Archive for category Parker’s Fishing Blog
Trip to Lake Wilhelm
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on July 20, 2010
Made a trip up to Wilhelm this past Sunday, with my buddy, and much like the past few trips up there this year we struggled to get quality fish. We put in at the marina around 6am and we started working our way down the shoreline. We didn’t get anything to speak of in the first 3 or 4 spots we hit. We tried jigs, cranks, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and worms. There was lots of bait moving around, just nothing eating it. Finally around 11am we made a run down by the dam to a spot I can normally get a few good one off of and BJ got a nice one. We caught a few more fish down there and decided it was too hot to stay out much longer, so we headed in. One thing that I have noticed up there this year is the fact that the weeds are not growing very well. Most of the spots I fish up there don’t have the weeds on them like they did in the past.
Springdale pool of the Allegheny River
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on July 1, 2010
Liz and I went out on the Springdale pool of the Allegheny River on Saturday to try out some of the new hand poured beavers, worms, and flukes I have been working on. We caught a good number of smallmouth and spotted bass, with a few rock bass and catfish mixed in. Most of the bass came off water dumps, walls, and pillars. They weren’t really active and seemed be holding pretty tight to the bottom so we caught most of our fish dragging beavers or working the drop shot. Liz got all of her fish dragging a small texas rigged green pumpkin beaver with an 1/8oz weight that she named “Squishy”. I got most of my fish on a little hand poured 4″ drop shot worm. The two colors that got me the most hits were the green pumpkin purple flake and a watermelon red flake.
Musky at Lake Arthur
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on April 25, 2010
My dad and I when to Lake Arthur this weekend looking to catch some Hybrid Strippers. We started in the late afternoon up by the boat rentals. We caught 10 or so largemouth but no strippers. Next we went down the old 422 finger and started fishing the road bed. After about hour we hooked up with good sized musky and we were able to get some of the fight on video. I was amazed we were able to land it on 8lb test and a spinning tackle.
After that we fished for a while more and my dad did get a 22″ stripper just after dark on jerkbait. There was a good amount of bait rolling around but the strippers were not really active. It’s still a little early for them to be taking bait off the surface, water temp was only 62 degrees.
April Weekend at Lake Arthur
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on April 12, 2010
I fished both days this weekend at Lake Arthur. On Saturday my Dad and I put in at the 528 launch around 10 am and started fishing up in Shannon’s bay. We got a few largemouth on chatterbaits and spinnerbaits as well as had a few musky that were following our lures to the boat. Next, we ran up to the old 422 finger and fished in the bays across from the launch with no luck. Then we ran back to fish some laydowns in muddy creek with nothing to show for it. We only caught one keeper all day on Saturday so my hopes for doing well in my club tournament on Sunday were not very high.
Sunday we put in at bear run at 7 am and I ran straight to Shannon’s bay where we had caught a few fish the day before. On my first cast I had a musky come up to the boat and bite off my chatterbait. Then I picked up my spinnerbait, made a few more casts and had another musky hooked up that straightened out my trailer hook. Still not having caught a bass, I grabbed my Red Eye Shad and within a few cast it was gone. Something ate it off. I’m guessing a musky. I was getting a little pissed at this point, so I moved in close to an isolated weed patch and started pitching a beaver. After about a dozen flips in a little musky or pike flash on it and bit it off. That was enough of that so I picked up and ran down to old 422. I made a few cast with my chatterbait and caught a small largemouth. A few cast later, I hooked what looked to be a really good largemouth that came straight at me shaking her head but it came unbuttoned. After loosing that fish, I stuck around for awhile but didn’t get anything else. For next few hours I ran around trying all kinds of different spots: weeds, laydowns, piles, ect. No fish. Finally, I ran into muddy creek around one o’clock and started pitching a craw into some shallow brush that I have caught fish off of in the past. I got hit on my first pitch but missed the fish. I made a few pitches getting hit each time but missing the fish. After about 15 pitches, I hooked up with a solid 3.69lb largemouth. I put her in the boat and made a few more pitches and got a 3.5 lb largemouth. I finished out the day fishing laydowns and managed to get my 3rd keeper, a 15″ largemouth. My total weight with a three fish limit was 9.01 lbs. All my keepers came in about three feet of water off wood on a green pumpkin craw.
