Time to Fish!

[Red Childress]

Another tough couple of days chasing toothies for my boat. We did catch some accidental pre-spawn smallies and had several rutting rainbows chasing our musky baits but no Esox sightings at all. We hit Tionesta on Saturday and decided to give the high-running river a shot on Sunday. The weather sure was nice but the Esox did not seem too turned on. Clear water fishing sure can be brutal.

The lake and river temps are finally headed in the right direction. Thunderstorms forecasted for today and snow coming on Wednesday.


Good luck and stay tuned!

[Red Childress]

Another lackluster weekend of musky fishing for my boat. We were sunburned on Sunday and rained out after 3 hours on Sunday. Booker had a decent fish follow on Saturday and 0 sightings on a shortened day on Sunday. River water temps range between 43 and 47 depending on location. Just when the river is ready to come down to normal levels, we get smacked with more rain yesterday and more forecasted for this week.

Water temps are slowly coming up but we are still behind the norm for May. The water clarity has been super clear as well but yesterday’s rain should have added some stain by now.


Good luck and stay tuned!

[Red Childress]

Eric had a very nice musky hooked up around 10:15 on Saturday but 1/2 way back to the boat, she hit a nice gator roll and was gone. That was our only action of the day.

We decided not to fish for trout today after the river was bumped up for the 2nd time this week. It would have been a rough trolling battery grind with 4 of us in the boat fighting the current.

I am really forward to warming water and lower river levels sometime soon. I have officially had enough high water fishing.


Good luck and stay tuned!

[Red Childress]

I had some inexperienced musky hunters out today and we had a good time but the fishing was poor wherever my boat was parked. We couldn’t buy a pike either. We only fished about 6 hours or so. The River temps are in the prime spawning temp range but at least the river was as low as it has been in 11 weeks.

We are hoping Day 2 provides some different results.


Good luck and stay tuned!

[Red Childress]

After a last-minute decision to chase bass and walleye, we ended up having a pretty good day. We only netted a couple prespawn bass with the bulk of our fish being males or juvenile females. We landed about 15 smallies and 2 post spawn walleye in about 6 hours. Water temps were 55-57 where we were fishing. No accidental pike or musky.

A busy 3-day fishing weekend coming up for us. Muskies/pike on Saturday and a Presque Isle smallmouth hunt for Sunday and Monday. Let’s hope the weather is normal and the water keeps warming up.

Good luck and stay tuned!

[Red Childress]

Been a hectic 3 days! On Saturday’s Allegheny trip, Elias the 7 year old manchild, had 2 toothies hooked-up (1 musky and 1 nice pike) but they both shook off. Al and Dave both had muskies chase them to the boat but could not convert. We did net a couple accidental bass and a smaller pike while down-sizing our baits later in the day.

Sunday’s smallmouth trip to Presque Isle was met with a nasty, rainy cold front with air temps dropping 30 degrees from the day before and 20-25 mph winds constantly pounding us. The fishing was decent in the morning but got very tough by noon. We mainly caught smaller males but a few prespawn females were netted. As the last boat left around 2:30, we decided to pack it in too.

Monday was a much better day as the fishing picked up as the temps rose into the afternoon. We had a very diversified species day with smallmouth, largemouth, pike, rock bass, perch and a single bowfin to round it out. I was surprised at the sizes of the pike that kept eating our jerkbaits and shiners over the 2 days. Our heaviest smallie was around 4-5 pounds and all 7 pike were 30+ inches except for 1 that was 28”. Water temps ranged between 64 on Sunday and 61 on Monday.

We are planning to do the same trip this coming weekend and battle the craziness known as Memorial Day.

Good luck and stay tuned!

[Red Childress]

After a final discussion regarding the crazy amount of water traffic on Presque Isle this weekend, we decided to postpone our trip. So, we spread 6 yards of mulch and a few other outdoor jobs yesterday and more of the same slated for today.

Be safe and good luck out there!