Haven't posted in a very long time.

I hadn't gotten around to posting here for a while, job during the summer, a lot of rain, and now school severely cut my fishing time down. I did get out a decent amount of times though but nothing serious, a few small bass, a few small catfish and a few average carp. Oh how growing up sucks. I should be heading up to Erie in about 3 weeks, maybe I can get some steelhead and a few picture of them to throw up here. Also hunting season started, haven't gotten jack yet. This spring started of fantastically, ever since it has been slowly getting worse and worse. That is how it goes sometimes though, I think I need to get out and try and catch a few bluegill or something, just to waste some time.

A Few Pics

Sorry, haven't posted in a while, but I will throw a few pics up that I have taken. Haven't been doing good, but still catching a few every once and a while.

Well there you go, some pics of my bass, my first catfish and carp of the year too

Upping the ante

Going after the big guns this year and finally got all my stuff in the mail. I am really excited to try and get a few of the beast bottom dwellers. Well here goes to my 2013 flathead season.

I got a Okuma Epixor Baitfeeder on a Ugly Stik Tiger with 65 pound braid, I am thinking that should be able to handle most flatheads I will be encountering.

Getting really excited

Went out Thursday when I had my day off. I caught 17 more trout, and then went out later with my friend down to the river to only catch 2 bluegill, whatever. Caught them mostly on eggs and did keep my limit this time. It is starting to warm up and they will die soon plus I need some bait for flatheads.... I just finished buying my setup today and am super excited for it to get here. Hopefully everything will arrive by Thursday and I will be able to go and give it a try. Wish me luck. Hopefully I will get some big ones this year and I can post a few pictures of them.

Possible name change in blog

I have been getting a ton of spam links going to my blog, so if I can't find a way to stop it I may be switching links or something, hopefully I can keep all the posts I have written, not sure what to do at the moment. Guess I will have to look around and see what I can do.

Soft striking fish

Are the biggest pain in the arse. Man I can't stand them, missed probably 20 due to how soft and fast they hit. I really like when they hit and you know stay on for more than 1/2 a second. Landed 12 today on a bunch of different stuff. Shrimp pattern, Green Copper John, Scud, and a Rainbow warrior and 2 on my spinning rod. Biggest was around 15 inches, smallest, was pretty damn small.

It only takes 3 guys to ruin a good day...

Thursday I was free from school like normally and decided to go and help stock Pike run again. Did all the normal stuff, threw some fish in the water, you know how it is. After it was all done I fished the last hole we stocked since no one was there. Didn't take to long for that to change, 3 vehicles in about 5 minutes arrived so I decided to bounce and head back to the DHALO section of the creek. Had the hole all to myself when 2 guys and 2 of their kids came down to the hole, no big deal normally. They then pulled out the bait and started using it, I couldn't believe it, they had actually helped stock the creek and now where doing whatever the hell they pleased. I told them they weren't allowed to use corn in the DHALO section, there reply? "I asked the warden, he said you can use corn to fish for trout." Ya you can fish for trout with it, but only where you can fish with bait. They said they didn't realize it was a DHALO section and would head out. But I got frustrated and left before them just hoping they would leave. Talked to a guy the day after who told them about an hour after me that they couldn't use corn there, guess they didn't leave.

Went up to a different hole and was again alone, caught a few there then a man and his 2 kids came down and believe it or not they were using bait. There are about 10 different signs at this hole that the guy apparently didn't see when he walked in after his kids. He then asked if it was a DHALO section which I replied yes to and then he told his kids they would have to leave as he stood there and casted in. I was just dumbfounded and started getting ticked. Then sure enough, like the world new I was already mad, his kid caught a fish that swallowed the hook. Well being good ol dad, don't want to waste a 15 cent hook, he tries to rip it out of the fishes throat, and after about 5 minutes he fails and cuts the line, proceeds to throw the fish out watch it go belly up and then watch his kid kick it. He immediately left after this. What a waste, I was so pissed at him it was unbelievable. Ended up with 17 fish that day, but didn't catch a single fish after the run in with that guy.


