Adventures on Moncove Lake - March 19th, 2011

Brad and I took the day to go check out Moncove Lake. I haven't been over there since I was in highschool. When we got to the launch ramp the lightning and thunder started. We ran into Robert Layne on his way back after the dock. Only two boats on the lake and both of them from Hinton. Once the rain started I we started back out. I picked up a couple of fish off the fluke shallow and another on a LC Pointer. Robert fishing ahead of us hooked and lost a really nice one on a spinnerbait. The weather cleared off and we tried fishing deeper with a drop shot and picked up a couple perch and a bluegill. Nice day especially for March but fishing was tough. Seems like some fish are deep, some are shallow, but they arn't concentrated in any one area yet.

Grind Them Out - March 14th, 2011

Can't figure out what the fish want? Having problems getting them to chase or hit. Then get a finesse worm and start grinding out fish. That's exactly what today was. A near record 75 degree morning with the lake still at winter pool. I fished from 8am till noon. The water was stained and their were a lot of other anglers on the water, most were crappie fishing though. I caught 5 fish total. All but one on a Zoom Mag Shakey worm. The other came from LC pointer. The were all keepers but none bigger than a about 1.5lbs.

One Good Spot - March 9, 2012

Greg and I fished Bluestone from 8am till 2pm with very little luck. The water was between 43 and 49 degrees. It started out with clouds and then the wind picked up a lot and pushed in the dreaded blue bird skies. At one point the wind got so tough on the New River side that we had to retreat to the shelter of the main lake in front of the dam. We threw LC Pointers most all day. Greg did try a jig and a shakey head a time or two with no luck. I had only one hit all day and I missed it.Greg caught a really nice Kentucky spot, off a LC AYU shad Pointer, it weighted in at 2.4lbs.  Then later in front of the dam Greg hooked musky that broke him off and took his pointer into the deep. From what we could tell it was a really nice musky. Musky robbing jerk baits is often typical for March fishing on Bluestone.

2.4 Lbs. Spotted Bass

Leap Day Bass - Febuary 29th, 2012

Between severe rain showers I managed to slip in 4 hours of fishing. The lake was extremely low. Lower than I have every seen it. Water temps were 45 to 47 degrees. It was almost impossible to get the boat into the water. I had the entire lake to myself until shortly before I left, which is a beautiful thing in itself. I started off throwing a LC pointer and about 30 minutes in hooked 3 or 4 lbs. smallie that came unbuttoned when I got him pulled up to the surface. Then nothing. I kept throwing and throwing and throwing. Changed color, changed running depth, changed location 3 times, until I found what they wanted and where they were at. I finally caught em on an LC XD pointer in aurora shad. I caught 5 all  within a 70 yard stretch of bank in about 10 foot of water. Two were on back to back casts. I caught 2 bass over 3lbs. and 3 bass over 2lbs. giving me a five fish weighing in at over 12lbs. Four of my fish were smallies and the largest was a LMB.  By 3pm the rain and wind were making a comeback so being short on time anyway I head back in and luckily was able to pull my boat our without tearing anything up.


3.0 LBS Smallie




2.5 Smallie





3.1 LMB



2.0 Lbs. Smallie



Same Bass Different View



Wind & Rain Shortened Day - Febuary 24th, 2012

Greg and I tried to put the finesse worm move on the local bass of Mountain Valley Lake today. The weather started off 60 degrees and sunny. Then later came high winds and punishing rain that cut our day short after only about an hour of fishing. I missed to bites and Greg caught one LMB on a squirrel tail worm. 

First Bass of 2012 - Febuary 21st, 2012

It's 35 degrees with 10 to 15mph winds and 42 degree water temps. Sounds like the perfect day for bass fishing right? Well I went anyway and I am glad I did. I managed to catch 4 bass on a LC pointer and I had one more get off on a float-n-fly in only 4 hours of fishing. The second bass I caught was really nice. It seems that big bass like to cold water, because once the water warms up for summer they get really tough to catch.

1st Bass of 2012

The Old Creek Bridge

LC Pointer Strikes Again

4.4Lbs. LMB

First Smallmouth of the Year

2.5lbs. LMB

President's Day Panfish - Febuary 20th, 2012

The warm bright sun came up and started to quickly melt a thick blanket of wet snow. By 1pm the 6 inches of snow from the day before was melted. Brad and I hooked the boat up and headed to the lake without any problems, all of the snow on the pit bank had gone. We went about catching crappie and bluegills with the snow capped mountains looking on in background. We use garden wigglers on a drop shot to catch 40 between the two of us in 3 hours of fishing. It felt more like late April than Febuary right after a snow storm.

