Cast But No Blast - April 29th

                      - the largest of our 8 bass @ 4.1 lbs.

    Dusty and I tried mixing  a little turkey hunting and bass fishing. We headed to bull falls very early and the ride was very cold. Once there Dusty rounded up 2 bass on a shakey head worm. Then we heard 2 differnt gobblers. The first gobbler came in so quick that he caught us out of position not 40 yards from the boat. He got spooked and got across the bottom safely despite Dusty tooking  a pot shot at him 100 yards away offhand with his .22 hornet. We docked the boat and chased another but he only answered twice before he shut up. Given the 30 degree low temps the night before and high skies we decided to go fish deeper water with crankbaits. From 11 till 12:30 with a stiff wind behind us we caught 5 fish all good solid keeper fish, of those 4 we had two 2 pound + fish and the 4.1 pound fish.  5 of our 8 fish came off of LC cranks with the remaining 3 coming off of shakey head worms.  Had we bagged the gobbler it would have been one remarkable day.

Back to Bluestone - April 24th

 On a quiet cool Saturday morning Brad & I fished the stone. We tried shallow all morning with Brad catching on a jig. After finishing at Bull Falls we talked to a guy on another boat who said ever since the temps dropped the bite died. With that in mind we head to the pit bank to try deeper water, and sure enough they were hitting in deeper water a little bit. I caugh 5 off of LC cranks and jerkbaits and lost 2 more. We only fished from 7 till noon before wrapping up.

Ivy Hill Good Byes - April 23rd

- First fish of the last day on a spinnerbait from Campground Cove @ Ivy Hill

  With some cloud cover and an increasing number of boats on the lake as the weekend nears we fished the covers around the Ivy Hill launch ramp.  We spent from 7 till 1pm in the campground coves.Then from 1 till 3:30 we fished the coves ont he other side of the lauch ramp past the public beach. We caught fish on spinnerbaits, flukes and mostly senkos. At 4pm we packed up and headed north back to Hinton with another year in the books.


- through 6 days of fishing Joe and I boated 176 total fish of with ~ 144 were bass the largest being 3.6 pounds. We fished ~ 64 hours each for a weekly total of 128 total man hours fished this week. This gave us an average of  1.41 fish per hour and 1.125 bass per hour. We faced lower than usual water levels at 302 with the normal being 304 or 305. We found good bites on post front bluebird conditions in deeper main lake riprap. The launch pass was great and staying in a house vs. a hotel was much better, cheaper, and funner. All in all I already cannot wait to go back next year.

Clear Blues Again - April 22nd

- Bass in the trash off main lake pockets

- More riprap bass

- Buggs Island sunset
  We tried Grassy again but with high skies, bright sun, and dropping water our Senko bite had died completely. We stayed on Grassy catching some gills and another pickerel early before heading out to try the deeper water of the main lake. At 11am Joe drove the truck to the house and I met him there with the boat at the dock. We had much better success on the main lake. We even caught some good fish on Senkos in the marina cove. We ended up with 21 bass and 26 bluegills. The main lake bite does give you a hedge agains adverse conditions in the shallow water creek arms. We saw a lot people fishing points the last few days especially today  but we didn't figure out what they were doing until getting home. They were throwing rattle traps on the creeks secondary points. In our time in Rudds we tried this with shakey heads, carolina rigs, and even jigs. But the key was search bait rattle traps and crankbaits.

Senko De Mayo - April 21st

- Morning Sunrise on Grassy Creek

  Joe and I headed back to give the shallow water in Grassy a try with cloud cover and incoming rain. The early fishing was again quite slow. I caught 3 bass on a SOB Lures Pearl spinnerbait early, but that was it. About 10:30 I threw out a Senko and BAM! Then another, another and another. They were eating Senko's in the coves on the outside of the tree lines anywhere their was a log laying down in the water. We got on  this really nice pattern from 11am till 5 catching 30 total bass in the 0.5 to 2.5 pound range and missing at least that many more. 27 of those bass came off of Senkos rigged texas with no weight. Finally about 6pm the thunderstorms started to come in to close and we had to go. I don't know what a Senko imitates but I know that fish will eat em up in stained warm spring water.

