skerie Posted December 11, 2014 Posted December 11, 2014 The New Year is almost upon us, so how was your year of fishing this year? any new PRs? new favorite tactics/baits/lures/flies? My year of fishing started off pretty horribly, ice didn't come off the lakes up here in Northwestern PA until late (Kinzua Lake and East Branch - Clarion Reservoir are the only lakes near me - worth fishing within an hour). Got to be decent fishing only in the second week of may - as a side note, we typically make a crappie trip up every year to Tioga for three days - usually the group of us split up 500 fish between the big group, this year we barely managed to get 110 (that whole week was 40-50 degrees and extremely windy - may 3-5), but the second week, it FINALLY warmed up, and we did pretty well, and started getting into bass - which we obv didn't keep. Musky fishing this year was rough, caught a few alright-ish ones.. but most we caught were under 26 inches... or they were pike. Catfishing this year was spectacular, hammered tons of nice Channels, and boy did they taste good. walleye was horrendous this year.. every fish I grabbed ahold of was like 10 inches at my main walleye lake. best bass fishing all summer for me was with the trusty fly rod..and I think I definitely will adopt that into my arsenal more thoroughly this year, as that w as fairly new. how bout it guys? Quote
Catch 22 Posted December 11, 2014 Posted December 11, 2014 I`ve been to Kinzua many times even though I live far away. I like to chase the eyes north of de border. Chances are you know the Bell boys that I fish and stay with up that way. I have a few interesting stories to tell if we ever meet.. C22 Quote
skerie Posted December 11, 2014 Author Posted December 11, 2014 Kinzua... good ol' Kinzua.. Always some interesting folk up in this direction. It's a nice lake, but can get nasty in the blink of an eye... real finicky too with where the fish hide out.. you can be in the most perfect spot, on the most perfect day anyone had ever seen, and every danged fish in the lake will be suspended above 100' of water in the middle of the lake.. I know a few Bells from both Custer City and Bradford that fish the zoo hard. I'm not surprised you have a few stories, haha, I do as well. Never know who you're going to run into up there.. either get mugged, hugged, or drugged Quote
Catch 22 Posted December 11, 2014 Posted December 11, 2014 I heard Straub`s Beer Co in St Marys laided off two workers since I don`t get up there much anymore. Sorry for that. I used to fish the river at Warren, some ,not much. Quote
skerie Posted December 11, 2014 Author Posted December 11, 2014 They did lay off two.. their management is a little rough, we know the family that owns it really well (St. Marys is rather small, everyone knows everyone). Good beer, but sometimes they need to check their attitude towards their workers - all in all good guys though. The river, where it comes in to warren, I actually caught some beautiful browns this year, way more fun, and bigger fish than I ever do for steelhead in Erie. the real action this year, though has been right at the spillway, at late night, watching the massive paddlefish swimming under the lights, beautiful, majestic creature, man.. watched that thing making loops for hours while we were fishing Quote
Catch 22 Posted December 11, 2014 Posted December 11, 2014 That's wild,didn`t know paddle fish are in there. Quote
skerie Posted December 11, 2014 Author Posted December 11, 2014 yup! NY state stocks them and (I believe) Lake sturgeon - both were originally in the lake but faded out. There are a significant number of paddlefish up on the NY side, but below the spillway there are 5 or 6 that are of great size swimming around, If you ever come up this way and are up to fish a night, I could show you some of them, as well as some good walleye fishing. At night, there's this small pipe spitting a small stream of water into the spillway from 10-15 feet above, and there's a great deal of light coming down from the power-plant, and they swim around by that pipe, one that we've seen regularly is probably around 55" or so, one night it even kicked its tail out of the water before it took off like a rocket, it was beautiful and insane to see. Quote
Catch 22 Posted December 11, 2014 Posted December 11, 2014 Cool,1`ll keep that in mind if I come up.Thanks C22 Quote
skerie Posted December 11, 2014 Author Posted December 11, 2014 Definitely, message me if you ever wanna fish anywhere up here - St. Marys, Bradford, Warren, sometimes we hit up State College, get ahold of me some time brother Quote
Super User SPEEDBEAD. Posted December 11, 2014 Super User Posted December 11, 2014 Had a very good early part of the year but two major rain events caused some drastic changes to my normal lake. Usually my best fishing is done through the summer months and this summer just didn't yield anything really worthwhile. Inching closer to the DD mark. That's the ultimate goal. 1 Quote
