Grant County Mixed Bag - April 6th, 2012

River LMB

Bonus Brookie

South Branch Smallie

I fished two sections of the South Branch today. Fished from Welton park up and from Petersburg bridge up to Riverside Drive. I used brown in line elites in the gin clear water. The water for this time of year was very low. I ended up catching 18 total, mostly smallies with a bluegill, brookie, LMB, and a couple fallfish(Petersburg Stripers).  The wind howled all afternoon and the bluebirds skies were post cold front, so catching anything at all was nice. As always the scenery in this part of the state is second to none.

Fallen River - April 2nd, 2012

Todd and I put in on Avis beach in his jet boat at daybreak. We stared picking a few fish up when we    noticed the the water was dropping. Like from 7 gates down to 1. We had to pack up and get out. Because we were sure that it would kill the bite as well as limit the water we could could get around on. We went up and put in on the Greenbrier and fished for awhile but the wind picked up and our cloud cover blew out giving way to the dreaded bluebird skies. We caught a few, the fish didn't want to chase and the wind blew hard enought to kill a finesse bite. We ended up  catching 9 between both rivers. On our way back we ran into Robert, he had caught 3 fishing deep middle of river. But one was this huge 21 inch 4.75lbs smallie.

Perfect Spring Weather - April 3rd, 2012

Fished Shanklin's from 8am till 4pm today. The weather was perfect. Warm, little cloud cover, no wind, high water stable water, no other fishermen around. The fish were spread out. Some shallow, some deep, some in cuts, some in current breaks, and some shollow. With the fish so spead out it you had to hunt and peck to find them. We caught some on g-tails and some on tubes. We caught 18 total with three fish over 2lbs. It was a fun day on the water even though we had to work to find the fish. We saw deer, turkey, and even a musky crushing the shallows.                                                                                                                  

A Baker"s Dozen - March 23rd, 2012

Greg and I hit Bluestone today from 7:30am to 1:30pm. It was a near record high 80 degree day. We fished in shorts and T-shirts, which is strange for March in WV. We struggled to really hammer fish. I ended up with 7 and Greg caught 5. Each of us caught a nicer quality fish, but the rest were smallish. We did get into one spot were the spring spinner bait bite was really on. We spotted several fish up really shallow. The water temps ranged from 59 to 61 degrees. Despite not catching a ton of fish it was a great day on the water and the weather was fantastic. I did manage to pull off the Bluestone Cycle, catching a spot, smallie and LMB. Most fish came off of spinner bait, 2 on a shakey head worm, and 2 more off a crank bait.

Adventures on Moncove Lake - March 19th, 2011

Brad and I took the day to go check out Moncove Lake. I haven't been over there since I was in highschool. When we got to the launch ramp the lightning and thunder started. We ran into Robert Layne on his way back after the dock. Only two boats on the lake and both of them from Hinton. Once the rain started I we started back out. I picked up a couple of fish off the fluke shallow and another on a LC Pointer. Robert fishing ahead of us hooked and lost a really nice one on a spinnerbait. The weather cleared off and we tried fishing deeper with a drop shot and picked up a couple perch and a bluegill. Nice day especially for March but fishing was tough. Seems like some fish are deep, some are shallow, but they arn't concentrated in any one area yet.

Grind Them Out - March 14th, 2011

Can't figure out what the fish want? Having problems getting them to chase or hit. Then get a finesse worm and start grinding out fish. That's exactly what today was. A near record 75 degree morning with the lake still at winter pool. I fished from 8am till noon. The water was stained and their were a lot of other anglers on the water, most were crappie fishing though. I caught 5 fish total. All but one on a Zoom Mag Shakey worm. The other came from LC pointer. The were all keepers but none bigger than a about 1.5lbs.

One Good Spot - March 9, 2012

Greg and I fished Bluestone from 8am till 2pm with very little luck. The water was between 43 and 49 degrees. It started out with clouds and then the wind picked up a lot and pushed in the dreaded blue bird skies. At one point the wind got so tough on the New River side that we had to retreat to the shelter of the main lake in front of the dam. We threw LC Pointers most all day. Greg did try a jig and a shakey head a time or two with no luck. I had only one hit all day and I missed it.Greg caught a really nice Kentucky spot, off a LC AYU shad Pointer, it weighted in at 2.4lbs.  Then later in front of the dam Greg hooked musky that broke him off and took his pointer into the deep. From what we could tell it was a really nice musky. Musky robbing jerk baits is often typical for March fishing on Bluestone.

2.4 Lbs. Spotted Bass

Leap Day Bass - Febuary 29th, 2012

Between severe rain showers I managed to slip in 4 hours of fishing. The lake was extremely low. Lower than I have every seen it. Water temps were 45 to 47 degrees. It was almost impossible to get the boat into the water. I had the entire lake to myself until shortly before I left, which is a beautiful thing in itself. I started off throwing a LC pointer and about 30 minutes in hooked 3 or 4 lbs. smallie that came unbuttoned when I got him pulled up to the surface. Then nothing. I kept throwing and throwing and throwing. Changed color, changed running depth, changed location 3 times, until I found what they wanted and where they were at. I finally caught em on an LC XD pointer in aurora shad. I caught 5 all  within a 70 yard stretch of bank in about 10 foot of water. Two were on back to back casts. I caught 2 bass over 3lbs. and 3 bass over 2lbs. giving me a five fish weighing in at over 12lbs. Four of my fish were smallies and the largest was a LMB.  By 3pm the rain and wind were making a comeback so being short on time anyway I head back in and luckily was able to pull my boat our without tearing anything up.


