The past few trips......

[Red Childress]

We had 2 more muskies hooked and lost, of course, with 2 more follows on Saturday plus a decent pike. Then, on 'sunny' Sunday, we did not see any Esox whatsoever.

[Red Childress]

We scratched out 6 legal walleye (all between 19 and 23 inches) and lost 4 more on Saturday with one being a very nice one plus 4 trout between 17 and 23 with 2 lost. Sunday we chased muskies with 2 hooked and lost and another good follow. The Fall of 2015 should be titled "How many fish can we NOT land". I have never seen such light hits from all species of fish this Fall. I know one thing for sure, I doubt there is anyone out there with sharper hooks than we have! I have been opening up the gaps of our hooks a tad and that has helped some (I think) but WOW. In the last 4 days of musky fishing, we have hooked 13 fish and lost 12 of them!

Happy Thanksgiving and good luck in the woods or on the water!

[Red Childress]

Thanksgiving report.....Fished from 9am until 7:30pm on Wednesday and finally landed a good musky at 6:51pm under the full mooon. On Friday, 3 of us worked hard for muskies and I had a REAL big fish hooked up (in an area that I really do not fish too much these days) and after 5 seconds of headshaking, she shot to the surface and threw me. We also landed a nice pike about 1 hour later and that was it after fishing until 9pm. Saturday was another day with another lost musky (making the total 3 landed and 12 or 13 lost....losing count now) and 1 decent pike landed with only the rear hook stuck in the thin skin around the outside of her mouth. Sunday was trout/walleye day with 2 walleye and 2 trout landed and 2 lost walleye. Largest trout was 22" and full of eggs.

That's it! Still losing fish but still grinding out long days just to get a shot at 1 or maybe 2 musky bites. Frustrating.

[Red Childress]

Well, we had a rough day on Saturday with no Esox sightings at all but Sunday was much better as we put 1 in the bag and 3 other blow-ups/lost fish with 2 of those nippers being around 45" and 1 positively in the 50-inch class. The big fish we encountered were between 10:45 and 11:30am and the actual caught fish was around 4:15pm.

3 more trips for the winter then it will be time for shoulder surgery on 12/22.

Highs near 60 next weekend with rain on the way.....hard to believe!


Good Luck!

[ppalko]

Saturday was a strange day. We saw you at the Refinery Dredge in the morning. We caught some decent bass and walleye early but had little action as the day went along. Things in that pool have really changed. Does anyone know when the Ramp at the Dam opens back up? We made a change in plans Saturday and launched downstream which resulted in fishing a completely different area. Would also explain the weekend water releases as they are working on the ramp on weekdays.

By the way, walleye action on the lower Allegheny has been pretty good lately. Anyone else noticing that?

[Red Childress]

I agree. The refinery stuff has really changed over the years for sure but I think one of the reasons is that you guys on the lower river still have some of "our" winter fish down there as they have yet to move up this year. With the river temperature hardly dropping over the past 3 weeks, I think there is a ton of fish hung up somewhere South of Warren. Just my .02.

The ramp should be completed this week, I hope. Getting tired of the up and down outflows!

[Red Childress]

Launch is open now but big outflows coming as we speak.

[ppalko]

I do agree that the water temps have been higher than normal but don't think the fish are hung up other than on stringers on buggeys. The fall migration of bass begins when water temps reach the lower 50's. In the past, that would correspond to early October. Typically when the temperatures were hitting the 40's as now, one could expect catches of larger bass in concentrated low current areas (wintering holes which the Warren dredge is a classic). I think the fish species distribution in the river around Warren has been changed significantly and as a result, so has the fishing. I'm catching more walleyes now (not long ago, I'd catch very few in the Warren Dredge) and I'll bet musky location has changed as those species move in to replace the missing bass. Just a theory but I do know that what I catch around Warren in both numbers and species is not what is was five years ago.

I'm hoping to have a few shots at floating the area for trout before winter actually arrives for good.

[Bob Seybold]

Red, Wendy and I wish you good luck and a speedy recovery for your shoulder surgery. One of these days, hopefully soon I will get my boat out. Been kept busy, since I retired and new puppy arrived.

[Red Childress]

Thanks, Bob. It is time to get this thing fixed and the only way I will rest it is if it is too cold to fish. El Nino has thrown us a curveball this year and I almost cancelled the surgery in order to fish longer but decided that was not an intelligent decision.

Merry Christmas guys and see ya on the water!

[Bob Seybold]

Most likely will put in at Tidioute, nice launch. I will have to explore some. Again Good Luck, speedy recovery !!

[Red Childress]

I wish I lived closer to Tidioute/Tionesta......some really good fishing down that way for sure.

Be good....Santa is watching!