I did go out the next day and luckily had a much better day. Only caught thirteen trout and a big sucker, but had a good time bull shitting with 2 guys I met out there. I also caught that 18 incher that I caught about a month ago again, CPR(Catch Photo Release) really works. And I did find out that the 2 wardens out there busted 4 guys for bait in the DHALO section, not the guys the pissed me off sadly. but at least it is something. Found out the one officer was sitting in the woods watching the guys.

Bad picture of the trout, it flopped out of my hand a second before the picture snapped and being stupid I just had to retake it.

Hanging with my bro

Kind of a late post but oh well. Went to Pigeon again with my brother Sunday to try and catch a few more bass. I missed a 18 or so inch largemouth who was really fat, I was not to happy about that. He then missed about a 15 inch largemouth when his reel messed up on him. Stuff happens I guess? Only landed two and he landed a small one and a few bluegill.

On a side note, I have not been fly fishing at all lately and really should get back out and do some of that, but it is really hard to beat these bass.

The last of the minnows

Went back out with my bro to waste the rest of the minnow, sadly he didn't get any bass, but he did have fun catching bluegill. I know that feeling all to well. I landed three more and lost a few nice ones to a beaver dam.

Man I love bass

Went down to pigeon last night and again today, landed 1 and then 3. I caught the one last night on a black and chartreuse grub and the ones from today on big ol' shiners. They were very very sluggish after the big cold front that went through. You could barely tell when they hit it.

Freshwater drum

That sounds a lot better than sheepshead, caught two of these guys when I went back. Saw a few other fish landed, not to much though.

6 trout and 5 bass

Went out to mingo last night and this morning landed 3 each day. Today it hit 80 when I was there so I decided to head to the river and try my luck throwing some mr twisters and worms. Did pretty good, landed 5 bass, 3 different kinds and some nice bluegill and sunfish. Now I am a little sunburnt and planning to head back out to get even more sunburnt.

Sweet Video

Someone shared this on reddit, sweet video of some BWO action in P.A.

Baetis Train

P.A. Undercurrent Outfitters made the video, if you have 5 minutes give it a watch.

I DID IT!!!

153, landed 5 more freshly stocked trout... Nothing to much to brag about but I hit my goal for trout this year, and I couldn't be happier. Now a lot where on opening day which is the easiest day of the year to catch them, so if you take them out I am only at 82 so I am going to try and get 71 more non opening day fish. Very possible and very likely, the thing is I drive now which makes a huge difference. I can go whenever I want, no friends need to drive me nor do my parents, which is great, probably why I got 153 so soon. Great year so far, truthfully can't wait for next year so I can restart it, 200 on the fly and 250 altogether, have to add a few for opening day when it can be kind of hard to fly fish. Setting the bar high but I am O.K. with that. Now I can't wait for my buddy to get home so we can go and catch some wild ones together or at least harder fish from the yough or something. It is a great feeling, one of the goals I was aiming for I hit. Now for some carp and bass action. Well maybe in a few months, the trout are still around.

1000

I just noticed, I hit 1,000 page views today, only took 2 years and some of it was probably from spam sites, but cool shit. Back to fishing though.

Went back out to Mingo today hoping that the crowds had died down a lot, they didn't die down to much. I landed 8, 5 on flies and 3 on salmon eggs again. I did feel pretty good today as I helped a young kid catch a few trout. He was using minnows as bait and killing them, just not seeing ti happen so he missed a good bit of fish. As I stood on the bank I was watching a fish eye up his bait, he grabbed it and I started yelling for him to set the hook. Sadly he didn't realize I was talking to him and didn't get it.... Second time around he did. He said it was his first fish of the year, he dad said thanks. I helped him catch another on and hid brother a second, it felt really good doing so. I ended up sitting on the bank for a few minutes watching as the three brother bickered back and forth and laughed because I do the same with mine. I ended up leaving the hole to move to a different one were I managed three to make my 8. They kid and his brothers landed 6 or 7 in total, it was nice to help out though. Well I hit 148, only 2 more to go, doesn't seem like a problem. That drivers license really helps with getting the number, maybe next year 250? Maybe I should just wait till next year to decide. No fishing tomorrow, probably none Tuesday and again none on Wednesday  stupid classes, oh well. At least Thursday I have a whole day to go out and fish, and a few hours Friday evening.

Well it has come and gone once again.

