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.

Night Trip is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

Related Posts

• June 2, 2010 -- Memorial Day Weekend
• July 30, 2009 -- End of the Slump?
• July 21, 2009 -- Cheap Buzzbait No Problem
• September 12, 2011 -- Basscasters Wednesday Evening Tournament – #12
• September 6, 2011 -- Basscasters Wednesday Evening Tournament – #11

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

Related Posts

• May 17, 2010 -- Pymatuning Cold Front
• June 1, 2009 -- TBF District 6 – Pymatuning
• April 27, 2009 -- Pymatuning Open Tournaments
• April 20, 2009 -- Good Weekend of Bass Fishing
• May 4, 2011 -- Night Trip

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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• June 2, 2010 -- Memorial Day Weekend
• September 2, 2011 -- KBBC Southside Tournament
• April 11, 2011 -- Difficult Fishing
• April 11, 2011 -- KBBC – Raystown 2011
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We got there around 7:00 am and fish until around noon.  My first stop gave me too nice smallmouth.  Both were over 15 inches long.  I caught 1 on a white buzzbait and the other on a chartruse spinnerbait.  The fish that I caught were very aggressive.  Later in the morning I managed to catch another keeper (about 14″).  I also lost a true monster on a popper.  Their were a weird set of circumstances with the hit, but lets just say that she broke  my line and heart on the initial hit.  I got a good look at the fish because it jumped to throw my popper back to me.  I am guessing that the smallmouth was in the 20″ range.  The rest of the fish that I managed to catch were dinks, but still fun.

In a couple of weeks the fishing at East Brady will get increasingly better until november.  Then the fishing will get difficult.  I am looking forward to my next trip up there.

East Brady is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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• May 10, 2011 -- Allegheny Reservoir
• July 14, 2010 -- River Troubles
• July 1, 2010 -- Springdale pool of the Allegheny River
• October 1, 2009 -- ABA New York West Division on Oneida Lake
• July 29, 2009 -- FLW Forrest Wood Cup!

Cheap Buzzbait No Problem is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

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• May 4, 2011 -- Night Trip
• April 10, 2011 -- Presque Isle Bay – Lake Erie
• March 23, 2010 -- Afternoon at Lake Arthur
• July 30, 2009 -- End of the Slump?
• May 10, 2011 -- Allegheny Reservoir

It didn’t take us long to find some nice fish morning on saturday.  Since we had never been to the lake we decided to just use the trolling motor in the morning and try to find some kind of pattern.  What we had discovered was there there really was no pattern.  We caught fish in the prespawn, spawn, and post spawn cycles.  If you were going to target the spawning fish the only time your were truly able to do so was before 11 am.  The boat traffic was at a minimum, and the sun was perfect for help you see the fish.  Typically in the middle of the day we were hanging out at the campsite, but we would head back out for the evening and fish for post spawn fish with jerkbaits, soft and hard, and chatterbaits.  Dock fishing did work, but after saturday it was harder to get fish off of the docks because of the boats coming in and out of them. 

Monday morning was the best day for me out there.  Obviously it should have been because I had never been to the lake before this weekend, but my expectation were low because of the fishing and boating pressure of a holiday weekend.    I decided to start fishing by running to a spot that I had located a couple of spawning smallmouth bass.  The night before I had seen about 3 or 4 nice smallmouth bass on a stretch of water and when I went back the next morning, there were about 30 nice smallies on beds.  You could say that I had hit the jackpot.  I spent all morning working these fish and managed 11 nice smallies and 3 of them broke the 4lb mark and most were over 3lbs.  I lost about 5 more of these monsters, but that is bed fishing for you. 

My recommendations for Chautauqua is that everyone should go there at some point in their life.  It is a beautiful lake and everyone up there is happy and very nice.  The fish are big and the water is awesome.  The boat traffic can be overwelming, but don’t let that discourage you.  I would try fishing green pumpkin lures and baitfish colored lures.  Hard and soft jerkbaits worked well matching the shad color.  Long casts are extremely important in the super clear water.

Overall it was a great weekend and I can’t wait to get back.

Memorial Day Weekend is a post from: Fish Pittsburgh

Related Posts

• May 3, 2010 -- Presque Isle and Pymatuning Lake
• August 12, 2009 -- SENECA LAKE
• June 9, 2009 -- Chautauqua Lake
• May 21, 2009 -- Past Weekend on the Water
• May 20, 2011 -- Good Fishing