2008 Year-In-Review Fish Pics

January 3rd 2009

Brad, Ben, Joe and I headed off for a day of hiking and a little trout fishing on a warm sunny 50 degree day. We all used Joe Fly spinners with Gold blades, silver didn't seem to work at all, except Joe who used mostly mini tube jigs. Joe caught one on tubes, Brad caught 6, Ben caught 4, and I caught 6. All 17 fish were rainbows and we didn't catch anything bigger than 18 inches. The water was gin clear and a lot of trout could see us and just would not bite well. Most of the fish we caught were on the lower section of the stream. We had a good time and plan to go fishing again when the opportunity comes around.

January 2nd 2009

Joe Yancey & I headed out on a 30 degree morning for some trout fishing. When we left the house there was snow flying and wind blowing. But after we got on the water at 11am the snow stopped and the wind died. The eyes on our fishing poles were constanly freezing and there were huge ice chuncks floating in the river. We used Joe fly elit spinners with gold blades and caught 20 total trout by 2pm. Joe caught 11 and I caught 9. We each caught 2 fish that were over 20 inches. For a cold snowy second day of the year we had a great day. At one point in time I caught a 20 inches back to back with a 22 inch fish on consecutive casts.

December 24th

Dad and I went to War ridge for a Christmas eve doe hunt with Danny Helms, Don Spedien, and Ron Spangler. We set off 2 drives and hunted around the fields from 8am until 12noon. I saw 3 deer one that I jumped in a thicket while doing a drive that offered no real opportunity for a shot and 2 button bucks in a field. Don saw the same 2 buttons but nobody else saw any deer, some squrriels and a turkey but no deer. No shots were fired.

December 20th

Aleshia, Avery, and I went to Petersburg for an early Christmas. While up there I headed up to Jordan Run to Aleshia's grandpa's old home place to fish for native brookies. The water was about perfect, up some but not too high. The weather was extremely cold mid 30's with some high winds, which made for some cold fishing. I used white and pink trout magnets with a 4 foot ultralight. I ended up catching 20 fish 4 of which were 8+ inches with none being larger than 10 inches. I fished for around 2 hours. Had lots of bites and hooked several more that got off. I seemed to do a lot better below the low water bridge than above it.

December 17th

Dad & I hunted the fields around Claud Davidson's place above our farm for either sex deer with a muzzleloader. Dad saw 7 total deer, 5 of which were around Jeff's feeder at daylight. While he was sneaking up on them another deer snorted behind him near the pond and ruined his stalk. I hunted a loop all the way around Claude's property boundry. I jump 6 deer in the above Jeff's tree stand down on our place. I never could get a descent shot. I had hoped the deer would go up the hollow towards dad when jumped but it never happened. I continued to follow after them and rejumped those same deer 6 more times in an effort to push them towards Dad or get a shot. But it didn't work out they ended up going over towards Maddam's creek.

DECEMBER 6TH "Last Day WV Rifle Season"

With Dad in Ohio deer hunting with slugs, in the company of Roger and Joe,I headed out to hunt on a snowy Saturday afternoon. I left the house a 1pm and went to Rogers and started still hunting my way back towards our place. By 2:30 there was an inch of snow onto he ground and you could walk deer trails and four wheeler paths without making a sound. On the way in I saw 2 does and a spike in Roger's yard, I had been instructed not to shoot the spike since he was somewhat of a pet and I figured the 2 does must be about the same so I left them be. I hunted all the way to the top and headed back toward the fields on the madam's creek side. As I was walking through a green brier thicket I saw brown flash up in the right corner of my eye no more than 5 or 6 feet away.I wheeled around in the middle of the thicket and shot once. No time to think, just react. The deer fell over dead instantly. It was a tiny little button buck. Had I had time to look the deer over I would have let it pass, but it happened instantly. I had hit him high through the lungs and the bullet had taken out the bottom of the spine killing it at once. I was happy to have killed a deer and happy to have the meat but I felt awful about killing a small yearling especially a button buck. I absolutely hate to kill buttons. The way it happened is just the way it happened. That week in Ohio Joe and Dad killed does and Roger killed a 6 point buck. Joe killed his doe at ~ 206 yards with a slug gun and Joe also missed a big non-typical buck at > 200 yards. They had awful weather for much of the week.

