MY 2005
FISHING JOURNAL





APRIL FISHING

SUNDAY
APRIL 17th

I did not get to go fishing yesterday, the first day of trout season. I had too much work to do on the pastures, fences, paddock area, and barn in preparing for the new baby next month.
I ventured out this morning at 7:00am and fished until 10:00am. I went to several spots along the Clarion River.
The water was really low and clear, it looked more like June than April.
I only managed one nice Brook Trout and one bite that I missed.
I saw no deer on the way to the Clarion, but spotted 4 in Travis' field on the way home.
I also finally got a photo of the beaver at the one hole on the Clarion River.

MONDAY
APRIL 18th

Returned to the Clarion this mornig at 7:30am and caught no fish in three hours there.
Again no deer on the way but PLENTY on the way back home at 10:30am.
Road to Hallton..4
949.. 2
Travis..2
Travis..11
Travis..2


SATURDAY
APRIL 30th

Tried fishing the Clarion River again this morning, it was raining off and on all morning but I just had to do some fishing this week-end. Fished from noon intil 3pm. I had a stirke that I did not respond to fast enough and I had a "break off" of some type of fish. Finally got wet enough that I wanted to call it a day.

MAY FISHING

SUNDAY
MAY 1st

Returned to the Clarion this morning. Left the house at 7:30am and spotted 11 deer on the way to the river. 6 were on Travis' property and the other 5 were along Spring Creek Road. Weather was aweful chilly and windy so I fished for only a couple hours and returned home. Spotted 6 deer in the field by the Munderf Cemetery and had a beauiful gobbler running along the deer exclosure fence on McNeil Station Road (Bear Fence). Nice big bird and a beard about 10 inches long, and I was amamzed at how colorful he was.. my camera was in the back of the truck so I could not get any photos... too bad... He finally got nervous and flew up and into the exclosure. Another fishless day on the Clarion this year...

TUESDAY
MAY 3rd

The sunlight today at 10:30am made it appear warmer than it really was but I headed to the Clarion just the same. Spotted 4 deer in a field that I have permission to hunt on the way to the Portland Mills area. I fished until 1:00pm and missed more fish than I landed. I did land a 19" Smallmouth that put up a GREAT fight. Also two trout.. One Brook and a nice 18" Brown that I took home for the Bar-b-Que grill...also landed a big sucker.
Fishing was good but it was cold. All today's fish were caught on my usual bait for the Clarion River..nightcrawlers..
I did throw some spinners and spoons but had no fish show an interest in them, water still really cold for spinners in my opinion.
I spotted another big gobbler just before I got home standing in the middle of the road.. I thought about "road-kill" but decided against it.. 8-)

WEDNESDAY
MAY 4th

Today was the day the stocking truck visited my area and stocked North Fork including the area behind the house.

SATURDAY
MAY 7th

Well after years of thinking about it I finally broke-down and bought a good pair of neoprene chest waders. I had to try them out... so I headed to the Clarion River below Portland Mills. from 2pm to 4pm. They worked great.. I LOVE THEM
I did not have any nightcrawlers on this trip so I tried a BUNCH of different spinners and had no results. I managed only one 14 inch Brook Trout (on wax worms) missed a bite and landed a couple Creek Chubs. Hopefully the rain will hold off until afternoon tommorrow and I can hit the same spot at dawn tommorrow morning with my favorite ...NIGHTCRAWLERS...

SUNDAY
MAY 8th

Today I returned to one of my favorite areas below Hallton at dawn. The turkeys were gobbling away up the mountain behind me as I walked to the river in a fog so thick I could hardly see where I was going.
I fished for 4 hours and only managed one nice Brook Trout, but again I missed something that really had the rod bent before I tried setting the hook. That's the second time this year in that area..last time it broke my line.. It is living under a huge boulder... I'll get it sooner or later... 8-)
No deer spotted on today's trip but I did see a LOT of rabbits running across the road on the way down over the hill to Hallton from route 949..

MONDAY
MAY 9th

Back to the Clarion this morning at 8:00am I fished until 11:00am and landed only one Brook Trout and that was on a Mepp's spinner, saw the trout come up and take the bait..COOL !!!!
Fishing not very good... that one strike was it for the entire time I was there...Plus I saw no Deer on today's trip down over the hill off the road to Hallton..

