MY 2009 FISHING JOURNAL
April 20th
Well after 4 straight BUSY days at work I finally decided to wet a line... not the best decision I have ever made.. but I had fun..
Went up to Hallton where Spring Creek empties in and fished the canoe launch.. landed 2 brookies and one tiger... well almost landed the tiger.. WOW they put up a great fight... got one picture and it spit the hook... that was my 1st encounter with a tiger trout...
The wind was terrible.. I missed a ton of bites... the wind made it impossible to keep a tight line so bites were hard to detect.. and after an hour I was getting cold and called it a day.. had fun and that's what it is all about !!! Spotted 7 deer on the trip over at 3pm in the afternoon none on the way home at 4:45pm.
April 21st
Fished the same spot as yesterday and had fun... landed 8 Brook Trout and lost 3 trying to land them. One felt like a REALLY nice fish.. fished from 9:30am until 12:30 pm. All but one fish was caught using a bobber and wax worms, the odd one was on power bait..Started to rain and got awful windy so I called it a day.
April 26th
Fished between Hallton and Belltown after work for 1.5 hours and landed two small smallmouths.Saw a TON of deer in the fields on the way home at 8pm... probably a total of 40 or so... almost every field had deer in it...I plan on going back to the spot in Hallton in the morning and see if those trout are still in that hole by the canoe launch ??
April 27th
Fished the Hallton area today for three hours... the canoe launch must have got hammered over the week-end.. trash and footprints everywhere and the trout seemed to have disappeared.... I managed only one nice Brook Trout a mile or so downstream from the launch on wax worms.
April 28th
Did a lot of work around home and slipped down to Callen Run for an hour in mid-afternoon... landed one brook trout about 10 inches.. saw lots of fish but they were not biting on ANYTHING....
April 30th
This morning I fished the Clarion around the Hallton area, stopping at several places, the fish were not co-operating at all. Fished for 3 hours. Landed one Brook Trout and One Smallmouth Bass.
May 4th
It was chilly last night and early this morning, so I waited until it warmed up a little. It was cloudy and looked like rain, so I decided to try North Fork below Blowtown Bridge that is directly behind my place down over the hill. LOTS of fish but most of them were REALLY spooky and those that were not spooky just looked at the presentation and swam away... I did manage two Brown Trout using wax worms on a bobber. Talked to two other guys who were having the same luck.. seeing fish but having trouble getting them to bite. They came up from the next bridge down (Jones Bridge) and had been fishing most of the morning and had about 8 trout between them, they were keeping them. I saw one of them catch a brown on a spinner from the same hole I was fishing in. Relaxing morning but I must say it is frustrating when you can see trout but can not get them to bite...
May 5th
I had a ball today fishing for trout... I did so well I wanted to share the experience with my fishing buddy so I quit then went and got him and sat and watched him have a great time....
May 7th
Went back to the hole I was at on Tuesday, did not see any trout but did manage to land 1 Brown.. Not sure if the fish moved on downstream or someone fished the hole out and kept the fish. I did see footprints that were not there on Tuesday. I only fished for two hours, it was drizzling rain and I started to get too wet, so I called it a morning, knowing I had to go to DuBois for some shopping. Maybe I'll go to the river later this afternoon.....
Went to the Clarion and managed a hour and a half of fishing at Belltown before the winds pick up and it was hard casting without a ton of weight on the line and that only resulted in snags...
landed 3 smallmouth, one of which was really really nice.. see photo.
Well tomorrow is Friday and that means back to work for the week-end. May not get out again until Monday...
May 25th
Headed down to Belltown and my favorite rocks, caught one BIG Rock Bass and that was it .. did not see anyone fishing that area at Belltown. The area closer to the hatchery was PACKED with people.
I traveled up towards Hallton and stopped at a few places and only managed one Brook Trout on a live minnow... It was about the prettiest Brookie I have every seen.. I did not get a good photo because I wanted to release it unharmed for sure, so I did not waste time after it came out of the water.. had an orange belly and with the white fins it was impressive... Will be taking the boss' son down to the Clarion tomorrow after he gets home from school, I hope we do better than I did today....
May 28th
Took the boss's son fishing on the Clarion River after school.
I will not count it on my summary because I did not fish.. I let my rod sit on a tripod and he drift fished his rod.... keeping an eye on my rod for any action.. which he had plenty of..
June 1st
Arrived at Belltwon at 10:00am to fish the Clarion River again. The water is high enough, after recent rains, that I could not get out onto my favorite rock so I fished two other spots. Managed one smallmouth, 2 Brown Trout and 2 Brook Trout. Two trout on nightcrawlers and two on wax worms. They were all right around 12 inches long. Fished for 4 hours and then headed home, saw my first 2009 buck with his new antlers starting to grow, could not get a photo, still have not seen any fawns, but it is still early for that.. enjoyable day...
