Pine Bluff Preview

While I was in South Carolina last week, I got a chance to sample the offerings of a new fishing club that is being developed on property that fronts the Edisto River near the town of Ridgeville. Kevin Davis of Black Camp on the Santee Cooper Lakes thought a trip the Pine Bluff Sportsmen's Club property would yield good photo opportunities, and he was most certainly correct. Limited time only allowed us to fish one of the five ponds on the property, but a few hours on a single pond yielded a terrific mixed catch of crappie, bluegills and bass, including the largemouth in the photo above, which provided quite a surprise and a test to my ultralight gear when it attacked a 1/16-ounce Road Runner.

The club and the complete management plan are still being developed, but the ponds, which are restored sand mining pits, have been maturing over the years and already provide outstanding fishing opportunities. No doubt I'm hopeful to get back out there to spend time sampling more spots!

First Fish of 2019

I'm not sure which is worse: that I didn't catch my first fish of 2019 until the about the third week of January or that it took a two more weeks to finally mention it in a blog post. Both are true, so I suppose it doesn't matter.

Fish No. 1 for me this year was the redfish pictured above, caught on a Bozka Salt Runner from Florida's Nassau River while I was fishing with Chris Holleman. It was in a high marsh area along the edge of the main river that you have to get into (and back out of) while the tide is pretty high or you'll be there till the next high tide! We managed to catch a couple of reds from that area and got out while we could. The same trip, which included time in the boat with Chris and with Nathan Johnson and Tim Mann, produced some more redfish, quite a few speckled trout and a few largemouth bass, although I didn't catch any of the bass, thus leaving my 2019 species list tally at two.

Next on the agenda is Santee Cooper, followed by Lake Guntersville, so it would seem I should start to get some freshwater species on this year's list. I would say, "reports to follow," but based on my recent blogging history and how it has compared to my intentions, I probably shouldn't state that as a fact quite yet.

A Dozen Delightful Days

Yesterday, I recapped half a dozen specific favorite fish from 2014, so today I thought I'd highlight a few of my favorite days on the water. When I looked back, though, I had a hard time narrowing it to a few. In fact, I picked a dozen, and I'd have a hard time ranking those, which only serves to remind me what a blessing it is to get to travel and fish and write fish stories for a living. And even with a dozen stellar days listed, I could have included several others. Listing is roughly in calendar order. Where a fuller post from the day exists, I've included "Blog Post" link.

Alabama Baitcaster Crappie - TJ Stallings and I spent a crazy fun day catching giant black crappie on Road Runner Rollin' Runners matched with 4-inch swimbaits, all on baitcasting gear with 14-pound test. Most weighed 2 pounds or more. Two broke the 3-pound mark. Blog Post

Bass Crazy Hobie Day - Nathaniel and I got to spend a couple of days with the Hobie Kayaks crew, trying out boats and taking photos, and enjoyed some seriously fast action bass fishing on private waters in South Alabama. In case you've ever wondered, fishing with your son, each in your own little Hobie Pro Angler, and catching more bass than you count, is seriously fun.

Wading the White - During last year's Gaston's trip, Nathaniel and I spent half a day fishing on our own, and as much as I always enjoy going out with the guides, there was something extra fun about wading shoals straight out from the resort, picking our own spots and catching a bunch of trout on Rebel Crawfish and Minnows and Ugly Bugs. Blog Post

Dry Run Farewell - No fishing for me on this outing. It was Nathaniel's final two-hour visit to his
favorite youth-only stream in Arkansas before he turned 16, and he managed to catch a huge and beautiful brown trout.

Niagara Slam - I mentioned this day with Capt. Frank Campbell yesterday because it included a brown trout that was one of my favorite individual fish from 2014. We mostly fished for smallmouths, and I'd guess we caught 50-plus fish that range from about 3 pounds to a weighed 5-15. Then, we put a cap on the day by running up the river and adding a steelhead and a lake trout.

