This past weekend I spent 2 days fishing the local river systems. Saturday I spent the day fishing the Monongahela River. We launched out of Ten Mile County Park because I was trying to decided whether or not to fish the upcoming KBBC event there. I have always struggle fishing this stretch of river more than I usually struggle on river systems. I spent the day fishing in the creek and miles of shoreline and different covers on the river itself. Between my friend and I, we boated 2 keepers and only 10 bass.
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.