Skunked - October 15th, 2012

I hunted the full length of the Bull Falls bottom today from 7am to 12pm. I took my combination gun with the hopes of rounding up a fall turkey. I never did see any turkeys, did hear some but never could work our a shot. I saw 9 deer including 3 bucks one of which was a really big 10 point. I saw 5 squrriels but didn't shoot at any of them. I had the opportunity to shot a couple of them but I didn't fool with it. I did shoot a skunt at about 45 yards with a load of 3 inch mag BB's. That turned out to be the only shot I fired in 10 miles of walking river bottoms all day.

Shad Run Part II - October 13th, 2012

Brad, Greg and I started at the dam and floated to Advance beach. We fished on this clear cold morning from 7am till 11am. As usual g-tails we the order of the day. I even tried and Alabama rig some in the deeper water runs. I did snag about a 2 pound carp and have a good sized musky chase the rig all the way back to the yak.  The musky was on the Greenbrier side one set of shoals up above the Advance Beach ledges. I ended up with 17 bass, Brad had 17, and Greg had 28. Of our 62 fish they were all smallies except 4 large mouths I caught and a redeye and crappie Brad caught. The bite was totally early, 55 of our fish were taken before the fog lifted at 10am.

Shad Run Part I - October 10th, 2012

The cool nights have gave way to stunned shad getting sucked through the dam. Greg started at 8am and by the time I got down there and started fishing he had already caught 52 smallies, including a 3 pounder an several over 2. The ticket today were salt and pepper g-tails that closely replicated the shad that some of the bass we were catching were spitting up. I ended up with 14 bass. I lost at least 10 more including one that may have been over 4lbs. The bite is hot early while it's cold and the stunned shad are getting pulled thru the dam and then it slows down around 11am or so after the fish have fed up and the sun warms the water back up. Hopefully this will be a pattern, like last year, that we can repeat for the next month or so.

Death of a Lucky Craft - October 9th,2012

Greg and I fished the lake on this post cold front day. The water temp in the lake was 57 to 58 degree range. I took my bow with hopes of finding a deer to sling an arrow at, but we never did see any deer. We saw some squirrels, turkeys and a mink but no deer. We each missed a couple bites on flukes early then nothing for like 3 hours. On one last pass down the pit bank I finally caught a spotted bass and then a hybrid on my favorite Lucky Craft. We were right behind the boat trailer where we loaded the boat when I saw him coming up to attack my lure right at the boat. It was a 40+ inch musky mouth wide open. It nearly scared me. What I was looking at was the last thing many fish ever see. I had the presence of mind to wait till he inhaled it before I set the hook. And almost as fast as it happened it was over. Line snapped and my favorite lure gone. Well at least that lure went out a warrior.

Hits and Misses - October 8th, 2012

Nathan and I  bow hunted on a really nice cool morning that had the deer up and moving. I hunted from a ground blind and he hunted his spot from his tree stand. Early on there was a little rain but no wind. I saw 4 and missed one who jumped the string due to my poor judge of yardage. Nathan missed one and shot a second doe in head. She was a solid 3 year old doe. I saw a couple of turkeys and some sqwacks as well. It was a really nice morning to be in the woods. I got my first miss with a bow out of the way since I laid the bow down 6 years ago and Nathan got a nice doe.

Autumn on Bluestone Lake - October 3rd, 2012

I fished Bluestone with my bow in tow hoping to get a shot at an unsuspecting doe. I only got about 3 hours in and caught only one bass on a fluke before the rain started. I didn't see any deer this time out. It was a nice cool fall day to be on the lake though.                                                                                             

Shanklin's Camping Trip - October 5th and 6th, 2012

  Brad, Greg, Todd, Kevin, for a short time John, and I camped and float fished Shanklins Ferry. We had our trip cut a day short by a nasty wet weather cold front that moved in and killed our bite. We water was a little higher than normal for he fall, but by the second day it had fallen down to near normal levels. Brad and I stayed in my Dad's pop up Quicksilver camper. Greg, Todd and Kevin stayed in Todd's Dad's camper. We had a good time, had some good food , and caught some fish, even a few quality fish. The first day the six of us caught 48 total and the second day we caught 102 between the five of us. We saw deer, squirrel, turkey, bald eagles, mint and even a musky.