Deadwood Finale' - Simple and fun. Wading right through Deadwood, South Dakota with friends from Cabela's and then exploring the canyon just downstream of town and catching more than our share of beautiful brown trout. Blog Post

Smallmouths in Sight - Clear, shallow water in the Sturgeon Bay areas and loads of big smallmouths absolutely locked in. Let's just say that we put the new Ugly Stik Elite outfits to a really good test that day!

El Salto, El Grande - This is another one I mentioned yesterday because it included my biggest largemouth in several years. Often you have to choose to go after numbers or target big fish. Paul Davis of Abu Garcia and I didn't have to pick on day one of my trip to Angler's Inn, which yielded 70 fish, including my 9-2, before lunch! Blog Post

Splendid Sequatchie - One of my favorite kinds of fishing is wet wading a cool-water stream for multiple species with spinning tackle, and the day I spent with Pat Roberson was that style of fishing at it's very best. We both fished with a single lure all day, and we caught countless fish and nine different species. Blog Post

Big Snowbird Plan Change - Nathaniel and I thought our day was done before it started when a muddy dirt road prevented us from getting to the delayed harvest section of Big Snowbird Creek. We instead waded a downstream section that probably hadn't been stocked for a couple of months, but the fish were surprisingly plentiful and quite cooperative, and we had the stream to ourselves. Blog Post

Asher's Birthday Outing - Asher and I only caught 10 trout in a pretty full day, but it was his first North Carolina trout outing, and it was just plain fun spending the day together knee deep in a stream. We also were celebrating his 10th birthday, so catching 10 fish was kind of cool. Blog Post

Ice Season Start - Going back only a couple of weeks, I quickly forgot about my nine bonus hours in MSP airport after I got on the ice with Jeff Sundin and Jon Thelen of Lindy. The first crappie came moments after I dropped a line in a hole, and the crappie/sunfish action never let up. The weather was also mighty nice, for ice fishing, and it was just plain fun being back out there. Blog Post

Swinging Road Road Runners

Often I drift a Road Runner, casting upstream, allowing the lure to tumble in the current, and using the rod and reel only to keep the bait from dragging bottom too much and to pull it a bit and engage the blades. Other times, I cast mostly cross-current and simply reel or work the bait with slight hops and drops. Occasionally I let the bait swing downstream, in the current. I always experiment early in the day, and let the trout decide, and this week they absolutely wanted the downstream swing.

The swinging approach is fun and simple I cast directly across or current or across and slightly downstream, let the bait sink a little on a slack line, and then just flip the bail and hold the rod. The trout hit the bait as is swings downstream or even after it has made the swing and is simply dangling in the current, with the little Road Runner blade just spinning the current. This week, quite a few fish took the bait when it was just hanging. If the bait is hanging in a likely fish-holding area, I'll often twitch the rod a few times to convert watchers into eaters, and then I might reel is slowly upstream.

Streams, of course, are mighty dynamic, and various factors, including the depth of a run, the placement of rocks and the amount of current, dictate how tight I keep the line, how far I let it tumble, how long I leave it hanging and more.

We actually caught at least a few fish presenting our Road Runners pretty much any way they can be worked in a couple of days on the Nantahala River. The swing was the top producer for me, though, and is definitely a presentation that's worth trying if you have not done so.

Bass-Style Slab Crappie Fun

TJ Stallings with a Rollin' Runner slab.

I thought I was casting for bass when I picked up my baitcaster and made a long cast with a 4-inch swimbait on a Road Runner Rollin' Runner head and began swimming it slowly along the bottom. After all, the same combo produced great bass results yesterday at Noxubee Lodge. Even after I caught my first crappie, an easy 2-pound fish, I figured that was the oddball in the group. Nope. Not even close. In fact, TJ Stallings and I put a bunch of crappie in the box, and only one was small, and all except a couple of the fish hit our big swimbait rigs. In case you've ever wondered, catching 2-pound-plus crappie on bass tackle is really, really fun!

We also managed to land a handful of bass, including one really good one. I caught one largemouth that we estimated to weigh 7 pounds. It's funny, though, because even that big a bass was absolutely trumped by the jumbo crappie, their hard fights and the gear we were using to catch them.