Before the Snow Hits - Febuary 10th, 2012

Greg and I crappie fished with #6 garden wigglers from 9am till 2pm. The weather started off cold and got colder as the day went due to a cold front and snow storm headed in for the weekend. I'll bet school teachers just hate it when we get snow on a Friday afternoon. I caught 20, mostly gills, and Greg added another 3 with one being a really nice sized crappie. We had fun, caught a few fish, missed several more, and got out the house.

April In Febuary - Febuary 7th, 2012

On a day with a high temp near 60 degrees, bright sun, and little to now wind. I tried my hand a crappie fishing again. There were several boats on the lake on this day and they all seemed to be catching a few fish even though everybody I talked to complained about catching only small ones. I fished for 2.5 hours and caught 19 being half crappie and half bluegills on the dropshot rig. This warm weather really makes a person long for more warm spring weather.

Febuary Perch - Febuary 6th, 2012

Todd and I crappie fished on Bluestone from 9:30am till 1:30pm. We fished minnows and nightcrawlers on this cold windy winter day. Nightcrawlers surprisingly out fished minnows 3 to 1. We ended up catching 31 fish, 7 bluegills, 21 crappie of assorted sizes, and amazingly 3 perch. It seems that perch are making a comeback on bluestone lake. I have caught one once before but catching 3 in one day means their numbers must be on the rise. Several of our crappie were big slabs.

Wintertime Bluegill

Perch the other Sunfish

The Missing Tubes - Febuary 2nd, 2012

   On yet another warm sunny and  windy day Jason Brown and myself tried our best to hook up with a big winter smallie to no avail. We fished from 10am to 3pm without even a bite. Jason fished on till 6pm and without even a single bite to show for it. We fished Sandstone, around Hinton, and up the Greenbrier as far as Willowwood with no success. I did manage to loose about 20 tubes or so on hangups, you gotta love winter time bass fishing from the bank. At this rate a jet boat would pay for itself in jig heads by about 2025. Jason tried throwing a musky bait some to but they didn't come out to play either. I am really starting to think warm sunny winter days are tougher to catch smallies than nasty overcast snow days in the winter time. I look forward to March when smallies will eat for more than 45 minutes a day.

Panfish Wednesday - Febuary 1st, 2012

Fished the lake on this unseasonably warm day for crappie and bluegill. The water after these last few warm days was up to 42 degrees which is pretty warm for this time of year. John Ratliff and I tried to find some minnows but nobody had any so we went to night crawlers instead. We found the fish in 16 to 18 feet of water. John had to go catch a train after the first three fish and couple of hours. I fished on from 9am to 2:30pm and I caught 21 and John caught 2 more, before having to leave, being a mix of crappie and big bluegills. The nicest being a 15 inch crappie pictured below. All of our fish came off of drop shot rigged night crawlers.

No Musky - January 28th, 2012

Brad and I fished bucktails from the top of Indian Creek to the Mouth of Indian at the New. We hiked down through the feather bed fishing each deep still hole very thoroughly. We fished from an icy start at 8am till around 2pm. We did see a coyote and a bald eagle but we had no hits or follows from musky.


An Icy Start to the Day.






Tubes, Bucktails, and No Takers - January 24th, 2012

      I fished for and hour or so with tubes on the Greenbrier today and for another hour and a half on Indian Creek with bucktails trying to at least locate a Musky. The sun was bright with bluebird skies which always makes me a little superstitious about how tough the fishing is going to be. Although I had no luck today Jason Brown and Mr. Dillon caught 5 smallies on the New today in the  2 to 4lbs range in about 6 hours of fishing. And Todd Mounts son caught 2 nice bass today as well, so maybe it wasn't the weather or water conditions maybe it just wasn't my day. I only fished for 2.5 hours, which by wintertime big fish standards is only a drop in the bucket of time. 

The Hunt Begins - January 23rd, 2012

   After a little time off I headed back to the river to start the 2012 fishing campaign. This year I am hoping to land a big musky as well as a few nice bass. I rounded up my Dad's musky rod, some 20lbs. test line, steel leaders, and a few buck tails to aid in my search for a large toothy critter. With the water up and the bright sun out today I spent some time below the dam throwing a bucktal in the slack water below the dam outflow. The water was stained up pretty good and I didn't get any bites in a coupe hours of fishing. I also threw a tube as well with no takers. I have heard several stories around town of people catchig muskies and nice bass during this unseasonabe warm January and it makes me want to get out and get into the game.   

