Rainy Weekday at Moncove- September 18th, 2018

Today wass a rainy solo day on Moncove spent trying to upgrade my WVKA online standing . I worked the Ned rig on my usual spots and caught the usual suspects. Quality fish but nothing giant. This lake consistently produces quick 70 inch limits but it is hard to break the 75” mark. I did see a bunch of giant Asian carp up working shallow today for the first time. Other than the carp I only saw one other angler. I did however learn that my 10 year has pd rain bibs have given up the ghost. 

Total Fish Caught = 8

Biggest Fish = 14.25”

Best Five Fish = 66.75”

Minutes per fish = 22.5

September WVKA Online Fish Roundup - September 11th, 2018

Stan and I hit Moncove today so that I could try to get a few points out if the final WVKA online tournament of the year. The bite with the Ned rig was very solid early and then fell off sharply around 9:45am. I found the pattern to be the fish were hanging only on babksvthat had a steep angle of entry to the water or basically banks that had deeper water nearby as opposed to flats. 

Total Fish Caught = 8

Biggest Fish = 15”

Best Five Fish = 69.75”

Minutes per fish = 26.25

Summers County Slam II / Battle for the Bluestone Cup September 8th, 2018

Every once in awhile you have a day on the water you will never forget. And today was the perfect time to have a career day. WVKA, SCKBA points for AOY were on the line as well as SWVKA being here for the three club battle. Jared, Harper and I shared the day in which we adopted an ultra marathon float mentality floating 11.5 miles on the New River in 7 hours and 20 minutes at normal water levels. I started off slow but then caught a smaller limit on 5” flukes, I decided then to switch to bigger boats and I am sure glad I did. I ended up with three fish that averaged over 15” each and two citation smallmouth over 20”. Before the day was over I set the WVKA scoring record at 85.5” won big bass, top 2 man team with Greg Nahodil, 1st place out of 114 anglers from theee different clubs, walking away with over $900. SCKBA won the battle for the cup by a mile by having 8 if the top 12 anglers in the field and all of the top 5. Harper won a $1,500 Bonefide Kayak by way of the Gunter’s Invitational event with his 6th place overall finish. I could not dream up a bigger better day. Big stage, big fish, big baits, = big results on this day. 

Miles Floated = 11.5

Total Fish = 34

Biggest Fish = 21.0”

Best 5 Fish = 85.5” (WVKA Record for now)

Minutes per fish = 12.6

Battle of Bluestone Prefishing - September 7th, 2018

Did a short float from Sandstone to Brooks today with Harper, Plumley, Jarod, Alex Worley, and Tommy Hill. The water was low and I spent the day experimenting trying to find a pattern to produce bigger fish. I caught fish with a plopper, a fluke, a magnum fluke for the first time, a spinnerbait, a jerk bait, and all those techniques produced the same 8 to 11” fish. I think Harper and Jared caught a couple better fish on a plopper in the 14” but that was it. Good numbers on a variety of fish but size is hard to find. 

Miles Floated = 4

Total Fish = 22

Best Fish = 11.75”

Biggest 5 Fish = 56.25”

Minutes per fish = 10.9 

Return to Virginia - September 3rd, 2018

Jerry and I floated Narrows to Glen LYNN for my first time back on Virginia waters in awhile.  The water was up around 18” more than normal and our float although productive was shorter than I would have liked. 

Miles Floated = 5.5

Best Fish = 14.5”

Best 5 Fish = 63.5”

Minutes per fish = 9.75

Holiday Weekend Grind - September 2nd, 2018

On Labor Day Sunday Fred Haddox and Michael Lawhon and I did an 8 hour float with half the New and half on the Greenbrier. It was a busy and hot holiday weekend and finding any fish at all was as tough as I can remember. 

Miles Floated = 8.5

Total Fish Caught = 24

Biggest Fish = 12.5” 

Best 5 Fish = 55”

Minutes per Fish = 19.4

Jackson County Shootout - August 25th, 2018

I got out of bed at 2:45am and drove solo to Jackson County for the WVKA Jackson County Shootout. Two large cups of  coffee and 2 hours of Metallica later I was there. I put on Obryan lake in the black dark having never seen it before. Something ironic about fishing Jackson County out of your Jackson kayak. The bite was tough and lake was crowded with good Anglers many of whom live on that area and make Obryan their second home due to it’s ability to produce big fish from time to time. Although it has some big fish it is highly pressured and difficult to find a limit. Greg Harper who fished with me never got a bite on this day. I pitched hula grubs in hydrilla grass edges all day and managed 9 bites in 8 hours. I landed a 16.5 early but had a 9” fish I never did get rid of. I did hook a 19”+ fish beside a bridge peer with an hour that go only to have it break off. That fish would have moved me up from 12th to 6th. Micheal Waid and I did manage to catch a limit and fishing 4th place out of 25 teams for the day. 

Total Fish Caught = 7

Biggest Fish = 16.5”

Best 5 Fish = 59.75”

Minutes per Fish = 68.5

Finish 12th out of 68 as individual and 4th out of 24 two man teams

Cloudy Morning On the Greenbrier- August 19th, 2018

Brad and I floated Pence Springs to Talcott on an overcast morning. The water was up there normal level after some rain earlier in the week. I threw a fluke most of the day and landed only fish under 13”. Having a hard time finding a good big fish pattern this year. Miles Floated = 6.5

Total Fish = 16

Biggest Fish = 12.75”

Best Five Fish limit 60.75”

Minutes per Fish = 14.75

Forty - August 15th, 2018

On my 40th Birthday I headed to Moncove lake solo. It was a Wednesday that I had off because I had worked the weekend prior. The morning was perfect, calm, cool, and no one around. I caught 26 fish today all on Ned rig  in 2 different colors. 18 if the fish came on one section of bank that was not 10 yards long on less that 1 hour. 

Total Fish = 26 

Biggest Fish = 15.75”

Best 5 fish = 68.75”

Minutes per fish = 7.65

John’s New Boat - August 11th, 2018

JOHN along his nephew float from the dam to first takeout before dark. John had his new Radar that he had picked up from Steve a few days prior. I worked with his nephew Sean for a little bit on how to throw a fluke. I found the bit to be tough until the last 40 minutes before dark. I found two holes with fish stacked in them but other than that it was a slow day. 

Miles Floated = 3.5

Total Fish = 22 (11 in last hour)

Biggest Fish = 11.75”

Best Five Fish = 56.75”

Minutes per fish = 8.3

Back in the Saddle - August 9th, 2018

After coping with some high water I returned returned to the river today. Stan and I floated from Brooks to Sandstone Falls. The bite was somewhat of a grind. There were many areas of the river that where unfishable today due to high current flows. The spots we did hit had fish holding very tight to wood and rock which is uncharacteristic for this time of year. We caught almost all of our fish shallow on a fluke. We both managed descent size fish before the day was over. 

Miles Floated = 3.5

Total Fish Caught = 14

Biggest Fish = 16.0”

Biggest 5 fish limit = 63.0”

Minutes per fish = 16.2