Archive for category Cancilla’s Fishing Blog
Preparing for 2012
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on December 4, 2011
The last few months have been very long for me. With some of the warmest weather I can remember in Pennsylvania I have not been able to fish. If you recall I had been dealing with a shoulder injury for most of the summer. Well in Septmeber after the KBBC Classic I decided to go ahead and have the surgery knowing that it would be a 4-6 month rehab. I am happy to say that I am about 2 1/2 months into the rehab and things are coming along nicely. I still can’t fish or hunt, but everyday life is slowly getting back to normal. Which means I have started getting ready for the 2012 fishing season.
December is a great month to stock up on fishing tackle. Most stores run Christmas sales, on-line sales with free shipping, or simply end of the year sales. Some places that I recommend checking are tackle warehouse, lang big fish, and cabelas. Often these sales don’t last very long so I tend to check the websites 1 or 2 times per week.
I have found that if you contact companies they will often give you bulk pricing on weights, hooks, and even lures. It never hurts to ask and when you are like myself and going to buy 200 bullet weights to get me through the year, you may as well buy in bulk and save money if you can.
Well good luck to you still heading out on the water. I know I would be heading out this weekend to try to get some last minute fish. Remember you might not get a bunch of fish this time of year, but you will usually get good fish to bite.
KBBC Southside Tournament
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on September 2, 2011
Last Saturday was the final regular season tournament in the Keystone Bass Buddy Circuit (KBBC). Dad and I decided that because we were sitting in 11 place in the standings we were going to take an all or nothing approach to fishing the event. Which meant to us that we were going to try to lock twice. I know a handful of guys risk doing this every year and some guys make it back on time and some don’t. What we had decided is that no matter what we were going to start locking back up at 11:00, even though the tournament hours were until 3:00. We would start locking with or without a limit.
The tournament started at 6:30 and we ran to the first lock, and when we pulled up to it the doors started to open! We were very excited because this meant no wasted time. Once we got through that lock, we quickly ran to the next one. Another boat went up and pulled the chord so we stopped short to make a few casts. I think we were able to make 4 casts and they opened the gates again! Never in my wildest dream did I expect to have both locks line up and let us get to our spot by 7:40. I knew then that we had a better chance to do well.
Our first spot was a creek mouth that I had practiced the week before and caught a number of keepers and dinks. Turned out to have more dinks than keepers during the touranment, but we were able to get 2 keepers from the spot. One decent keeper and one that was around 12 3/4″.
Then we ran to a spot that I found were there was a metal wall, but there were a series of rock humps and wooden structure that was submerged. We got to that spot and I immediately caught a small keeper. It was around 12 1/4″. About 5 minutes later I caught a really nice 15″+ smallie. That would be the last of the keepers for that spot.
We fired up the boat again and ran to another spot by a couple of barges. Quickly dad caught our lunker smallmouth for the day and another keeper spotted bass. At this point we were really excited because we had our limit and it was only 10:30. The problem was that we were out of spots that produced for me in practice. We ran around fishing quickly for about 30 minutes looking for fish but nothing happened. So we decided to lock back through to the next pool.
Like clock work we were able to lock right up through and quickly ran to a spot we had caught them in practice. Once we locked back through we were able to catch 2 more keepers. One that culled and one that didn’t. One was off of a rocky bottom and the other was off of an old metal structure. We locked back through to the southside pool around 1:00. A 2:35 dad got a good bite, but the fish jumped and trashed away from the boat and was able to get off. The fish would have culled, but I think it may have only been able to move us up 1 or 2 places in the standing.
Overall, it was worth the gamble for a couple of reasons. First, we made it back on time. Second, we got away from the crowd. Third, we had decent fish located. Forth, we really had nothing to loose. Seven of the eight keepers we caught were on weightless stick worms. The stick worms were ones that I make myself that are very soft and are a slightly different brown color than most companies make. The other keeper was on a beaver that was green pumpkin that I made myself as well. I am a believer in making baits that no one else has and it has really paid off for us this year.
Congrats to Chuck Walker Jr. and Chris Covert for winning the points title for the year. Their 6th place finish shot them up to the top.
Where Have I Been?
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on August 24, 2011
For those who follow the blog, know I haven’t posted anything in a while on my personal blog. I have worked on other parts of the website, but just haven’t posted much on my blog. There is a very good reason for this….Memorial Day Weekend I tore muscles and cartlidge in my shoulder. Although, it has been painful, I have tried to fish but have had limited success. To go with the limited success working at the computer tends to bring a little extra pain to my shoulder, so when I am done with work I don’t want to see a computer until the next day. I scheduled surgery in September. Don’t worry I schedule it so that I would be able to fish in the KBBC Classic and the Wednesday Night Championship.
This weekend dad and I will be fishing the last regular season event of the KBBC circuit at the Southside. At this point most guys know that I typically struggle at the river. However, because I have started to pour my own baits fishing the river is becoming easier as I am really keying in on color and size of the lures better. Maybe I am just getting a little bit better at river fishing? Who knows, it could happen. Either way I am looking forward to the event this year. Practice has went pretty well. I do not think I am on the right fish to win, but I feel that a top 5 finish isn’t out of the question. Let’s just hope that barge traffic and the locks don’t ruin my day. I have never made a gamble like this before and I might never do it again, but we are willing to risk it all for a chance to win. Good luck to all that are fishing.
