Lake Powell Bound

Long day of travel today, but with quite the final destination. This week I'll be fishing Lake Powell, a canyon lake along the Colorado River that is just upstream of the Grand Canyon and has similar topography. From the photos I've seen, the scenery is spectacular and unlike any other lake I've ever fished.

I left home dark and early to drive a couple of hours to the Atlanta airport. A little after 9:00 I hopped on a plane to fly to Phoenix. That was a four-hour flight and the biggest part of the journey. At the moment I'm hanging out in in the Phoenix airport. I'll hop on a prop plane in a few hours to make a short flight north to Page, Arizona, probably with most of the rest of the group on the trip, and from there we'll ride in some sort of shuttle to the lake.

Upon arriving at Lake Powell Resorts, though, we still have one more ride to take before we're fully there. We should be able to settle as we ride, though, I suppose, because we are staying on houseboats somewhere out on the lake. Of course, I might not care about setting in at that point. I'll likely want to be on the front deck taking in the scenery and taking photos!

No wifi, from what I understand, so I'll be limited to phone posts. Nevertheless, I'll do my best to keep this page and my Jeff Samsel Fishing Facebook page updated.

Stay tuned!

November Fleeing

Bassmaster Elite Series pro Ott Defoe with pretty Pickwick bass
he caught during a TH Marine media event a couple of weeks ago.

Could it really be that November is on it's way out the door? It doesn't seem long ago that I was anticipating fall, and now the leaves are almost gone from the deciduous trees, even in Georgia. Of course, up north, they not only are walking on the ice to fish but a few resorts have begun rolling out the wheelhouses. Early for that sort of stuff, but it tells me that autumn has truly given way to winter.

November was a productive month for Jeff Samsel Fishing. I spent time on Tennessee's Dale Hollow, Illinois' Rend Lake and Alabama's Pickwick Lake, blending fishing with story and photo gathering with guides and pro anglers. I got to work with several pros I'd never spent significant time with before, along with seeing long-time friends from the industry.

I didn't spend as much time in trout streams as I would have liked to have during November, which is normally one of my favorite months for trout fishing. Maybe I can rectify that a bit next month. I certainly have some possible plans circling in my head. Whether weather, deadlines and other practical matters will actually allow those to materialize, only time will tell. My only solid fishing plans for next month, as of now, involve Minnesota ice, bluegills, crappie and walleyes.

Back in the Saddle

If you peek at this page from time to time, I want to first say thank you for each visit. If you've stopped in anytime within the past week and have seen the same post parked at the top, I apologize. I try to add fresh blogs daily. At times it's every other day, and either travels or major time restrictions sometime put me out of touch for a few days. It's pretty rare for nothing to show up for more than a week.

The major cause has been an ugly bug (and no I don't mean Ugly Bug, as in the jigs I tie) that has been going through my house and that had me pretty much out of commission last week and continues to have our household somewhat out of whack. I won't grumble much because we all get sick from time to time, but it took everything in me to squeeze out the work that absolutely had to get done last week, and I never got to thinking much about the blog, beyond a gnawing awareness that the page was growing stale.

Maybe the only thing worse than not blogging for a week is returning with a post that doesn't say much of anything. By theory, though, this is only the beginning of a week of restored activity on the Jeff Samsel Fishing blog.

Forrest Wood Cup Fast Approaching

The start of the Forrest Wood Cup is less than two weeks from now, and practice is only a week and half away. Seems fast approaching to me, but I suppose that's probably so for most of competitors, as they anticipate competing for the world championship and bass fishing's biggest prize of 1/2 million dollars.

This year's Cup is extra intriguing to me because of the venue of Lake Murray and Columbia. Having gone to school at the University of South Carolina and only living a few hours away, I've enjoyed some fun days fishing on Lake Murray and know the lake somewhat well at least.

Of course, the more you cover bass fishing, the more friends you make in the sport, so there are several anglers I'll be watching closely as the competition unfolds. I'll also be contributing to the FLW coverage, along with blogging, posting photos and such, so I'll be in the middle of everything going on from start to finish.

Like any fishing fan, I'm curious about the patterns that unfold and which anglers figure out the fish. The nearly universal word from pre-practice was that fishing was very tough, but someone always figures out something.

Last time the Cup was in Columbia it was a junk-fest, with top anglers beating banks and throwing a lot of stuff. Docks and frogs played a big part in the winning pattern and in the strategies of most top finishers. That said, the deep fish that relate to herring offer a wild card. The general word is that you can't count on those deep fish day after day, but if someone finds something shallow that's dependable AND hits the deep fish just right even one day, that could be big.

