2nd Annual Stonewall Trip- April 29th

Dad and I left Hinton at 5am and headed to Stonewall. We got to the lake around 8am. While launching the boat out of Vandalia Bay ramp I saw a 3lbs+ LMB chasing a bluegill around riprap. We fished the riprap and low end of Vandalia Bay out with flukes and spinner baits. I caught my best and only solid keeper fish of the day quickly at 8:30am on a Strike King P+ spinnerbait. It was a 19 inch LMB caught off some grass clusters in less than a foot of water. I saw the fish come up and grab the spinnerbait and she hit hard. We then fished the main coves around Vandialia with out much results. Dad caught a walleye about 15 inches long oddly enough on a spinnerbait in 25 foot of water. I caught a crappie and later 2 smaller bass on a dropshot shad shaped worm and one more on the same spinnerbait. We fished Glady fork, Skin Creek, and around the state park riprap. We caught some smaller bass off the riprap around the park off of pointers but other than that it was a pretty slow bite. The water was 65 degrees and it stayed calm and overcast all day, ideal fishing conditions. We fished until 5pm and ended up boating 16 total fish including the 1st LMB, several other non-keeper LMB's, 3 crappies, 2 bluegills, and a walleye. The lake looked great and the fishing pressure was near zero but the fish seemed to be in a negative mood. With the water around 65 to 68 degrees they may be thinking about spawning and just be a little harder to capture right now. I have only fished Stonewall twice so I really havn't found any hotspots or places I have some confidence in. On our way back to the launch ramp we saw the world's largest pontoon boat in front of the lodge, I'm thinking about selling my boat and buying this one so I can take 250 of my closest friends fishing, at the same time.

Can't Buy a Fish on the Greenbrier - APRIL 25TH

Joe and I decided to give the Greenbrier River a go on a warm April Saturday morning. The sun was out, there was no wind, and the water was high and fairly clear. But despite fishing fast, slow, tubes, cranks, G-tails, in line spinners, spinnerbaits, we couldn't buy a fish. We fished from the big rock to Tug creek and only caught 9 fish between 7am and 12pm. Of the fish we did catch they were all tiny. It seems the river at least for us just hasn't completely fired up yet. We had a good time trying anyway though.

April 23 From Cold to Piping Hot

We went back to Grassy and fished the entire lower creek arm out. We were running to every cove on the GPS that didn't already have a boat in it. We fished all the way down to the low water bridge at Jonathon's creek in North Carolina. By now the weekend boaters and tournament prefishing was really picking up. The peace of mid-week was starting to erode away even though it was only Thursday. We started out in bibs, sweat shirts, along with coats and ended up in flip flops, shorts, while getting sunburned. The wind was still strong but not as strong as the the day before. We fished from 7am until 5pm. From daylight until noon Greg and I caught 20 bass and from 12pm until 5pm we caught 10 more, but we each caught a bigger fish around 3lbs. It was a pretty good day. Ball and Todd ended up catching 15 or so before heading in around 2pm. The sun really put a hurting on us that day. I went out that evening with Brian and Todd on Bluestone creek for a couple of hours and we couldn't buy a bite. Todd caught a white bass and a crappie and Brain caught a white bass. I got one bite, missed it and I don't think it was a bass.
I don't know if I will ever go back to Buggs Island but if I do I will stock up spinnerbaits beforehand, all the tackle shops down there were about sold out. I also won't take as many poles, 3 or 4 will work but I really don't need 10 poles. As far as which week you should go it's really a crappshoot. The best thing would be to read the message boards, look at the extended forecast and pick a week around the 1st of April. It's a big lake that gets some big pressure on the weekends especially and it has a lot of really quality fish. The average fish is 1 to 2 lbs. but it's not easy fishing. You have to really work for them and it can be down right tough fishing.

