Todd's Big Bass Bonanza - April 4th, 2011

On a day with rising water, warm air, a front coming, and some big fish having been caught in last 7 days Todd and I fished Bluestone Lake from 9:30 till 3:00. In epic fashion Todd went off with his Shakey worm. He caught a 6.3 lbs monster LMB that was 22 inches long with a gerth of 16.5 inches. Then he turned around and caught a 3.1lbs, followed by a solid 1.5 lbs. smallie keeper, and then finished it off with a 4.0 lbs. bucket mouth.  As for me, well I mostly drove the boat, netted Todd's fish, and took pictures.



Todd's 6lbs 5oz. monster LMB



Notice the 16.5 inch girth on this fish.

Click on this pic and look closely at this fish's bulging eyes. This was a big fish.



3.1 lbs. LMB



4.0 lbs. LMB

 In the last 7 days Greg caught a 7 lbs.. 9oz. giant of a LMB, I caught a 4.4 Smallie as well as a 4lbs Rainbow, and Todd has caught these fish along with a 4.5 lbs. LMB yesterday.  The last week of March into the first week of April is making a real strong case for being the best big fish week of the year so far.

Last Remaining Light - April 3rd

Sunday after work I fished the Greenbrier below the house for an hour. I lost 3 tubes and caught this 2.6 lbs. small beside a large underwater boulder in about 6 feet of water. He hit a 3 inch green pumpkin tube.

The Lonely Smallmouth - March 31st, 2011

I fished from 11am till 1pm on the Greenbrier. I hole hoped and pitched tubes.  It was cold with colder air on it's way in. This has been a slow start to spring so far. The river level was stable but by no means high. I caught only on but was a solid 2.5lbs smallie that was cuaght behind WWCC's old pier. It seems that the fish want a jig-n-pig more when the water is flood level high and when it's lower and cleaner they prefer tubes.

First Smallies of the Year - March 30th

I have been cold water smallmouth fishing no less than 10 times this year with no smallmouths to show for it.  Dozens of lost jigs but no fish. Finally today my luck changed. I fished the Greenbrier for 2 hours on a cold rainy day. The river was stable to coming up and the water seemed clearer than it had in some time. I caught all 3 of my fish on earthly colored tubes. I caught a 2.5lbs, 2.1lbs., and  a 4.4lbs fish. The 4.4 was very long and if was caught again in the fall will probably weigh 5+lbs, it was a long fish 22 inches. plus. The pics aren't great because I was by myself and had nobody to take them. Despite a slow start to my smallie season and many lost jigs today sure was sweet.

The forage. Small Gitzit tubes 

2.1 lbs. Smallmouth



4.4 lbs. Smallmouth




Tired after the fight



2.5 lbs. Smallie

Cold Weather Trout Redux - March 25th

We decided since spring weather is on hold we would go back to winter trout fishing until the weather started to break. Brad I trout fished from 2:30 to 5:30 in fairly high water, it was 62.5 on the USGS. I previously had thought anything above 55 percentile was too high but we did well. The water was falling on the hydro graph and it was stained but not muddy. We ended up catching 37 trout total. All good sized fish. I caught 21 and Brad 16. I had one fish over 4lbs and another over 3lbs. We hooked and lost several more fish. The cold weather is supposed to continue for several more days. We were unable to determine if they had stocked some more fish or if there were hold overs that hadn't been fished in a while.  If they did stock new fish they came from the same supplier not the state because they were the same Canadian subspecies of rainbow that they have been stocking for the last 4+ years up here.                                                            

The Musky That Got Away - March 24th

I fished by myself in the cold at the JB reservoir for an hour, below the dam, and below the house. The air was cold, in the high 30's. It had been real warm the previous few days and the I knew the sudden temp drop would make chasing bass particularly difficult. I got zero bass bites, but did hook and lose a Musky below the dam adjacent to the spillway. I was working a jig-n-pig in real slow when right a the bank I saw a flash behind the jig so I just killed the jig and let it fall. I felt a small tick and set the hook. For about 4 seconds it was on. A musky came up jumped, turned, did a little tail walk and then spit the jig. He was a solid 35 inch musky. I tried fishing there for about 45 more minutes but had no success in getting him to hit again.

