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.                                                                                                                              

Narrow's to Glenn Lynn with SWVKA - May 30th, 2015

This fellow was not a fan of getting measured...decided to make this an airborne activity.

Greg, Joe and I floated from Narrow, VA to Glenn Lynn with 3 other member of the SWVKA between 7am and noon. The water was down a little and clear. I had never floated this section of the New before, but I really liked how it sets up and will definitely be back soon. There is tons of deep structure and cover. Joe landed 26, Greg 21, and I had 19. As a group we landed well over 100 smallmouth. The biggest was only 15 inches. Most fish were between 10 and 13inches. Jigs, tubes and flukes accounted for most all bass caught. I caught all but one of my fish on a Zoom super fluke worked over deep cover and they seemed to hit it most often when you killed it near ledges, drops offs, pocket water or isolated rock bars.