We started the day by fishing a couple brush piles which yeilded zero fish. Then we tried powerfishing a weed line. Once again nothing. We decided to slow down and fish a couple of small sets of lilly pads. It was slightly better because dad managed to catch a dink. After that we decided to run to a stump and a beaver hut. Again we came up empty. So we decided to try to fish another weed line, and each of us caught a dink. Continuing to struggle around 9:00 I decided I wanted to flip a bush that has given me numerous keepers throughout the years. Before I got to the bush I caught a dink outside it swimming a jig. My next cast was a pitch into the bush. And like it has done many times it gave me a keeper. It was a start. Then after a couple minutes I remembered where another bush was I wanted to hit. First cast was another keeper. The jig bite was one and so was the flipping bite! Neither have been working all year for me. Dad lost a keeper smallie shortly after my second keeper. On that lake you just can’t afford to loose fish and we knew it, but we kept our spirits and ran to another tree. It was now 10:15 and I nailed another keeper. This time it was a decent 3.78lb largemouth. With 3 keepers in the well and nearly 5 hours to fish we felt really good about our chances for more fish. However, the rest of the day consisted of short strikes and plenty of dinks. At least until 2:45 when we caught another keeper largemouth on a jig. That day we ended up finishing in 10th place with 9.28lbs. Not bad for not being on any type of pattern until that day. Check out the Lake Arthur KBBC standings here.

After a good tournament with dad, I fished the Kyle Mcfeely Tournament with Jon the next weekend at Lake Arthur. It was a well run benefit tournament hosted by Jerry Hanna and CDS Sporting Goods. Jon and I felt good about our chances going into the tournament because now both of us were on fish and they were in the same end of the lake. That almost never happens for us. I will not go into too much detail because we only were able to catch 1 keeper and it was a baby at that. However, the tournament was a success in raising money and a job well done by the CDS crew. I look forward to fishing the event next year and supporting their cause. For tournament result and stats check out the CDS Sporting Goods webiste.

Lake Arthur Tournaments is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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I ran several spots at different depths in the early morning. I fished weeds, brush piles, rocks piles, roadbeds, and laydowns. I had no success. Not even a hit in some of my favorite spots. At 8:55 I decided to run to a stretch of shoreline that usually produces a couple of keepers. I managed to caught 1 small keeper largemouth bass on a beaver in about 1 foot of water out of the weeds. On that same shoreline there is a submerged tree that sits on a breakline in 8-12 feet of water. I decided to fish it while I was in the area. It took me circling that area 2 times before I got hit, but it ended up being my lunker and tournament lunker at 3lbs. I know what you are thinking…3lbs at Lake Wilhelm? I managed to get another 13″ keeper out of the same tree and miss one other strike. Little did I know it would be the last strike of the day.

In West Penn Bass Hunters we keep 3 fish limits. My 3 fish limit weighed 5.15lbs. My lunker was 3.03lbs. I won both categories in the event! I have never seen this lake so tough in all the years I have fished it. It was so bad that I almost threw my fish back around 1:00 and went home. For obvisous reasons I am glad I didn’t. This goes to show you that you never know how well you are truly doing until you come into weigh-in. Just because you feel you are doing crappy doesn’t mean that you aren’t fishing well enough to win.

Now I ask and open ended question and hope some guys reply through the comments. There were a lot of dead fish floating on the lake this weekend. I believe that the oxygen level is too low. The water temperature is about normal, but the lake isn’t producing weeds like it has in previous years. My question is where are the weeds and why is one of the best fisheries in the state, if not the best, having a problem with dead fish. It is not species oriented either. I saw crap, bluegill, crappie, and bass floating. I look forward to hearing to everyones answers.

Wilhelm Club Tournament is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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The tournament started and we ran to an area that was holding a good number of fish. We started the tournament relatively slow. Each of us boated only 1 keeper on our normal lures in the first hour and a half of the tournament. We didn’t switch spots, but I switched tactics. I switch to a crankbait and boated 6 fish in the next hour and a half including a 3+ and a 2+. Finally, a couple decent fish. The next hours was dead as we ran spot to spot looking for more fish. Finally, we decided to make a longer run to a couple spots which we have history with. It was a good move. By 12:00 we caught 3 more good fish. One was over 4lbs and the others were 3+ and 2+ respectfully. Even though we had a decent bag of fish we knew we needed more. We moved around an hit more spots and some spots twice with no results.

When we got to the launch we had discovered that we weren’t the only boat that had struggled. Most boats had between 10 and 12 pounds with or without a limit. Jon and I managed to bring in a 5 fish bag that weighed 15.06lbs. It was good enough to finish 5th place I believe. That may seem like a great day, but typically at Lake wilhelm you are going to need 20+ pounds to contend. The tournament was won with a total weight of 17.80 pounds. The weather played a role in the out come of the tournament, and a great adjustment was made by the team that won the event. Congrats to them. Thanks to the club which put the event on. I look forward to fishing it next year.