June 1st evening trip == Fished from 7:00pm until 8:30pm above Portland Mills on the Clarion River... fish were very co-operative.. I landed 6 fish.. two Smallmouths, 2 Brook Trout and 2 Rainbow Trout. I kept the two Rainbows to BBQ on the grill for supper Thursday evening. I missed quite a few bites too... the deer going over and coming home were TERRIBLE.. they were everywhere, in the fields, running along side the road and of course darting out in front of the truck crossing the road.. I counted 52 deer... one was a fawn.. GREAT EVENING OF FISHING ...
June 2nd
I returned to the same spot above Portland Mills this evening that I fished yesterday.. today was a little slower.. I fished 3.5 hours..
I landed three trout ( 1 Brown, 2 Brookies) and two Smallmouths.. Lots of deer again on the way home including a buck..
June 4th
Returned to Portland Mills from 11:00am until 2:00pm. Fishing was very very slow today. Only managed one trout, one smallmouth and my 1st sucker of 2009.. Saw one deer going over and one coming back..
June 8th
I fished for 3 hours around Portland Mills, I fished three different areas, and the interesting thing was I caught a trout on my 1st cast at all three spots. The 1st place was the only place I caught a second trout and that was an hour later... Total was 2 Brook Trout, 1 Brown Trout and one Tiger Trout.. Fished from 8:00am until 11:00am, saw 4 deer on trip over..
June 9th
Fished about 10 spots from Hallton down to Belltown,, fishing was SLOW.. missed a few bites but landed three Brown Trout and one Smallmouth Bass.. fished a total of 4 hours.. counting driving time..
June 11th
Had to go to town to get gas so I fished Toby Creek. I fished the area locals call the "old trestle hole". The first fish I caught was a rainbow and I want to share the story on how I caught it,, OR rather how he caught himself..
I was walking along the bank headed up to the head of the big hole and I must have allowed the end of the rod to get close enough to the water the bait entered the water, OR the trout jumped out as he spotted the nightcrawler dangling.. all of a sudden my rod started jumping all around and low and behold I had a trout on the end of the line.. Crazy experience, see... even at 64 I have not experienced all there is to experience when it comes to fishing.
Had the best day so far for trout landed 6, 3 Rainbows and 3 Browns.. even landed a smallmouth about 6 inches long :)
Fished my usual 2.5 hours and headed home .. more so because I had run out of bait more than any other reason. I was disappointed fishing wax worms, every time I threw out with wax worms I would catch a small creek chub... they ate up the wax worms in no time, so all the fish were caught on nightcrawlers..Enjoyed a great day of trout fishing...
June 14th
I took a few minutes after work tonight to check this years' fishing against those of the past... for about the same number of trips and hours fished 2009 is proving to be one of my better years.. for the same number of trips and hours I am about 10 fish ahead and I have not counted or caught any panfish to count this year YET !!!
Plus this is the first year in MANY years I have this many fish landed this early in June...still no 20 inch or better trout though !!!... Clarion River tomorrow, wax worms and crawlers..
June 15th
Fished for 4 hours this morning around Belltown, enjoyed the day.
I wore my chest waders and did some wading and landed 5 fish. 3 Brown Trout and 2 Smallmouths. As the morning progressed I was getting too hot with the chest waders on standing in the sun, so I moved down river and fished from some rocks but landed nothing there ....
June 16th
Put new line on my fishing rod this afternoon (6lb test) and headed to Portland Mills at 4pm. Fishing was slow for the first hour then it took off... landed 7 fish.. 5 smallmouths and 2 trout (rainbows)
all on nightcrawlers.I fished for my normal 2.5 hours.. I also lost two reeling them in, I think the hook was too small and I pulled it out without a set.
I had one strong hit and a pull and then snap the new line broke ????
June 18th
Returned to Portland Mills to find the water was pretty muddy, but I fished for 4 hours anyhow and landed one huge sucker... another guy was fishing there and he landed several small smallmouths and two brown trout... I had fun even though the fishing was not very good for me.. fishing is still more fun that work.
June 29th
After working around the house all day I headed back up to Portland Mills. I am finding it interesting that this is where I want to fish this year, Belltown just has not been very good for me ??
Fished two hours and landed one Rainbow and One Brook Trout both on crawlers..
July 9th
Fished for 3 hours this evening, caught 6 Smallmouths and 1 big sucker. Ran out of nightcrawlers so I had to quit before dark.
July 16th
Fished a total of 3 hours today.. 1.5 at Portland Mills in the morning and 1.5 above Belltown in the evening... only caught fish in the morning.. 1 trout and 2 smallmouths at Portland Mills, I was really surprised how LOW the water was at Belltown... about as low as I have ever seen it down there....
July 20th
Another day of fishing on the Clarion River. Went this afterenoon at 3pm and fished until 6pm when I ran out of nightcrawlers again. Landed 4 Smallmouths and 2 Rainbow Trout. I also lost 4 smallmouths as they spit the hook jumping out of the water, also had two break-offs ?????????
This was the first time I fished this area below Hallton on the East side of the river. Probably could have caught more as evening set in, but as I said I ran out of crawlers but did land one smallmouth on a white jig after running out of crawlers and throwing other stuff...... Saw two deer on the way home and one in the backyard as I got home...
