Northern Nevada Discovery

Blogger note: I wrote this in a plane on the way home from Nevada in June, and connection problems kept it from posting. Then I got distracted from my blog and never got around to trying again. So instead of reworking something, I'm posting what I meant to put up more than four months ago, with an intent of making the next post much sooner!

My most recent post expressed confidence that by week’s end I would add Nevada to the list of states where I’ve caught at least one fish. Make that more than 100 fish, most of which were big cutthroat or rainbow trout.

Before this week I had never fished in Nevada and really hadn’t heard much about its trout fisheries. Having spent time on three lakes and having learned about several other rivers and lakes, I’m convinced Nevada has some of the most overlooked trout fishing in the nation. The trophy cutthroat fishery at Pyramid Lake is truly world-class, and both other lakes we fished produced steady action from fat rainbows.

Along with yielding fabulous fishing, all three lakes offered stunning scenery, with surprisingly few other anglers around us.

I fished all week with Denis Isbister, host of Wild Fish, Wild Places, and we caught most of our fish on Tasmanian Devil Lures. Denis has fished these waters all his life, and enjoys opportunities to share favorite places. I’m thrilled that I got to be the recipient of that sharing this week!

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.

Simple Surf Specks

I was mostly at the beach to capture coastal scenes and for the sake of finding proper backdrops for some needed lure photos, but of course I had to make a few casts in the best looking spots. I found two spots that held extra promise, and one of the two delivered.

The first was a short jetty with a nice tidal flow washing across the end and a couple of solid eddies. It looked great, but I was unable to make anything happen. The second was a steep section of beach right at the inlet that looked like it should be notably deeper than surrounding waters and that formed a big back eddy. It was toward the low end of an incoming tide so a lot of stuff that looked like it could be good at times was high and dry, making the deep hole seem extra promising.

On either my second or third cast, my Paradise Popper X-treme shot out of sight, and I set the hook into what turned out to be a 13- or 14-inch speckled trout. Knowing trout are seldom alone, I repeated the cast and got the same result, except with a slightly larger fish. Although it didn't turn out to be an every cast thing, I caught five or six and missed about the same number over the next hour or so, despite changing things up a few times in hopes of getting other types of photos. Eventually the bite died, which I attributed to the tide having risen quite a bit.

The following morning I did some kayak stuff in another area, and when I finished that I realized it was close to dead low tide. If I scurried back to my spot at the end of the island, I could catch the incoming tide right from the front and possibly extent the bite. It worked perfectly, with the fish biting about twice as long and me catching about twice as many trout.

None of the trout were huge, but that was fine with me. There's just something fun about fishing alone on the beach with very simple gear, identifying a spot that seems like it should produce and finding success.

Favorite Fishing Destinations Countdown: No. 6 - Lake Pymatuning, Pennsylvania

It's hard for me to not get excited about Lake Pymatuning as I write this because I'll be visiting there in a little more than a week, staying in a lakeside cabin in Pymatuning State Park and splitting fishing time between Pymatuning and a couple of other Western Pennsylvania lakes. Lake Pymatuning might be the most user-friendly major lake I've ever fished, and it a fabulous destination for family outings. It's fairly large, covering more than 17,000 acres, but it fishes small in the sense that good fishing is widespread and you don't need specialized knowledge or a fancy boat to tap into great fishing for multiple species. 

In truth, you don't need a boat at all. Multiple tracts of Pymatuning State Park offer extensive shoreline access to much of the lake, plus multiple piers, and the lake's shallow margins lend themselves to good wade-fishing in several areas. Seasonally (some winters, anyway), Pymatuning is also an excellent walk-on ice-fishing lake.

From a boating perspective, motors of more than 20 horsepower may not be operated on Pymatuning, so there's no threat of big boat wakes from pleasure boaters. Most boaters are fishermen or paddlers enjoying the lake, so Pymatuning is great to fish from a canoe, kayak or johnboat. I'm actually bringing my kayak along on my upcoming trip and am looking forward to putting it to work on Pymatuning.

Adding to its user friendly nature, Pymatuning is a fabulous multi-species lake, and because it has a lot good shallow cover and structure around it's edges, those fish tend to be in predictable places. Crappie (both black and white), walleyes and bass are the headline species, but Pymatuning also offers great opportunities for catching catfish and a host of panfish species. A couple of years ago, I spent a fun spring day on the lake with my good friend Darl Black, and we went out with a real multi-species mindset. If memory serves me correctly, we caught 10 species that day.

Beyond offering great fishing access, the state park lends itself nicely to overnight stays, with nice cabins at a reasonable cost and plenty of campsites in two different campgrounds.

Area information: Visit Crawford

Park Information: Pymatuning State Park

Video Day

The final day of my most recent trip found me on the opposite side of a camera from what seems most normal for me. Dustin Elder and I fished from kayaks while Fred McClure followed in his boat with video equipment. We fished a small Forest Service lake in Oklahoma that has some big bass in it and was ideally suited for kayak fishing and filming. The bite was a little slow, but we managed a few, and I enjoyed the opportunity to offer a few tips for the camera. The first video to run is about a Cotton Cordell Super Spot, which is one of my absolute favorite lures for early-season bass fishing.