First Trip of 2010 – Lake Arthur
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on March 21, 2010
Side Imaging Scan of a tree (Click to enlarge)
The ice came off this weekend, so we got a chance to head out to Lake Arthur. I was excited to get on the water to play with my new Humminbird Side Imaging fish finder. This weekend was the first time I got to try it out, so I spent most of my time on the water trolling around playing with some of the features of the new unit. It’s some pretty cool technology but it’s definitely is going to take some time to figure out how to use it to its fullest ability. It was nice to be able to see what was down there. I went to a brush pile, or what I thought was a brush, only to figure out it was really a tree. It took a few passes around it to get a good clean scan but I was able to get this scan of what appears to be a tree top.
We did do some fishing while we were out too. The fishing was pretty slow. The surface temp was in the high 40’s in the coves and in the low 40’s in the main lake. We were only able to manage two bites. Both bites we got came on a Luck Craft pointer while it was sitting suspended. The first bite we got was short lived and shook off after a few turns of the reel. The second bite of the day turned out to be a nice 4 lb smallmouth. The fishing wasn’t great but it was nice to get back out of the water. I hope everyone gets to get out and do some fishing soon.
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Final Tournament of the Year – Lake Arthur
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on November 12, 2009
The final bass tournament of the year has come and gone. The bass club I fish in, West Penn Bass Hunters, had there final tournament of the year on Lake Arthur last Sunday. I had not pre-fished for this tournament, but Lake Arthur is my home lake so I had a good idea where the fish might be. After looking through my notes from the past few years, I decided that I would need to fish shallow weedlines and/or wood to get my fish. We launched from 528 launch at 8am, with clear skies, no wind, warmer than average air temp, and the water temp was 49°. My first stop of the day was a cove about half way down the lake. Not knowing exactly where the fish would be I picked up my white chatterbait and started down the bank. It didn’t take long to get my first hit, maybe 15-20 minutes, but it was just a 13” largemouth. My next bite, coming just a few minutes later was much better, a solid 4.56lb largemouth. After getting that big girl so early, I was planning on having a great day of fishing. I fished around that cove for the next few hours, changing my lures and trying a spinnerbait, jig, jerkbait, and a beaver but was only able to get few more dinks. I moved down around Bear Run next but didn’t get anything down there so I decided to make the run all the way back up to muddy creek. I fished around in weeds with a spinnerbait and chatterbait for a few more hours with no success, so I decided to try dragging a beaver. I was able to get one hit on the beaver, which ended up being my last keeper of the day, a 3lb largie. My final stop of the day was up in Shannon’s Bay where I got one more dink on a chatterbait. It was time to take in my fish in and see how everyone else did. My total weight with my two fish was 7.65lbs and it was just enough to squeak out the win over two other guys that had three fish limits. It was a great day to be on the water as the weather was nice and even though the fishing wasn’t great the size of the fish I got made up for the low number of fish I caught.
Another Tough Day at Wilhelm
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on October 19, 2009
Sonar from the roadbed on Oct 18, 2009
Took at trip to Lake Wilhelm on Sunday with my Dad. It wasn’t the warmest day on the water but it is October so fishing in the cold comes with the territory. It was 38 degree with 15-20 mph winds, brrrr. Water temp was 49 degrees. We launched around 10:00 AM from Launch #4. We started fishing on some humps and roadbeds with a shad colored crankbaits and jigs for the first 2 hours without a hit. I’m pretty sure there were fish down there, see sonar, they were just not willing to eat for us. Next we moved down the lake to a weed bed and was able to get two hit on a black and blue jig but didn’t get hooked up. We then went to some laydowns but still couldn’t get hit. We made one finial stop on the way back up the lake in a small weed patch in 5-7 feet of water and I was able to finally get a fish. I nice 3lb largemouth on craw tube. The fish were not eating as good as I was hoping but it was a beautiful day on the water.
ABA New York West Division on Oneida Lake
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on October 1, 2009
This past weekend I fished as a rider in the last divisional event for the bassmaster weekend series, New York West Division on Oneida Lake. This was the championship so it was a two day event held on Saturday and Sunday. Much like Leo has said in the past, these guys from the ABA do a fine job at putting on a tournament.