Good Fishing
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on May 20, 2011
This past weekend was one of the most unbelievable fishing weekends that I have ever experienced. It started with fishing the KBBC event at Pymatuning Lake on Saturday. My dad had practiced for the event on Thursday and was confident in his spots and what made me happy is where and how they were getting them. Plus, I had been there the previous saturday for a 1/2 day and my spots were close to his. That makes for a maximized fishing day. It took me about 3 flips and I had our first keeper and we never looked back. We had our first limit in the first hour of the tournament and had 1 good fish in the well. Then it was time to start culling. And boy did we cull a lot of fish. Switching between flipping, working soft plastic on breaks, and topwater we were able to boat between 45 and 50 keepers. The majority of which were largemouth bass. More than likely we caught 4 limits of 6 fish that would have been over 12lbs. It was a record setting day for the Keystone Bass Buddy Circuit. 81 limits were brought to the scales and over 1100 pounds of fish were weighed in. If it wasn’t for a 1/2 pound dead fish penalty we would have collected a check, but we still finished 22 with 15.11 pounds. More importantly we moved up to first in the standings. It is a long season, but this is by far the best start we have ever had.
Sunday we got up and decided to ride to Presque Isle Bay to try and get into the smallmouth bass. We got there and there was a very strong wind out of the northeast. These are not good conditions to fish the bay. Especially when the wind is blowing 20-25mph and raining hard the entire time. Unlike the weather the fishing was unbelievable. Between the 2 of us we boated over 50 smallmouth in 6 hours. A couple were over 5lbs and about 10 were probably in the 4lb range. most of the fish were in the 3lb range though. The key to the day was actually getting your lure to the bottom. If you didn’t you weren’t catching fish, but as soon as you got down you were getting bit.
If you are looking for somewhere to fish this weekend I highly recommend both of these fisheries, as this could be the best weather we have had in weeks to fish during the weekend. Good Luck.
Big Time
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on May 17, 2011
I received an email last night that made me feel like a big time star. Although I know better than that. The email was from Mike Rizzo, a sports talk show host on the Rizzo Sports Weekly show. He invited me to be a guest on his talk show tonight from 7:30 to 8:00 pm live. The show will air locally on TV at FLN 23 and on the radio at WTYM 1380am. We will be talking about the fishing community and local fishing opportunities and industry. I am looking forward to this experience as it will be my first TV appearance. Hopefully, I can get some feedback on the website as to how the interview went. Check back to see clips of the interview. You can get the live feed at http://www.rizzosports.com/.
Night Trip
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on May 4, 2011
I went out to Lake Arthur from 5:30-8:30 Monday night. My goal was to test out my new battery and experitment with some soft plastic baits that I poured. I managed to boat 20 bass in those 3 hours. I also lost 6 fish and missed about 6 or so hits as well. Some lures that worked were chatterbaits, buzzbaits, and a beaver like lure that I poured myself. The water temperature was between 55 and 59 depending if I was in the back of the bays or on the main lake. If we would get some consistent nice weather I feel the fish are getting ready to spawn. Hopefully, I can get back out there tomorrow night.
I fished for about 30 minutes for stripe bass as well, but I didn’t even get a hit looking for them. I threw some jerkbaits, red eye shad, and even trolled for a few minutes. I really want to get into them right now. They are one of my favorite fish to eat.
Difficult Fishing
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on April 11, 2011
Well it was another difficult weekend of fishing in Pennsylvania. In part due to some difficult weather conditions. After a good start last week at Lake Arthur in the Keystone Bass Buddy Circuit we decided to fish event number two on Raystown Lake. Historically, I have never done well at Raystown Lake, so we decided to head out and practice all day on Friday to find a pattern, check water temperatures and water clearity.
We launched from the Seven Points Campground launch around 10:00. The weather was aweful. It was about 40 degrees and raining. I don’t mean a light rain or a sprinkle, it was a constant heavy rain. We fished several spots with no luck before we went back and set up the campsite and had lunch. After being off the water for a little while we went back out and decided that we had better check a couple of spots that we had caught fish before. We fished nearly 400 yards of shoreline at a slow to moderate pace before I decided to try a soft plastice craw bait. I made a few casts and I caught a 3lb largemouth. To be honest I barely felt the hit and even when I set the hook I wasn’t sure it was a fish. So we moved down the shore about 100 yars and I caught a dink. At that point we decided to leave that area and explore a little more. We never had another hit, and at 7:00 we decided to call it a night and go back to the tent.
