What a difference a year makes? I don't know, but I am hoping to fish a little bit more than I have. This thread is for fishing reports, questions, and discussion for both fresh and saltwater. Chime in!
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So I am stuck in Abingdon for the next two months or so, and there are two bucket list items I want to cross off my list.
1) When I was growing up, my dad and I bought Tom Richards DVDs of him catching stripers at Boone Lake. Well we tried it (trolled redfins because we didn't know how to make bait) and never caught anything. I don't have boat access now, but I would love to get a striper from Boone. I am limited to shore access, but I have been scouting and found hybrid stripers hitting very small shad (3 inches) around Devault Bridge outside of casting range. Are there any locals that know if it is worth getting some shiners and using a slip float from shore? And, if there are any locals who fish Boone Lake and you want someone to talk your ear off about this transfer class after the blizzard goes through, you may be in luck.
2) The other "dream freshwater fish" from when I was a little kid was white bass. I know they are panfish. But when I was 6-9 years old, I really wanted to catch them. South Holston used to have a run up into the river in the spring, but that seemed to be a thing of the past by the time I was old enough. I used to go every spring to Alvarado and to Wolf Creek (cove near Green Spring Volunteer Fire Department for locals who may know) and fish curly tail jigs, but never got one. I did catch one on accident fishing a rattle trap for suspended largemouth on the Tennessee side of South Holston, but while some may be there, it does not appear to be a viable fishery.
Based on my research, it seems like the play would be to drive to either Rogersville (80 miles) or Melton Hill Dam (150 miles) to have a shot at actually getting on a bite. I would welcome any intel, or am I missing something closer to home/in Virginia waters?
Thanks everyone. Also, don't look at prices for new rods and reels. I was walking around the Bass Pro (ick) because my nephew wanted to go last week, and they were asking almost $300 for the latest variation of Penn SSVs. And Penn Fierce's, which I have almost zero positive regards for, are selling for over $115, which is clinically insane.
Living in far SWVA near the TN line all my life and having fished this area a lot, let me offer the following:
1) For Boone, my sister and her husband have a condo on the lake and we fish it occasionally. I don't have a great deal of striper experience there, however it is well known for that species. Most of my experience catching stripers on TVA lakes involves down rigging and trolling umbrella rigs (only three lures allowed) or vertical jigging in the summer months. The bite can be pretty good if you can find bait in the deeper and cooler water towards the dams, and generation schedules can play a factor. Most people this time of year are fishing up in the creek arms with live bait (shad or alewives - sometimes bluegill and when it matters it matters) chasing schools of fish and bait with electronics. You don't see a lot of bank fisherman, however you might have some luck if you can get some bait from a shop or cast net and luck upon some fish feeding by. I have several friends that are avid striper fisherman and I'll see if I can get some additional information and reports from them. I have one in particular that would probably welcome you to tag along in his boat, however he almost exclusively fishes Cherokee. That's all he fishes for with some hybrid sprinkled in as bycatch.
2) White bass. Some of my fondest memories of growing up and fishing are from chasing white's near the steam plant in Rogersville as VTlam describes below. I can remember carrying stringers out so heavy that they cut into my hands, and I can vividly remember people pushing wheelbarrows all the way to the discharge and hauling out huge paddlefish. I don't believe the steam plant is generating any more, and they have modified the access to this area significantly. It's been 20 years since I fished there, so take that with a grain of salt. I do know that this area is really known for the walleye run which is coming up in a few weeks, and I have a very good friend that fishes this religiously. The fact that you don't hear much about the white bass run makes me think that they have indeed quit generating and the run has subsided due to the J. Sevier dam and lack of warm water discharge.