Couldn't Not Go Fishing

High, muddy water from yesterday's all-day rain, 38-degree air, and northwest winds blowing 20 and gusting higher all suggested that today was a day to stay home. So what did we do? Of course, we went fishing. We didn't fish terribly long. Maybe an hour and a half. The sun had come out, though, and we'd gotten it in our heads that today was a pond day, so it seemed the only way to get that out of our system was indeed to go fishing.

The wind made boat control a challenge and the fish bit about the way I would have expected, giventhe chocolate milk water (one bite). I did really like the one fish that I caught because it ate one of my Ugly Bugs, which is what I like to call the jigs I've been tying lately. Specifically, the fish ate a Road Runner tied with dark Flashabou and a bit of marabou in its tail and some dark but shiny chenille for a body.

I actually don't think all my Ugly Bugs are ugly, and I'm looking forward to taking some of them to a trout stream some time soon! We also may hit the pond again Friday, and the water should be a better color and the wind is supposed to be gone. Both would be good things.

Bugs in My Head

I've been designing some really cool hand-tied jigs lately. So far, the good ones remain in my head because I lack the materials and tying skills to create the bugs that I'm envisioning.

I have pulled out my vice and tying tools and materials (which are pretty limited) and have experimented a bit. I've also watched a few fly-tying videos that show some of the skills I'll need to acquire and have ordered a few specific kinds of materials.

So far my hand-tied bugs, which are micro jigs or custom Road Runners, not flies) have all been ugly, but I have gotten fish to at least swipe at them. When I start actually creating lures that look even kind of like what I'm picturing (or maybe if I can fools a fish with an ugly one) I'll start posting pictures. For now, they're just bugs in my head.

Fly-Fishing Alternative for Special-Regs Trout

For starters I should say that I do enjoy fly-fishing, and sometime when I go trout fishing or fish for other species, I tote a long rod. I do not, however, consider a fly-fishing a better, more sporting or purer way to fish for trout. It's simply a different style of fishing and one that can be exceptionally effective when the trout are keying on some kind of hatch or eating a specific type of tiny invertebrate farther down in the water column.

I believe when people see "single hook artificial lures only"in a stream's regulations they tend to read that as "fly-fishing only," and that idea is re-enforced by the fact that fly anglers generally make up the bulk of the crowd on these waters. In truth, various lures you can throw with a spinning rod sometimes do extremely well in these waters. The fish see a tremendous number of Hare's Ears, Pheasant Tails and Woolly Buggers, but they don't really see many lures of other kinds.

When spin-fishermen do visit these types of waters, most of them clip two of three points from the treble of a small in-line spinner, which can work really well. My preferred baits, though, are small jigs such as Lindy Watsit Grubs and Fuzz-E Grubs, Road Runner Marabous and small plugs. The video above talks about the Road Runner Marabou. A very recent blog told of the whopper brown trout that took a liking to Nathaniel's Tracdown Minnow.

Few anglers use minnow- or crawfish-imitating hard baits because the lures come equipped with twin treble hooks and the hooks are too small to trim to a single point as is done with in-line spinners. I remove both trebles and replace the back one with a little larger single hook. For Rebel Teeny-Wee Crawfish or Tracdown Minnows, which are about 2 inches long, I like a No. 4 or 6 Daiichi Bleeding Bait Octopus Hook.

Try these offerings next time you see "single hook artificial lures" in the regs and see how they work for you!

Marabou Madness on the Nantahala

With the Nantahala running fairly hard today, I decided I'd fish with a bigger than normal jig, figuring I might get less action but that I also might find larger fish. As it turned out, fish of all sizes gladly attacked a Road Runner Marabou Pro 2.0, which is about 2 inches long, and I managed to catch brook trout, brown trout and rainbows in a few hours of fishing. At one point, I caught three trout on three consecutive casts. I didn't catch any giants, but I did land a couple of good-sized brook trout and rainbows.

