Another Year

Well, It's that time of year for me and Dad. The boat will be getting winterized and going into storage this week. What a year! Our season started off with a muskie within 5 minutes of launching the boat for the first time in March and ended on a similar note. We put 25 muskies in our boat the last 2 weekends using our St Clair planer board trolling techniques closer to home. Nothing huge, but great numbers and several 40+ inchers, up to 46.5 the last 2 weekends. A great way to end the season.

This year had its ups and downs for us. We got a few muskies on a new body of water, and had some great outings at our old favorites. On the other hand, Chautauqua was very stubborn this summer. As always, met some new people at the lakes and had some great times with friends. That's what it's all about. Looking forward to hunting, some shows this winter, and buying some new baits in anticipation of next spring. There are some great new trolling baits that have come out over the past couple years. If you haven't run them yet, check out some Boss Shads. They are not a magic bait, but something new that the fish definitely like some days.

Good luck to everyone still hitting the water.

Adam Andresky

Sounds like a great way to end the year Adam, especialy another great one you got to spend with your dad.

I had a pretty decent year as well, got some fish early and a few more during the summer. The fall has been tough for me, but I've continued to try. I never made it to Chautauqua this year, kind of glad that I chose to try some Ohio waters this summer instead. Met alot of great people and made some good connections up north, pounded it out around here with my good buddy Rich W, and got my girlfriend into her first few fish.

It would've been a good year at that... but the fact that all of the fish caught in my boat this year came on my Schoss Baits made it great!

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...3/P6240027.jpg

Interesting looking bait. Is it like a big JPlug or something?

Attachment 15111Attachment 15112Attachment 15113Attachment 15114

Here are some nice fall fish we released this year. (if i uploaded them correctly)

Not really like a jplug, just another well built, deep diving cedar crank...

6.5" long, 8" with the lip.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...llFlatside.jpg

4" long, 5" w/ lip. + Rattles.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...eburgh13/7.jpg

Nice looking baits. I couldn't see the head of the bait in the first picture with the fish. I thought it didn't have a lip like a JPlug.

Thanks Adam, I figured that's what you were seeing. Without a herring attached to it, I wouldn't know what a jplug looked like :p

Good year Adam (another one).

Did you hit pyma anytime this year? i haven't heard much how it was this year.

Mike

Hey Mike,
I fished Pyma a couple times this spring. We got a few fish there but nothing great. The muskie fishing pressure seems to have greatly increased there, and I think the fish are becoming conditioned to some of the techniques we've used or something. Or more people are fishing it the way I like to than there used to be. I haven't been able to come up with a real productive, different pattern, but I have some ideas to try next year. I spent most of my spring on some of the other Ohio lakes we like. Still, nothing beats those pre-spawn Pyma beasts.

Adam

Good deal. Can't wait to get back to pyma, didn't get to fish it this year.

Happy Thanksgiving and have a great Christmas. See you at the Butler Show.

Mike

It is always a weird feeling for me to put the boat away and take a break during Jan-March. If I were lucky enough to spend some days on the water with my Dad, it would be even more weird putting the boat away. I sure envy you guys.

The casting bite on LSC has me very intrigued. We may just have to run out there next summer and give that a shot.

Nice looking fish pictures too!

Red,
If you want to cast LSC, I think it's late Oct/Nov that you want to go.

From the looks of some of the fish coming out of there right now, I definitely agree. Bob Brunner has been casting that place for 65 years during summer and has done very well. I have a couple of clients who have been with him during summer and they caught/raised some real tanks in those vast weedbeds. In fact, one of my regulars told me about the largest musky he had ever seen followed his bait to the boat very slowly while casting with Brunner......all 3 of them got a real good look at it.

Three Rivers Esox,

What Ohio lakes did you fish this summer? I have fished Piedmont, Clearfork, Leesville, West Branch, Saltfork, Milton, and Pymatuning for muskies in Ohio.

I've been to a few on your list Adam, and didn't find time to make it to the others yet... I fished/scouted/explored parts of West Branch, Piedmont, Salt Fork and Pymatuning this summer. I really enjoyed the types of water there, enough no-wake area to get my little 14'er out of the way. Hoping to draw off of some of the things I learned this summer, it's tough to develop a pattern running alone in such new, big areas.

All the lakes you hit are good spring time lakes. At least that's when I have fished them most. Be sure to try some of those places next March and April and focus on shallower water (15fow or less). Boat traffic is usually not bad that time of year and you have a good chance at a pre-spawn fattie.

Thanks Adam. That's essentially why I made the smaller bait, to try to run them in the colder spring water. It wasn't the ticket then but worked as the water warmed up a little. Have you ever noticed that those cold water fish are less/more receptive to rattles? I know those guys love the Sissons. It's just a little longer and fatter, my buddy named them the Musky Meatball

I haven't made any correlation between rattles and cold water one way or the other. I have done well on little ernies, grandma shads, and the new tuff shads in cold water (40 degree range), so I don't think the muskies mind rattles in the colder water periods. I thought your smaller bait looked similar to a Sisson or the Muskietrain Diesel (I think that's what it's called) made by Mike Mordas. I am sure they will work for you in the spring, but it's like any other time...certain action, sound, vibration, speed, etc can be a trigger one day but not the next. Those Ohio lakes are often pretty muddy in the spring so, if anything, the rattles are probably good.

The fish are still biting, I fished Friday,Sunday and Monday from 2pm till 5 pm and got 5 fish 32,34,39,42,43 had 2 follows and lost a good one. 2 fish came on gliders and 3 on the same jerkbait. All fish were caught working the baits fast and aggressive. I was fishing the upper Allegheny and hitting the eddies, the river is moving pretty good. Water temp is 46. What made it different was 4 of the 5 fish were caught from shore. One other boat trolled the river for 4 hrs with zippo. I fished Tionesta Lake on Saturday for 8 hrs and didnt even get a rip. I talked to one other guy who fished the lake on Thursday and got skunked also. The lake is being lowered 8 feet so they can pour some concrete footers under the Nebraska bridge. I talked to one guy who said that the bridge access was closed last week as the creek was only 6 feet wide in the middle. He has never saw it this low in 20 years. The guys wanted to have the bridge done by turkey day until those rains hit last thursday. Now they got this strong storm system moving through. They will have a tough time now beating the ice.

That's good action Joe. 5 fish in 9hrs, if I'm reading correctly. We also got our fish the last two weekends going fast for low to mid 40 degree water temps.

I agree with Joe. We hit the middle allegheny on Tuesday for 3 hours and boated a 34 and a 42 with another follow from a low 30's fish. I'm sure we could have caught a couple more fish, but we decided to go fish the Nebraska bridge and down into the reservior only to find out you can't launch up there because the water was low. After warming up in the truck we called it quits for the day, but the musky action on the river is on fire.

Jason

yes Adam, that was 5 fish plus a follow and one big one lost in 9 hrs. I hope to get back out soon.

We had a severe river fluctuation up here yesterday.......it dropped about 9 inches during the early morning and then bumped right back up a few hours later due to the rain we had the day before which made for some very tough fishing. All we could do was manage a decent pike and 2 other pike blow-ups. No musky sightings at all.