Raystown Lake 8/24-8/25/09

Hey all.
I figured I would give you a little post about my trip to Raystown Lake on August 24 and 25. I have never fished this lake before and i wanted to get a nice little camping trip in before i started grad school at Slippery Rock. So, my buddy Tyler and I decided to plan this trip.
We arrived at Raystown around 9am on monday morning. by the time we git the tent set up and the boat in the water it was around 10:30. we fished til about 6pm that night and had a blast! What an awesome lake! Tyler was fishing for panfish most of the day and he caught about 30 fish each day. The quality of the fish wasnt very good. all of the panfish he caught were dinks but still had a really good time in doing so.

I was fishing for bass all day. I started out targeting coves and wood as there is alot of both at raystown. The bass didnt seem to be sticking to the wood like i thought they would be in 79 degree water. It took me til about 2 oclock to really put a pattern on and find the bass. I started targeting bass in ~10-20ft if water in the grass. I would just pitch my 5" Watermelon Red Senko into it and bam! the bass started cooperating with me. I put about 5 or 6 fish in the boat in the matter of minutes! granted, the bass werent very big but were very fun to catch and get some great pictures of!

On day 2, we made a run up passed beer barrel bay and began targeting grass again. This time i didnt catch any fish in the grass and found they were in steep drop-offs. I caught 3 bass on a watermelon Wooly Hawgtail and a keeper greenie on a crankbait on a rocky point.

SO in all it was a very fun relaxing trip. i caught about 15 bass in 2 days in an unfamiliar fishery. so i was pleased with how i did. I would love to go back in the fall or early spring when the bass are hogged up. I caught a decent sized smallmouth too so that was another goal that i accomplished for the trip.

enjoy the pics! Catch ya later

4th Place at my club tourney at the Allegheny River at Templeton

another tournament where i was so close to winning some money.

My buddy, TP Piotrowski, and I got up at 3am to drive to Templeton for our first trip ever to the Allegheny River. We got to see right away how beautiful of a river the Allegheny is. It took about 2.5 hours for me to catch my first (and only) keeper of the day. I caught a just barley legal smallmouth right off of a concrete dock on a brush hog. Usually I use watermelon red brush hogs but i was out so i had to settle with a new color i just bought.. watermelon magic. i weighed it and stuck Bag-em Bass tag in its mouth and threw him in the livewell. we went upriver just passed the bridge and the ower plant and began fishing some more.

I ended up catching one on a Mini-dr Lucky Craft crankbait in a blue and chartruese color. it was only about 6 or 8 inces. i felt the initial bump but after that i didnt even think i had one on. it was a tiny little guy.

After chatting briefly with a guy who owns a cottage along the river he suggested going into mahoning creek where the water was clear (instead of fishing in the chocolate milk that we were fishing in all day. )

A bridge runs over top of mahoning creek and tp and i started there. my first cast onto a one of the bridge pillars resulted in me hooking up with an almost legal smallie. it was 11.5 inches. i thought for sure it was as big as my first fish. we had a couple more bites the rest of the day but no more fish.

It was a really nice place to fish. i would definatly go back again. the water clarity was really muddy. if i go back it will have to be when the river is cleared up. we worked the docks pretty hard al day but only got 1 fish off of them.

i missed out on the money by .1 lbs. i was so close to finally winnin some money.. but hey there is always next time.

I am about to head outside right now to load up some wood, pack up the tents, prep my boat, and head to Raystown Lake tomorrow into tuesday to camp and fish! wish me luck!!!!!

5th Place at the Open Buddy Tourney at Sayers Dam

So after a half a day of calling people and trying to get a coangler for the buddy tournament at Sayers, my college roommate, Paul Coble, said he would go with me. Boy did we ever have a good time. There were 12 boats entered in the tournament and we blasted off 12th. Everyone else in the tourney decided to go up the lake but Paul and I decided to go to an area right by Hunters Run that has always produced a fish for me. And guess what.... it did again! about twenty minutes into the tournament i landed a solid 2 lb largemouth on a watermelon red baby brush hog... it swallowed the hook a little bit and was bleeding so i threw it in the livewell and added a cap full of 'Please Release Me'. That stuff does the trick as the bleeding stopped and the fish was fine the rest of the tourney.

Around 7 i landed my second keeper of the evening around some artificial structure. Again i used a baby brush hog and had my 2nd 2 pound largemouth of the day. right before dark i landed another one that i thought was going to be legal but i measured it and it ended up being 1/16th of an inch short. So in all we weighed to fish for exactly 4.00lbs and finished 5th in the tourney. we were so close to being in the money but we had a good time fishing together and learned aot about night fishing.

my next tournament is on August 22nd on the Allegheney River at the Templeton Launch. Ive never been there and know nothing about it so it could be a tough time but should be fun regardless!

Upcoming Tournament

Hey all..

A little update here... Ive been stinking it up lately and its time for a change of some sort. At my tournament last weekend at Sayers my pap and I failed to land a single fish. I had one on halfway to the boat but that was about it! thats the first time ive ever fished that lake and didnt catch a fish.

Hopefully my luck will change this weekend at Sayers... Im fishing an open buddy tournament from 4pm-11pm.. ive never fished that lake at night so it should be exciting!

Catch ya later