TUESDAY
MAY 10th

Headed to the Toby Creek in Brockway this morning at 6:00am and fished until 9:00am. I fished from below Jenkins Run down to the old tressel. Water was really low and clear HARD Fishing this type water. I had to try and find holes and deeper pockets where you could not see the bottom nor the fish see you standing in the water. New waders worked wonderful !!
Heard a gobbler sounding off at 7:00am for about a half hour and had a hen run across the road on the way home.
I managed to land three trout
one small native Brookie
one Brown
and one Brook
all three took salted minnows. I tried the little jig that "smokepole66" gave me and had a NICE Brown Trout follow it but he did not take it.Before going home I ran over to the Richardsville Bridge to see if any trout were left from the stocking on the 5th. Only saw three small trout under the bridge. Again water was low and crystal clear there as well ??
EVENING After doing some work around the home front I headed back to the Clarion above the Belltown Bridge for a couple hours (5:00pm-7:00pm) of early evening fishing.Landed one nice 17 inch Brook Trout on a nightcrawler. For some reason it appears I can not get that SECOND trout caught on the Clarion this year ??

WEDNESDAY
MAY 11th

Clarion River day again. I fished from 8:00am until 11:00am. Caught one Smallmouth and one Rock Bass on nightcrawlers and that was it. I did notice something I had NEVER seen before in all my Clarion River trips.. Frogs mating and looking for mates. There were frogs mating and swiming around every where I stopped. 8-)
I did see a HUGE carp swim by and that rascal had to be almost three feet long and 6 inches across the back, sure glad he did not decide to pick up my worm...
I had a hen walk across the road and I spotted two deer on my trip to the river. Beautiful day again but the fishing was SLOW, although the frogs were entertaining ..8-)

THURSDAY
MAY 12th

I thought I would try some trout fishing on the North Fork today and see if there were any trout left from the stocking on the 4th. It turned out to be a great decision.
I fished for three hours below three of the local bridges. I landed a total of 29 Brook Trout. The trout were caught on salted minnows, Berkly Power Bait (both yellow and rainbow colored) and even managed several on Berkly Power Eggs (white ones and lime green ones).
Water is very low in most of the creek, I found pools and that's where the trout were located at.
After hooking and landing a few I switched baits so the others would not get too "spooky", the plan worked great. I fished below each bridge for about an hour then moved to another bridge. The area below Humpback Bridge was the worst, I walked a LONG way to get ONE TROUT and that is the ONLY one I saw in the creek there ... ???? Had a wonderful time hauling in trout.. all were released in good shape!!

FRIDAY
MAY 13th

Well how did Friday the 13th go ?
I fished behind the house on North Fork from 9:00am until 11:30am. I saw lots of trout but most were hard to catch after hooking one I found the others would get VERY SPOOKY and would not bite. I did catch 15 though and had a wonderful time trout fishing...
EVENING
Retuned to the Clarion River for 3 hours this evening (5:00pm until 8:00pm) and landed two Smallmouths and a Rock Bass. One smallie was about 17 inchs and put up a great fight.
Spotted 8 deer on the way home most on posted property.Today ended up being a great day for fishing and I enjoyed it very much..

SUNDAY
MAY 15th

I returned to below one of the bridge areas I had such good luck at the other day on the North Fork ..
I thought I would see what was still there while I used up what was left of my salted minnows... I got an answer on my first three casts...three trout... ended up landing 10 trout from that hole..
What a great way to spent an hour and a half including travel time..!!!

SATURDAY
MAY 21st

Well not many chances to fish this week with the new baby colt.. she sure is good a pointing out things "to get into trouble with" for me to fix or change...
I went to the Clarion at dawn and fished for 2 hours and managed only one Smallmouth on a white rooster tail. I saw 3 deer on my trip to the river. After returning home we were paid a visit by "smokepole66" and his wife, They had come to say hello and see the colt. We had an enjoyable visit and the baby thought "Shorty" was her Momma and wanted to nurse... it was quite a funny scene..8-)
EVENING---- Returned to the Clarion with some live minnows to try my luck again, this two hour trip landed 4 smallmouths, I am still being amazed at how low the river is getting, there are areas now that you can walk along the bank without waders... I can not remember it being this low in recent years.
Spotted 3 more deer on the trip home, all on public land..
Well this week is the week the "Hatchery Fish" go into the Clarion River so plans are already being made for fishing trips next week after the holiday week-end including one for my jon boat..stay tuned for that one 8-)...

TUESDAY
MAY 24th

Fished about a half-mile section of North Fork for two hours this morning and landed 10 Book Trout. Two on Power Bait and the rest on salted minnows. I could have caught more if I would have stayed longer, but I had to return home to take my turn at "Babe" sitting.. 8-)
Afternoon --Went to the Clarion for two hours this afternoon below Portland Mills, landed three nice Smallmouths on nightcrawlers and two trout. Caught one Rainbow Trout and one Brook Trout on a chartreuse spinner.
I saw three does standing in a posted field on the way home at 4:30pm.

JUNE FISHING

THURSDAY
JUNE 2nd

Fished the Clarion River from 9:00am to 11:00am this morning. Water is still very low and it is still pretty clear. I can see the bottom in most place the entire width of the river.
I landed one Smallmouth on a spinner and had a trout follow it to the shore but not strike. I did managed to hook a nice breeder that looked like a big Brookie but it "spit" the hook just as I was reaching for the landing net.. BUMMER !!!!
Talking to other anglers I hear the Clarion is not producing those stocked hatchery fish to good this year. I think it is the clear water, the best Smallmouth fishing is due in about a week so we'll see if the Smalmouth fishing picks up as they move to shallower water to spawn..