November 27th "Thanksgiving Day"

Dad and I hunted the farm again from the Angel's side. I didn't see any deer and Dad saw one but had no shot due to distance and thickets. We both saw several squrriels. We hunted until 3:30 at the farm. From 4pm until dark I hunted below Brad's house and saw 2 does but got no shots.

NOVEMBER 26th

Dad and I hunted our farm on Beech Run from the Angel's side. We hunted from daylight until 5pm. I saw 8 differnt deer, six of which were does and 2 that I couldn't tell. I saw several squrriels and a couple of fox squrriels. Dad saw 1 deer and didn't get a shot of at it.

NOVEMBER 8th

In what had to be the most productive day of trout fishing I have ever experienced, Brad caught 11 rainbows 1 fallfish and I caught 19 rainbow trout. We caught our fish despite super low gin clear water conditions mostly on inline spinners. Brad did catch a couple on jigs and I caught a couple on Yo-Zuri Pinn's minnow. All but 2 of the 30 trout we caught were 17 inches or better with 5 or more over 20 inches. The smallest of the trout still had length of greater than 12 inhes. The 2 smaller fish were most likely holdovers from last spring. We caught 30 trout in less than 2 and a half hours of fishing. It was a super productive day.

NOVEMBER 3rd

Dad & I headed back to Little creek for some squrriel/fall turkey hunting. On the way up there in a field back this side of Haley's house we saw 2 nice bucks fighting in a field. We stopped an watched through binoculars but they got nervous and stopped shortly thereafter. I started out a Siang again. Almost immediately after starting to hunt I jumped a grouse that offered me no shot. I saw a big raccoon and killed 6 squrriels before 10am. The wind stayed down but it is still very dry and hard to sneak on anything. Dad turkey hunted below Steve's camp in the corner but had no luck. I

OCTOBER 24th

Dad and I headed up to Little Creek in Greenbrier county to squrriel hunt. It was a cold and windy morning. All the squrriel movement happend before 9am. I started out at Siang and hunted my way back to Steve's camp. I killed 6 grey squrriels and saw a chocolate colored 5-point. The weather was bad enought that Dad never made it out of camp. He drank coffee and talked to Steve all morning. I also hunted up to the high point and back to mouth of long run. I saw 10 to 12 squrriels total, but once the wind started up all movement stopped.

OCTOBER 20th

Brad and I waded below the damn for smallmouth. We fished spinners in extremely low water conditions. The water temps were below 65 so he had to wear chest waders. We fished pockets and channels picking up a fish here and there. All totaled Brad caught a dozen or so smallmouths and I caught 7 smallies, a fallfish, and a redeye.

OCTOBER 12TH

Brad and I tried fishing the lake at Bull Falls for about 2 & 1/2 hours on a warm Sunday evening. We threw cranks, spinners and flukes with little to no luck. I caught one smallmouth about 12 inches and Brad caught 2 redeyes and a bluegill. We tried cranking the pits as well but had no luck. It was a really tough day. There were a suprising number of boats on the lake for this late in October. I guess it was a pretty Sunday evening. I saw no deer and no squirrels.

OCTOBER 11TH "OPENING DAY SQUIRREL SEASON"

Dad and I headed to Little Creek Hunt Club for the opening day of squirrel season. We got there at daylight. It was a warm morning and there was a stiff breeze. They had select cut the corner of the barn field where I have had such good luck over the last 10 years. I saw around 12 squirrels and killed 6 by 10:00am. I saw 12 squirrels, 7 deer one of which was a 4 point buck. I shot at crow at ~ 70 yards, feathers came out by he still flew off. Despite the wind it was a nice morning. It was really dry, Anthony's creek was all but dry and Little Creek was completely dry. Moving on squirrels was tough they were skittish due the wind, the leaves were thick, and it was dry and hard to move quietly. Dad hunted the lower wood lot and saw 2 squirrels but didn't get any shots, his knee was bothering him and his mobility was cut down considerably.