Fishless Week One

I was tempted to sneak out on New Year's morning to visit our nearest Delayed Harvest trout stream, just to see if I could coax a trout into biting. However, the new year brought the start of a mighty cold snap (here and almost everywhere, it seems). With a morning low in the teens on Jan. 1, such an outing truly would have been only for the novelty of a quick first catch, and I wasn't really convinced the fish would want to bite.

So I stayed home, and such has been the basic story for the entire first week of the 2018. We've had temperatures as low as 9 degrees, which is getting down there pretty good for Georgia, and it has only been creeping above freezing for a few hours at a time most days. It's 15 degrees right now. Consequently, it has seemed like a good week to work in the computer.

Thankfully, the current nationwide cold snap seems to be nearing its end. Plus, my plans for next week look like they should include some time on the water. I'm Arkansas-bound and have assorted fishing gear packed. The main purpose for my travel is to visit my company's main office in Fort Smith, but the plan as of now is to combine my travels with a content-collection outing (which means fishing). Basically, when my office visit is done, I'll start fishing my way home. No specific plans, but plenty of ideas, so I have stuff for various kinds of fishing crammed into my car and I'll most likely tote the kayak.

So my hope is definitely that by the end of week two, I'll no longer be fishless in 2018!

This Year's Fish List

Well, I went back and updated my fish list, best I could. I could only think of seven additional species from the second half of the year. Diminishing returns are common with my annual list because I only list first catches of any given species. Still, I most likely missed one or two obscure panfish or pier catches. So it goes when you don't keep up with stuff when you should.

It may be a little premature for summing up the year as it is certainly possible that I'll find water at least one more time before Sunday. If I do, though, chances are pretty good that the catch will only include fish already on this list -- most likely rainbow, brook or brown trout. And if I'm wrong, I can always make an update. List includes one marginal listing, obvious by the fact that I called it a mystery fish. I don't even remember what it was, but I obviously recognized it as something I didn't recognize that was clearly distinctive from other fish on the list. And Pier 60, where I caught it, was a favored destination when I was growing up, so I'm familiar with a lot what is commonly caught out there.

Tally was 40. Florida was by far the top producing state last year. March topped the month tally. Enough discussion, though. Here's the list:

Rainbow Trout, Norfork River, Arkansas, January

Brown Trout, White River, Arkansas, January

White Bass, Colorado River, Texas, February

Largemouth Bass, Colorado River, Texas, February

Speckled Trout, Texas Bayou, Texas, February

Flounder, Texas Bayou, Texas, February

Peacock Bass, Lake Ida, Florida, February

Bluegill, Tenococ Fishing Area, Florida, February

Hardhead Catfish, Charlotte Harbor, Florida, February

Ladyfish, Charlotte Harbor, Florida, February

Butterfish, Big Pier 60, Florida, March

Pinfish, Big Pier 60, Florida, March

Stingray, Big Pier 60, Florida, March

Mystery fish, Big Pier 60, Florida, March

Warmouth, Rodman Tailwater, Florida, March

Spotted Sunfish, Rodman Tailwater, Florida, March

Killifish, Rodman Tailwater, Florida, March

Redbreast Sunfish, Santa Fe River, Florida, March

Striped Mullet, Santa Fe River, Florida, March

Mudfish, Santa Fe River, Florida, March

Smallmouth Bass, Tennessee River, Alabama, March

Shoal Bass, Flint River, Georgia, May

Longear Sunfish, Flint River, Georgia, May

Walleye, Lake Erie, Ohio, May

Drum, Lake Erie, Ohio, May

White Perch, Lake Erie, Ohio, May

Channel Catfish, Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, May

White Crappie, Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, May

Yellow Perch, Lake Rabun, Georgia, May

Sucker, Main Stream, Maine, June

Chain pickerel, Pushaw Lake, Maine, June

Chub, brook in Maine, Maine, June

Brook trout, brook in Maine, Maine, June

Redfish, Mobile Bay, Alabama, September

Yellowtail, Gulf Shores Pier, Alabama, September

Spotted bass, Lake Ouachita, Arkansas, October

Skipjack, Kentucky Lake, Kentucky, October

Blue Catfish, Lake Moultrie, South Carolina, November

Black Crappie, VIP Adventures, South Carolina, November

Striped Bass, Lake Guntersville, Alabama, December

Run for the Bronze

As often seems to be the case with me from mid-spring through late fall, I'm off on a smallmouth quest this week. I've never quite been able to commit to a favorite style of fishing, but I can say with certainty that river bronzeback fishing is way up there on the list.

I fly to Pennsylvania today to spend a couple of days with Ty Spade fishing the Susquehanna River and possibly the Juniata River. The Juniata is a "maybe" because it got hit with some recent mud and we'll have to see how it shapes up. Both are new waters to me, so whatever plan we end up going with will be great.

I actually was supposed to travel to the same area late last summer, but airline problems caused me to cancel that trip. So I've been looking forward to this one for a quite a while!

I wish I could promise, "report to follow," but I've been so sporadic with this blog of late that I dare not make promises. I can say with pretty good certainty that pictures and reports will be posted, but they might be on my Facebook page (Jeff Samsel fishing) or on Instagram or Twitter (@jeffsamsel).