Had a pretty good day yesterday and it was full of laughs. Got to the creek at around 5 and there was already a bunch of guys. My buddies got there at 6:30 and got stuck on the outer edge of the pool. Started out chucking Trout Slayers, then salmon eggs and that was about it. I caught 27 at this point and decided to start fly fishing. Started out with some fairly normal flies, only picked up a few though. Then switched to eggs again without a bobber or weight and would just let the egg slide down and I would pop it up when it hit the bottom, fish killed it. I also used a leach pattern that caught me around 7 or 8 fish. Then we found a few small redworms on the muddy bank, I laughed and put one on and sure enough a fish hit it, this thing was barely an inch long but it worked pretty good. I ended the day with 71, my buddy will with 27 and my buddy Alex with somewhere around 8 or 9, but he left really early, needed to go home and finish a project for one of his courses.

Well that makes 140 fish, heading back out in a little, hopefully I will get the ten I need. Also I may be putting a video up shortly, friend needs to send it to me, but it is of me catching a fish and releasing it. Gopros are pretty cool, I need to get me on

Monday and Today

Headed back out to Pike Run when I got out of classes, 1 trout on Monday and a trout and a smallie today. I had a decent amount of hits but sometimes a size 18 is pretty hard to get hooked into the fish's mouth. Water was very low and clear, but couldn't see any fish. Eyes have been a little jacked up so I had to wear my classes and couldn't use my polarized sunglasses, oh well. Probably all the fishing I will get to do, looks like the weather is going to get crappy. If we get all the rain we are supposed to, opening day is going to be very interesting for sure.

Little Green Copper Johns

Went back out to Pike Run again, landed six this time around. I got snagged numerous times on the opposite side of the bank, I was losing my mind by the time I left. For some reason I couldn't judge distance and cast for the life of me. Picked 5 of them up on a small size 14 or 16 green copper john and 1 on a rainbow warrior, I think that is what it's called? I could be making that up though. I also landed a minnow, looked like your average minnow you buy from the bait shop, but around 5 or 6 inches. Good day to get back out, nice and warm compared to what I was fishing in the last few times.

67 now, I'd like to get 75 before opening day, not to far off.

Fish I have caught

I was just trying to think of all the fish I have caught and figured I would list them, spinning vs fly fishing. I am going to leave panfish and suckers/chubs out of this, kind of pointless, but I would love for my fly fishing to eventually match up, if not pass up my spinning catches.

Spinning
Catfish (Flathead, Channel, and Bullhead)
Smallmouth
Largemouth
White Bass
Muskie
Trout Stocked (Brook, Rainbow, Brown, and the Pali)
Carp
Walleye
Sauger
Erie Steelhead

Fly
Smallmouth
White Bass
Trout Stocked (Brook, Rainbow, and Brown)
Trout Wild (Brook)
Erie Steelhead

Truth be told, I didn't realize until I just typed this up that, not even counting the catfish, I am going to have one hell of a time catching up. I would like to get Largemouth and Carp out of the way this summer, but for the others? Well those are going to suck, I won't lie. I think most, if not all of the catfish I catch on the fly rod will be pure luck, it seams they mostly are. But I have no idea where I will chase Walleye, Sauger, and Muskie on the fly, hmm guess I will have to figure that out in the future.

19 and a smallie

Went fishing a few more times, didn't write about any of them, nothing amazing happened though. First trip landed 2 more trout uping my count to 58. Then went to the river a few times with nothing to show, not even a hit.

I did go out to Pike run again today and did pretty well. I landed three trout and a smallmouth. The one trout hit 19 inches, my second best on the fly rod, the other being a steelhead. I caught 2 more average trout after that, and then out of the blue landed a 12 to 13 inch smallmouth. Surprised me, but I was excited, new fish on the fly for me, so I won't complain about the size. I will probably be getting back out Thursday, not sure where I will be going but I would like to get out again. Opening day will be here soon opening up my possible streams a lot, pretty excited for that, but the best part of the post, I finally got some pictures, only 2 but enjoy.

The three trout today make a total of 61, slowly but surely getting there.

The Countdown

So my last few fishing trips have been good/bad. I have caught at least 2 fish on all of them, but each time I have gone fishing, my count has gone down by one. If this is truly whats happening I have 1 more outing until I can't catch a single trout anymore. Looks like my fly fishing career is almost over.

