Someone HAS to be fishing.......

[Red Childress]

and can give us some much needed fishing reports......this weather has been so nice up here in Siberia. If we have a similar weather pattern after the Butler Show, I may get the boat out and start fishing again. I would have fished last weekend but I needed to let my last cortisone shot 'work its way through' first.

Any reports out there??

[HD Fatboy]

58 degrees the other evening unreal...poor snowmobilers

[lowbidder]

The water here was good through the second week in January then the rain came. The Yough should be good to go this weekend, but I'll be working on the cabin. I made a lot of plans for working down there over the winter thinking it would be like last year. Of course, NorthCentral WV got hit with a monsoon yesterday so the Buckhannon will be blown out this weekend.

[muskyjerk]

Caught 2 muskies on Tuesday, 38" and 40", while trolling. None the past three days. Levels dropped past 2 days when I was on the water.

[bowhunter29]

The Juniata is high, but very fishable. Hit a few spots today and raised one mid 30's fish. Was too nice of a day not to fish!

jeremy

[muskyjerk]

36" tiger musky, 27" walleye. I've had a great winter. I'll be sad to see this pattern change.

[Red Childress]

We finally got on the water yesterday for the first official musky hunt of 2012 and managed to hit a nice musky and a giant pike follow. The musky was in the 41-43 range and the pike was significantly longer.....it was one of the largest pike I have ever seen in person.

[Red Childress]

Here is a pic of Sunday's fish:

[Red Childress]

We hit this fish last weekend but just got the pics from my clients this morning. I tried to hand off the rod as soon as I hooked her (like usual) and both clients said "Hell no, that is your fish" so I finally got to land my first 50 from the river.

[Ivan]

Great fish Red. Congrats. Looks like she has been caught before too.

[Red Childress]

Thanks, Adam........I think we may have split her tail in the net trying to get the rest of her head in there.......it was pretty windy that day and the boat was going the opposite direction as the current plus she required major hook cutting from her mouth and net just to get her untangled. No blood but 22 minutes of work in the net.....sure glad the water temp was 38. She released very strong.

[Ivan]

I was referring to the that top jaw part where the corner of the mouth is. Looks like it was broken off and healed over. I didn't even notice the fins.

[Red Childress]

That area is exactly where she had the entire (7/0) front treble embedded into her mouth.

[toothyfishman]

As heart breaking and hard as it would be to "hand the rod off" it's nice they didn't want it.
You've passed off your share of nice ones over the years.

I guess you deserve that one!

[HD Fatboy]

Awesome Musky Red! Congrats!

[Red Childress]

For me, it has never been hard to hand off the rod. In my position, it is a no-brainer. The trip is about the client.....I just drive the boat and fish last.

[allegheny river kid]

Very nice fish Red, congratulations on a true pig!

[lowbidder]

Congratulations Red! That big belly would make an awesome replica... you think?

[Red Childress]

I am still waiting for that 53-54 inch river fish before I consider splurging on a replica. I will only do it once so she has to be a super special fish.

[trout_tapout]

Beauty! Good to finally get one of your own. 50s ain't easy. Oh, and nice hat amigo!

Josh K

[muskyjerk]

Good catch Red, wish you many more.

[Kaz]

Very nice Red! I'm so jealous! I'm going to have to pay you to take me out down there man.

Adam Kaz

[Red Childress]

Stop it guys.......you are making me blush.

[Red Childress]

I fished both days with clients over the weekend and we had 7 hookups and landed 4 of them. We also raised 6 other fish over those 2 days. Within the first 10 casts yesterday, I hooked a really nice fish about 20 feet from the boat and she shook free at boatside. The fish came up and slurped my Hughey and just sat there facing me so I was afraid to set the hook hard until she moved.....well, she slowly moved right toward the boat, rolled once at boatside and was gone. Hindsight is always 20/20. The fish was in the 46-49 inch range, IMO. The other fish we boated and saw following were all in the 32-39 inch range. Saturday was by far the best action day of the two.

[Red Childress]

The 9 for 9 musky streak came to an abrupt stop over the weekend. We did not boat or even see a musky. It was the first time I had been out in almost 2 weeks and things sure had changed. Water temps had dropped 4-6 degrees with the big snow melt and that was probably the culprit. The pike fishing was even slow as their spawning appears to be over as we saw several beat up fish. With the nice weather pattern this week, I sure hope things get back on track.

[Red Childress]

2 more days of fishing without boating a musky. We did see several fish (a couple real big fish) but they were paired up and ready to make love. Water temps in the upper stretch are around 50-51 and these fish are already pairing up. I was wondering what the heck was going on with the lack of activity so I cruised around to a couple of known spawning areas and saw them getting acquainted with one another.

[Red Childress]

6-8 follows yesterday from "beat up" fish and no hook-ups.

[bowhunter29]

A buddy and I were out on Friday and saw 4. The first was a nice tiger that was swimming around with it's head out of the water. The second was a 40" fish that we boated in the standing timber. The third was a fish I set the hook on but couldn't get it done. The last fish of the day was a 42-43" fatty!

jeremy

[HD Fatboy]

Nice Fish Jeremy!

[Red Childress]

Ditto on the fish, Jeremy!

Man, it would be nice to have a good musky lake near me with all that standing timber. Can you imagine if the ACE would have left the trees (at least some trees) in their flood control projects?

[HD Fatboy]

I am wanting to try for a tiger, any hints on where this lake is? I had a lake in mind from the pictures,where I have heard tigers swimming with there heads out of the water, I am not sure If this lake is the one I think it is.

[Ivan]

Nice fish Jeremy. Really nice pattern and color on the second fish.

[Red Childress]

A couple of notable fish we hit the past few weeks. The smallie was nest guarding and decided to pull the trigger on a 6" Phantom Soft-tail.....it measured 22.5 and 4.9 pounds on my digital.

The musky was a post-spawn fish that was beat up pretty badly. We put her "good side" out for the photo. I am not sure of her exact length cuz I was nervous about stressing her more than was necessary so we released her super quickly.