April 22nd Windy Day on Grassy Creek

We didn't feel like playing hide and go seek with the fish on some creek arm that we had yet to fish, so we all headed back to Grassy Creek. By now the word was out that the fish were moving up on Grassy and the boat pressure was starting to ramp up. We fished from 7am until 4pm in 20 to 30 mph winds. The only thing that saved us was that we figured out if you fish the coves that face north you get a wind break. We ran almost into North Carolina from Grassy creek hitting coves that faced north. The main creek arm was pretty rough but the coves with wind break weren't bad. I used the GPS on my Humminbird to find coves on down the lake that had the right layout. The bite was descent all on spinnerbaits and flukes. I tried a soft swim bait but just don't have confidence in it yet. I did start to really like the YUM Houdini shad in 5 inch with a 5/0 skip gap hook. Also tried the parasite clips with mixed results. My flukes still ran up my line some but not as bad on strikes. The skip gap hook seemed to do about as well and they kept the fluke running straight. Greg caught 14 fish, I caught 11 bass + 2 crappies, while Brian and Todd combined for 22 total bass. I caught 2 good sized bass and Greg caught 1 below the hotel that evening. Just like deer camp there's always some deer hanging around camp, always.

April 20th Rudds Creek then Back to Grassy

We headed out to Rudd Creek to see if our pattern was solid enough to travel. We had the dreaded blue bird skies with no wind that seems give largemough lock jaw at Buggs Island. It was some tough fishing. I caught a couple keepers on a spinnerbait early but despite fishing some good places where we had caught fish before we really struggled to get bit. We fished until noon and only caught 9 fish between us. The fish on Rudd's were doing something a little differnt. Ball and Todd did a little better landing 15 fish and one really nice fish by fishing out closer to the main lake instead of creek arms.
That afternoon we went back to Grassy and started catching a few more fish, but it wasn't long before we got heavy rain and we had to go dock the boat and sit in the truck whle it moved through. Greg ended up catching 5 and I caught 7. I caught one smallmouth bass, which until then I didn't even know were in Kerr.

April 20th Beaver Pond and Longwood Campground

Greg and I headed out from the hotel at 6am. We faced heavy rain early, then scorching sun, followed by high wind, and then more rain. We fished until 4pm before all the exposure to the elements sent us packing. The bite was good though and we started to find a pattern. The fish weren't super shallow in the backs of coves and they weren't on points out deep, but they were on buck brush and other cover in shallow coves about half way back. They were hitting flukes and white spinnerbaits fished through cover. Greg caught 17 all largemouths including 2 fish in the 3 to 4 lbs. 20 inch range. I caught 18 all largemouths mostly fish between 1 and 2 lbs. Most of our fish came from close to the launch ramp, the coves around Longwood campground and the going into the Beaver Pond. Despite the rough conditions we endured, established a pattern, and caught some fish. Brian had a banner day catching 16 including one 4lbs fish while Todd had the day from hell only landing 4 fish.

April 19th Sunday at Bluestone Creek (Buggs Island)

Ball, Todd, Greg, and me headed out to Bluestone Creek on John H. Kerr Reservoir from the Lake Hotel at daylight. Greg and I were the first bass boat to hit the launch ramp. It was a real pretty still, slightly overcast morning. The water was 62 degrees and as always down there stained around 302 to 305 degrees. The high temps reached around 72 degrees. We fished from 6:30am till 5:00pm. We caught some on our grassy point, some off our timbered point, and some in a couple coves. It was hard to tell if the fish were moving up to spawn, spawning or had already spawned. The fish we caught besides being scattered didn't look like they had spawned or were spawning yet they were just really hard to pattern. Greg ended up catching 10 LMBs, I caught 7 bass + 1 stripper + a white bass and a bluegill. Brian and Todd had a better day fishing off of Brian's boat. They caught 26 fish total including ~ 10 stripers. Greg caught all of our fish on a white fluke, white premiere plus spinner baits, and I caught on a LC crank in fall crawl color.

