December has been a wash-out, literally. No guide trips due to high water this entire month and it looks like my season is a wrap.
I had hoped to hit the 50 "casting fish" mark again this year but will have to settle for 47 muskies out of 81 musky trips. We did hit 4 other "trolling" fish and 3 of those 4 were without clients. We hit (and finally landed) our first 50+ inch river fish back in May. The smallest fish we caught was 31 inches, if my memory serves me and 36 of the 47 fish were 39 inches or longer which was a very nice statistic to see.
All of my trolling trips on Tionesta were cancelled due to excessive water temps.
Thanks to all of you who hit the river with me this past season!
Thanks, Chris. I will never complain about 47 casting fish in a season but I will complain about those 13-15 days of not even seeing a fish.
This is the first year I had posted totals even thought I have kept records over the past 13 seasons. The lowest total was 21 back in '97 when I was still coaching between Nov. and March and only doing 20-25 trips per year. The highest total was 88 back in '04-'05 and with the musky/pike season lasting only 8.5 months. We were dialed in that year and had some very skilled clients to boot not to mention having 4 secondary areas full of fish for some reason. That particular winter got very warm during late-Dec/early-Jan with air temps in the 60's and low-70's which threw off my pattern and caused us to miss the 100 mark. I failed to figure things out before it got too cold to fish that particular year. I was still fishing deep and (I think) most fish had moved shallow taking advantage of the 2-3 degree warmer "melt" water stacking on the surface.
I may never have another shot at hitting 100 PA fish again as long as our primary technique remains a "casting" gig. It was just one of those special years and it seemed we do nothing wrong except loose 2-3 HUGE fish at boatside. 39 of those 88 fish were caught during the late Fall/early-Winter while precision trolling.
BTW, on December 11th we saw many of those pesky rainbow fingerlings (while chasing walleye) breaking the surface around every bridge pier between Warren and Starbrick when the water was super high so I do think they have finally spread out over a 10-13 mile area now.
I ended up having a great season as well. The neatest one was my three year old daughter helped land a small 24" muskie this year. Funny story. I had a 8" Tuff shad trolling and had a split second rip. I figured I had hit bottom. My daughter yells something and I turn around and see this muskie with the Tuff shad T boned and doing loops 30' behind the boat. I kept the rod in the down east and she reeled it almost to the boat. I kept it in the water and cut the hooks. He did swim away.
I also managed my pb Walleye and Flathead Catfish (34.8lbs) this year.
Sounds like a good season and it's great making it back home safe too with all those trips. Congrats on your 50" Red. Just goes to show how tough it really is trying to get one of these big fish.
Thanks and you are right......hitting a LEGIT 50" fish anywhere is still a tough chore. Lots of 49, 49.25, 49.50 fish that get rounded up to 50 but not in my boat.
This was a very interesting year for me. It ended up being my best in terms of fish on, and fish in the net. The thing thats gonna keep me fired up all Winter are all the lost fish, mainly on the flyrod. I definitely can't complain about the amount of fish that I was able to get to strike. This was a "slow" year for me in terms of follows. Seems like it was an all or nothing situation.
I ended up not fishing a good portion of the Summer because of T-storms/tornadoes or fear of high water temps. So, all my action was Early Summer and a wonderful Fall. Not sure how I'm gonna survive a few months without gettin out. I'm already mappin out some small rivers to get some scouting in on while the lakes are frozen.
You know what number I'm jealous of? "81".
That's 65 times more than I was able to get out this year.
Congratulations on a solid year. I'm going to try to squeeze in another day or two this year while hoping for a mild January. I'm having my fabricator weld me up a hitch-mounted ice breaker
My first spring and summer musky fishing pretty much sucked because I barely got out, but this was my 2nd fall and the action really picked up for me as I drew on some of my experiences from last fall and had a little more time to fish and try to put together patterns.
I am looking forward to next year and hope that somebody is ambitous enough to organize something where we can all get together, do some fishing and talk face to face for a change! That would be cool.
I'm with ya there. I think it would be awesome to have a gathering somewhere for some face to face BS's about these beasts. There was a Flyfishing for Musky gathering in late October out in Wisconsin that I would have LOVED to have been able to make it to. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough vacation time to swing it with all the traveling. I'm hopin they do it again next year.
Hell, if we can get a few people interested, I'll buy the hotdogs and burgers.
Red, I have been looking for a couple months now. I first thought I would keep the current jet and purchase a lake boat. Looked at a crestliner fishhawk 1750 and ended up passing on the boat after thinking of the few times I would actually use it. I have now decided to just upgrade my jet. I am looking right now at all possibilities. My dad is interested in looking at river pros and an 1875 extreme shallow, and if he gets one, I will probably just upgrade the motor. Lots of choices and mine runs pretty good, so I have time to think and make a decision.
