Over the Century Mark - July 13th

Brad and I left for Claytor Lake at 5:30am with the goal of fishing until we each caught 100 fish or darkness set in. We used fly poles with foam bugs and ultralights with worms. Nine hours and 2 sunburns later we did it. We fished all over the lake and caught fish everywhere we stopped. I ended up with 108 the largest being an 18 inch and 2.35lbs. smallmouth that I caught off of my 3 wt. fly pole, it was the largest bass I have ever caught on a flypole. Brad ended up 103. We used flypoles for the first 50 and then switched to ultralights with nightcrawlers. I also caught a yellow perch, my 1st of the year. We caught 20+ or so small bass mixed in our 211 fish as well. We used clicker counters to keep an accurate count and didn't count any fish that didn't make it in the boat. It was a good day, it got a little hot ~ 90 degrees later in the day, but we accomplished what we set out to do. Claytor is pretty lake.

Flypoles and Bluegills - July 12th

After work on Sunday evening Brad and I went up to Bluestone and flyfished for bluegills for 2 hours. I caught 30 and Brad caught 25. We used yellow foam bugs. I tied 2 in a row and tried to up my odds but never doubled up. We fished the weedbeds below Bertha campground and right above the cliffs.

Fast Action Bluegills - July 8th

Brad and I fished with nightcrawlers and ulralights for the first 2 hours at Bluestone. We caught more fish on the sunny side than the shady side for some reason. Once we ran out of bait we switched over to flypoles and continued to wear the fish out. Between 5 and 8:30 I landed 61 fish and Brad caught 51. We caught all bluegils except a half dozen small bass and a couple redeyes. The best flies seemed to be topwater foam ants in yellow or orange color. The bluegills really like the topwater around the grass. The lake was really busy and somewhat crowded for a week day, lots of pleasure boaters. I forgot my camera again so now pictures, although we didn't catch anythign remarkably big anyway.

A Couple Hours on the Greenbrier

I went below the house for ~ an hour and a half or so. The water was low and clear and bites were had to come by. I cauth 3 small bass and lost 2 more. The fish in the river were in summer pattern and the afternoon on a hot day is not the time to fish.

Wading in the River FINALLY! - June 25th

In a day of fishing that I would just as soon forget Brad and I went wading below the dam on a hot and crowded afternoon with the intentions of catching lots of little smallies. The river has been unfishable for 6 straight weeks, and druing the the best time of the year the river no less. Needles to say I was lookin forward to getting to fish the New river for the 1st time in along while. I started off throwing a small 1/4th oz. chatterbait. I had one bite and he got off. I am just about to write off chatterbaits. I like the idea of them and it can't be much different than swimming a jig, but I never get bit on them. Then I went to switch to a Pinn's minnow and dropped in the current while trying to tie it on. The current started to carry it away and I went chasing after it. While in pursuit I fell and went completely under giveing the plug ample time to escape. What a great way to start the afternoon. Meanwhile Brad is pulling in fish after fish after fish with his homemade in-line elite spinners. I put an elite on and started missing and loosing fish left and right. Brad and I would throw to the same spot and he would catch one and I would either miss or lose one. By now I am really starting to get that this is just not my day and maybe I should just cut my loses and go home. But instead I pressed on in a severe state of irritation. I switched over to the old faithful river plug the Rebel Crawfish. Finally I started landing a few smallies, nothing big but at least things were starting to look up, right? Wrong 10 minutes later while in the absolute middle of the river while fighting a smallmouth the bail on my spinning reel broke. On that note I said %$#*^&$ and went home not 2 hours after we had started. I caught 12 and Brad caugth at least 25 or better. In the words of Tom Petty,"Some days are diamonds and some days are rocks".

More Mud - June 19th

Antoher sloppy day on Bluestone lake with 70 degree water, heavy stain and getting muddier, with overcast skies. Greg caught 8 most of them on a buzzbait. I caught 6 on spinnerbait and shakey head worm. Fish are post spawn and starting to spread out and fall into the summer pattern. The grass is not up yet at Bertha campground. By the time we left the lake was nearly unfishable, especially up river. As usual the best water conditions were down by the dam.