skerie Posted December 11, 2014 Author Posted December 11, 2014 Had a very good early part of the year but two major rain events caused some drastic changes to my normal lake. Usually my best fishing is done through the summer months and this summer just didn't yield anything really worthwhile. Inching closer to the DD mark. That's the ultimate goal. Same with my lake, huge rainstorm that had Ridgway underwater, and flooded most of north central/northwestern PA... both main lakes I fish were inaccessible by boat. My best fishing is through the hot summer months as well, and into early fall. what's your normal lake if you don't mind me asking? -I'm a ways away from that double digit figure yet, haha, I need to dedicate more time to bass this summer, as I tend to fish musky in the summer and fall, and bass when I'm not fishing musky, but usually smallmouth - as they're more plentiful near me. My biggest smally was 5 lbs, and biggest largemouth was just about 7 lbs I'll get there eventually just learned of a new bass spot locally, so will definitely be hitting that up when I can Quote
Super User SPEEDBEAD. Posted December 12, 2014 Super User Posted December 12, 2014 I'm devoting more time to musky now too. I fish the upper Potomac for them so with being river fish, they don't have the girth of lake fish but man, do they have some shoulders on them during a fight! 2 Quote
Super User tomustang Posted December 12, 2014 Super User Posted December 12, 2014 Crappie has been a lot lower here as well, much shorter numbers and thinner offerings. I didn't even keep any this year. I can't complain for this bass season, it's still going for me until the water gets hard. The wife and I had 4 over 7lb and numerous over 5lb. I really didn't get out as much as I wanted to due to other reasons, but I'm satisfied. 2 Quote
a1712 Posted December 13, 2014 Posted December 13, 2014 Speedbead, your DD is coming, just a matter of time. You're in the correct waters, you definitely know what your doing, it's just being there at the right time. I say by August. Brian. 2 Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted December 14, 2014 Super User Posted December 14, 2014 I got a new largemouth PB but I had to sneak down to Florida to do it. Smallie fishing on lake Erie was tougher this year than most other years. Quote
Mobydick Posted December 15, 2014 Posted December 15, 2014 I focused on finding some new water this year, specifically creeks. The best fishing I had this year was early fall, both for numbers and size. I fished some new areas and was very impressed with the quality of fish but not the quantity. I have been spending a lot of time on my map software, next year will be very interesting! Quote
PAGreg Posted December 15, 2014 Posted December 15, 2014 Sadly Tioga was not as good this year as the previous year. Coldsvt and I love fishing there but didn't spend much time there this year. We fished Cowanesque quite a bit instead. The cow fished amazing this year. Spent a lot more time on the finger lakes this year and learned a ton. I'm now addicted to pitching docks. Cannot wait for spring! Coldsvt and I are looking to head to Smith Mountain lake in March to get an early start on the season. Last March we hit Lake Norman. Quote
ColdSVT Posted December 17, 2014 Posted December 17, 2014 I had a great year both by myself and with PAgreg. Our skill certainly improved and we also fished a lot of new water I got better at deep crankin and drop shots, got a personal best hybrid striper, and i won the Tackle Shack Open Only got skunked once and that was the last trip on the cow in late october Tioga was tough this year while i had my best year ever on cowanesque. I also did very well on hammond this year...good numbers and size. Only took me forever to figure out hammond lol Quote
Megastink Posted December 17, 2014 Posted December 17, 2014 I love in SE Pa. Had a great season. Won some tournies, Improved my game, made the right decisions when I had to. Looking forward to this next year! Quote
Super User tomustang Posted December 17, 2014 Super User Posted December 17, 2014 I love in SE Pa. Had a great season. Won some tournies, Improved my game, made the right decisions when I had to. Looking forward to this next year! Hopefully you'll find a decent boat next year Quote
Megastink Posted December 18, 2014 Posted December 18, 2014 Hopefully you'll find a decent boat next year Gotta put the boat on hold until the wedding is paid for, then the house..... Then the tow vehicle..... Then kids....... Oh well...... Quote
Super User SPEEDBEAD. Posted December 19, 2014 Super User Posted December 19, 2014 Gotta put the boat on hold until the wedding is paid for, then the house..... Then the tow vehicle..... Then kids....... Oh well...... Hey, need a wedding photographer? 1 Quote
Megastink Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 Hey, need a wedding photographer? Why yes, we do. But we're not there yet in the planning. Message me if you have info. Quote
ColdSVT Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 ^^^dont do it!!!!!! Fishing is more important that marriage! 2 Quote
Super User SPEEDBEAD. Posted December 23, 2014 Super User Posted December 23, 2014 Why yes, we do. But we're not there yet in the planning. Message me if you have info. PM on its way Quote
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