Allegheny Dreaming

Chris Wolfgong displays a typically Allegheny River smallmouth. Photo courtesy of Chris Wolfgong.

Cooler temperatures bring hotter fishing action to many smallmouth rivers, including northwest Pennsylvania's Allegheny River, which has grown into one of my absolute favorite places to fish (although I often have to settle for vicarious fishing through reports from fellow outdoor writer Darl Black and his fishing buddies). With September starting tomorrow, it's hard avoid drifting into an Allegheny smallmouth dreamland.

The Allegheny continually alternates between gravel shoals and deep, boulder-strewn runs, with mostly wooded and hilly banks. Smallmouths abound and are the main attraction, but occasionally you'll get surprised by a big walleye or even a muskie.

I don't see an Allegheny visit in this fall's plans, but I will get to visit another favorite smallmouth stream -- Arkansas' beautiful Buffalo River -- in two weeks. First, however, I have some big Tennessee River cats to tangle with. More on that later!

Underwater View from Minnesota State Fair

Ever wonder what it would be like to swim with muskies, walleyes, smallies and assorted other game fish? If so, check this out! It's a live view from the Minnesota State Fair Fish Pond, and it will be active day and night for the next couple of weeks. Watch at different times of the day to see how the fish behave under various conditions. Who knows? You might even catch 'em at feeding time!

The really cool thing is that the amazingly clear footage is being shot with a MarCum underwater camera - a camera designed for fishermen. The camera is self-adjusting to provide the best view in all lighting conditions, and even has an LED light source to enhance night viewing! Take a peek for yourself and then consider your own fishing applications!

Learn more about possibilities by visiting MarCum online.

The live view is a joint project of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which operates the pond, and MarCum Technologies.

Picky Pond Fish

I've seen plenty of finicky trout over the years, but seldom (if ever) have I seen bluegills as finicky as they were yesterday.

Nathaniel had convinced me to join him on the pond because fish were popping all over the top. He was sure we'd catch fish like never before, and I must admit that I sort of thought he was right.

Although fish were rising everywhere and I could even see the bream coming to the top, I didn't see any kind of hatch coming off. Looking more closely at the water, the surface was covered with what appeared to be dead winged ants.

As many fish as there were feeding around us and as aggressive as bluegills and pond bass tend to be, I thought we could throw virtually anything and catch them. Boy was I ever wrong. We started with bass lures - a buzzbait and a Dinger, and then downsized to Road Runners and other panfish lures. We tried other plastics, jigs and topwaters. Even a tiny marabou panfish bait. A few missed strikes from seemingly small fish, but not a single hook-up.

Best I can figure, the bream had adopted a trout mentality. They had so many ants to feed on, there was simply no reason to risk eating anything that didn't "match the hatch."

Having struck out in the middle of the pond, where all the bream were rising, we turned to dependable banks to salvage the afternoon with a few bass. Few bass had been among the rising bream, so we thought they would be in their usual places. Not so. Seemingly they'd gorged themselves already.

I manged one bass that might have been too small to have taken part in the ant feast!

5-Year-Old Trolling Motor

Asher, my 5-year-old, had been eager to show me his paddling skills, so we slipped off to our favorite pond for a while yesterday afternoon. We fished initially from the bank, with Nathaniel catching a couple of bass, and then launched the canoe for a quick fishing lap.

I paddled initially and the boys and I fished, but eventually I surrendered the paddle to Asher and sat back to watch while Nathaniel coached and Asher steered the boat. Considering that he was working from the front of the canoe and was the only one paddling, with his big brother and his dad in the boat, Asher did a very good job of steering and moving us along.

I even caught a bass with Asher in control, something I had failed to do while fishing from the bank or when I was controlling our positioning. Great job, Asher.

Kevin Hawk Wins Cup

Officially, Kevin Hawk is from Ramona, Califonia, but he used a hard-earned "local edge" to help win the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup on Georgia's Lake Lanier. Hawk made a temporary move to Buford, GA last November, as soon as he qualified for the cup through the FLW Series National Guard Western Division. Since moving across the country, he has fished the lake every day possible, often from sun-up to sundown, to learn as much as possible about it's deep clear waters, its spotted bass, its blueback herring and more.

Hawk does not intend to stay in Georgia, but he's also not headed back to California. Instead, he and another FLW pro intend to rent a house near Alabama's Lake Guntersville.