Trips to the Lake

I have had my bass boat since July 2, 2007.  After some checking on this blog I figured out that I have had it on the water fishing 145 times in 10 days short of 3.5 years. That averages out to 41.4 trips per year. It would be more had a couple of my friends not also have bass boats and a trend toward fishing the river more.

Greenbrier Smallie - March 21st, 2011

Joe and I fished the Greenbrier near the house from 8am till noon. We fished with jig-n-pigs, tubes, and I even tried a jerkbait. I had one bite I am sure was a smaller fish with no other bites. Joe caught one bass that was 3.1lbs and had another larger fish hooked up above lowell market.

Plum Out of Luck - March 16th

Dad and I fished Plum Orchard Lake on a beutiful day with air temps in the 60's and only a little wind. The water was clear and still very cold with surface temps only around 45 to 47 degrees. We tried jerk baits and then drop shot with no luck. I saw one bass up shallow but it spooked out to deeper water quickly before I could even get a cast off.

Feels Like Spring - March 13th

 We launched out of Ivy Hill on what was to be the last day of our trip. It was close to 50 degrees at daylight and would warm up to the lower 70's with very little wind. It was the best I've felt outdoors in months. Staying with our jerkbait pattern while trying to refine it a little we caught 5 bass and missed one more in the beach coves. Then we picked up 3 more in campground cove. From there we went on to hammer the fish in the back corner of Island Creek. At one point back in Island Creek Jason put on a larger clown colored Smithwick Rouge only to hook a good sized 3lbs. bass that broke his line at the boat when he tried to pick it up. The last time we saw the Rouge it was in the fishes mouth as he swam off. We also caught fish in Rushing Creek and Powerline Cove. We caught fish everywhere and every time we stopped the boat. We ended up with 16 fish, I had 9 and Jason had 7. 13 of our 16 fish were > 14 inches. And we had 3 fish over 3lbs in that bunch. It was a fun day. We fished till 3 and started our long trip home.

First Bass of the Year - March 12th

We fished Grassy and it was slow at first. But the sun was out and it was warming up. We tried shallow junk fishing then figured out that in 50 degree water the fish were out deeper. Jason suggested that we go throw jerk baits on points and coves that were near main creek channels. It made perfect sense and it was working. We caught 3 in the first place we tried including a 3lbs fish that Jason caught. We then ran all over Grassy picking up a fish here and a fish there. The right side of Beaver pond creek had some of the better stucture that places I had fished in Grassy before. We tried fishing back in Essex and we did catch some fish at the mouth of Essex but there were fishermen everywhere back there so we skipped fishing farther back. We ended up with 9 bass, 7 of which were keepers. The other guys on this trip were fishing shallow and were really struggling despite being some talened and accomplished fishermen.

White Bass Only - March 11th

Jason & I left Hinton at 9am to go prefish Kerr for his BASS weekend series the following weekend. We left Hinton with snow flying. When we got to Bluestone Creek launch ramp it was only 47 degrees with wind 10 to 20mph. The main lake was muddy, but the creeks were very clear. We fished secondary points, Goodell creek, Clarksville rip-rap,rocky channel banks and even launch ramp cove. We tried cranks, spinnerbaits, jigs, and lipless cranks with no luck. The wind nearly pushed us off the lake. Jason did land one 8 inch white bass off the main Bluestone creek channel.The was was only 50 degrees. Muddy cold water can be a real killer for an LMB bite. Luckily for us the weater for Saturday and Sunday were expected to dramatically improve.

The One That Got Away - Febuary 26th

With both the Greenbrier and the New rivers on the rise after 1.5 inches of rain, Brad and I gave winter smallies the old college try. We fished for 6 hours, hole hoping between Sandstone to Hinton. The water was close to perfect, but we could hardly buy a bite. The water was still very cold  and the fish just weren't real active despite the rising water levels. I did get one hook up on the Greenbrier that got way. I didn't get a good hook set and it just spit the jig. As far as I know that was our only bite.

Pitching a No Hitter - Febuary 21st

While the New River is still really low, the Greenbrier is on the rise. So I fished 3 or 4 of my favorite winter holes plus a couple that were new to me. I pitched a jig'n pig for about 3 hours with no bites. I did manage to have 6 KIA's = lost jigs. I threw some tubes as well, but it wasn't meant to be. The 2 new holes up the river from the house have great promise to produce good fish. In fact I lost a huge bass in May of 2002 on a float trip at one of these holes, so I know they are there.