Main Lake on Fire Day 4 - April 20th

Starting off on the Main lake riprap Joe's first fish of the day was this piggie, caught on a white soft plastic swim bait jigged over the riprap. This was the first of a 42 bass day. We caught fish on cranks and spinners off the main lake riprap all day long.

                              -4 pound drum caught on a shakey head worm. A nice bonus fish.

                               - a solid 3 lbs. bass off the riprap who ate the LC CB Flat

                               - Half mile main lake riprap offers a great wind break

Rudds Creek/Main Lake Day 3 - April 19th

  Sunrise after another cold night followed by high skies on Rudds creek. We fished from 7am till 3pm all over Rudds creek. I caught a chain pickerel and lost 2 large bass, while Joe caught 3 bass. We even ran into Panhandle Branch/Peckerwood Branch. Joe also hooked an lost another Chain Pickerel.  After 3pm we decided to head out to deeper water and fish some riprap since shallow wasn't working.

 We launched from Occeenochee State Park and started working the deeper 15 to 18 foot water with deep cranks. The 3 bridges provide about 6 miles of quality riprap. Along with the riprap they also have shallow corner / trash bays.  In the shallow corners we used spinnerbaits to catch fish around the stranded wood. Between 4pm and 8pm we caught 20 total bass, lost many more, and had several more hits. The deeper bass were not affected by the colder temps. Now finally we were on to something and had a plan going into tommorow.

Day 2 Grassy Creek - April 18th

                          -Catfish on a chatterbait

        Overnight & on cue a little cold front pushed in leading to bluebird skies and a tough bite. We fished Grassy creek. I caught 9 and Joe caught 7. Kaleb caught the big fish of the day at 4.5lbs. Way to go Kaleb.  Fishing shallow was slow and tough. Our fish came off of spinnerbaits, flukes, & chatterbaits.  In other news Joe did literally whistle up a horny gobbler and we got a great look at a magestic bald eagle not more than 20 yards away.                       

Buggs Island Day 1 - April 17th

After leaving Hinton @ 7:30, driving to Clarksville, VA, unloading, going to get launch passes, getting groceries, we finally made it to the water at 4pm. We headed out to Bluestone creek. It was windy, sunny, with 70 degree water temps. Fishing was fairly slow as you might expect after a busy fishing weekend. Greg & Kaleb fished Bluestone Creek as well as Joe @ myself. Joe and I each caugh 4 each. I caught 2 on a white chatterbait and 2 on white flukes. Joe also caught a white bass and I caught a 15 inch crappie.

                                  -Crappie caught on a white chatterbait off of Goodell Creek

                                   -Joe's first white bass.

Mixed Bag - April 16th

 The day before I head to Buggs Island for a week of bass fishing I hit the Greenbrier below the house for half hour. I caught 8 fish on a brown in line elite spinner. The fish I caught were in very shallow moving water. Some were extremely shallow, a good sign that spring fishing is really starting to take off. I caught 2 fall fish, 3 redeyes, and 3 smallies. All the fish were small, another sign that spring frenzy fishing is about to take off.

Tax Day - April 15th

Dad and I fished the lake from 10am till 1:30. I caught 2 largemoth on a Zoom mag shakey worm. But other than that nothin. We were up against the dreaded bluebird skies and bright sun. I fished below the house that evening right at dark and caught 2 smallmouth on a white G-tail at the bottom end of the shoals.

Three Little Bass - April 14th

 Fished below the house for about an hour and a half. Caught 2 little smallmouth on an in-line spinner up really shallow, which is a first for this year. I caught another smallie in the 10 inch range on a Cabin Creek Spider jig.  

Early Season Success @ Shanklin's Ferry - April 10th

                               -Brad's 4.0 lbs. 20 inch monster. The first fish for with his new rod.