We'll find out soon.

The best place to keep up with the action is on FLW's Forrest Wood Cup website, and coverage of story lines is already well underway. I hope you'll also keep an eye on what I post on this blog, on the Jeff Samsel Fishing facebook page, on Twitter (@jeffsamsel) and on Instagram (jeffsamsel).

Better yet, plant to be in Columba Aug. 14-17 and see for yourself how the championship unfolds!

ICAST Prep

This page has been way too quiet, which I don't like. Days have been filled with catch-up efforts on magazine work from so many days on the road this summer, and I just haven't found my way here to post updates. Not a good excuse, especially right now, as I get word about so much cool fishing stuff coming out next year, but still the way the week has gone.

This weekend I transition from catch-up mode to get-ready-again mode because on Monday I'll be driving to Florida for the ICAST show in Orlando. If you look at many fishing websites, you probably see the name ICAST quite a bit. It's the fishing industry's primary trade show and the place where much of the new stuff for the following model year gets revealed to tackle distributors and retailers, and to the outdoors media. Lures, rods, reels, fishing kayaks, clothes, electronics, lines, rigs... You name it, it's there. You've likely seen quite a few peeks at stuff already.

I go to ICAST both to learn about and report on the new stuff and to catch up with folks from the industry, including other writers, editors and various folks who represent fishing tackle manufacturers. For me, it's three days of walking a big show floor, looking at stuff, taking photos, asking questions and talking fishing. This year, I'll also be doing a lot of on-the-spot writing because I'll be reporting about new fishing line and rod introductions for FLW's website and magazine, along with other stuff I'll report here, on the Jeff Samsel Fishing facebook page, on Twitter and on Instagram.

So priorities today are gathering notes, clearing camera cards, charging batteries, packing and generally doing stuff at home that's good to take care of before returning to the road. I suppose I'd better get to it.

Watch here for updates on cool new stuff!

"Jeff Samsel Fishing" Recognized in Web Site Competition

 

Last week at the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association conference in Lake Charles, Louisiana, I was delighted to learn that "Jeff Samsel Fishing" won first place in the Realtree Horizons Web Site Award contest. Thank you to Realtree for sponsoring this contest and to the SEOPA contest committee and judges for making possible all of the Excellence in Craft and special awards contests.

More Reports from Jeff Samsel Fishing

If you're reading this, I'm guessing you have at least some interest fishing how-to, destination stories, tournament news or other maybe my family fishing adventures. With that in mind, I wanted to remind you of a couple of other places where I regularly share photos and fishing information.

While I try to get a fresh blog posted pretty much every day, that's about as much as I can manage, except on rare occasions when I'm making quick blog posts from the field. Usually, if I want to share more timely updates on the water, from tournaments I'm following myself or of other stuff like that, I post short notes or photos on the jeffsamselfishing facebook community page.  I also share a modest number of impressive fish photos, fishing news stories and other things that strike my interest from the fishing pages I follow. I try not to post so much that I flood anyone's feed, but I hope I add enough to keep things interesting. I'd invite you to give that page a look and like it if you indeed like what you find.

I also put some short notes on Twitter, @jeffsamsel, that you might not find on the blog or facebook page, and I retweet stuff from tournament organizations, fishing pros and more. I'm admittedly more sporadic with Tweets and my notes also include a blend of my fondness for Braves baseball and a few other personal interests.  But you can always follow to see if you like what you get and then unfollow. I won't take it personally!

Finally, I'll soon be contributing regularly to FINS'nTALES, mostly with bass how-to from a pro perspective, but also with other species. I haven't started writing those yet, but I'd invite you to watch the site.

My apologies to friends who already follow these other pages and to anyone who was looking for more about fish. However, with my fall fishing travels now underway, it seemed like a good time to let you know where to find more from Jeff Samsel Fishing and to explain how those places differ.

Oh, I almost forgot: If you prefer looking and listening over reading, don't miss the YouTube channel that my son Nathaniel operates for me. We'll be adding some great new how-to content in the next couple of weeks.

Campfire Music & Streams of Bronze

Truck still lacks instruments and a few travel essentials, but
the fishing gear is in place.

Truck is mostly loaded and will pull out five hours or so from now for my first trip of fall. I know: Early September is a serious stretch of the term fall in this part of the world. Still, this is the first of a string of trips that will carry me well into fall, so to me it seems like a fall trip. College football games also have started, so that makes it fall in my mind.