Warm Sunshine April 16th

On a sunny day where the water temps went from 50 all the way up to 55 degrees on Bluestone Dad & I worked the ususal places with a lot of early luck. The fish were still sluggish on the initial hit but they fought well once hooked. We couldn't get fish to eat a jig or be enticed by the wide wobble of a crank bait. They were feeding pretty good on shad and they still liked the tight wobble of my jerkbaits. I caught 11 off of the pit bank in the 1st hour and then went on to catch 20 bass and a freakishly big shad that I accidentally snagged in the back. Of the 20 bass I caught only 3 were less than 10 inches, all the rest were 10 to 15 inches. At one point I caught 3 big spots over 14 inches on 4 casts. We also saw at least 12 huge fox squrriels and a couple deer. All in all it was a fine day.

Brad's Greenbrier Musky April 11th

On a day not fit for fishing, Brad & I loaded up in his boat and went the Big Rock on the Greenbrier River. It was cloudy, windy, misting rain, with a 50 degree high. The river was clear but way up. Brad's 6 Horse engine shoved us around nicely. I caught a smallie on a Stanley Wedge spinnerbait, along with 3 other smallies on a in-line Elite Spinner baits. Brad caught a nice musky on an in-line spinner he made himself and another nice sized smallie on the same lure. His musky came from right above the mouth of Big Creek and was a hell of a fight. We only had a very small dip net and I had a hard time getting a net on him. The fish seemed to be holding very tight to cover and the lure had to be put right in their face before they would give chase. I tried jerkbaits but found no takers. I also saw another musky before Brad caught his. We fished from 8 till 12:30am before we called it a day. We totaled 5 bass and a musky.

Good Friday April 10th

Greg, Dad, & I took a run at Bluetone. We started at around 8am and fished until 4pm. We tried a little of every thing jerkbaits, jigs, cranks, spinner baits. Greg caught a couple on a jig and one on a spinnerbiat but other than that everything came off of jerkbaits. I caught 13 bass and 3 bluegills, all the bass were less than a pound. And Greg caught 5 bass. Dad didn't score any fish on this day. We fished through wind, rain, and falling temps. We caught some fish that were a litte better than the pics show but they weren't that great and we got lazy about taking pics. We ran to Bull Falls around one and I would have bet money that we would catch fish up there, however had I took that bet I would have lost. The water at Bull Falls was crystal clear and we never got some much as a bite or a chaser in an hour fishing. We went back to the main lake were the water was a little stained and went back to catching fish. Despite the changing weather we still boated 18 bass, even if none of them were big. All my fish came off the magic jerkbait.
After we got home about 4:30 I took Avery down to the Greenbrier river to play and fish a little. I threw a Stanley wedge quarter ounce spinner bait for about 30 minutes. I had one smallie chase it back to the bank and I caught one that was 17 inhches long and about 2.5 lbs. I took a pic with my camera but I have yet to figure out how to post it onto the web from my camera yet. It was the second biggest bass I have caught so far this year. Tommorow Brad and I are going to take his boat and fish the Greenbrier to see if we can't round up some descent sized smallies. A litte change of pace will be nice.

Short Day April 6th

Dad & I caught 5 fish, 4 bass + 1 crappie, in an hour and a half of fishing before the wind picked up, rain started, and a cold front started pushing through. 2 came off the pit bank and 3 up the left side. The biggest was a 15 inch smallie. I caught mine off the magic jerkbait and Dad caught his off of a firetiger Bagley Killer B.