July 27th
You often read on message boards where folks don't appreciate other telling people where to fish on any particular body of water. I have always made it a practice of sharing most of my spots with others..
after all that's what I think fishing is all about enjoying a trip and catching fish when you get there...
ANYHOW ----
last week I got an E-mail from a guy and he shared one of his favorite spots on the Clarion.. I had never fished near there and could not wait to get a day off and a nice (rain free) day to try it.. Today was that day..
I got a late start, I fished form 2:30pm until 5:30pm... not the best time, but as I said I had never been there and it is a long walk to the spot.. cut to the chase..
I landed 3 trout and two smallmouth and had one break-off of something that I could not stop the pull and when I finally did, the line snapped like sewing thread ???????????
I was also entertained most of the late afternoon by two gray squirrels across the river just having a ball jumping from tree to tree and chasing each other.. neither one wanted to slow down enough for a photo though.. About 4pm a deer did wonder down to get a drink but finally saw me and that was that,..
and a VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to the guy who shared this spot... I enjoyed the day thanks to him !!!!
July 28th
I wanted to use up the remaining nightcrawlers from yesterday, so after cutting down some more pine trees and splitting them for firewood I head to Portland Mills. I fished for 1.5 hours from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. I landed 5 Smallmouths and 1 Rainbow Trout. Saw 8 deer on the way homwe.. enjoyable time as usual.... !!
August 3rd
Getting old SUCKS,, here's why...
I traveled over to Portland Mills this afternoon to check out how the Clarion was and maybe do some fishing. As I pulled into the parking lot and reached behind the seat for my fishing vest--
I only then realized It was still hanging in my computer room at home ........
Sooooo back home I go to get it.. I returned and the river was murky but fishable I figured. It is HIGH and FAST.. talked to some canoe folks and they said they made the trip from Ridgeway in 2 hours instead of 3 !!!
The smallmouth bite was ON !!!... I had to use 1/2 crawlers because the creek chub bite was even better..... Those rascals would pull and get 1/2 the worm if I used a whole one.. so halves it was.. still lost count of how many of those I caught..
I did land 7 smallmouths and missed a few bites too...
Also hooked several pieces of debri and several sticks floating down in the current as I set the hook on what I thought was a fish pulling...
Ran out of crawlers at 7:30, so I got in two hours of great fishing.. I had another great time.. here's photos ---
August 4th
Great day.. returned to Portland Mills Canoe Launch and had another great smallmouth day. Landed 10 smallies and one rainbow.. the creek chubs appeared to be not biting so I could use whole crawlers and that resulted in some nice smallmouths caught... fished for 4 hours from 2pm unitl 6pm. Saw 4 deer on the way home including one fawn...
August 6th
Returned one more time to Portland Mills, fished from 5pm until 7:30pm.
SLOW day, only managed 3 smallmouths and one sucker.. Saw deer on the way home and even had to stop while two hen turkeys crossed the road with 8 poults..
August 10th
Once more to Portland Mills and the Clarion River.. which after yesterdays' storms was muddy.. but I fished anyhow and landed 4 smallmouths and one Brown Trout, and countless creek chubs AGAIN !!
Storms came rolling in about 4:30 ,and I quit after 3.5 hours, still have not got that late evening trip in yet !!
August 10th
When to a spot on the Clarion below Hallton for 2 hours today that I had not fished for awhile.. decided NOT to but crawlers and challenged myself to see what if anything I could catch without crawlers.. Well only managed two Smallmouth on Berkley Leech... It was relaxing just the same .. I sat on a big rock with my legs up to the kness dipped in the cool water... refreshing.... considering how hot it was..
August 18th
Returned to Portland Mills for 2.5 hours of fishing and the smallmouth bite was still on.. Landed 10 smallmouths in that period of time.. all on nightcrawlers.
August 20th
Fished from 3:30pm until 5:30pm, river was muddy with lots of debri floating in the current. I did manage to landed 4 smallmouths and 2 rock bass. The largest smallmouth was a nice 16 incher.. forgot to take along the camera today... so no photos ....
September 9th
After work I ventured over to the Portland Mills Canoe Launch again and stayed until dark. I fished for an hour and a half, landing 10 Smallmouth and 1 Rock Bass.
Fishing was slow until about 7:30 then the action sky-rocketed... I was catching fish or getting strikes on almost every cast. Several of the smallies were really really nice ones and put up a GREAT fight.
September 10th
Returned to Portland Mills, fishing was slow this afternoon, only landed 5 smallmouths, most were only average size,
September 17th
Well I probably had my last 2 hours of fishing this evening.
When back to Portland Mills and caught a Tiger Trout about 14 inches long, which was a real nice surprise. Also caught two LARGE suckers.. one of which broke my line when I tried lifting him out of the water, line broke right at my knot...
Had a great season and landed many fish, but the best part, as always, was the joy of spending time doing something I realy love --FISHING !!!
2009 SEASON SUMMARY
FISHING TRIPS --
Clarion River - 33
Callen Run - 1
North Fork - 3
Toby Creek - 1
HOURS FISHED --
98.0
FISH CAUGHT --
Trout- 71
Smallmouth - 96
Rock Bass - 5
Suckers - 6
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