Went back out to Pike run today, landed 2, and missed A LOT more, just wasn't paying attention for the most part. Water was good, nice and green so the fish didn't spook to easily. Landed one pretty early and then switched spots, saw a Pali and that was it. Tried and tried and tried some more to catch him but I couldn't. It finally got dark enough and I couldn't see him so I just started casting a Wooly bugger hoping to catch one, I did, should have just done that from the beginning and ignored that freak of a fish. Well I am going back out tomorrow and the first thing I am going to do is try to catch the stupid fish again, its like a bad addiction, it just wont be satisfied till I get him in.

I don't think I wrote my last one or two trips, but I have a total of 56 now.

I truly missed my fly rod

I went back out to Canonsburg today, caught one and missed another and decided after about 45 minutes of no fish that I had had enough of the cold for one day. On my trip home after I had started to warm up, I had a change of heart and went to Pike Run DHALO. I landed 2 here on trout magnet and 1 on a spinner. I really felt out of place without my fly rod though, I feel like I may have been able to manage a few more if I had it, oh well. I will probably head there Saturday evening or sometime Sunday, depends on when I can get the car.

Picture This

Rod gets a hit, fish is about to pull it over the edge, I make a mad dash for it, slip, slide with my face inches from a concrete wall, my hands go perfectly on to the rod, set the hook, and then I catch my fish. 

Did you picture it? Well if you didn't it was awesome. I had forgotten to loosen my drag and I guess the fish they stocked in Canonsburg where a little bigger than normal. My buddy Steve and I went out today for about 2 hours until the cold got to us and we went home. He landed 4 and I landed 6, so ten and all and a few more we missed, not bad for a freezing cold day, temps didn't even break 25 while we were out. I might head out tomorrow, not sure if I want to deal with the cold weather again or not.

Last week I did go up to Meadow Run, water was pretty high, had one fish on that I lost to a tree, my buddy had another two on that he also lost. The water was strong enough we were using 6 weights to chuck the proper weight to get the nymphs to sink fast enough, I normally would use my 3 weight on this creek. It was crazy.

We also ended up not going to Erie, friend cancelled last minute, a few words were exchanged and then we went and ate breakfast the following morning before he left back to school. You just can't hate your bro forever.

It has begun

I helped the PFBC stock trout in a local creek last Wednesday, and then fished for a few hours after in the DHALO section of the creek. I managed 5, 4 on a stonefly nymph and 1 on a conehead woolly bugger I had tied. I took my brother out the next day and managed six, I did use my spinning rod this time and landed 6 on trout magnet. I haven't fished creeks with my spinning rod in a while, I thoroughly enjoyed using it again, brought me back to when I first started fishing.

This past Saturday I went out with a few friends who are home for spring break. We went out to Laurel Hill Creek and helped stock that also, then fished it too. I managed 21 trout on a variety of different patterns and between the two of them they got 16. I felt pretty good about my fishing abilities to say the least. They were pretty stacked up seeing as they were just recently thrown in and drifting nymphs or twitching woolly bugger in front of their faces tended to set them off. I will probably be making my next trip up to Meadow run alone, my buddies "forgot" they were going to Gettysburg with their family. Hopefully I will get a few up their to add to my trout count. So far I have 38 trout, almost at my opening day score from last year.

A few flies I tied up

A very cold fish

Went out today, not to canonsburg though, nor trout fishing, I actually went down to the river after whatever hit my bait. It was one of those days. We only managed 1 fish in about 4 hours of 20 degree weather, it was quite a long 4 hours let me tell you. It was a white bass, not to big but still a fish. I had a few more hits but nothing else brought in. Hopefully it will start to warm up here shortly and I will be able to get a few more of them and maybe some freaking pictures.

Little Powerbait action if you know what I mean

I mean I used powerbait, I think that is the only thing that title could mean. Went out to a local lake that was stocked with trout a few days before hand. I managed 3 in total, not to many but seeing as everyone else I talked to caught none, I feel like I did pretty good. Nothing to brag about or anything, just your averaged stocked trout, I will probably go out again this Thursday to see if I can catch a few more. I am just waiting till March gets here, spring break=tons of fishing. Plus my friends are coming home so I will have some buddy to do my fishing with for a little. More than likely going to make a trip to Laurel Hill creek to help stock, then to Meadow Run a different day, and then up to Erie one last time.