The Pro 2.0 has a long marabou skirt, which causes a slow fall and subtle action. Therefore, I was able to fish a 1/16-ounce jig as slowly as I normally fish a 1/32-ounce jig, and the larger hook in that bait actually did a great job of hooking and holding the trout. I caught most fish by casting upstream, letting the bait sink almost to the bottom and working it just a little bit faster than the current with quick little lifts or twitches of the rod tip.

After a great day on the river, we're settled into the lodge at Fontana Village Resort and are looking forward to fishing lake tomorrow. I'm not sure what we're going to be fishing for, but I'm going to bring my Road Runner Marabous -- just in case.

Thursday Tips - Use Extremes to Your Advantage

I won't claim that Nathaniel and I mastered the fish at the Nantahala yesterday. We only landed three trout. However, I lost two others almost at the rod tip, had a few trout hooked briefly and had a handful of other hits. Given the long icicles hanging from the bluffs, the rocking river and the relatively low number of trout we saw in a few "indicator" pools that provide a decent gauge of what remains from fall stockings, I feel like that was decent success. The key to drawing strikes, I think, was taking advantage of the conditions we were served.

 

Very high water puts a lot of fish in survival mode, and it makes much of the river inaccessible. However, it also positions fish in certain protected areas and puts those fish in ambush mode. Virtually all our fish came from moderately small protected eddies behind boulders and in broader areas of moderated flow and most hit on the first or second cast to a given area.

 

Cold water was the other major controlling factor. Although the day wasn't too bitter, starting in the high 20s and rising into the low 40s, we're in the latter half of January now, and the last several days' lows have been very low in the North Carolina mountains. Stream-side rocks and rapids were ice coated and icicles dangled from the bluffs. When the water gets as cold as it will be all winter, slow and low presentations become critical. I caught one fish on a Rebel Tracdown minnow, which I was swimming slowly and steadily in an eddy behind a big rock. Most other hits were on a Road Runner Pro Marabou or a Lindy Fuzz-E Grub being dead drifted or twitched very slowly.

 

Any time you get extreme conditions, whether in the form or flood waters, ridiculously low flows, heavy stain, extreme hot or cold or whatever else, consider the limitations the conditions create for the fish and then use that understanding to your advantage. You'll catch more fish.

 



First of '13

Well, it occurred almost three weeks later than I woould have preferred, and I can't claim that it was a very impressive fish, but I'm glad to report that I've finally caught my first fish of 2013. Fish No. 1 (and No. 2, which came on the next cast) were small largemouth bass caught from the bank of a nearby ponds during a short afternoon outing with Nathaniel. Both hit a Bobby Garland Stroll'R fished on a Natural Science Road Runner head. Nathaniel caught one fish, which was a little bigger than mine, on a weightless YUM Dinger.

 

My best guess is that species No. 2 on my 2013 fish list will be a trout. The forecast for the next few day looks good, and the rivers should be settled enough in a day or two for the trout to cooperate. I'm pretty sure that Nathaniel and I will find our way to the North Carolina mountains one day next week to catch some trout.

All You Can Catch Buffet

Road Runner Reality Shad Buffet

I suggested in an earlier post that multi-lure rigs would be a major trend at this year's ICAST show, and from everything I've seen while tracking the show through fishing websites, facebook posts, press releases and such, that clearly is the case. I'm not at the show this year, so I admittedly haven't seen them all. However, one such offering that catches my eye and that seems different from most is the Road Runner Reality Shad Buffet.

The biggest thing that sets this one apart is that it really is a lure, not a rig. The pieces are all in place, from line tie to hook points, and everything except the tails is permanently affixed. What that means to the average angler is that a Reality Shad Buffet is ready to use, right out of the package. More importantly, the wire has been cut and shaped and the heads and blades chosen so the lure will swim balanced and straight in the water column. Also, because the Reality Shad Buffet has only two heads and hooks, it will be legal to use in most states.

