Frosty Saturday Morning - December 5th, 2015

That is check in #3391200450031 for all you DNR types.

A fun weekend at Lowell's deer camp, a cold frost morning followed by a warm Saturday all ending in some deer meet in the freezer. It was a fun time spent at a beautiful place with great friends. A good time was had by all, except the deer.

Opening Day WV Rifle Season - November 23rd, 2015

I hunted from daylight until 11am on opening day of WV rifle season. I saw 2 does and a button buck. The weather was clear and cold. I did not hear a large number of shots. I declined to shoot any of the does at this time. I will wait till a little later in the year.

I had a perfect  wind direction from my stand.

Cold November Rain - November 7th, 2015

Brad and I floated from the dam to advance beach from 8am to 11am in the cold rain today. The water was up and running around 4 gates. We caught 8 bass each with no big ones. I missed a couple of bites that I suspect may have been better fish. The water temp was right at 60 degrees up a tick from the week before. We averaged a fish every 23 minutes per angler. G tails and square bills were the order of the day.

Low Tide - September 19th, 2015

Greg and I floated from the dam to the dog 1 takeout on this September morning. The water was super clear and very low (only 0.7 gate open on Bluestone Dam). The fish were spooky and hard to come by. I landed 8 and Greg 15 between 7:15am and 11:15am. Most of our fish came from fluke and smoke with chart gitzit g tail. I saw a surprising number of other people fishing for this time of the year. My biggest fish was 15"and was my first fish of the day. There were some fish starting to bust on shad below the spill way. We averaged only 3.8 fish per hour or one fish per angler every 15.6 minutes. My biggest three bass were 36.75 inches.

Sunday Afternoon Kayak Float - August 30th, 2015

Greg Davis, Randy, Brad and I floated from the dam to first takeout from 4:30 to 7:30pm. There was some cloud cover and the water was very low and gin clear. Flukes seemed to be producing the best. Randy lead the way with 24 using a nose hooked fluke jr. method. I had 18 with EWG hook on a zoom super fluke ( I was outta Skipgap hooks. Gotta order some more.) Brad had 14 and Greg had a dozen mostly on a KVD 1.0 squarebill. The fishing bite got better the closer to dark it got. We ended up with 68 fish total in ~12 man hours of fishing. We averaged a fish every 10.8minutes per angler, which is a little better than trips past lately.

Birthday Float Trip - August 15th, 2015

On the afternoon of my 37th birthday Nahodil, Brad, Jamie, Randy, and Greg all floated from the dam to the first takeout from 5:30 to 8:30pm. The water was low and there were a lot of people on the river even for a warm Saturday afternoon. The water was very clear and the fishing started off kinda slow but as the sun lowered and the shadows got longer the bite picked up. Flukes were the order of the day. I lost a really nice fish on a fluke above the first bridge. Brad and I crossed over to the "Newbrier" side and did really well. I ended up with 14, Brad had 18, Nahodil landed 12, Jamie had 7, Greg got 5, and I am not sure how many Randy caught, but I saw him catch several. My biggest fish was 14.5 inches and my best 3 bass were 38.5 inches. We  landed in excess of 60 fish as a group and averaged somewhere around a fish every 18 minutes per angler. The high pressure both from other boaters, waders, and bank fishermen may have slowed us down a hair. High skies and heat made for a slower bite in the early going.

Back in the Sadle....August 9th, 2015

Brad and I floated from the dam to the first takeout between 6:30 and 9:30 on this overcast morning. It was my first float in about 5 weeks with summer vacation, softball season and some golf.  We landed 30 total bass getting an even 15 each. We averaged a bass every 12 minutes. My biggest was 16 inches and my best 3 bass were 41 inches. It was a quiet, overcast morning ideal for bass with very little other pressure. All of our bass came off of white gitzit g tails.

Overcast Saturday Morning on the New - July 11th, 2015

Jack, Brad and I floated from the dam to the first takeout on an overcast day with higher than normal water for July due to the everyday rain. The fishing started off slow but when the fish came they came in small bunches. I landed 13, Brad 9 and Jack 8 in 3 hours of fishing. We averaged a fish every 20.2 minutes as a group. The largest fish didn't break 14 inches. It was a nice cool summer morning and the rain kept the bulk of the crowd at home on this Saturday morning.                                         

 

 

Sunday Afternoon Bluegills - July 5th, 2015

Aleshia and I took the girls out on bluestone lake for a couple hours of bluegill fishing before a storm ran us off the lake. Avery and Annalyn both caught some fish before the rain shortened this outing.

Rainy Fourth of July - July 4th, 2015

Brad and I floated from the dam to the first takeout down Southside on this rainy fourth of July. The crowd was lower than usual for a major holiday weekend. We ended up with 12 bass each in a little over three hours of fishing. My best 3 bass were 38 inches. We were catching a fish about every 19 minutes. White g tails seemed to work best on this day. I tried a fluke some and missed a large bass on and caught a couple.