Second Chance Musky April 2nd

Dad and I fished Bluestone on a cool overcast April day. We fished for 9 hour starting at 8am. The water was 51 degrees all day and the air temps stayed in the 50's for most of the day. I started off below the frige rock with a misty shad LC and had a hard time getting bit. For the first hour I only caught on little spotted bass. Below the fridge rock I caught none, we crossed over below Bertha and fished up. I hooked a big musky that got off, mostly because I thought I was hung and didn't get a good hookset. He was the strongest, fastest fighting fish I have ever had a hold of. But he got off in the first 10 seconds. Then the bite slowed again so I switched to this crazy purple, white, and pink color LC that I had bought out of the bargin bin at H & S sporting goods. My little pink and purple started producing big time. In the next 6 hours I caught 2 bluegills, 23 bass of mixed subspecies, and a musky. The musky was awesome. He was ~30 inches and about 6lbs. I was working that tight wobbling jerk bait that fish crave in colder water and POW! I felt a surge and set the hook, then I saw the flash. My eyes got big and I started yelling Musky at Dad. He grabbed the net up only to see that it had an old soccer ball I had picked up in it. I wrestled with the fish and while he wrestled with the soccor ball. The musky fought hard and got wrapped up in the big engine prop and off again luckily without getting off the hook. Dad put a quick net swipe on him. We took a couple pics and threw him back. We fished on for another couple hours but our day was made and it was nearly a double musky day. Greg and caught one earlier int he week and Todd had lost one a day or so later, so going into today we knew the muskies were on the prowl. Musky is one of the few species we had yet to boat in the 2 years since we had bought our boat. Dad had hooked 2 but they got off as the so often do. Of the 23 bass I caught 12 or so were good sized and the rest were small fryes.

Bassin on Bluestone March 28th

Brad & I started out bass fishing on Bluestone Lake on an overcast morning with no wind and water temps in the 47 to 49 degree range. The lake was still at winter pool and it had rained hard and heavy the day before so the water was coming up quite a bit. Place on the lake had some stain and others where still pretty clear. Several people were crappie fishing but I saw only one other boat bass fishing. I started off throwing a Lucky Craft Pointer below the fridge rock. I caught 2 largemouths, a smallmouth, and a spot on the first pass. All good fish 12 inches plus and the smallmouth was 15 inches long. On the second pass Brad put on a larger Pointer and we refished the same stretch. I caught 2 more good sized largemouth on the second pass. We then moved across and cranked the cliffs on the otherside. I caught one more largemouth right at the begining of the cliffs as you go up the river. We then refished the fridge rock stretch for a third time. Brad tried some yo-zuri minnows and 2 other pointers but for whatever reason they only wanted the size and color I had, so for an experiment we traded rods and he tried fishing the magic pointer. Sure enough on that pass he caught 2 nice largemouths and I caught none. I tried a senko and a fluke some but it's still to early for those just yet. We then tried fishing the side across from us up toward Bertha campground. Within the first few minutes I got a big bite and started yelling for Brad to "get the net". After a great fight I had a 20 inch 4.5lbs Largemouth. I was starting to value that little pointer, which was actually my Dad's, a lot more with every cast. We took some pics and measurements and then set him free to fight again another day. We caught several more 12 to 14 inches fish up that side. Brad even caught 2 on a black and blue moderately sized jig and pig following up the pointer. We ended up catching 12 and 4 fish each in 5 hours of fishing. By 1pm the wind picked up, rain started, and the bite completely stopped.

The Runt Factory- March 24th

I met up with Jason Brown in Beckley and we headed up to prefish Sutton Lake. We took Jason's boat he had a Bass Tournament on the following Saturday that he needed to practice for. When we got there the lake had some stain at the launch ramp, the water was 51 degrees and at a level less that normal winter pool. Much of the lake was too shallow to access. We caught a spot and a largemouth right off on bandit crankbaits around wood. Then we fished with everything we had for 4 hours without a bite. We tried spinnerbaits, jigs, jerkbiats, flukes, dropshot worms, around rock, wood, ledges, shallow points, brige pillars and every where else in the lake that was wet and we got nothing. The upper end of the lake was stained and 51 to 57 degrees and the lower end of the lake was clear and 46 to 47 degrees. In the lower end of the lake both Holly River and The Elk river, famously cold trout waters come together. The fish activity in the lower end of the lake was off the charts higher than the upper end due to the warmer water. Finally about 2pm we ran back to the lower and warmer end of the lake and Jason put on a Lucky Craft Pointer 65 in Tennessee Shad color and preceded caught 2 spots around the mouth of a cove in 3 casts. I immediately followed suit and swithced to a Lucky Craft 65 pointer in a Aurora shad and caught 2 more as well. After that we got on a pattern and went on to catch 14 more fish all between 10 and 12 inches. One of Jason's friends had caught a 6lbs 11oz. largemouth on Sutton a week or so prior, so the runts we were catching weren't what we had in mind. Although catching 8 and 6 smaller fish each isn't too bad for the month of March and it sure beats catching nothing which I have done on numerous occasions before. Both Jason and I lost 2 or so more fish we had hooked although nothing big. 14 fish in about 7 and 1/2 hours of fishing was the end result.