A Walk In The Snow - January 29th

Brad and I braved 8 inches of snow to search for some trout. I caught 4 and Brad caught 1 and lost 2 more. The warm air temps was melting snow and raising water levels. It was at 55 percent when we got there and was up to 62 by time we left.

January 20th - Still Cold & Icy

Joe and I hole hopped both the Greenbrier and the New for about 4 hours today. Joe hooked one and I had no hits. The water was low and still had ice in spots. lower waterblevels made the fishing down right impossible.

January 10 - A Not So Good Walk Spoiled



Coyotes didn't leave much of this poor deer.

 I try rabbit and grouse hunting at Bull Falls. It was just to icy. The ground was frozen solid. I even slipped and fell once after nearly wrecking on the ice getting there. I did find a dead deer  that coyotes had killed and then picked clean.

January 1st - A New Years Trout

On a day when you had to wonder if Brad & I had any sense at all we braved the snow, ice, cold air, and even colder water to go trout fishing. The river was 2/3rd frozen over severly limiting where we were able to even attempt to persue trout. We did however see a bald eagle, a place where coyotes had killed a deer, and manage to catch 19 trout. Including one  20inch class fish that Brad landed. The ice was caked up in almost 10 inch thick plates in some places. Brad's GPS told us we walked 6.91 miles with 1302 of total elevation change.



No worry about that today.





Brad waiting for the ice to break.



Chunk Ice Stacked Up

Places like this normally produce fish when they are not frozen solid.

Brad with a nice 20 inch class fish

2010 A Year In Review

In 2010 I fished 60 times, catching 563 fish, avg. 9.39 fish per trip, with a high of 103 fish and several lows of 0 fish caught. I caught Largemouth, Smallmouth, Spotted Bass, Redeyed Bass, Walleye, Perch, Rainbow Trout, Blue gill, Crappie, Channel Catfish, Drum, Chain Pickerel, and Fall Fish.

I hunted on 14 times killing 33 squrriels and 1 doe. I have now killed 633 squrriels and 46 deer lifetime total. Of those deer 6 have been bow kills, 26 were bucks and 20 were does. I have killed 5 turkeys lifetime.

Parting Shot - December 31st 2010

On the last day of the year and the 2010 deer season Danny, Dad, and I headed to War Ridge in order to capture a doe. Since this may well be last year for a doe season much less an after Christmas doe season given the recent 31% drop in deer kill during rifle season we decided to give it a go. The snow had iced over and had been on the ground since the December 15th. This snow made it impossible to move around without making a ton of noise. I went down the ridge below Ben's tree stand and found an area on the sunny side of the hill where the deer had been tearing up the ground paying acorns with deer poop everywhere. I figured since deer would hear me crunching ice/snow three farms over I may as well set down and wait until it was time to put off a drive. I had settled in to watching a grey squirrel on this much warmer than average day when I heard deer coming down the hill towards me from all the way across the creek a good 300+ yard away. I could see them highlighted in the snow. I started to try a shot but it was just too far and too thick. I heard them cross the bottom and then it got quiet for awhile. I was sitting down with a rest when I saw a doe step up over the ridge in some brush. I looked at her through the scope. She was quartering into me. And for what ever reason instead of waiting for the situation to develop in light of the fact that the deer hadn't spotted me yet I just pulled the trigger. I hit the deer and she fell backward then hoped off and ran away out of sight along with the 3 other deer that where with her. I have no idea why I hurried the shot. I had a rest, I had a comfortable hide, I had the wind, and I had all the time in the world to pick the most optimal opportunity. But instead I just pulled the trigger. I went down to where I though she was when I shot and could find nothing I when back to where I had shot from and tried again this time I found a blood trail. I got on the radio and told Danny and Dad what was going on. I started on the blood trail and it quickly crossed the creek and went up the hill . Danny walked down and got into position in case I jumped the deer. We tracked the deer a good 700 yards until the blood ran out. Then we followed likely sets of tracks but there were just too many sets of tracks to figure it out. I feel like I hit her a little high by rushing the shot for no good reason. Dad saw the other 3 deer go through above him but was not afforded a shot. Danny saw a deer going up a ridge acting a little off that could have been the one I hit although he too didn't get a shot.  This deer is the first deer I have ever lost with a high powered rifle. I have lost them with a bow and a muzzleloader but never with a rifle. It wasn't the guns fault it was user error.