Oops

Sorry about the pictures, I don't have many, my old computer died with most of them on it,I completely forgot about that, I will have to pull the hard drive out and see if I can get them off of it.

School Tomorrow

After a very nice 6 weeks break I will be at it again. This time though I got to make my own schedule, I made sure it was jam packed Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with 5 classes. What does this mean, that I only have one class on Tuesday, and none on Thursday. Now you are saying who cares, I do, I go to a school that has a trout stream right by it, stocked yes, but still fishable. This means on my Tuesday when I arrive 2 hours early I can go do a little fishing, and on Thursday, well I can go wherever I want.

As for my goals for this year, never posted them or really thought about them until now.

1. I want to try and get to the 150 mark again, I made 105 last year, 45 short, but I now have a drivers license so it allows for me to fish more

2.Carp, I caught my bass this summer, but not my carp, so he is still on the list.

3.More fly tying, didn't do enough this year, it is as simple as that.

4. 20 inch trout on the fly. I caught one last year, but it was on a spinning rod, awesome fish so I figured I would try to improve.

5. On my way down to Austin this summer for RTX I would like to fish on state for trout, not sure what one, but I would like to get at least on out of the way and get the ball rolling. We had some problems this year, every time we planned to go to another state something happened and we couldn't go.

I think tomorrow or sometime this week I will put up some pictures of 2012 just like I did last year, I won't lie, reading is never as fun as pictures.

Winter Trout, Not My Thing

Well I went to a few creeks in Fayette County that run into Indian Creek. I got lost, several times, had to stop and ask some random people for directions, several times. Man it was a mess, but it was a very pretty area. Stopped at one of the creeks, I didn't believe it was the right one so I left, tried to find the right one, hit some ice, and then went back to find out the right on was about 100 yards from where I was fishing. In the end I got nothing there and went over to Westmoreland County to try my luck at a wild trout creek there. I had one on, but none to hand, ended up getting water in my wader and stopped fishing early. Depending on the weather I may go out again or not, it is looking pretty harsh this next week.

Wild and Cold

Going up to a few creeks around Forbes State Forest, I believe it is Forbes State Forest, doesn't matter though. It is going to be freezing up there, I just hope the creeks don't have to much ice or anything on them. I will be taking my camera so at least I will get some pictures of the area and creek and such. Well wish me luck.

Elitists and the Uninformed

I recently posted on facebook that "finding good wild trout streams is a pain in the ass." In about 20 minutes one of my "friends" asked if I had found any and asked where they where. I also asked on a forum for a little help trying to find some good streams in the Laurel Highland area. I had someone reply that I needed to get a book and find them. I really hate people like this, both of them. I want to clarify I had indeed spent 2 hours looking and mapping out areas with wild trout, going onto the PFBC site to see what types of fish they held and what the concentration of them was. I also should say, I did have a gentleman give me more than enough information on where to get started, a lot more than I was expecting and I was very thankful. It just pisses me off when someone who knows the area because they live their and don't have to drive an hour won't even get you pointed in the right direction and tells you to go exploring. If the creeks were ten to twenty minutes away I would be all for exploring the area and finding creeks that might have wild trout that aren't named or never fished, but I don't live that close, so I cant do that. It also aggravates me when someone just asks for any info you find, do a little research, I have been doing my own, ya once I find out I will maybe help you out and get you pointed in the right direction, but no I am not going to tell you everything I found. I do understand why the man said to go exploring, he probably thinks I am just a random dude asking for info, but I already looked up everything I could and just wanted a little help from there.

I jumped around a lot there so if it got confusing here is the main idea of it, I hate people who won't help you at all because they did their exploring so you do yours, and I hate people who want to put 0 effort into finding wild trout and just want your information.