SUNDAY
JUNE 5th

Enjoyed a 4 hour fishing trip to the Clarion River this morning (7-11). I spotted several deer (antlerless) on the trip over and two on the trip home. Odd I have not seen a fawn or antlered deer yet though ????
I had a Beaver swim by while fishing and saw two BIG water snakes swimming around, guess it's time to watch for snakes while stomping along the Clarion during the warmer weather.
I only managed to land two Smallmouth and a small Rock Bass that was driving me crazy nibbling on the crawlers... NO trout today..although I saw several large ones swimming and rising to take flies off the surface. I could not "match the hatch", I guess, because I threw a ton of files at them on a casting bubble but no takers.. 8-) Time to start carrying the fly rod too...
I'll try again later this week...

JULY FISHING

SUNDAY
JULY 31st

Well the pros were in Pitsburgh fishing the B.A.S.S. Classic..Maybe they should have come up and fished the Clarion River with old Doc instead.. I fished from 12:30pm to 3:30pm...I landed 10 Smallmouths... 7 of which would have beeen legal by their rules for the Classic...Caught them on ===
4..Nightcrawlewrs
1..Pearl Curly tail
1..white curly tail
1..white rooster tail
2 of the three small ones were REALLY SMALL.. only about three inches long ..:) the other was about 10 inches..Great day..I sure have missed not fishing much the past month and a half

AUGUST FISHING

MONDAY
AUGUST 1st

I went fishing this afternoon on the Clarion River. I fished from 1:30pm until 4:30 pm. I did not see any deer on my travels. I did see some wildlife though...
RUFFED GROUSE.. I saw a group of Ruffed Grouse sitting in a right-of-way in the shade.
RACOON.. I saw a young racoon as I was parking my truck.It was all by itself which I found unusual considering its size and age..
SMALLMOUTH BASS.. I landed five smallmouths today. All the bass were caught on nightcrawlers while drifting them with the current. I lost more than I landed though... 8-)
SUNDAY
AUGUST 7th

Returned to my "hot" spot on the Clarion River this morning about 6:30am and I fished until about 11:00am. I saw NO deer on the way to or from... ??
Landed 7 smallmouths and lost three other ones... all the action came before 10:00am..Fish were caught on ------
4..nightcrawlers..lost one of these
2..chartreuse & flo orange spinner bait...
1.. pearl curley tail
1.. mepps spinner..lost
1.. white curly tail
1.. plastic worm ...lost
Had one of my scariest experiences yet....I had my tackle box sitting on the rock I was fishing from in the sunlight.. It must have got so hot inside the box that a lighter I had in there EXPLODED into about ten pieces...sounded like a firecracker going off... scared the heck out of me.. lucky it did not do any damaged except to the lighter itself..
SUNDAY
AUGUST 28th

I left the house at 5:45am amd as I turned to head towards the river 7 deer ran across the road two of the ones in the rear had "head gear" for sure. 3 more followed, these were antlerless and saw 4 more on the Spring Creek Road headed towards Hallton.I fished two spots this morning. The first one produced a bullhead catfish and about 15 Rock Bass, some of which, to my surprise, had a pretty nice size to them. Spot number two produced three nice Smallmouths.It was very overcasted and as soon as the bright sun came out and it started to warm up the "bite" stopped.I started home at 10:30am after enjoying another day on the Clarion River..Spotted one flock of hens and young ones on the way home

SEPTEMBER FISHING

SUNDAY
SEPTEMBER 25th

I spent a couple hours on the Clarion River this morning for what will probably be my last fishing trip for 2005. It may be fitting that I got SKUNKED.... I fished from 10:00am until noon which experience has taught me is a bad time for Clarion River fishing.. PLUS I had NO NIGHTCRAWLERS..my favorite bait for the Clarion. 8-)
One bright spot was the sound of acorns falling from the trees with archery season only a week away..
I had a pretty enjoyable 2005 fishing season. One regret was not catching any trout over 20 inches this year. But with all the shallow water I believe that was to be expected.
I had 26 fishing trips averaging 3 hours a piece and land 138 fish which is only a 5.3 average per trip.. not my best year BUT a very enjoyable one just the same.. 8-)


SEE YA NEXT YEAR !!!
2005 FISHING SUMMARY



TRIPS
Clarion River..21
Toby Creek..1
North Fork..4

FISH CAUGHT
Trout..76
Smallmouth Bass..40
Largemouth Bass..0
Northern Pike..0
Suckers..3
Catfish..1
Others..18



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