The fish turned out to be a nice northern pike. The first one I've ever seen or caught in the river.

After the pike, our attention was quickly turned to walleyes as I picked up a couple small ones and then my Dad landed a hefty 20 1/4 incher. We fished a bit more, but we were both very satisfied with how the day had turned out. So we decided to head home in the early afternoon.

With the excitement from our trip on Tuesday still fresh in my mind, I had to hit the river again before I headed back to work Thursday night. Thursday morning I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep... I was thinking about Muskies. I called my Dad to see if he could hit the river with me, but unfortunately he couldn't make it. So, I packed things up and headed out by myself armed with my rod and camera.

As most of you probably know, muskies are supposed to be the fish of 10,000 casts... But as luck would have it, I hooked up on my first cast this morning and landed a pretty, little, hammerhandle musky--about 22 inches long. I was excited to land the musky, but was also kind of worried about catching a fish on my first cast... which has almost always provern to be a jinx in my previous experience, lol. Lucky for me the jinx didn't stick this morning. After about another hour of casting I hooked up again, but this time the fish was larger. It was long and broad, and as soon as I caught a glimpse of the fish in the water, I got nervous. It was an awesome fight. The musky took line fast, and it even leaped completely out of the water and did a flip...twice! After a couple of minutes and a lot of praying that my hook would stick and my flourocarbon leader wouldn't part, I slid my musky up onto the bank. She taped out at 33 1/2 inches and was very heafty for her length. I would have guessed 12 to 13 lbs. at the time. After a quick photo, she made a quick flop and was back in the water and gone in a split second. I was extatic, and after a deep breath I could feel a little quiver in my knees from the anxiety of the fight. It wasn't a big musky by any means, but it was the first nice one that I have caught in a long time.I fished a little while longer after landing the second fish, but I knew that it would basically be impossible for the morning to get any better, fish or not. So, I headed home a little before noon. I had caught the fish that I wanted to, and even got a couple pics... I was a happy, lucky fisherman.

As always, thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!

Couple more steelies...

2009-11-13T02:23:00.006-05:00

I just wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate my nephew Bailey on catching his first two steelhead last week... Bailey made a trip up to fish the Erie tribs with my Dad. They had a lot of fun, but with the crowds, and no additional rainfall to boost flows in the creeks, the fishing was a little bit slow. Still, Bailey persevered through the crowds and tough conditions and came through with 2 very nice steelhead. In fact, I think he outfished my Dad on this trip... Not an easy task. WTG Bailey! You are a natural, I'm sure there will be many more to come... :)

Fishin' but not much catchin'... (again)

2009-11-06T21:40:00.009-05:00

Well... Unfortunately, I don't have much success to share with you since my last blog entry, but it's not for lack of trying. Last weekend Marianne and I took a little trip to Erie with my Mom and Dad. We were hoping to really get into the steelhead, but the steelhead had other plans, ha ha.

I'm not exactly sure what went wrong as far as the catching goes... but I have my hunches. The weather was good, as were the flows in the creek. But there were a lot of fallen leaves in the creek, and the water was stained brown--tea colored. I'm gonna blame the lack of our success on the unfavorable water conditions in the creek, and possibly a foul taste (or bad pH) in the water due to all the tanic acid from the leaves. One thing was for sure, there weren't quite as many fish in the streams as I had expected (with the biggest concentrations farther up the creeks). Worst yet, the fish that were there had a pretty bad case of lock jaw. Between the four of us, we only landed 3 fish. I caught 1 and my Dad caught 2. I'm generally a fairly optomistic person, so I would look for fishing to improved a bit after the next couple high flow events rid the creeks of their dead leaves. Look for some fresh fish to enter the stream at that time and the bite to pick back up.

Still, inspite of the slow fishing, we had a very nice trip. We stayed in a nice hotel, ate some great food, and enjoyed spending qualitly time with family. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures downloaded yet, but I will add them as a I get a chance to download some more in the next couple of days.

As far as fishing goes locally... I haven't hit the river in about two weeks, but water conditions are just about perfect right now. So I'm hoping to get out soon and do some searching for some walleyes, smallmouth or whatever other critters feel like chomping on one of my lures. Till next time, thanks for reading and good luck on the water!

Wet weather, walleyes, and some bass...

2009-10-26T02:30:00.009-04:00

With the weird weather we've been having lately, it's been a little bit tough to find a decent opportunity to get out and fish. Still, my Dad and I were able to get out for a few hours on Friday morning this past week, before the rain began...AGAIN!

With the front moving in, we decided to hit the river with hopes of picking up a couple cool water walleyes and some bass. Action wasn't fast, but we each caught a couple. Dad started out the morning with a pretty little smallmouth bass. Not long after, I hooked into a decent walleye. After that, our rolls were solidified for the day. He would be the bass catcher (with 3) and I would be the walleye catcher (with 2), lol. Though it wasn't a great day in terms of productivity, but we did have a lot fun and enjoyed a beautiful, fall morning on the river.

Here's a few pics...