LAKE WILHELM BASS TOURNAMENT is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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Lake Arthur Striper is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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Stay Put Shallow Water Anchor is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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For years I have had trouble catching fish in this pool and keep asking myself what is the draw for a circuit such as KBBC to continue to travel there.  Few teams are successful enough to get limits, and most limits include fish that are barely 12″ in length.  Rarely have I found a quality fish in this pool.  The answer to my own question is this.  The location is a beautiful stretch of river that is a not dangerous to navigate.  Ten Mile County Park is an excellent facility that is perfect to host the event.  If it wasn’t for the insignificant size and amount of fish in this pool I would really enjoy it.

Sunday I fished a club tournament out of the Freeport Boat Launch on the Allegheny River.  Once again I had my usual struggle on the river, but I managed to get a 3 fish limit of bass.  I was able to catch 10 dinks and loose another 6-8 dinks that couldn’t fit the lures in their mouths.  The difference of this section of river was that I was able to see some nice bass in a few areas to let me know that the pool has great potential.  At one point I had a 20″ smallmouth swim by my boat with no interest in eating any lures.

I will be spending more time on our local rivers because if there is one area that I really need to improve on it is my river fishing.  The key for catching fish this past weekend was downsizing to using 3″ senkos, small tubes, and smallie beavers.  The fish seems to be suspended.  Good luck to all that are fishing the KBBC event this weekend.

River Troubles is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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Saturday I spent the day fishing with my sister, Nicole, who hadn’t been fishing in a couple of years.  We started fishing around 7:30 in the morning and took a ride to one of my favorite roadbeds figuring that the bass had started to move into the deeper summer pattern.  What we had discovered was the spot was covered with small stripers.  I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the morning.  It really got Nicole into it, as she was having a ball with the 14-16″ stripers.  For me it was awesome watching her enjoy the same sport my dad and I love so much.  Also, for the first time I had success catching fish on a jigging spoon.  They weren’t my target species, but it will give me some confidence to try it more in the future.

The rest of the day we spend time fish laydowns pitching in shallow water, throwing crankbaits on ledges, working roadbeds, and fishing brush piles.  We caught bass in just about every location that we stopped at, but we only managed to catch 1 keeper.  If I were heading back up I am not sure where in the water column that I would be fishing.  The fish came from 6″ of water to 15 feet of water.  It left me with a lot of unanswered questions.  Nicole had so much fun that she asked to head back out again this week. 

Sunday was tournament day on a body of water I have only ever fished 1 time and didn’t practice for this year.  Woodcock Lake is a small lake that is located about 5 miles north of Meadville.  Watch the blog for a featured fishing about this lake.  This lake is very clear, has some grassy weeds, rock banks, and plenty of laydowns and stumps. 

I started the morning by fishing the breast of the dam and continued down the one bank.  I covered a wide range of lures and depth in the first 3 1/2 hours and had no bites.  I was getting discussed fast.  The last time I was at the lake I didn’t manage to catch any keepers and this was shaping up to be the same result.  I ran into some of the other guys and I could tell what they were using.  Small weightless stick worms.  If there is a style that I hate to use it is that style, but when in Rome you have to do as the Romans.  Shortly after I started using the rig I caught a dink and then a 2.85lb smallie.  That helps me get into using the style.  I tried everything to catch more fish, but it would be 1:00pm, over 3 hours, until I would catch my next keepers.  The event ended at 2:00 and I knew I needed to get my last keeper to give myself a chance to win.  In the last 1/2 hour I caught 2 more keepers. 

Throughout the course of the day I managed to get 8 bass 4 keepers and 2 walleye.  It wasn’t a great day, but with next to no experience on the lake I was pleased with the results.  After weigh-in concluded I was sitting in 3rd place with a 3 fish weight of 5.82lbs.  The winner had 9.85lbs and 2nd place had 9.45lbs.  Lunker for the event was a nice 4.85lb smallie.  I think that if I spent some time up there I would become a big fan of the lake, but until then I am just going to call it an above average fishery.

Fun Weekend of Fishing is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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Friday evening we started fishing around 8:00 pm and fished until 9:30. We wanted to see if the striper were active, and if we could get a topwater bite. The night was pretty successful with the 3 of us catching over 10 bass. Most of which were on top water. None of the fish were big, but topwater is fun no matter what the size of the fish is. Tony, one of my best friends, even managed to hook up with a nice walleye on a spinnerbait.

