First Post

Well, I finally caved into the blogging world, and decided this would be an excellent way to document my fishing adventures.
Without further ado, fished Sayer's Dam (Bald Eagle State Park) in Howard, PA yesterday evening. It's a lake I've been fishing for over 20 years, dating back to when my dad and I would fish it from shore, and I would be excited to catch a tiny bluegill on my Power Rangers fishing rod. Now, as a competitive angler who loved nothing more than to feel a living bowling ball on the other end of my line, I was eager to get the lines and boat into the water.

 The water was slightly stained, in its usual greenish-bluish-brownish hue. I headed over to the Hunter's Run Cove in order to drift over the roadbed there. This roadbed goes down into a deep drop off, providing bass with the structure they crave, as well as the deep water to relieve some of that stress they develop in the summer time. In fact,  during the "dog days" of Summer, I fish this area about 80% of the time.

It didn't take too long for the action to start. I decided to throw a watermelon colored four inch Senko worm, Texas rigged on a Gamakatsu EWG 1/0 worm hook, in order to get the natural, dying baitfish, motion. My favorite technique is to let this sink to the bottom, then give it a firm jig, and let it fall again. A few casts in, and I felt resistance on the other end of my line. After a brief fight, I pulled up a decent footlong smallmouth. Not bad, but I knew there were larger ones down there. About 10 minutes later, I had one wack it on the drop, this time a largemouth, about the same size. Very next cast, I felt something heavy on the end of my line, that actually was able to pull the tip of my pole into the water. It made a few last ditch attempts to jump and throw the hook. but I boated it before it could get away. It was the largest fish of the day, a 15 inch largemouth. A few minutes later, I missed a nice one that was a heavy fighter.

I was pretty happy with four bass in the first hour, but things slowed down. The sky became slightly cloudy, and the wind picked up, sending large, whitecap waves to shore, and also many boaters into the cove to wait it out. Not only could I not catch any fish, I could barely drift right. So, seeing some sun on the far side of the clouds, I decided to relax a little until things calmed down.

When the wind died a bit, I decided to resume fishing. Things were sluggish at first, probably because the fish were weary of a fisherman in the area. I rigged up my other rod with a Powerminnow on a 1/32 ounce jighead, and decided to troll with it. I caught several crappie doing this, nothing of any size.

The bass picked up a bit as they moved a little shallower when the sun went down. I caught one small largemouth on the Senko, and almost immediately after releasing him, I noticed my trolling rod was bending and shaking, as if to scream "JP you damn moron, wake up and set the hook!!" Sure enough, there was a 15 inch smallmouth on it, that practically inhaled the jig.

I took a drift near the shallow shorelines, and caught one more smallmouth and a sunfish, before calling it a day.

I hope to get out and fish it again for a bit tonight. This summer has provided some of the best fishing of my life, and I would love for it to continue.

Will update again soon. Until then, God bless, and tight lines!!

-JP