Hawk, who caught his fish drop-shotting and by casting a Fish Head Spin rigged with a Zoom Fluke, noted that the similarities between Lake Lanier and the deep clear waters in Southern California helped him feel at home on the lake right away. Adding credence to that notion, three of the top six finishers in the Cup were from California, and a fourth was from Washington.

Final Weigh-In About to Start

Rumor has it that the final six had to pick and scratch for every fish and work a lot of spots but that some nice fish fish will be weighed. The weigh-in festivities have begun. It's only a matter of minutes before they start weighing fish.

And Then There Were Six

Only six pros remain in the Forrest Wood Cup, and those six will duke it out today on Lake Lanier. In fact, they blast off from Laurel Park in about five minutes! The final field ranges from the biggest names in the sport in Larry Nixon and Brent Ehrler to relative unknowns in the the sport of professional bass fishing.

Interestingly, two of the lesser known anglers, Kevin Hawk and Troy Morrow, have local addresses. Hawk is actually from California, but he has been living in North Georgia for several months and fishing Lanier every possible moment in preparation from this tournament. Morrow is from Toccoa. Tom Mann Jr., another local who was considered the favorite in this tournament by many fishing fans, missed the final cut by only a few ounces and finished in seventh.

They'll weigh 'em this afternoon at the Gwinnett Center and someone will go home with the title of champion and an extra 1/2 million dollars (or more) in his bank account.

Western Flavor

It was suggested by several fishing tournament analysts that western pros might do well in the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier, which, like many California lakes, is deep, clear and crowded with pleasure boaters and can become difficult to fish during the summer.

After two days of the Cup, there seems to be some truth to that idea as three of the top six anglers, including leader Cody Meyers, are from California. Also in the pack is Jason Meninger of Gainesville, GA, a recognized Lanier expert.

Bass fishing legend Larry Nixon holds the No. 2 spot after two days. In third place is Jason Christie of Oklahoma, who reported that yesterday's limit was the first he had ever caught on a spinning rod and weighed in a tournament.

The field was cut to 30 anglers for tomorrow. Only the top six after tomorrow will fish on Sunday.

Day 2 Weigh In About to Start.

The rumble around the FLW Outdoors show is that some bigger bags were caught today; however, I've not heard who caught 'em. I'm in the Gwinnett Center auditorium at the moment, about 15 minutes before weigh-in time. Hank Parker and Jimmy Houston on stage, getting everyone fired up.

Mann in Crowd

The Forrest Wood Cup got underway at 7:00 this morning, and by 8:00 Tom Mann Jr. already had eight spectator or camera boats following him from spot to spot. Mann, who lives near Lake Lanier in Buford and who has fished its deep clear water for decades is considered by many the favorite to win the tournament. I'm glad to report that everyone was staying a respectful distance back and staying out of Mann's way.

The tournament launched at Laurel Park, which is well up Lanier's Chestatee River arm. Most boats turned right (down lake) at blast off, but eight or ten turned left, heading up the Chestatee.

I spent a few hours on the lake riding with a volunteer from a local bass club to shoot photos and check out the action. Most anglers we saw appeared to be fishing structure near deep water with drop-shot rigs or other finesse approaches. We didn't venture way up the rivers, though.

We did see a handful of fish caught, including a couple from the backs of boats.

It'll be fun to see what everyone brings to the scales this afternoon!

Championship Close to Home

The Forrest Wood Cup begins this week on Lake Lanier, just down the road from me, and I'm looking forward to the big event. It's the championship for the FLW Tour, and 78 pros are competing for a first prize of half a million dollars.

An interesting thing from my own perspective is that while the nearest part of Lanier is less than 20 miles from my home, I've spent WAY more time Arkansas' White River, the upper Mississippi in Minnesota, Pickwick Lake in North Alabama and numerous other places.

One good and bad about being an outdoor writer is that I get opportunities to fish in a lot interesting places. I love visiting other waters and sampling their offerings, but I end up spending most of my Georgia work time in my office, writing fish stories. I do get out in North Georgia and western Carolina trout and smallmouth streams as often as possible, but I really haven't spent much time on Lanier, despite the fact that it's one of the world's finest spotted bass fisheries.

Although I have no claim to Lanier as home waters for the reasons just described, there's still something cool about having such a big event in your back yard, and I plan to spend as much time as possible watching blast-offs and weigh-ins and roaming around the FLW Outdoors Expo this weekend at the Gwinnett Center. I'll do my best to pass along some of what I find.