Nathaniel and I actually are not going far on the first leg of the trip. We're going to see Merle Haggard in concert tonight at the Smoky Mountain Center in Franklin, North Carolina. From there we'll head north to Carter Caves State Park in northern Kentucky, where an informal music festival is taking place. We're going there to camp and so that Nathaniel can spend time jamming with friends. However, rumor has it that a smallmouth stream cuts pretty little gorge right through the park. I might have to do some exploration while Nathaniel is picking out tunes. Watch here and on my facebook fishing page for reports.

The final stop is in West Virginia, where we get to raft the Gauley River and then spend a day smallmouth fishing from a raft on the New River. I've fished the New several times over the years, and it seems to always deliver excellent fishing action. September normally offers very low water and outstanding topwater fishing. I suspect it will be a moderate level this year because of the enormous amount of rain that has fallen throughout Southern Appalachia this summer. My hope is that a little higher water will make the big fish extra aggressive.

We'll find out soon enough!

Have Blog, Will Travel

Recent week have been nice for me because I have been at home since mid-December. As much as I enjoy the places I visit and fishing I do and as critical as travels are to my work of gathering fish stories, it's been nice staying home with my family. Plus, it has given me the opportunity to catch up on fish stories and to work on some other projects, like getting the Jeff Samsel Fishing facebook page up and running. If you haven't liked that page, I'd sure appreciate you doing so, and if you're interested in fishing reports, big fish photos, industry news and such, I'm hopeful that you'll find plenty to like.

I hit the road again in about two weeks and will be traveling to Tulsa for the Bassmaster Classic. I also plan to do a little fishing (crappie and bass, I think) before and after the event. I'll be chronicling travels and covering the Classic and the its associated outdoors show on my blog, on the facebook page, and with Tweets (@jeffsamsel) so I hope you'll watch my pages!

A Whole Lot of Catchin' Going On

For starter, I probably ought to ackowledge that I'm not talking about myself. If you happened to read yesterday's blog you know that my 2013 fish tally catipulted from zero to a whopping two yesterday afternoon. Fish story deadlines, rain and family plans have pretty well kept me off the water for the first few weeks of the year. That will change soon, but that's a different subject.

Today's social media madness makes it pretty easy to see when folks are catching fish, and the bass fishermen really have started to light up the boards. Lots of pictures of big largmouths, smallmouths and spots from bass waters all over the place. Like the Oklahoma tournament catch that's believed to hae been the biggest ever brought to the scales in that state; the school of giants Timmy Horton found while filming Timmy Horton Outdoors on Lake Seminole; a bunch of big bass being caught from stops along the Alabama Bass Trail...

I've been sharing many of these on the Jeff Samsel Fishing Facebook page, so be sure to visit and to like the page!

Some of this is attributable cabin fever. The first sunny weekends of the new year draw a lot of fishermen to the lakes, and simple math says that more fishermen fishing typically leads to more fish being caught. I think it's more than that, though. Those same first sunny days trigger a bit of movement among the biggest bass in the lakes, and they get into a mode of trying to store up calories for the spawn. The fish and their forage are still winter-slowed and won't be out chasing food everywhere, but if you can put the right bait in the right place, it's a fine time to catch a very big bass.

Jeff Samsel Fishing

If you visit my blog from time to time, I hope you've noticed a change for the better in recent weeks. I've played with the layout and colors to give the site a cleaner look that I think is easier to read and have added a handful of pages that I hope you find interesting and useful. The page names on the tabs above are self explanatory, but I do hope you'll take time to look around a bit and to see what I'm trying to do with the whole site. It's worth noting, by the way, that while the pages won't get new content nearly as often as the blog homepage, they definitely are works in progress, and I will continue to add destinations, resources and contacts for friends and family, along with rotating the videos that are featured and updating my information, as needed.

The latest change is only a single word, but I suppose it's significant since it's in the title of the site. I'd been calling my site "Jeff Samsel Outdoors," leaving things somewhat open for occasional blogs I write about hikes, birds on our feeders, rafting trips or other outdoor rambings. However, when I look at my page focus and the actual content, such a huge portion is about fishing, it's far more accurate to call the site "Jeff Samsel Fishing" and to consider the occasional other posts diversions.

Although the total blog site continues to change, the blog itself will maintain similar content (which I hope is a good thing), looking at all things fishy.