OK I vented, I am done, now to fishing. I will hopefully be going out Saturday to a couple creeks to see what they have in store for me. I would like to have a few creeks for when my buddy gets back from college to go fishing. It will be my first time fishing somewhere far away without my fishing buddy, it is going to be real weird, but I guess I will just have to get over that. Hopefully I will find a few wild trout and maybe some stray stocked fish to make my wintry months just a little nicer. First time fishing in the winter for trout to, its definitely going to be an experience  I will try to take my camera and get a few pics, probably not of fish though, don't want to get it wet.

Success in Erie

My neighbor and I went to Erie on Saturday. The creeks were brown and high due to a little rain and snow melt so we ended up fishing the mouth of trout run. Sadly I didn't use my fly rod, to many people and I didn't want to be that guy who took for ever to get a fish in. So I stuck with what I new best, my noodle rod. We arrived when the sun was just rising. I took to long and didn't get a spot right away, I need to learn how to tie my shoes on faster. After a gentleman left I took his spot and had a hit immediately on powerbait, then another, missed both of them. So I tied on a treble hook and SNAGGED him, no I am just kidding, I caught one on my first cast with the powerbait and treble hook though. I guess the single hook had a hard time finding it mouth. I ended up using a whole jar of that stuff without bringing another fish to hand. I had some on, just couldn't get them in. The bite was on and off all day though, they would hit like crazy for 30 or so minutes and then die off for an hour or so. Closer to the end of the day I was using an egg imitation and caught a small jack. Then a little while after a landed a nice one. First time in my Erie fishing history I have ever caught a limit in one day. 6 fish for my Erie career, 3 on this day. Didn't manage to bring anymore to hand, lost a few more though. We ended up with 6 fish brought to hand, 3 each and about 20 hook ups that broke us off or spit the hook. Had a great day though, weather was nice, not tooooo many people, enough were I would have rather been fishing the high creeks, but it was bearable.

I went hunting the day before and today without any luck, but I was happy with Saturday's results. I will be going hunting tomorrow again with a few friends and hopefully going up to the mountains fishing for wild trout a few times in the next two weeks. I would like to get either a wild rainbow or brown before I go back to school, but if I don't wild brook trout will be fine.

Being sick

I don't know if it is a mix of bad sleep habits, stress or my brother getting me sick, but I ended up getting sick and missing a two day trip to Erie. My neighbor called me and asked me if I wanted to go up to Erie Saturday so I figured I better start resting up and start getting to bed earlier. Well I do hope my grandpap gets a few fish up there, and hopefully I will be feeling better by Saturday to go. Kind of sucks that my 3 possible days fishing in Erie dropped down to 1, but you got to take what you are given.

I need to start writing more

I think I am just lazy, but as much as I love sitting down and writing a blog post, I hate it too. It is fun to tell your story for the millions of people on the internet to see, even though I might get about 6 or 7 to look at it consistently, but I guess I should just keep going since I like it. I do miss posts with pictures though, maybe that's why it;s harder to write. I think I need to invest in a water proof camera so I don't need to worry about breaking it.

Well then, went to Erie last Friday with my buddy Will, and let me tell you it was cold. The air was so bad it was the wind that got you. I believe it was around 25 or so degrees, but the wind chill was around 10. We arrived around 9:15 and started fishing by 9:30. We got there are just the right time because the bite started to pick up instantly. I lost 3 or 4 during the next 2 hours and my buddy managed to get 1 with a few lost. I had one fish break off and I guess he thought it would be funny to sit right in front of me, and obviously it was the first one I had on. I had to look at his dumb ass for 2 hours straight sitting there with my hook in its mouth. Well my feet started to freeze of so we headed to the car for some lunch and drove to get some gas so we had a little time to warm up. When we got back we decided we would try further up the creek. We saw 2 fish and said the hell with it and went back down to were we started. We each had a few more hook ups but none of them wanted to come in. It was almost pitch black and we decided we should probably call it a day. We ran to the nearest McDonalds and grabbed our favorite meal, the Premium Chicken Sandwich, that thing is delicious, give it a try trust me. All in all we only managed 1 fish that my buddy caught and a smolt that I caught, lucky me 2 times in a row now I've caught a smolt.

Looks like I will be going up Thursday and Friday with my grandfather, but that is weather depending, this warmer weather coming could make or break the creeks. Hopefully the weather is in favor of us and I want come back empty handed. Actually I will probably come back empty handed no matter what because I don't really think I want to spend the time cleaning fish.