I do know that the white bass still make a heck of a run in the upper arms of Douglas Lake. There are two rivers that feed this, one being the Nolichucky and the other being the French Broad (there are no coincidences). The confluence of these two rivers is upstream from a train trestle in an area they call Leadvale south of the town of White Pines, and when the run is on the fishing can be unreal. I've sat on the bank and caught spawning fish every cast until my arms got too tired to fish. Panther martins, rooster tails, and little cleo's would get bit as soon as you could get the blades to turn. A favorite method would be to tie two doll flies, about 12"-18" apart, and pop these below a bobber. If the bite is slow, tip with a minnow. Sometimes the fish can be unbelievably picky and I've seen one color of eye or thread with the same head or feather outfish another 10:1. I've also seen fish being pulled in two at a time when the run is on, with the occasional hybrid testing ultralight gear.
Be warned, this is the type of fishing where the old timers always say "shoulda been here yesterday" or it'll be next week, but when it's hot it's on fire. Truly some of my best fishing memories. The big runs tend to happen late March and early April.
Hope this helps, and hope you get to do some fishing to ease your soul. I'll talk with my more informed fishing friends and see if I can get some current tips and reports. In the meantime go buy the rest of the bread and milk that might be left on the shelf before this storm hits.
Tight lines my friend.
Solid post. Interesting that you talked about the heavy stringers of white bass, it was the same at the top of Claytor. Locals whine and say the disappearance of the whites was because the fisheries guys were shocking up all the breeders for hybrid propagation, while ignoring the wholesale slaughter of the run by those locals. Probably, the change was in the forage more than anything else, but nobody has explained it that I'm aware of.
Doll flies on a bobber is a great bait for whites and crappie alike, with or without minnows. Should work from shore.
I imagine the introduction of hybrids also created some imbalance with the availability of forage. But, that doesn't explain south holston, which has a ton of forage but no competing predators
Maybe, but they'd been shocking up those fish for many years, for trade up north for stripers and walleye. And we're not talking a slow decline, either. One year they're there, two years later you'd have to fish for weeks to find one white bass. The other fish most definitely benefitted from the removal of an incredible amount of predator fish, but I still just don't understand the total collapse.
04- I really appreciate the intel. I have one old aquantince that has been crushing large stripers on Fort Patrick Henry using swimbaits, but he is also very prickly about anyone being in his boat. He is a solo guy to the core. So, I am limited to bank fishing unless I re-power and re-trailer my dad's old jon boat... and boy howdy it wouldn't be pleasant sitting on those aluminum benches out in this cold for very long.
The white bass thing seems silly, but it ties to books. I learned about most of the things I fell in love with (sports, fishing) through books as I slowly got exposure. My dad started me out bank fishing for bluegills and carp at Clear Creek (now surrounded by a golf course sadly.) Then he moved me up to fishing with minnows and nightcrawlers under slip floats at Washington County Park and Whittaker Hollow Park on South Holston and along the rock wall at Whitetop Laurel for trout. But, he told me stories about white bass running up out of the lake into the river at Alvarado. I had seen the shore shoulder to shoulder for opening day of trout season, so I wanted to try that. I read about white bass fishing in books and 1) they were a high volume catch fish from accessible spots and 2) they looked cool. However, by the time I was old enough to try, the two places where I had been told to go (Alvarado and Wolf Creek) no longer had any kind of run. After we got our pontoon boat (man I miss that boat) I got one very large white bass (2 pound range) on a rattle trap while trying to catch largemouths and smallmouth. So, it is one of those frustratingly close, yet oh so far bucket list targets that I want to get into just once. I have a similar itch to get into larger bluefish in the surf on lures, even though I have caught more bluefish than fans at an Ohio State spring game.
The striped bass fishing, well I completely understand that it is a boaters game, and good electronics are mission critical. I know there are tailrace opportunities with big swimbaits, but not in the winter and I expect to be moving back to the Richmond area before the Buckroe cobia run (May.) So, I may just have to pony up for the guide to not go stir crazy there.
"Worst year for gamefish in recorded history" is the way noted local guide Chris Newsome described this year's inshore fishing in our portion of the Chesapeake Bay. Mirrors my experiences, and my neighbor's as well. Though he and his buddy found a couple of big (40 and 44") stripers a couple of weeks ago while trying to catch an errant trout on a deep dock on the Piankatank (on a 5" swim shad), his season was the least productive he's ever had here as well. Those guys fish about 120 days a year, too, so his experience mirrors Newsome's.