Saturday Dad and I headed out on the water and fished from 7-12 in the morning. It was probably the single best morning I have ever had at Shenago. We managed to boat 26 bass and a catfish. We caught fish on buzzbaits, spooks, multiple crankbaits, tubes, beavers, and brush hogs. Colors were wide ranged, but the ones that seemed to work best were transparent/natural colors. The depth of water we caught fish varied greatly. We caught them flipping the shallows, topwater shallow, and deep and shallow cranking. It seemed like the fish were all over the board, but when you found 1 you found multiple fish. We headed in for lunch and ended up sitting out a pretty severe storm until 3. At that point we wanted to get on the water. The three of us started fishing again. I tied a crankbait on and never put it down for the next 2 hours. I caught 2 pike, catfish, multiple bass, and a couple crappie. Then the next severe storm came through so we called it a day.

We woke up Sunday to bad weather and high winds. That being said we thought it best not to head out on the water. For the amount of time we were able to fish we were pretty successful, which makes me anxious to get back out there.

Stormy Shenago Lake is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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I started my morning by fishing a roadbed in about 10 feet of water. With the water temperature nearing 80 degrees I felt that the fish would be retreating for deeper water. I proved myself wrong in the first couple hours. I spent nearly 1 hour fishing deep and only caught 1 bass. Then I decided to head to Tuttle Bay and throw some buzzbaits. I left having caught 7 bass and probably had near 7lbs of fish with our 3 fish limit. Around 9:30 I decided to run south and try the other end of the lake.

When I got to my weedbed in the south I quickly notice that the water temperature was 3 degrees color and the water clearity nearly reached 6 feet. In my first 10 casts I caught 2 nice bass, one was on a white buzzbait and the other was a creature bait. Being able to see into the weeds gave me a huge advantage. Mainly because I discovered that the bass were spawning all over the weed flat. Quickly, I switched to finesse gear and proceded to catch bass after bass off of the beds. Boat traffic started to kill my bite around 12:00 so I moved to the drop off and caught several more fish. Although I didn’t managed to catch any more good ones it was still fun. I cannot give you a definate best lure to use, but I managed to catch fish on senkos, buzzbaits, frogs, swimbaits, chatterbaits, creature baits and beavers. Once thing was for certain the fish were only willing to hit finesse baits on the beds but there were plenty of feeding bass to catch in between the beds.

I ended up winning the tournament with a 3 fish limit that weighed 8.66lbs. My limit was anchor by 2 fish around the 3lb mark and lunker of the tournament. Looking back I believe the move to the south was the correct move to make because everyone else fish the north end of the lake.

The next morning I took a couple friends, Nick and Steve Black, out for a couple hours to see if I could show Nick spawning bass. We were a little disappointed because the wind was blow enough to eliminate sight fishing, but we were still able to catch around 20 bass on buzzbaits and finesse gear. Steve had hooked into one bass that I believe was 5lbs. Overall it was a great morning on the water and I look forward to my next trip with those guys.

Memorial Day Weekend is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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Saturday dad and I ran to one of our favorite weed beds that also has some lilly pads. We had little or no success until we decided to run to a community hole to catch some fish. It didn’t take long and we caught 3 nice keepers. One was a nice 4.46lbs. At that point it was 9:30 and we had a great start. The size limit in the tournament was 13 inches, but dad and I had agree not to keep anything under 15 inches. What a mistake. Through out the day up to 10:00am we only release 5 legal fish because we were concerned that they would die because of the spawn. All of them were in the 13 to 14 inch range. At 1:00 I caught our 4th keeper. We were allowed to fish until 3:30 and needed to fill the limit. I lost 1 keeper late in the day, but we never filled our limit. We need up finishing 33rd and only 1.6lbs off collecting a check. This may be the dumbest thing Dad and I have ever done fishing a tournament. Everybody makes mistakes, but too release keepers is just stupid. Overall it was a very valuable lesson because more than likely it cost us a 14th place finish and a decent check.

Sunday I was looking for a little redemtion. I started by fishing for smallmouth. I only managed to catch 1 keeper in 1 1/2 hours so I decided to jump spot to spot. I managed to catch 6 more keepers from 9:30 to 11:30. I still only had 1 good fish and 2 14 inchers. The spot jumping continued and I caught nothing. Around 1:45 I revisited a community hole that had produced nothing in the morning, but I knew there were good fish in the area. I caught 10 keepers in the last hour of the tournament on top water. Throwing buzzbaits was not only exciting, but extremely fun. The reason I believe that it worked was the cold front had pasted and the sun was very warm. I ended up winning the tournament with a 3 fish limit that weighed 7.64lbs and I had lunker which was 3.25lbs. Without my last hour I don’t even finish in the top 5.

Pymatuning Cold Front is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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