Red that is a very good catch rate for all the changing water levels and off temp water conditions you went through this year.Actualy that is an outstanding catch rate when you figure in the number of muskies per acre of fishable stretches of water on the river.May your 2011 season be as good or better!
Cband,
Shoot me an email if you want any opinions on the RiverPro or want to go for a ride. There are not a whole lot of them around to see in person. lowbidder@live.com
Thanks, Larry...........You had a banner year yourself for sure!
We fished very hard and covered many miles of river during those days. I never realized just how much these river fish will change locations during the course of a year until this past year. I really think they do follow the movement of suckers (just like the last issue of MHM stated in the article titled "Dragons in the Hallway"). That scientifically-based article really opened my eyes to the movements of muskies in medium-sized rivers. I had a hunch it was happening here in this section of river but was not positive why they were moving so frequently until the radio telemetry studies were released in that article. We have a crazy amount of suckers around here and it is finally starting to make sense to me now.
Just when you think you have everything figured out.....another light bulb goes off.
I would love to participate in a PFBC sanctioned telemetry study somewhere on the Allegheny River. Can you imagine the learning that would take place?? And while I am on my soapbox, I really wish we could attend a workshop on how to tag fish and assist with the endless amount of information that could be passed on to the PFBC without breaking the law. As most of you know, the tagging of fish would be considered "illegal" in PA due to the fact that the fish would not be released unharmed. "Unharmed" is the key word in that PFBC law. Evidently, a tag would be "harming" the fish. It would not cost the PFBC a dime if we could tag and record our catches properly. There are guides on the Larry and musky fishermen on the New River (VA) tagging fish, BTW.
Lowbidder, there was a riverpro hanging around a few times on the Allegheny in warren county this summer. First time we have seen one and were intrigued. Pretty nice boats. Thanks for the offer.
If I did not need the extra floor space for guiding, I would absolutely have a RiverPro. Plus, they are about 10,000 dollars cheaper than the Xtreme Shallow 21/75 mainly due to the inflated shipping costs since they are manufactured in British Columbia.
With the little warm-up coming later in the week, I decided to do 1 more guide trip before the year is officially over so we will venture out on Thursday and do lots of trolling. A 3-fish day would be very nice.
Wow,your lucky to have open water to fish! I have to get on the Ice at the Small Boat Harbor and catch a few dink perch and with luck a hammer handle pike today for my fishing fix,so I don't find myself tossing Topraiders on snow banks again! I can hear your drag going off all the way up here in Buffalo!
Well, the water was not completely open until we spent an hour or so busting up a few acres of ice with the boat. We went 1 for 2 and netted a 41.5. Both fish ate a perchbait and plow in jailbird pattern between sundown and dark. Water temp was 32.9.
What is the best spot to shore fish for skis below the dam? I have heard of a spot on the warren side with a warm water discharge... don't know how accurate the info is? Any help would be appreciated. Thinking of coming down there to satisfy my urges to musky fish this Sunday, even if it is from shore.
That warm water discharge you mentioned has been shut down for about 7 years. Your best bet for shore fishing during winter is to go right to the tailwaters area (at the base of the dam) and wet a line.
Way to go Mark and Red! Bottom of the 9th with two outs! Got to love that!
This weather breaks and we'll be down to keep you company! Keep breaking the ice out for us Red! Mark got a kick out of that! He said it appeared you have done that before!
I had the modest goal of 10 muskies in 365 days and caught 18 in 2010.
learned a new lake and found my first consistent trolling bait.
1 deer jumped off a bridge I was under to avoid a car before 1st light and another followed me without my knowledge on the river nightfishing and almost was hit by my just cleaned lure as I cast it back to continue trolling.
Last musky I caught died on me after a lengthy attempt to revive the fish. As sad as I felt this is my first fatalitity and I felt on the positve side it may be an unfortunate rite of passage.
I probably had 4-5 fish hooked/got off, and probably an additional ~15-20 hits
This doesn't count follows. For example, the second part of those Juniata hours saw 7 fish moved.
This was the first full year for my boat, since I just got it in late October of 2009. I'm still learning the spots I fish. I really need to improve my early-season fishing.
It was a tough year. The spring saw high water on the Potomac. The summer saw the temps in the river get high and stay high for such a long time.
No excuses, though. I still have a lot to learn.
Hopefully, we'll have a good year. One thing I learned is that when the weather and the river are good, I have to take advantage of it.
16 in approx 25 trips, biggest was 48", most in the 30's. All casting. A couple 2-Musky days and 3-Musky days. Spring and Fall were great, struggled in the summer months. Thanks for the advice on those deeper weed-edge baits.
2010 Re-cap
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