The Buffet is also a compact package, with the whole thing being less than 4 inches long. That means you can cast it on light or even ultralight gear for bluegills, white bass, trout, stream smallmouths and more or troll it with crappie gear. Little being a plus is partly a personal bias, I suppose, because I'm a huge fan of light gear. I enjoy casting diminutive offerings on light tackle for whatever chooses to bite. From a practical standpoint, though, I've also found that you catch more fish overall by erring on the small side with offerings.

I'm eager to see a final Reality Shad Buffet tied to my line and to put it to work in some of my favorite creeks and ponds.

Added Color

The stained water we found at Shenango and Pymatuning lakes last week called for a little extra color, and a SkippyFISH Colored Marker seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. I saw immediate results when I added a chartreuse stripe to the sides of a blue-backed, pearl-bellied bait. Same Road Runner head, same vertical presentation, same spot. The only difference, other than the band of added color on each side,was that I started catching fish.

Our group had fun playing with the markers, which come in seven colors, whether to add a splash of chartreuse or orange for added visibility or to quickly transform a simple colored bait into a yellow perch imitation. Lure markers allow for quick modifications and make it easy to experiment with subtle changes as you seek to pattern fish any given day. They also allow you to "match the hatch" when you don't have a color that resembles whatever baitfish or critters the fish are eating.

I believe most anglers would agree that there's something really fun about making some little change in your presentation or alteration to your lure that you think might make a difference and then start catching fish. I know it's fun for me.

Every Angler's Fishing Lake

 At Pennsylvania's Pymatuning Lake it matters not if your only boat is a canoe or a johnboat. A lakewide 20 horsepower limit will keep anyone from blowing you out of the water. Plus, the fish use shallow cover all over the lake during spring and early summer, so there's no need to make any major runs. Cast toward stuff that looks like it should hold fish, and there's a very good chance you'll find crappie, bass, walleyes or some kind of sunfish.

In truth, you don't need a boat at all. Shoreline access is outstanding all around this lake and includes fishing piers, riprap banks and a mid-lake causeway. Lots of cover lies within easy casting range of the banks, and the bank-fishermen tend to do well.Wade-fishing is also popular, especially during the spring. By wading the tops of points, anglers can access a lot of water and they commonly catch a lot of walleyes, largemouth bass and smallmouth bass.

Pymatuning supports strong populations of a big variety of game fish, and the lake's shallow nature, plentiful cover and narrow configuration make likely fish-holding spots easy to find. It's one of those really fun lakes where you can cast a small bait such as a Road Runner matched with a 2-inch SkippyFISH and expect to catch fish -- and  you really don't know what variety of fish any given cast will produce.

Fish Biting at Pymatuning

As had been reported, the crappie were biting like crazy at Pennsylvania's Pymatuning Lake, where I fished two day this week. Not just crappie, though. In addition to black and white crappie, I caught largemouth bass, walleyes, yellow perch, bluegills, shellcrackers and a channel catfish (that I can think of off hand), and others in the group I was with caught at least a couple of other species. It was fun and simple fishing, mostly casting Road Runners around shallow cover or drifting with minnow-tipped Road Runners under floats or jigged beside the boat.

Pymatuning Crappie Bite Hot

This time next week I'll be plying the fish-filled waters of Pennsylvania's Pymatuning Lake, primarily for crappie, although it sounds like any cast of a Road Runner might produce a crappie, white bass, walleye, largemouth, smallmouth or some other variety of fish. Recent reports suggest that the crappie bite is red hot, with both black and white crappie serving up big fun, and that walleyes are likewise feeding well. I'll also spend time fishing Shenango Lake, where crappie and walleyes are also tearing it up based on recent reports. It should be interesting because it sounds like fish are being caught both deep and shallow and with a variety of techniques. The fishing begins on Monday. I'll do my best to post reports about what we catch and how we catch them.

Georgia Spring Afternoon

OK. Maybe it's a stretch to call Feb. 23 spring. Still, with half a dozen different types of flowers blooming in the yard and the thermometer showing mid 70s, yesterday afternoon sure seemed springish. So much so that Nathaniel and I had to slip out and take a couple of laps around the pond.