                                - This smallie is about to be set free to fight another day.

-This fish was my biggest of this day at 3.9lbs. on the digital scales.

                                 - Canadian goose eggs. Eggs benedict anyone?

                               - Colorful spring flowers on the river bottom after a long colorless winter.

                                -3.5lbs ~ 18inch smallie caught off the rock ledge we are standing on.

                                - the last of my 3 fish for the day. This one weighs 2.5lbs. and has ruffled fins.

Stats: Fished from 7am to 3pm. Air temps ranged from 32 to 68 degrees. Water was still very cold ~ high 50's. Fish wouldn't chase at all. We caught all fish on a jig-n-pig. Water was 3 feet or so above normal and stained with visibility less than 2 feet. Bluebird skies with bright sun all day. All fish were caught in complete slack water in depths of >3 feet. I had 4 hits caught 3 and Brad had 2 hits and caught 1. The fishing is still slow but the catches are well worth the time. It kinda feels like big game hunting right now.

Slow Learning Redeye - April 10th

Went below the house and fished the Greenbier River for an hour or so today. I tried  to get them chasing a spinnerbait, but they weren't having it. I switche to a black and blue jig-n-pig. I worked my way up and down the bank. Then I started flipping a downed tree. I got a hit and missed it, threw back in, missed again. On the third try I got him.  An average sized redeye. I released him and within seconds the same redeye ran out from the log and ate the jig again.

Bass on a Rock Ledge Part 2 - April 6th

 -6:15 alarm clock goes off.
-6:30 arrived at pit only to get my feet covered in mudd from last nights rain. In order to keep from screwing up my boat carpet had had to fish barefooted. Luckily it's warm
- 6:45 am launched the boat minus one non showing fishing partner.
-7:00 thought of what Dad always says and got he net out and ready just in case.
- 8:30 missed a bite on shakey head mag worm.
- 9:30 hooked and lost  a fish (my only hookup in first 3 hours of fishing the main lake). Despite being frustrated I decided to drive thru the asteroid field of floating debris and wood to Bull falls and give the New river a try since the main lake was so slow on this day.
-10:30 caught 2 keepers(a smallie & a bucket mouth) around big rock structure on a black & blue jig-n-pig in the high stained water of the New River.
-11:15 arrived at the ledge I really had in mind to fish.
-11:30 caught a 4lbs. 8oz. 20 inch. smallmouth on same jig-n-pig. I was only able to get this fish in because I had the net out ahead of time like Dad is always fussing about. Turns out preparion does pay big dividends.
-12:00 headed back after talking to Brown. Brown would fish from 10am till 5pm and catch a 6 lbs. mudcat on a jig-n-pig.
-12:30 load the boat
-12:45 arrive back at home 3 more fish the richer. Despite a slow bite today the one stud bass made it worth the effort.

Summer Pool on Bluestone - April 5th

Todd & I fished from 7am till noon. Water temps ranged from 52 to 56 degrees. A lake had come up to summer pool but it was pretty stained up. I caught 6 fish, 4 short fish and the two in the pics. I caught 4 on shakey worms and the other two on a jerkbait. The wind got crazy at noon so we left a little early.

Easter Sunday Fishing - April 4th

On a perfect weather Easter Sunday all four of us headed up to the lake to bank fish and throw some rocks. We rounded up this crappie, got a little muddy and threw some rocks in the lake. The lake was on it's way up from to summer pool. It may be up to summer pool by tommorow if not sooner.                             

April's Fools - April 1st

Joe & I fished Moomaw on under bluebird skies  wtih temps int he 80's. The water temp started at 47 and maxed out at 53 degrees. There were several boats fishing on the lake but they were all moving often, a sure sign that nobody is scoring fish. I had 2 hits and caugth one smallie. Joe had one hit and a miss. It was a terrible slow day. We tried hard to find fish, but we had no success. I think that even though the surface water temp is in the 50's, further down it's still cold making fish sluggish.