Watching the weather... (and some steelhead fishing :)

2009-10-16T03:20:00.019-04:00

If you are an outdoorsman, there is a very good chance that you are also a weather watcher... As you know, weather conditions dictate so much about what we do in the outdoors. They help us decide where to go, what activities (whether fishing or hunting) to pursue, and also determine the endeavors that will most likely prove to be successful for us. For me in particular, this past week turned out to be a prime example of weather watching.

I had off work this past Tuesday and Wednesday and had made plans (some time ago) to do some saltwater fishing with my good buddy Pete. Unfortunately, the weather forecast looked terrible... Calling for rain and strong winds coming from the wrong direction. Pete and I both wanted to go striper fishing very badly, but in the end we decided it would be best to postpone our trip in hopes of trying again under better conditions next month.

Still, after a quick check of the forecast, and a phone call with my father... my Dad and I decided to head out on a last minute trip to Erie, PA--where the weather looked more favorable and with any luck, the steelhead would be biting.

We arrived to the Erie area in the early afternoon on Tuesday, and found the creeks to be low and clear. Conditions were not great, but at least they were fishable and it seemed that there were good numbers of fish in the streams. Our first stop was at Poor Richard's Bait and Tackle, where we picked up some goodies, and then headed off to Elk creek in search of some fish. We ended up fishing Tuesday evening until dark, and then again Wednesday morning until about 10 am, before we decided to call it quits. It was a very quick trip, but we both had some fun and caught some decent fish... about 15 in all, with most coming on the drift rods using either live shiners or single eggs, for bait. Dad, scored a nice brown trout on the fly rod though, which was a special treat for Erie.

Even though condition weren't optimal in Erie the past couple of days, they were much better than along the coast. Likewise, we were fairly successful steelhead fishing--probably much more so than if Pete and I would have decided to brave the elements and head out to the beach.

I am certain that most of you guys and girls do follow close attention to the weather conditions, but if you do not, there really is no better time to get started than now... It will help you pick and chose the best opportunities for your outdoor endeavors. I have a lot of links listed along the left side margin of this blog, and one section in particular is dedicated to the weather, stream flow data, tides, and sun & moon phases. If you get a chance, check out the links in this section... I do not get paid anything for you to click on them. I have them listed purely for your own reference and to help you out with whatever you chose to do. I find the US GS stream flow link to be particularly interesting and helpful, and I hope you find it and the other links useful as well. Also, if there are any sites that you know of that might be better than the ones I have listed, please let me know and I'll check them out. Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoy the pics from this past week's trip!

Fishing... But not always catching :(

2009-10-04T13:39:00.008-04:00

If you've done much fishing in your life, I am sure you have learned that spending time on the water does not always equate to catching fish. This past week I had another hard-earned lesson in fishing... But not catching.

This past Tuesday night my Brother-in-law Chad, and I, made a quick trip down to Point Pleasant, New Jersey to spend the next day fishing on the "Cock Robin"--a party boat that sails out of Manasquan Inlet. Our objective for the day was to fish for false albacore, and catch as many as we possibly could. The previous Wednesday the boat ran a false albacore special trip and had and outstanding day... crushing the fish! Needless to say, we had high hopes for our trip.

Unfortunately, the weather was a little bit messed up and albies didn't come out to play... at least not on our lines. A few people on the boat did catch fish, but we were not among them. We got the skunk, and it wasn't for lack of effort. We fished hard the entire trip. On the ride home we decided that it's trips like these (meaning skunks) that make the successful ones seem even sweeter. So even though our spirits were low, there was still hope for the next time.

Luckily, I had yesterday off of work and was able to get out on the water to make up for the slow albie fishing trip. My Dad, my nephew Bailey, and I took a trip out to do some wading and fishing in the Susquehanna. The action wasn't hot and heavy, but we were all able to jig up a couple of fish. We caught mainly smallmouth and fallfish, but Dad did manage to snag a small walleye. We were hoping for a couple more walleyes, but I'm afraid we were fishing a little bit too early in the day for how bright the sky was. We'll get more next time. Thanks again for reading.

It's fall on the Susky...

2009-09-29T05:34:00.009-04:00

Welp, it is without a doubt now officially fall. With the cooler air and water temps that we've been experiencing lately, I decided I had better get to the river to do a little bit of wet wading while temperatures still allow. So, I spent a couple hours one evening this past week splashing around the Susquehanna.

It was my hope that I would find a couple early season walleyes, as well as some smallmouth bass. As luck would have it, I did. I didn't catch a lot, but ended up with 2 walleyes, 3 smallmouth, and a big fallfish. The largest walleye was about 16 1/2 or 17 inches. He would have been a nice one for the pan, but I let him swim away.

I did not have my regular camera along for this trip, but I did take a couple pics with my cell camera. I apologize if the images aren't quite what they should be, but this really is just the start of walleye season and its my hope to get lots of good pics in the months to come.

I guess that is all I have to share for now. If you are reading this, I hope that you have been able to get out and enjoy the outdoors recently--and maybe catch a few fish as well. Hope to see you on the water!