Home away from home



Brad with a Nice Smallie/

Preping to Float

Hard to Beat a Campfire

River Pumpkinseed

Kevin with a quality fish

Bald Eagle

Brad Shoots the Rapids in his Coosa

Little Creek Morning - September 27th, 2012

Dad and I headed to Little Creek today for our first squrriel hunt of the year. It had rained the night before and the ground was damp. The morning fog gave way to bright sunshine and temps pushing 80 degrees. I hunted up the the high point killing two on my way in. The first squrriel I killed was covered in tumors, I took some pics and culled him. I had my Saveage combo gun just in case a saw a bear. There was a three day bear season which was in today. Once I got to the top I heard some bear dogs down in long run. I hiked a mile or so off the hill trying to see what they had treed, when they all at once stopped. With my bear lead gone I hiked back to the top. By the time I got there it was getting hot and a little windy up high, so I dropped back down into the bottoms where I found a nice mess of squacks in their usual places. I had a 3 differnt Remington shotgun shells that failed to go off. The primer was punched but they wouldn't go off. I have never had that happen before. I had some Federals and they went off just fine so I don't think it's the gun. May have just been a bad lot of primers. The leaves and under brush were so thick that getting a shot was tough. I did manage to round up six before calling it a day around 11:30am.

Tumor Sqwack. I think I did this guy a favor

Coosa High Water River Patrol - September 20th, 2012





  John with his brand new Olive Coosa, Brad, and I floated from the Dam to the High School with the river running along at fast 7 gate pace. We had to look for eddies and places below islands to get out of the current. The water was stained up from the 2 plus inches of rain we got int he previous 48 hours. And to make matters worse we were up against post cold front blue bird skies with bright sun to go along with our high falling water. Brad and I managed to get 12 each and John rounded up 4. I did catch one nice smallie that weighed in at 4lbs and 10oz. on a white Gitzit g-tail on the Greenbrier side where the two rivers merge at an inlet below and island. In the high water this smallie put up a heck of a fight.

3 Jackson Coosa's Ready to Go

Greenbrier River Smallie - 4lb 10oz.

                                               

The Musky Fumble - September 17th, 2012

John, Brad, Brain and  I floated from the Dam to the Highschool. The weather was warm with a little cloud cover coming in as the day went on. The bass bite was slow to nill. Brad lead the way with 20 I had 12 and John had 8 or so. John was handicapped by and spent most of the day restling with his personal pontoon boat. The extremely low water, probably only a 0.75 gate flow, made it a tough float for anything but a kayak. Below Darily Queen, Brad hooked about a 35 inch musky on one of his custom spinners he makes in black and Blue color. I paddled over and tried to net it, but the net was tiny. I got the head of the fish in the net and scooped him up into my Coosa, but when I did the spinner came out and he flopped off.  I felt really bad, for screwing up his picture opportunity and the opportunity to get a musky out of circulation...the things are eating up our Hinton smallie population like there is no tommorow. I had a camera with me but all the bass we caught were well under a pound so I after the musky screw up I didn't take any pics. Next time I will do better.

Muskies and Other Missed Opportunities - September 12th, 2012

Greg and I floated the New from 8am to 12pm. We caught some smallies (21 and 18) mostly smaller stuff. Although we did catch a few nice ones on the Greenbrier side below Magic Mart. We caught our fish on g-tails. Again it was low gin clear water as usual. I lost a nice small about 3 to 4 lbs fishing some deeper water bouncing a jig off the bottom. We saw two nice muskies in that same hole of water hanging out on ledges. One of those two was average size the other was a monster. However blueskies, warm sun, and clear water arn't exactly musky kinda of conditions.

