Spankey

I’ll fish up there on a few creeks. Little Lehigh and Jordan Creek. Those wild Rainbows on the LL are good looking fish. Colors will knock your eyes out. Was out this morning doing a combination of spin fishing and fly fishing in a couple sections of French Creek. Had a rough start. Was able to get them to take a couple different San Juan worms. I was a happy guy. Admittedly I’m a fly fishing hack. I just try to give it heck. San Juan worm is like fishing live bait. I like fishing a bead head version or I just split shot them. Missed a few fish on a Joe’s Fly. Another bait I just splitshot them. I don’t own any of the weighted version. See where they have 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 oz. versions. Will maybe order some 1/16 even if for next season. I’ll be directing all my attention to smallies real soon. Good fishing.

Saturday night rains got creek levels up slightly, and created a lot better flow conditions on two local creeks. Caught some nice brown trout on a streamer and bead head nymphs. Water clarity slightly got stained. Not what I thought it was gonna be. Streamers I was using had chartreuse in them.

In my trout bag I have a version of a Trout Magnet that are Craws. They are very effective. The white one and a green and gray work well. Sort of like a NED. Sort of like a tiny jig. But I don’t fish they under a float like a traditional Trout Magnet. I’m going to primarily be trout fishing but when I get to where this one spillway is on the creek I’m expecting smallies to be there. Have been there in the past. Dang thing of it is sometimes those creek smallies wont hit anything but live bait (minnows).

I’ll be fishing a Trout stream a couple of counties over mid-week next week. A lot of Smallies in there. I won’t pass up fishing for them. Will throw Power Grubs or CB Slider Grubs. I suspect 3” Power Trout Worms could work also.

Just wondering how you guys have been making out. I realize this is a bass site but Billy Boy has to trout fish or his mind ain’t right. Have been doing it since a young kid and enjoy it still as much. In S.E. Region water levels have been low. With low flow. Air temps have been above average also. Have some rain suppose to kick in on the weekend and will be well deserved. Have been going at it with Fly Fishing and Spinning gear and have been catching my share of fish. Mostly just fishing on the move along stretches. Caught two nice rainbows on a Panther Martin this morning at sun up. Have only fished on somewhat of a local scale lately. Had appointments I’ve had to fish around but they are taken care of now. Majority stocked fish with a few hold overs in it. This coming week I’ll be hitting some nice fly fishing stretches. I’m an admitted fly fishing hack. Don’t know all the hatches by location, just fish a few flies that work. Most likely won’t get any fishing in this weekend. I’m taking my one grandson and some of his buddies to fish for trout. I’m pretty sure they will keep my busy. If I can educate them some. And a few fish get caught it will be a perfect weekend. Sorry for the long rant. Just wondering how y’all have been making out with the conditions we are facing.

I’ve used the 3” version of “natural” and “blue craw” on the river for smallies. They produced fish. The Bandito Bug is a good bait also. I have no desire to get into it about Googan one way or the other. They seem to put out a quality product.

Mo I wish I could have made out as well as you. 4” and 6” black ct’s and 4” and 6” pumpkinseed CT’s were a killer. I’ll put them up there with some of my favorite baits. I think Lucky-E-Strike took a nose dive as of recently.

You are probably right. My first guess was maybe ‘79 or ‘80.

Put that baby on an ol’ pistol grip casting rod and take a step back in time.

On a bait caster 10-12 lb. But I’ll fish 8 lb. On a lighter setup I have. Spinning 6-8 lb. Majority of my setups are 6 lb. but some soft plastics I fell better with 8 lb. Sort of like the med. light vs. medium.

I retired this past June. Slightly early but I jumped on it. Am I fishing, hunting and shooting clays ALL THE TIME? No because I have other things to do like work around the house and help others (kids & friends) if they need a hand. But I am fishing when I want to. Not trying to squeeze it in in a window on the weekend or go a night after work when I wasn’t really prepaired for. I’m loving this being on trout water at sunup and fishing till 8:30 am, the same will be smallie fishing on the river. Back to back to back mornings at dark waiting for sunup and pulling the plug by 9:30 or 10:00 am. I never even unhook my trailer when I get home. Work around the house some. Sleep some. Head back to the river. That was the life last summer. Gonna be the same this summer.

I have not picked it up yet. Being the Rapala junkie I am, I wanted to see it first without ordering blindly. Do doubt it will work. I didn’t jump on the OG Slim bandwagon real quickly but finally did last season. I fish them like a DT. My be designed for cold water but I throw it at anytime.