The next morning we went to registration at James Creek. We pulled boat 89 and secured second flight, which is what we wanted. We started by fishing the James Creek finger and worked a long stretch for the first hour. We decided to work it back up, and around 9:45 we got our first keeper on a chatterbait. It was a nice 3lb largemouth. We worked that area for a while and decided to make a move and just hit every spot on the lake that had produced in the past. Our second stop was an area that has produced smallmouth bass for us in the past. Sure enough around 12:00 we caught our lunker a 3.69lb smallmouth. We worked the spot for another hour without a bite. At that point we decided to hit the stretch that I had caught the keeper the day before. After another long Idle we started working soft plastics and jerkbaits. I missed a 2 different fish and decided to make a lure change because they had never hooked up. Sure enough the move to a different bait the the key because in the next 20 minutes I caught 2 more keeper largemouth. We worked the area for the rest of the day but those fish that I caught around 2:00 were the last ones we caught.
Overall we had little expectations coming into the event and even less after practice. However, this goes to show you that you can draw off of past experience and new knowledge and still have a good day on the water. Our 5th place finish with 4 bass that weighed 12.18 pounds has moved us up to 2nd in the AOY standings. It is a good start that hopefully continues in the KBBC tournament trail.
On Sunday the West Penn Bass Hunters had our first club tournament. We started our season at Lake Wilhelm under great weather conditions, but struggled. There were only 6 bass brought to the scales. A great finish by Jon who had the only 3 fish limit and finished 1st with lunker. I managed to finish 3rd with my 1 keeper. Look for that lake to really turn on this week. The water temps are rising and the clearity is pretty good. The baitfish are not hard to find, but making fish to eat was a struggle this weekend. Good job to all that caught fish and see everyone at Pymatuning.
KBBC – Lake Arthur
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on April 4, 2011
The last couple weeks of long anticipated fishing has been a difficult and trying task. With below freezing air temperatures at night and the fact that the air temperatures rarely reached 45 degrees during the day all the anglers were having trouble finding fish willing to hit. However, in practice I was able to find several fish flipping and working deeper weed patches when I could find green grass. Everyday on the water I was hooking several keepers and everyday I had one around 4 pounds. Most of the fish I could during practice were in part to the use of my Dig IN Shallow Water Anchors. By using the bow and transum mount together the boat would be held perfectly still and would allow me to focus on fishing and working the bait slowly without dealing with the trolling motor. Not to metion the fact that we were no longer spooking the fish with the trolling motor. I highly recommend this product to anybody that plans to fish this time of year.
The first KBBC (Keystone Bass Buddy Circuit) bass tournament was held on Saturday April 2 on Lake Arthur. Coming into the event with a better practice than most guys I felt confident that we were going to do well. My dad and I knew that the afternoon bite was going to be key, and we could not get discouraged if we didn’t get a keeper until right before weigh-in. Just like we suspected the morning was extremely tough on us. In fact the entire day was tough on us. We hit all 7 spots that I had caught a keeper in practice, but couldn’t get a single bite. At 2:30 we decided to head up into a cove that we have the most confidence in and decided we were going to live and die by it. I started by throwing jerkbaits, anyone who knows me as a fishermen knows I hate throwing them, and that lasted for about 10 minutes. I quickly looked at my dad and said I am either going to catch a big fish or no fish as I picked up a homemade chatterbait. This lure is typically my panic box lure. It always seems to save me. At 3:15 I hooked up and landed our only fish of the day. It was a 5.42 pound largemouth. The fish saved our day and gave us a 10th place finish.
My hat goes off to the KBBC staff and its sponsors for putting on another great tournament. It was run smoothly even though the fish didn’t want to co-operate. Good luck to all of the guys at Raystown. See you there.
Butler Sportsmens Show
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on February 11, 2011
I just wanted to remind everyone that the Butler Sportsmen Show is going to be held this Saturday and Sunday at the Butler Senior High School. This is a small show, but is always worth the trip.
Oil City Open Tournament
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Cancilla's Fishing Blog on October 18, 2010
This past weekend my dad and I fished an open tournament on the Allegheny River in Oil City. Even though I consider myself a weak river angler I decided to fish this tournament for a couple of reasons. First, it is for a good cause. It benefits the police in our area. Second, the fishing in the northern Allegheny River is amazing during the fall and for the better part of the year. Third, it gave dad and I another day on the water together before winter set in.
There are a few things that you should know about the pool. First, it is very short as far as where a regular prop motor can run. Another thing is there is deep water, up to 20+ feet in the pool. Last is that the fish tend to winter in the pool since it is so deep. This being said we thought we were in for a big day of fishing.
The morning started fast and furious. On my first two cast I caught a 14″ dink and our first keeper. The action never really stopped. All day long we got bit and caught 14-14 7/8″ smallmouth bass. Dad even caught a walleye and a musky. There were over 30 boats in the tournament. Probably 15 jet boats that left the pool and another 15 that stayed in the pool. Most guys caught alot of short fish, but couldn’t get the right keepers. Everyone caught fish on a few lures. Tubes, beavers, and drop shot rigs. Through the day I had over 50 hits, most of which dropped the lure before I could stick them. Still between dad and I boated near 30 smallmouth and 2 keepers over 15″.
I can’t wait to head back for some great fishing and some of the most beautiful scenary that our state has to offer.
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