3.0 LBS Smallie




2.5 Smallie





3.1 LMB



2.0 Lbs. Smallie



Same Bass Different View



Wind & Rain Shortened Day - Febuary 24th, 2012

Greg and I tried to put the finesse worm move on the local bass of Mountain Valley Lake today. The weather started off 60 degrees and sunny. Then later came high winds and punishing rain that cut our day short after only about an hour of fishing. I missed to bites and Greg caught one LMB on a squirrel tail worm. 

First Bass of 2012 - Febuary 21st, 2012

It's 35 degrees with 10 to 15mph winds and 42 degree water temps. Sounds like the perfect day for bass fishing right? Well I went anyway and I am glad I did. I managed to catch 4 bass on a LC pointer and I had one more get off on a float-n-fly in only 4 hours of fishing. The second bass I caught was really nice. It seems that big bass like to cold water, because once the water warms up for summer they get really tough to catch.

1st Bass of 2012

The Old Creek Bridge

LC Pointer Strikes Again

4.4Lbs. LMB

First Smallmouth of the Year

2.5lbs. LMB

President's Day Panfish - Febuary 20th, 2012

The warm bright sun came up and started to quickly melt a thick blanket of wet snow. By 1pm the 6 inches of snow from the day before was melted. Brad and I hooked the boat up and headed to the lake without any problems, all of the snow on the pit bank had gone. We went about catching crappie and bluegills with the snow capped mountains looking on in background. We use garden wigglers on a drop shot to catch 40 between the two of us in 3 hours of fishing. It felt more like late April than Febuary right after a snow storm.

Before the Snow Hits - Febuary 10th, 2012

Greg and I crappie fished with #6 garden wigglers from 9am till 2pm. The weather started off cold and got colder as the day went due to a cold front and snow storm headed in for the weekend. I'll bet school teachers just hate it when we get snow on a Friday afternoon. I caught 20, mostly gills, and Greg added another 3 with one being a really nice sized crappie. We had fun, caught a few fish, missed several more, and got out the house.

April In Febuary - Febuary 7th, 2012

On a day with a high temp near 60 degrees, bright sun, and little to now wind. I tried my hand a crappie fishing again. There were several boats on the lake on this day and they all seemed to be catching a few fish even though everybody I talked to complained about catching only small ones. I fished for 2.5 hours and caught 19 being half crappie and half bluegills on the dropshot rig. This warm weather really makes a person long for more warm spring weather.

Febuary Perch - Febuary 6th, 2012

Todd and I crappie fished on Bluestone from 9:30am till 1:30pm. We fished minnows and nightcrawlers on this cold windy winter day. Nightcrawlers surprisingly out fished minnows 3 to 1. We ended up catching 31 fish, 7 bluegills, 21 crappie of assorted sizes, and amazingly 3 perch. It seems that perch are making a comeback on bluestone lake. I have caught one once before but catching 3 in one day means their numbers must be on the rise. Several of our crappie were big slabs.

Wintertime Bluegill

Perch the other Sunfish

The Missing Tubes - Febuary 2nd, 2012

   On yet another warm sunny and  windy day Jason Brown and myself tried our best to hook up with a big winter smallie to no avail. We fished from 10am to 3pm without even a bite. Jason fished on till 6pm and without even a single bite to show for it. We fished Sandstone, around Hinton, and up the Greenbrier as far as Willowwood with no success. I did manage to loose about 20 tubes or so on hangups, you gotta love winter time bass fishing from the bank. At this rate a jet boat would pay for itself in jig heads by about 2025. Jason tried throwing a musky bait some to but they didn't come out to play either. I am really starting to think warm sunny winter days are tougher to catch smallies than nasty overcast snow days in the winter time. I look forward to March when smallies will eat for more than 45 minutes a day.

Panfish Wednesday - Febuary 1st, 2012

Fished the lake on this unseasonably warm day for crappie and bluegill. The water after these last few warm days was up to 42 degrees which is pretty warm for this time of year. John Ratliff and I tried to find some minnows but nobody had any so we went to night crawlers instead. We found the fish in 16 to 18 feet of water. John had to go catch a train after the first three fish and couple of hours. I fished on from 9am to 2:30pm and I caught 21 and John caught 2 more, before having to leave, being a mix of crappie and big bluegills. The nicest being a 15 inch crappie pictured below. All of our fish came off of drop shot rigged night crawlers.

No Musky - January 28th, 2012

Brad and I fished bucktails from the top of Indian Creek to the Mouth of Indian at the New. We hiked down through the feather bed fishing each deep still hole very thoroughly. We fished from an icy start at 8am till around 2pm. We did see a coyote and a bald eagle but we had no hits or follows from musky.


An Icy Start to the Day.