SEPTEMBER 27th

Brad and I headed back up to Bull Falls to see if we could locate the couple of big bass I had seen the day before. It was cool and pooring th rain off and on, but still a very fishable day. I caught one small fish off the pit bank before we started our run. We fished flukes hard for 2 hours and I caught one smallmouth on offshore structure and Brad missed one before we decided to run. We then fished for about 90 minutes up in the Bluestone River both at the head waters and around the pier. I caught one nice smallie about 15inches and we had no other hits. I don't really understand it the water was a little low and maybe too clear in places but the cool weather and rain were perfect for a big bite, but it just didn't happen for us.

SEPTEMBER 26TH

Greg and I headed up to Bull Falls on a very overcast and cool day. The water and weather looked perfect for a big fish day. Greg caught a couple small ones off the pit bank before we ran up to Bull falls campground. Right off the bat I missed 2 nice fish both of which inhaled my fluke, but still didn't get hooked. Right below the big rocks across from Bull falls I had a huge(5lbs +) small mouth come up and make a fast pass at my fluke and miss, I mean right at the boat. We fished all the way up to Buffalo hollow and then down and around steer island, which I didn't even know was possible until today. Greg caught a couple of bass off of creature baits with would have kept in a tournament. I finally caught one small mouth and 2 redyes on a fluke, and a bluegill on a small Joe fly elite spinner. While we were on the backside of Steer Island we saw a huge large mouth. The biggest I have ever seen in the lake. This fish look 22 inches or better. On the whole given the ideal conditions our production was disappointing.

SEPTEMBER 22ND

Dad & I fished Bluestone lake from 3pm until 7:30pm. The fishing was slow for the most part. We only caught one fish off the pit bank. The wind on the main lake was howling, but the new river it was still and quiet. I started throwing flukes. I was getting some smaller fish to chase and had a couple bigger fish flash at it. I even had a smaller school of four hybrid bass come by and hit at my fluke, but I just couldn't get hooked up. Finally I ended up catching a little small mouth and a red eye on the fluke. Despite the fluke being slow I kept throwing it and it paid off. I had seen a couple of nicer fish come up and take a look at it so I figured if I kept trying it had a chance of landing a nicer fish. Once the shade set in up river I caught this 18.5 inch small mouth he also had fish about this same size follow him in as I was fighting him in. This fish was heavier than usual I measured his length but I didn't' want to put him to go thru stress of being weighed since I was turing him loose. I think he weighed just a shade over 4 lbs. Dad caught a small mouth on a minnow as well. We only caught 5 total fish but this fish made the evening worth the trip.

SEPTEMBER 17TH

Dad & I headed up to Bluestone lake to see if the bass fishing had picked up any with cooler weather. I caught 2 largemouth and a smallmouth off the pit bank with a grave digger. The wind was whipping around and there was very little cloud cover. We headed up the bluestone river and cranked the cliffs behind bluestone pool and fished the banks across from the bathhouse. I caught another largemouth on a black Berkley trick worm rigged up to a drop shot. Dad saw something in the water that looked like a musky, and given the number of muskies that have been caught there this month it may have been one. We saw lots of shad balls up in the bluestone river but not fish giving chase. We headed up to Bull Falls Campground and fished below the campground and from the big rocks on the left all the way up last big cut. After finding some shade and somewhere the wind had settled I started throwing a fluke. I was getting some hits on the fluke and some good ones. I ended up catching 9 total fish, 3 of which were really good quality. I caught a 15 and a 16 inch smallmouth as well as a 17 inch spot. The spot was by far the biggest I have ever caught. He was well over 2 pounds. I had several smaller fish hit at, grab, and miss the fluke. It was a good evening and a good time has had by all.

SEPTEMBER 13th

I waded from Welton park upsteam ~ 1 mile, on an overcast day between 10am and 12:30pm. I caught 23 fish using Joe Fly Elite spinners. All the fish I caught were small, the water was very low and gin clear. I multiple fish from five different species, small mouth, redeye, bluegills, fallfish, and even a stray rainbow trout of about 10 inches in size. The trout look native and had been in the water for quite some time. Given my late start and the water conditions I didn't think I did to bad.