Leo and I arrived at Oneida Lake Thursday afternoon and practiced both Thursday and Friday. We found some solid spots around some of the shoals that littered the lake. The main pattern was a 3/8 or ½ oz white spinnerbait over 10 or so feet of water. Let me tell you that the smallmouth in Oneida are some of the strongest fighting smallies I have every seen. In fact I didn’t talk to too many guys that didn’t have at least one spinnerbait broken by these guys, I myself broke two. The secondary pattern was to pull a green pumpkin tube or beaver.
Day one of the tournament was not what I would call and nice day on the water. Heavy winds produced some bumpy conditions, 3 to 5 footers. Despite the bad weather conditions my boater was on good fish and I was able to get limit of solid fish using my ½ oz white spinnerbait on day one. This put me right where in needed to be for day two.
On day two the wind had died off a little but the rain moved in. My boater had some smallmouth he fished in practice about half way down the lake so after a few stops in the morning we decided to run down and see if we could get into them. We pulled up to spot and within an hour had a small limit. We worked this area for the reset of the day and we were able to cull up but not quite to the quality of fish from day one. Once again just about every fish came on a ½ oz white spinnerbait, a few came on a green pumpkin tube.
I was able to put together my first top 5 finish in this series, finishing 4th. All in all it was a good weekend of fishing. If I learned one thing from this trip it was that I’m more out of shape then I ever thought possible. Throwing a ½ oz spinnerbait for four straight days had my arms sore. I have no idea how KVD does it.
Trip to Lake Wihelm
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on September 7, 2009
Made a trip up to Lake Wilhelm on Saturday with my girlfriend and the dog, we launched around 10:30 AM from Launch #4. We started fishing on some humps and roadbeds with a shad colored crankbait, did this for around 2 hours without a hit. Next we moved down the lake to a weed bed and was able to get two hit on a white 3/8 oz spinnerbait but didn’t get hooked up. Our next stop was some laydowns farther down the lake. I was able to get a small largemouth, 14” or so, on a 3/8oz black and blue jig. Not a big fish by any means but I was very happy to finial get a fish in the boat. I worked the rest of the laydowns on that shore and got a few more hits but was unable to hook up with anything. We made one finial stop on the way back up the lake in a small weed patch in 6 feet of water and I was able to get another largemouth and lost one on the same jig I caught the other one on. The fish were not eating that well at all but it was a beautiful day on the water.
Practice Doesn’t Always make Prefect
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on August 24, 2009
This weekend was a mixed bag of fishing for me to say the least. My buddy and I were signed up to fish the Mcfeely Tournament at Lake Arthur on Sunday, which is a great tournament for a worthy cause, put on by the guys at Consumer Direct Sports Supplies every year. I had been getting a few nice fish out of the weeds just about every trip out there this year, but it had been less consistent as of late. I wanted to go practice the day before the tournament to check some spots and try to find some more spots to make sure I was on fish. I told myself going in I was going to stick one fish in each spot I hit just to make sure they were the quality of fish I was looking for.
5lb 13 oz Lake Arthur Largemouth
The morning started off better then I could have hoped for. I punched my black and blue Picasso jig with 65lb braid into the first patch of weeds I came to and bang, a nice 4lb largemouth. So I left and went to my next stop. On the first cast, I got a small keeper. I left that spot and went punching pads in th next area I wanted to fish and got a nice mid 40’s musky. The first of three musky I had hit in Bear Run that day, other two got off. I did have to give her my jig because I couldn’t even see it in her craw and I didn’t want to killer her trying to remove it. I didn’t get any bass in the pad so I made a run down the lake to check some other holes I hadn’t fished yet this year. At my next stop I punched into some weeds and pulled up a nice 5lb 13 oz largemouth. (Sorry for the bad picture all we had was a cell phone to take the picture.) After that I thought I was going to be in great shape going into the tournament the next day.
Well sorry to say my buddy and I never got a keeper during the tournament. I’m not sure if it was the weather difference that changed everything or what. Saturday was sunny and nice and Sunday was overcast and cold. We did catch some fish but never got a good one. We did, however, have another musky attack but it didn’t hook up. On that note, if anyone is looking for musky, Lake Arthur seems to be really picking up right now.
What can you do? Sometime you get the bass and sometimes the bass get you. What else can you say? I think of it this way, it better to have caught some fish on Saturday and had a good day of fishing then to have never caught them at all.
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