My Weber Propane is on its last leg. I’ll be buying another in a few weeks. I used it hard this winter. At fall time never thought I’d make it through the winter. It owes me nothing, gets used hard, replaced burners and deflectors. Couple of igniters also. Broken tree branch bent my lid a few years back. I use a grill/smoker a lot also. Some things are just meant for that. Whether 100 deg. + days or when only 13 deg. with snow on the ground I love it. One of the few things that makes me happy. Good eats.

I’ve had many of them also. Wish we could get together and swap some kidney stone stories. The pain is not funny as you well know. But after they pass or after the operation and think back on the places you got the attack or where you realize where you are with a stuck one can get pretty funny, but not at the time. Hope you feel better. Wish we could get a few good laughs.

I don’t see an increase in productivity when a plastic bait looses a tail, claw or appendages.

My favorite of my deer rifles is a Savage model 99 in .243, maybe not the best choice but it was I bond I made with that gun years ago. Shot placement is very important with these lighter calibers. I have a Model 70 in .270 and Remington GameMaster in 30-06 both tack drivers. But hunting with that straight English style stock 99 just happens to be my favorite.

This season I have to pick back up throwing more “pinks” for smallies and large 10” worms for lake greenies. Pink soft plastics got me a few river smallies. A phobia of pink that I’m over now. At the lake it will be a series of early mornings and end of daylights and fishing nothing but these big worms. Mixing them in more. When you throw 4”-6” worms, that 10” seems off the chart but it should work. Just have to make it work.

What does a crawdad smell like? Do they all smell the same? Does a PA crawdad smell the same as a Wisconsin crawdad? Can’t say I’ve had a Smallie smell like anything or smell out of ordinary. Have caught a lot of smallies. I’ve kept smallies in my livewell and have never opened the lid and get knocked to my knees with the smell of anything. I’ve caught a few Spotted Muskies while smallie fishing and they had a sulphuric smell to them. A few tiger muskies that had an odor but not as strong as the Spotted. Healthy fish showing no signs of a sickness. These were immediately released and skin (slime layer) not touched. Maybe that smell/excretion has to do with surroundings. I don’t know. Smell or no smell of smallies I keep my livewell washed, clean and flushed. I’ve had them hock up a bunch of crawdad parts while being in the tank. Can only imagine the smell of that in a day or so of not getting flushed out.

I use them. If I’m drift fishing a river bank and get a nice hook up I’ll drop one over and continue on for a ways or keep fishing a certain stretch. I’ll motor back up past my marker, put on a drift troll and pick it back up on the way past. Sometimes you pick up another decent fish from that spot or a nicer fish. Worth having a couple/few on the boat.

Good luck with it. Mine are a couple generations back. I fish two REVO Winches and am very satisfied with them. I’m pretty much a Shimano Fan Boy that strayed and I glad I did. I believe a new Winch version is coming. I just can’t find a lot of Abu stuff locally.

My water clarity can vary a lot from week to week and month to month fishing primarily the river. I’m a bit old school mostly throwing the puppy spooks, Pop-R’s and Tiny Torpedoes. The Chug Bug another productive lure. I use the on the river and the lake. I’ve thrown some MegaBass, Googan, River2Sea, Berkley stuff, have caught fish but I think the older baits truly work better. Confidence thing????Maybe, maybe not.

Not a big fan of Wally World, ones near me the fishing and shooting sports section has a lot to be desired. Their pet supplies and treats for my grand dogs is a pretty good spread though. Anyway the Mann’s SuperFrog are on clearance for $2.00 each, picked a few up for that price. Not sure if all Wally World’s price are the same. They should. Patterns are pretty basic. White, bullfrog and black w/ red flake. Frogging is not a huge part of my fishing but these are a slight different profile to the ones I throw. Worth a try. Hope your Wally has them for that.

Tell me about it. I have no complaints about $33.00 but some states are very reasonable and have better bass fishing on average than me locally.

Pull over Carhartt hoodies. Not much for zipper type. Not much for sweatshirts without a hood on them really. Have quite a few colors of them. I think the young folks are the ones that have Carhartt as a company in good shape these days. The young folks I guess are the ones that help make all the color option a good thing these days. Not all that long ago colors were very limited. My favorite are the Carhartt Rain Defenders pullover hoodies. Made a bit heavier duty compared to the mid-weights. Only a few bucks $$ more, but worth it in my opinion.

Not sure if it was 62 today but close. About 55 on was back from grocery a bit ago. No wind. About the same tomorrow. Hard to believe with the deep freeze we were just in. The hard water we had will be gone. Suppose to rain Saturday and remain a bit warm for a few days. May help some duck hunting.