An Afternoon Wading the Arm - September 9th, 2012

Brad and I waded down the arm on a cooler but crisp day with low gin clear water. We didn't start till 2:30 and finished by 4:30. I had 9 and Brad caught 14. We had all smallies and a couple redeyes. It was a nice afternoon to be outside.

Early Morning Wade - September 8th, 2012

Brad and I fished below the dam, catching 24 and 19 bass resprectively. The cloud cover seemed to turn the fish on a little. We caught our fish on smoke with chart g-tails mostly. We caught about 10 fish over a pound and Brad lost one over 3lbs. We waded down the Route 20 side below the dam.

Last Day of Summer Float Trip - Labor Day, 2012

Brad, Brian and I floated from the park to the first Ranger station between 7:30 and 11am. We had a little cloud cover and very little other fishing pressure for a holiday on the New river. Brad and I were the only two fishing Brian just floated and took some pics. I ended up with 25 and Brad had 20. We rounded up 40 smallies and 5 redeyes. Many smallies were under 12 inches. I only had one that was in the 15 inch range. The water was still very clear and the fish still prefered darker earthy colors to white and other brights. It was a fun morning and a nice break from the stresses of everday life.

Feeling A Little Rusty - August 29th, 2012

After not having fished the River in awhile, Greg and I floated the New from 8 to 11am. We rounded up 39 smallies with Greg doing most of the heavy lifting with 26 fish. We had low clear water blue bird skies and zero other fishing pressure. The smallies we did catch where all in or very near moving water and oxygen. They wouldn't hit my favorite white so I switched over to black grape G-tails. Greg caught his fish by fishing brown soft plastics a little slower.

Late Summer Pond Bluegills - August 7th, 2012

I took my girls up the Wykle pond to do a little bluegill fishing before summer completely slips away. We used the traditional worms and a bobber approach and the girls caught several fish each before giving into playing with the worms, bugs, and grass. It was a nice afternoon diversion and the girls had fun.

Jack's New River Float Trip - August 1st, 2012

My cousin Jack and I floated for the point to the high school in Derrick's Jackson Big Tuna. We floated from 6 to 10am. The Tuna did great even in rougher water down at Tug creek. We rounded up 23 smallies and lost several more all on G-tails. It was a fun morning and I think Jack had a good time rounding up smallies and a couple big redeyes. I was really impressed with how well the Big Tuna fishes with 2 people in it. Jackson makes a heck of a yak.

South Branch Rising - July 27th, 2012

I fished the South Branch of the Potomac right on the Grant/Hardy County line under perfect conditions this morning from 6 to 9am. It was cool and overcast with water rising from storms that passed the night before. I fished in line spinners and rounded up 56 total fish. About 6 river gills and the rest were smallmouths save one fallfish. My best numbers day in a while for bass, but they were mostly little. I had 6 fish of good size betoween 1lbs and 2.5lbs. I didn't take a camera this day although, because my waterproof one died and I didn't want to fall while wading and loose either my phone or another camera. I have not been fish much as of late due to the heat and my lack of fishing. I have been shooting my bow, shooting skeet, and spending some time getting ready for hunting season in the coming months.

The Back Up Plan - July 9th, 2012

Little Bobby and I tried wading below the dam, but the extremely hot weather has the fish not biting very good. Five of the last seven days have been 90 degrees or hotter with two days in the 100 degree range. In 2 hours we only caught 2 fish each. So at 8:30 we went back to the house, hooked up to the bass boat and headed to the lake for some Gill fishing. We managed to catch about 30 each in a couple hours. The bulk of the descent sized gills came down close to the East Shore Campground.

Early Morning River Bassin- June 26th, 2012

 Greg and I floated the Coosa's from the dam to the High School at sunrise on a very hot day. The fishing was fairly slow. I ended up with 21 amd Greg had 24. Nothing big at all. Water levels are really coming down to summer levels. The fish seem a little reluctant to chase right now, due to the abundance of food and 84 degree water temps. Still yet 45 smallies isn't too bad. I took a flypole today with limited topwater success, but hey at least it's something a little differnt.