Avery's Bluegill Derby Day - June 16th

I headed up to Bluestone Lake @ 7am and bass fished with a shakey head worm until 10 am when Avery & Aleshia made come up to do some bluegill fishing. I caught 11 bass and 2 crappie on a shakey head worm. All avg. sized fish but I also missed atleast 6 other fish on the shakey head. Once Avery & Aleshia got there we started bluegill fishing with a worm and a bobber. I would cast the line and set the hook and Avery would reel it in. Avery caught 20 or so gills and a spotted bass. Aleshia also did some bluegill fishing she caught 25 bluegills, including some really nice sized ones. Everybody had fun, and Avery did great considerin she's only 2 and a half years old.

Pure Mud - JUNE 12TH

I got a new St. Croix Avid ultralight and was dying to try it out, so Brad and I headed up to Bluestone Lake only to find mud and debris floating everywhere. It was bad enough that the only fishing you could do was with live bait for catfish or bluegills. We ran up the river only to find that the water coming down from Claytor was even worse. The only place we could even catch bluegills was right up beside the dam where some of the mud and trash had not yet filtered down to. Brad caught ~ 25 gills and I caught 20 all medium to small sized. We gave up well before dark after having started only at 6pm so that we would not have to got throught all the floating trash in the dark. As bad a shape as the lake was it still was better than the Bluestone River, Greenbrier, or the New. We have had 23 inches in the month of June so far it is making local fishing all but impossible.

Mixed Bag - June 2nd

Brad & I did some mixed bag fishing on Bluestone lake on a scorcher of a day. We fished from 5pm till 8:30pm. We bluegill fished with nightcrawlers early and then bass fished the last hour or so. I caught the catfish on a nightcrawler with an ultralight and 4lbs. line. He broke the line right as Brad put the net on him. We caught many bluegills. I caught 32 total fish and 7 bass. Only 2 of the bass would have kept. Of the 2 that were better than 12inches one came off of a Senko and one came off of a Spinnerbait. Brad caught his bass off of a spinner he made himself. From what little I've seen it looks like bluegill fishing is going to be good this year like it was 2 years ago. There's something simply fun about catching lots of little fish on ultralight tackle, it's like being a kid again. I leave for the beach in a couple of days but when I get back I will get some time to do some more bluegill fishing.

Slowing Bite - May 28th

Joe & I found a slowing bite and rising muddy waters at Bluestone lake today. We caught only 15 fish total between us and we also lost several more, however the fish we caught were all 12 inches or better with the biggest being ~ 2lbs. Joe caught his 7 on a crankbait and I caught 7 on a shakey head worm and 1 on a fluke. I tried everything but just couldn't get bites on anything but finesse worm and fluke. We fished the pit bank and both sides right in front of the dam. The water coming out of claytor was flowing with trash and fairly muddy. The water on the whole lake got muddier and more trash filled as the day went on. We have been getting a lot of rain and both the Greenbrier and the New are pretty high and getting higher right now so it was only a matter of time before the lake was affected.

Shakey Head Worm Day- May 27th

Dad and I fished Bluestone from 6am to 12pm on a cool overcast 70 degree day with a matching water temp. It stated slow. I caught 5 bass on five differnt tactics - jerkbait, crankbait, fluke, senko, and spinnerbait over 4 hours. Fish just didn't want to chase and didn't really seem like they were wanting any one thing. Then in the last 2 hours I put a shakey head worm on for completeness sake and it was on. I went on to catch 14 more bass on a 4 inch Strike King finesse worm rigged with a 1/8oz. shakey head in green pumpkin. The largest bass was 2.3lbs.I lost at least 4 more and missed at least 5 more strikes. Those fish were all about the shakey head. They didn't want to chase and they didn't want anything flashy, but that little worm was gettin under their skin in a big way. It pretty amazing how the right bait in the right place can turn a slow day into a really good day in a hurry. I also caught a bonus channel cat and 2 bluegills on the shakey head. I even got Dad to throw the shakey head for a while.