Fishing with the Men of the State Road Part 3 - June 27th, 2015

Having finished 2nd and 3rd before Charlie and I finally got this one right and won 1st and took big fish home as well with a 3.79lbs largemouth. The lake fished tough with several boats not catching a single bass. Jason Dickenson's boat caught as many catfish as bass on crank baits. We fished through heavy rains early. There are so many shad balls on the lake right now it is hard to imagine a bass eating plastic lures with that much food available. It was a close fun get together and everybody had a good time.

Hot and Sunny Afternon Float Trip - June 22nd, 2015

On a day when the summer afternoon sun could not be any brighter or hotter Greg Davis, Nahodil, Brad, Jamie and I floated from the park to the first takeout down Southside between 5:30 and dark. The bite was a little slower but the fish we caught all seemed to be 10 to 16 inches. The water was up compared to recent low water trips due to storm run off and had some stain to it. G tails were catching fish today but the clear winning bait was New River Custom crank square bills. I caught a few on flukes but they turned out to be a bigger waste of fishing minutes than producers of fish on this day. Greg ended up with 17, Brad 14, I had 12, Jamie 4, and Greg D. 4 or 5. I measured my time of the water today and I was catching a bass every 18.8 minutes, which is a little slower rate than usual for this time of year on the New river. I have got to put a little more time into throwing square bills because their production was big especially for Nahodil on this day. The big fish of the day was Nahodil's 16.5" smallie seen in the above picture.

BLOGSPOT POST #500.....Brooks Falls to Sandstone Falls Before the Storm - June 16th, 2015

Greg, Jamie, and I fished from Brooks Falls to Sandstone falls after work right before a big thunderstorm today. The first part of the float was real productive but the lower part which is mostly flat water was difficult due to high winds from the storm passing around us. I landed 13, Greg 12 and Jamie had 6. The fish all come out of moving water. The hot days and nights has placed and increase premium on dissolved oxygen in the water. All my fish also came off a g tail. The shoals above the first big island below Brooks falls are outstanding. This area has great winter and fall potential. It is a short float that if you have no wind can easily be done in a 3 hour time span.

Sandstone Falls warning sign

My First Kayak Tournament - June 13th, 2015

Joe and I fished our first Mountain State Kayak Anglers Bass tournament today. The day started off kinda rough. On my way to registration I hit a deer with my Tundra not even a mile from my house at 5am. Not a good way to start the day. My truck was still drivable so I kept on going.
 The format that MSKA uses is you best 3 fish, measured in length, on one body of water, between 7am and 3pm. The water on the Greenbrier river today was very low and gin clear. USGS was only running in 7 to 8% of mean. Joe and I chose to fish the Pence Springs to Talcott section. There were 82 angler fishing in this event from above Caldwell all the way to Hinton on various floats. I started off slow, but we were catching a lot of small fish. It honestly felt like we were catching the same 10 inch fish over and over. On the day Joe and I landed 52 total fish pretty much all of which met the 8 inch minimum requirement, however we were struggling to upgrade or cull our best 3. Finally below the "narrows falls" I got a 13 inch to go with a couple 12 inch fish I already had. Then in Lowell's magic bank fishing honey hole I landed a 17.5 inch that when I caught had 3 other 15 plus inch fish with it. I fished a fluke all day. Joe stayed deeper with tubes fort he most part Gitzit tournament tubes. My bigger fish came off of YUM Houdini Shad which have a bigger wider profile. I fished the 5 inch soft plastic jerk on 4/0 or 5/0 all day trying to draw the bigger bite. I ended up with finishing 5th out of 82 anglers. I won $100 and a trophy. It was sort of a tough day out in the heat and trying not to spook fish in low clear water. But we had fun and will most likely fish another MSKA event. They are run by good folks and have a nice format and layout for their tour. Really appreciate all the work they do behind the scenes to set it up and make it happen in order so everybody can show up and fish.

Sunday Morning Float - June 7th, 2015

Brad and I floated from the two bridges down to the first take out from down Southside between 5:30am and 8:30am. I started off catching a quick flurry of bass on a crawfish colored g tail then settled into a steady bite a lemon shad Zoom Super Fluke in pocket water in and around eddies. I ended up with 15 bass all descent sized on this overcast morning and Brad landed 13 all on g tails. This morning of dark overcast with fish chasing was a completed contrast to yesterday.                                                                                                                             

Half Time Adjustments - June 6th, 2015

Brad, Joe and I floated from Narrows, VA to Glenn Lynn, VA from 7am to 11am. The water was  clear and the sky was blue and deep. Going into today I had in my mind that I could catch fish good on a fluke as I had the week before, but that was not happening for me today. I threw and threw the fluke but very few chased. Joe started off throwing a tube in deeper water and he got on the fish right away. After an hour and a half when I still had a dog color zero fish and Joe had ten I wised up and put on a tube. I immediately caught three bass on five casts. Brad fish a g tail the entire trip and he ended up with 11 bass the musky seen in the pic. Joe landed 19 all on tubes and most in the middle of the river. I ended up with 10 after changing my plan half with through this 5 mile float along the New. It was a bright hot day with no clouds and what felt like beach weather and the bass just did not want to  chase today.