With spring often comes wind, and yesterday's springlike ways fit the bill in that sense. Nathaniel, who normally controls the canoe, spend more time working his paddle blade than a crankbait or other lure. I got to keep casting and managed five bass and a bream, all on a Road Runner Pro Marabou 2.0. The fish were generally shallow, like they thought it was spring also.

Bassmaster Classic - 49 Bassmaster Classic competitors launch in a couple of hours. I've ridden along a couple times as a Classic observer, so I can kind of imagine the excitement as the competitors, media and B.A.S.S. officials gather in hotel for early-hours breakfast, migrate to the boatyard and then make the grand police-escorted procession through the darkness from the convention center area to the boat launch, where big crowds are likely gathering already.

Most competitors' minds are most likely racing with thoughts about where they'll begin, what they'll do if that area is too crowded, whether they'll guard a spot or move around, try to fill a limit or go straight for something larger... Some are likely quietly focused, wearing the full game face. Others are grinning and telling stories like it's any other fishing morning.

It's not any other fishing morning, though. It's the Bassmaster Classic. I didn't end up making the trip to Louisiana, but I'll be watching the blogs and other posts and will pass along anything interesting that I discover!

The Wind Won

The wind blew steadily yesterday, making canoe control tough and limiting the number of decent casts Nathaniel and Asher and I were able to manage during a short pond outing. I was able to land one small bass, which absolutely hammered a Road Runner Marabou Pro 2.0. I also missed one other fish on the same lure. I'm glad that I can now say that I have caught a bass this year, but I do hope to upgrade it a bit.

Promised Nantahala Report

Just home from North Carolina's Nantahala River. Here's the promised report:

Some days trout want Road Runners dead drifted; other times, swimming the bait is the only way to go. This week the truth seemed to fall somewhere in-between, and it seemed like "the swing" was a critical part of many presentations. When my lure would get slightly downstream of me, if I would keep a loop in the line, stop reeling and lift the rod gently a few times, the result often would be a strike. Key areas to swing the bait, when possible, were the edges of current and slack water, preferably over boulders or broken ledges.

Trout -- especially brook trout -- did not seem as abundant to me as they normally do during May in the Nantahala. On a typical May day, you can't swim a bait through a small pocket along the edge of a big pool without either spooking a brookie or drawing a swipe. I didn't really see many of those pocket-guarding fish in two days of fishing, and the big pools didn't seem as full. Whether that was due to poaching, flooding, a shift in stocking or simply my observation skills, I'm not sure.

Either way, there were more than enough trout in the river for TJ and Ron Stallings, Nathaniel and me to enjoy two fabulously days of fishing, with plenty of catching action spread throughout the trip. Rainbows were the most abundant, by far, but we caught a handful of brookies and a single small brown trout to complete the slam. We caught most of our fish on Natural Science Trout and Panfish Series Road Runners.

Of course the river was beautiful as ever, and it felt great to be standing knee deep in the cool river.

Nantahala Report to Follow

Later this morning, Nathaniel and will head uphill to spend a couple of days waist deep in North Carolina's Nantahala with TJ & Ron Stallings of Road Runner lures, and prospects look great. By now, the river should have its full complement of spring-stocked fish (single-hook artificials and catch-and-release only for another few weeks), there should be a nice water flow, and the weather forecast looks perfect.

Nathaniel and I enjoyed a great trip to the Nantahala with TJ around this time last spring and got to do some early sampling of the Natural Science Trout & Panfish Series Road Runners, which are new in the marketplace this year. We caught quite a few trout, with all three species in the mix. Among them was a chunky brown trout that couldn't resist a Road Runner Original Marabou.

The 4 miles of delayed-harvest waters at the Nantahala offer a tremendous variety of water types, and a paralleling road makes it easy to hop in and out and sample everything from pockets to riffles to big plunge pools. Easy access and great fishing also attract a lot of fishermen, but it's easy to see where other anglers are already fishing.

This will be my first Nantahala trip of 2011, so I'm looking forward to stepping into the creek! Report to follow later this week.