Concord Bass Club Tournament - May 25th

Jason Brown and myself entered the Concord Bassin Club Open Tournament on Bluestone lake. There were 25 boats total that entered. The tournament was from 7am to 3pm on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. We drew #21 of 25 and headed for the slide once we got out of the gate. To my suprise there was no one there, at least right off. I caught a 4.09lbs. largemout on a fluke at 8:20, a good start for the day and my first tournament fish. Jason, an excellent jig fisherman, started catching fish on a jig pretty good and I started picking up some keepers on a spinnerbait. We got our 6 by 10am and culled 3 more fish my 12. By 12 all of our fish were 13 inches or better and we were look to upgrade. At 1:30 I had a good sized fish break off my spinnerbait due to the fact that I neglected to retie after hours of running it across logs, a total rooky mistake. The fish I lost was 2 to 3 lbs. Losing one like that really hurt. Around 2pm Jason lost a good fish on a crankbait. At 3pm we went and weighted in. We finished 6th out of 25 boats with 9.25lbs. I had the 2nd biggest fish of the tournament at 4.09lbs, but one guy had a fish that was 5.01lbs to take the big fish money. Braxton Huffman won the tournament with 13.65lbs. He caught is fish on brushhogs mostly at the slide and near the dam off of both sides of the lake in those areas. The tournament was fun but stressful and very tiring. There were some really good bags despite there being tons of holliday weekend boat traffic and fishing pressure. The weather was overcast with water temps right around 70 degrees. Nearly every boat had a limit and most people caught between 20 and 30 fish per boat. We ended up with ~ 25 total fish for the day.

Solo on Bluestone Lake

I fished Bluestone for the first time in about a week due to the massive water/mud run off. I fished alone from 6am until 11am. There were only 2 other bass boats on the lake and the conditions were pretty good. Stained water although it was falling water, light clouds, warm air, 63 degree water, with a slight breeze. I caught one LMB on the pit bank on my magic LC pointer, a spot on a spinnerbait below the fridge rock, and another spot on fluke before I decided to slow down and start throwing senko's on cover. The senko on wood pattern was working, I caught 6 and lost 4 more on 5 inch baby bass senko's with a 4/0 EWG Gamakatsu hook. The 4 I lost were due to the fact that I didn't real my slack out of the line before I set the hook so the bass ended up getting pulled around with a straight tail worm in his mouth but no hook engaged. Of the 9 fish I did boat 6 were good fish the largest being 16 inches and 2.6lbs. After seeing some other area lakes I think people underestimate just how good Bluestone Lake is or has the potential to be. I also netted a wounded shad. I can't get over how much blue/teal he has on his back, something to think about next time you pull a crankbait when the shad are running.

Tough Sailing at Claytor Lake - May 13th

Brad and I fished Claytor from 7am unti 4pm. Brad caught 9 and I caught 8, all were < than 12 inches and all were spotted bass. We tried everything and ran all over the lake. I think the fish over there maybe spawning; either that or we just suck at fishing. The fish we did catch were off of spinnerbaits around wood. Brad hooked and lost a small musky right a the boat on spinnerbait as well. The weaher was really comfortable and the water was 62 to 68 degrees with a slight stain. In the afternoon the wind picked up and by 11pm we went from catching a few fish to no fish.

Don't Go to Lake Stephens - May 12th

Bluebird skies + ultraclear lake Stephens water + bright sunshine = no bass. Joe and I fished 4 hours I caught one 10 inch bass on a drop shot worm and Joe caught one on a fluke. The water was 62 degrees. I hate clearwater LMB only fisheries but until the water clears in another day or so I don't have many other options.

Lake Moomaw - May 11th

With everything local flooded, closed, and rolling with pure mud Joe and I made drive to Lake Moomaw to fish. We got on the water at 7am, just in time to get rained on. The water over there was up but still crystal clear. The water surface temp over much of the lake was 62 degrees. We fished a lot of the wooded coves and a couple small stretches of riprap. The air was cold and damp and there was very little fishing pressure, only saw 3 bass boats all day. I caught 8 bass and a chain pickerel. Joe caught 6 bass and a bluegill. Most of our fish came early. A small front blew in around noon and the bite slowed way down. Of the bass we caught half were smallmouth and half were largemouths but all were keeper sized. We caught our fish on crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and senko's. I had a 2 or 3 pound brown trout hit a 3/8th oz. spinnerbait 3 times but didn't get a hook up. I also had a 17 or 18 inch smallie pound my spinnerbait but miss the hook. Joe also missed a very large LMB real close to the boat. The water over there is so clear that when those fish hit at a lure late on a cast they see the boat during the strike and they pull off a little. I tried a jerkbait some, but no takers. I also had a pretty nice bass break off a senko around some wood. The clear water game is not my strong suit, but at least with all the dirty water back home we got to fish. The good thing about clear water is you almost always get to see the fish strike. Until today I had never caught a chain pickerel before or fished Moomaw. It's a pretty lake with a lot of deep open water, some deep standing timber, and very sparse shallow cover. There seems to be fish on the shallow cover you do find but there's just very little of it. We ran all over the lake and saw a good bit of it as well as some of the Jackson River. I would go back but it's pretty tough fishing, just not as tough as fishing in the mud back home.