2011 Year End Review

    This year I landed 1,111fish of various freshwater species on 85 fishing trips for a average fish catch per trip of 13.07, up almost 25% due in large part to fishing rivers more often. This past year has been my most productive  for fish in both size and numbers. I fished only 16 times from May 1st - July 31st. Most of my fishing went on in the early spring and then again throughout the fall.
     On the hunting front I killed 40 squirrels and 2 deer, 8pt and a 4pt. Over the last year a pattern in my fishing habits has emerged. There are basically seven ways that I fish throughout the year and they are as follows.
1) Wading for trout during the cold water period.
2) Bank fishing for Smallmouth bass on local rivers from the bank during the cold water months.
3) Fishing from a bass boat to target bass in the spring on lakes.
4) Fishing from a john boat on local rivers to target late winter to early spring smallmouth bass.
5) Crappie fishing lakes in early spring to early summer from a bass boat.
6) Bluegill fishing lakes from a bass boat with ultralight tackle or a fly pole.
7) Fishing rivers from a kayak for bass from early spring into late fall.

If I were to invest some more time in trying some new tactics in the coming year I would look to fish more at night both on the river for bass and with the aid of a light for crappie in the summer. I would also like to wrangle up a brown trout in the coming year, it's been about 4 or 5 years since I have caught my favorite kind of trout. I want to spend a little more time in the summer fly fishing for bass and bluegills than I have in years past as well.

Last Fish of 2011 - December 31st, 2011

Brad and I hiked in and fished from 8:30 to 1:30. We landed 19 and lost about 6 more. We each caught a 3lbs fish and I lost 2 more that were over 3lbs. We also had several missed hits and short strikes. The weather was cold and getting colder per the usual. The water was 62 percentile on the USGS and falling. I caught 10 fish on the day which oddly made my 2011 fish count 1,111 for the year.

The Right Two Fish - December 26th, 2011

Brad and I attempted to trout fish today despite the river having a 70 percentile on the USGS. The only thing going for us was that despite the water being high it was falling. Long story short we fished as best we could and landed only two trout, one fish each. But it was the right two trout mine was 3lbs and Brad's came in on the digital scales at 4lbs. Unfortunately I dropped mine while we were trying to snap a picture. Trout are like trying to  hold a 3lbs. bar of wet soap. Through the clever use of a net we were able to get a picture of Brad's which was the bigger of the two anyway.

Water gets any higher and we won't be crossing.

Add caption

Grant County's Natives - December 16th, 2011

Avery & I fished the head waters of Lunice Creek on Aleshia's grandad's farm on Jordan Run. It was cold and our fishing was limited to an hour or so, but we managed to catch 10 and hook about that many more native brookies. Despite the cold Avery seemed to have fun catching some of WV's most beutiful fish.

Boundary Lines - December 2nd, 2011

 Danny Helms and I hunted the farm on a cold foggy morning. He hunted off the end and I went back into my  Highwall stand.  On my way in after daylight I could hear some turkeys on the Maddam's Creek side. As I was listening to them I could here somethng coming down the ridge towards me. It was moving cautiously and slowly. I stopped by a good tree to rest off of and decided to wait it out and see what I was dealing with. About 20 minutes later I saw a deer coming down the ridge line towards me about 130 yards away. I made it out to be a 4 point buck. I started to take a shot initll but decided to let it come closer. Then the fog thickened and the deer disappered for a short while. I next saw the deer getting ready to walk over the ridge towards the thicket at about 90 yards. I took my shot, heard the bullet hit, saw the buck hunker down, then run down the hill. I quickly headed down only to find no blood. I followed the deer's  tracks along the heavily frosted ground going  around the hill. As I tracked it I looked up only to see it run around the hill into a small thicket. On my way to the thicket I started to find a blood trail. At this point I should have backed off and gave the deer time like you do when bow hunting. Instead I made a stupid choice and pressed on into the thicket. I jumped the deer out of the thicket but it was so thick I couldn't even get my rifle shouldered. I quickly pressed on and saw the deer wobbling up the hill towards the next ridge line. I got the gun up, fired a second shot, saw the deer go down only to quickly get back up and run over the ridge line out of sight. Within 15 seconds of the deer leaving my sight I heard somebody else shot from Angel's high point stand. I went up there and talked to a guy named Keith who as hunting on Angel's. The deer I had shot twice ran by his stand and was shot a third time and killed. Oh well, he said he hadn't seen a buck all season and seemed really tickle with this buck and at least the deer didn't suffer. Besides I was kinda dreading the drag out of there. He had let deer cross the boundary before he shot it. I saw three more does that morning after everything settled out. Danny saw several deer ~ 9 but all does. It was a nice morning to be in the woods. In light of  a couple of my lasting shooting performance (1 for my last 3 on deer) I will be spending some time at the gun club this upcoming year working on my rifle skills.