Crappie Fishing on Bluestone Part III

The three of us along with 5 dozen minnows headed out on the Bluestone above the intake marker for some crappie fishing. The water had warmed up to 53 degrees the sun was strong and the wind was only a breeze. We fell slowly into the same pattern as the last week. Yum beaver tails tipped with a minnow fished on the bottom in 16 to 20 feet of water. We started off slow but things picked up as the day went along. I ended up catching 10 crappie and a big blue gill, Dad caught 5 crappie, and Roger caught 21 crappie and 2 redeyes. You can tell from those numbers who the experienced crappie angler is! We had a good time even though a lot of our fish were some what smaller than our last trip and the bites we did get weren't as hard, but still a good outing for March. I talked to some other anglers who had caught a couple of bass and have heard some tails of some bigger fish being caught at other lakes in our area. With water temps in the 50 to 54 degree range it won't be a lot longer till bass of all types are thinking about moving up shallow and feeding before spawn.

What worked:-Yum Beaver tails tipped wtih a minnow fished on the bottom
- 50 degree water with 18 to 22 feet of depth
- A little breeze to help slow troll us thru the strike zone
- Deadstick or very little imparted action on the lure.

Not So Crappie Day- March 18th

Dad & I started out fishing for Crappies on Bluestone Lake with black and blue beaver tails tipped with minnows rigged on a dropshot double rig. It was cold and extremely foggy early and the fishing was really slow. We moved the boat a couple three times and Dad caught a really nice one (~15 inches)in front of the cliffs on the left only after the sun started to cut through the fog. We then went down the lake and picked up a couple three more smaller crappies but they were all on the bottom and spread out. The wind picked up for a while and we headed down to the dam and fished some deeper water with little luck. We picked up Roger about 2pm and headed back up the lake after catching a couple in front of the pit bank. When we started fishing the water temp was ~47 degrees, but once the sun warmed the surface temp to 50 degrees it was like you flipped a switch and the crappie bite was really on. We started catching fish very quickly and all the boats around us were doing the same. You would catch one after another. Roger caught 3 on 3 casts in about 30 seconds. I caught about a 16 inch channel cat on my drop shot double rig with beaver tails tipped with minnows. Jason Carr was across from us and he was catching a fish every other minute. Dad caught a blue gill, several smaller crappies, and a bigger crappie that I measured to be 16 inches long and 2+ lbs. Roger also caught a redeye that looked solid white. All the crappie we caught were white crappies that day. We ended up boating ~ 37 fish of 4 different species in 7 hours and 53 minutes of fishing. We had a good time, enjoyed a rare warm March day, and all caught some good fish. I learned a lot on this trip about how the Crappie game is played. My camera battery died. I took some pics with my cell phone but am still trying to figure out how to upload them to blogspot.com.

What worked:
- Black and Blue Yum Beaver tails with or without minnow
- 50 degree water surface temp and fishing 16 to 20 feet depth
- Kickin Crappie jig spray for Jason Carr
- Drop shot double rig with 3/8 ounce bottom weight
- Fishing near deadstick on the bottom vertically