Mother's Day Fishing- May 10th

Aleshia, Avery, and I went for a hike to Longbranch Lake at Pipestem State Park to do a little fishing on a very sunny Mother's Day. Because it was the first pretty day in awhile there were people everywhere hiking, fishing, throwing rocks, you name it. We gathered up some poles and meal worms and took Avery to the quietest cove we could find. We couldn't get any fish to bie at all. We saw a couple of bluegills and little bass but they seemed pretty stressed and pressured from all the human activity they had seen. Avery had a good time anyway casting and reeling her little plastic red fish, hiking around the lake and smelling blooming flowers. She actually fishes pretty good to only be 2 years old.

Dirty Water on Bluestone Lake

It just keeps on raining. More and more rain. We have been lucky up till now in that even though all our local rivers are flooding, Greenbrier, Bluestone, New, and Indian Creek, Bluestone Lake has remained very fishable; that is until today. The lake was was up 2+ feet and flowing with trash/debris when we got to the lake at 6am. We put it and started fishing the pits when Bret Mcmillion, the Bluestone Park Superintendent, came by and said they where closing the gate that goes into the pits due to rising water. I drove the truck to the launch ramp below the park office and Dad drove the boat down the lake and picked me up so we could contine to fish. We were 1 of only 4 boats on the lake all day due to the limited access and rising water. The water was very heavily stained and so full of trash that it was pretty hard to fish. We fished the pits and down the bank as well as up the river below Bertha. We couldn't hardly find a fish up river, but we did good on the pit bank and down below it going towards the triangle rock. We caught most of our fish on Strike King P+ spinnerbaits. I did catch one LMB on a LC CB flat and 5 or so on the ever popular LC pointer. Dad caught most of his on a Excalibur crankbait that looked like a crawfish. I ended up catching 16 bass the biggest being 1.5lbs. Dad caught 10 with the biggest being a 2 lbs. Dad also had a musky flash at his spinnerbait but he didn't get a hook up. One spot I caught had a crawfish tail lodged in his mouth.
I'm off for the next week with plans of chasing fish, but finding a place to do it with all this muddy water is going to be a real challenge and put me out of my comfort zone. Right now I'm looking at fishing Moomaw, Stephens, or Plum Orchard and maybe a quick trip to Pipestem's Longbranch lake for an afternoon trip, anywehre that doesn't flood and turn to chocolate milk.

White & Chartreuse Day at Bluestone Lake

It didn't matter what type of bait you used today so long as it was white with chartreuse. We had gotten and inch plus of rain in the last couple of days so the water on Bluestone Lake was up, getting higher, and had moderate to heavy stain in it. Dad and I caught fish on white and chartreuse deep crankbaits, shallow crank baits, spinnerbiats, and jerkbaits, all of them the same color. The rain stopped and the wind started sharply at 8am when we got to the lake. The pit bank produced only 2 crappies so we headed up the lake, started picking apart the bank while letting the wind shove us up the river. It felt a lot like a float trip because the wind created a backward current and kept us moving without the aid of the trolling motor. I started catching several keeper sized largemouth on a Strike King P+ spinnerbait and Dad started catching bass off of a sexy shad looking Grave Digger shallow crank. We worked from cliffs up to Bertha on some of both sides of the lake catching 23 fish, all but 5 were bass 12 inches or better and 3 were crappie. Dad had the big fish of the day weighing in at 2.9lbs, yeah I finally broke down and got a set of scales. And I had 13 total bass including one that was 2.4 and another that was 2.5lbs. I caught one of my bigger fish off a LC pointer in yep you guessed it white and chartreuse.

Rainy Day on Bluestone

It was a day of junk fishing on Bluestone Lake for Joe and myself. We had hard rain early and then it slowed and eventually cleared. We never found one method or place that the fish seemed to really want so we moved around a lot and threw a little bit of everything. Spinnerbait worked the best and for the second day in a row I couldn't get a fish on a fluke. I caught one LMB that was ~ 3.5lbs and a 15 inch spot on a Strike King P+ early and we caught another 18 smaller fish. We tried bull falls but couldn't round up any fish bigger than 10inches.