plnoldrick

Great fish! Man I look at those pictures and wish we had some of the water you guys have up there. Rocky lakes are so much more scenic then these mud pits down here in PA. Most people head south when they retire, personally, I'm headin north!

wading in a river, right next to 2 really hot girls fishing (which is a rarity) I hooked and landed (from the river not off a person) some little girls bikini bottom. So there I stand with 2 hot chic's eye screwin me while I have a doubled over rod with a pair of some kids bottoms swinging from a hook. Low point of my week for sure...... I just walked away in shame...

I actually live over near beaver but that fish was taken at Keystone power dam. Thanks everyone, It's nice to finally catch a lake Erie sized fish when your not at lake Erie.

Right now and for the next month or so suspending jerkbaits like pointers and staysee's with long pauses and violent rips and Traps dead sticked and ripped off the bottom. Rest of the year...Tubes, dropshot roboworms, tubes, buzzbaits, tubes, football head jigs, tubes

Went out this past Saturday and got my new personal best smallie. Surface temp was 41 degrees mid day and in the morning it was so cold, ice was forming in my guides. Fish went 5lb14oz on an x-tools scale. Caught on a long pause with a LC staysee. God bless Pointers and staysee's during early season!! Ended the day with another fish slightly over 5 and a 3lber. Three smallies for 14lbs, what more could anyone ask for?

IMO forget the gear ratio, pay attention to how much line it picks up per crank. The E7 picks up 30" per turn at 7:1 while a daiwa hsta which is 6.3:1 picks up 28" and a core 50 at 7:1 picks up 28" while a core 100 picks up 26" at 6.2:1 Maybe it's just me but i do not even pay attention to gear ratios anymore, just line retrieved per crank. seems to me that gear ratios are to baitcasters what bearing count is to spinning reels, a selling point.

personally i like letting wacky rigged senkos fall down the sides or running cranks parallel to the sides.

lindy tube inserts and a good ewg hook. i could pobably keep a tube for a couple trips if i tried.

out of curiosity have you ever fished any of the three (really 4) rivers? Or would you be basing your opinion on what you have seen these guys catch? I see a lot of the "pro's" and other people slamming this place pretty hard. frankly its pretty lame to do so because they are mad they havent found the 20" smallies or the huge schools of spots that the rivers are polluted with. I personally fish all 4 of the rivers and can safely say there are a lot more, and much bigger fish here than you have seen from the classic and the FWC. fact of the matter is this place is difficult to fish to people who arent familiar with it. Pro or not you need to put a hell of a lot more than a couple days of practice in to consistently catch bigger fish here. lastly try to remember A) its up north, we do not have the growing season you have down south not to mention florida strain largemouth it's a river system with an extremely healthy population of a lot of other fish than bass and the competition for food out there is pretty high C) There is a lot of pressure on these waters all season long and D) this isnt like the river systems you see normally with large tidal influences look it is what it is, just watch it, enjoy the competition and try to remember this isnt texas or florida or california.

you can run a glass boat up there but like any river things change by the rainstorm so be on the lookout and travel in the channel if your not sure. it gets barge traffic so obviously its deep enough for that. if your not limited to pool 7 i would suggest locking up to fish near east brady. mahoning and redbank creek dump in up there. lotta good current and smallies. if your limited to 7 get up by the dam and watch your a$$ up there for sunken crap that'll peel you open like a sardine can.

great river, tons of smallies with a good amount of bruisers mixed in as well as other species like trout etc.. its a pretty long stretch of water but most of it is completely untouched. no secret to fishing it, look for current breaks, big rocks and eddies and you'll have a blast.

2 about a week ago, one about 14" and the other 18" probably 3-3 1/2lbs ledgebusting a 3/4 oz war eagle spinnerbait

wow i havent been to that place in like 15 years! i used to stop there when i was a kid to buy minnows for hardcore 6" sauger action up above the dam. come to think of it i havent been to any of those ma and pa places in a very long time. its just so convenient with tackle warehouse, bps and cabelas a click away on the net.

Looks like the Homestead Grays Bridge... Is that a guess or just an observation? it would have to be a guess since its the tarentum bridge. is that little tackle shop still there under the bridge? they used to have a pretty good selection of tubes.

last year i was fishing in the middle of some rocks in a spillway. it was cold and not a soul was around or on the lake. i was taking very long pauses dragging a jig. all of a sudden i heard a limb snap to my right. 2 full grown coyotes were crouched and coming onto the rocks. im assuming they were starving and gonna try thier luck with me. well a little .40 caliber persuasion later and they were full throttle into the woods never to be seen again. i would have plugged them since its legal all year in PA but before i started peeling off shots a flash went through my head "what the hell are you gonna do with the bodies?" so i just softened up the hillside a little bit. normally coyotes do not alarm me. when they get that close to people on purpose though its only for a few reasons like starvation or some kind of sickness. that makes things a little dangerous.