As for the white bass, there used to be a solid and predictable run to the top of Claytor Lake, but those fish completely dried up and went away, making room for a solid and predictable run of New River strain walleye that reaches miles upstream. Good trade off for me, but lots of people miss those whites.
Rogersville: I have fished the river there below the power plant and its warm water discharge, but we were there for the walleye. I caught citation smallmouth, walleye, crappie, stripers, hybrids and white bass as well fishing that discharge and just below it, but from a jonboat. Lots of folks fish from the banks, however, and any run out of Cherokee Lake has to pass under the tall bridge there. The banks are lined when the crappie run, so it's a likely spot to get on whites if they're running. I caught hybrids there on chicken livers one day when my motor wouldn't start and we were stuck on the bank. I sat my rod down for a couple of minutes and heard the splash as it was hauled away into the water. I had another rod with a jig on it, so I started casting and finally hooked up with the rod, retrieved it, and a six lb hybrid was still on the liver bait. Interesting place to fish, including the chance to get taken for a Rogersville sleigh ride when you accidently (or on purpose for some folks) foul hook a huge paddlefish while casting. They don't bite, and during a short season they can be legally snagged, but they were always way too big for our light walleye tackle and I never landed one, but I sure saw a bunch of them over the several years I used to fish there. It was a 4 hour drive down from Giles and we'd leave at 3 am and get home at midnight, but I was a much younger man and could do that stuff then.
The area I have been recommended is the shore on the north side of the river around the Hugh B. Day bridge. I am going to use a 1/2 oz shad dart with a dollfly or curly tail trailer so I can cover more water than the locals using casting bubbles. Hopefully it will work. If I get a couple, I will cross that off the list, which will be huge given then a shore tarpon, a pier king mackerel, and a billfish seem unlikely at this point.
Good plan, hope it pans out. You say trailer, do you mean on the dart hook or on a dropper?
never fished for or caught them. sounds like some version of a double rig for speckled trout might work; or one of those tiny rat-l-traps or rapala minnows (if you could cast it far enough)
I've had a lot of luck on countdown rapalas, but only for trout. Should work for whites as well, though. They're pretty heavy so they cast well, and they're killers if you have the right color. Gold and silver are the standards, but rainbow trout color works well also.
yeah, I don't what he could cast far enough from the bank to get beyond the locals...with a small enough profile that the fish would take it...that he could fish in the optimum part of the water column.
maybe something as simple as a spoon?
First white bass I ever caught was on a Little Cleo.
welp, there you go!
Menhaden Commercial Over Harvesting - The Decades Long, Long Fight
Overly controlled by commercial interests, the Commission again weenies out of making a real effort to help the situation. Thing is, we need someone with some real power to step in on behalf of the Bay, but it hasn't happened yet and the payoffs from Omega are still talking louder than anyone else involved, I believe.
The Bay is flat out fucked. For whatever reason, nobody in power will do anything to stop Omega. Money talks I guess.
Enter Sal-mon!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DT5yG5hkSCw/
Spent last week down at the Cape. Arrived early afternoon on Monday and promptly hopped in my buddy's boat to go to a well known channel that I fish in during the summer, usually to catch a flounder or two. It's got holes 10-12 feet deep and a lot of people go swimming there. Needless to say, its loaded with puppy drum and speckled trout right now in 3 feet of water. There tide was down lower than I've ever seen it. I promptly caught 2 puppy drum on a hand tied jig and then 3 on a clouser. The fish wanted it dead drifted. My buddy and his wife caught several big trout, up to 24".
Tuesday was cold as hell and we got a report that lots of big trout were being caught off the Pamlico River. Off we went, driving an hour and a half north to fish another well known (to the trout fishermen) creek. Apparently there was also a good striper bite in there the day before. Luke has live scope and side scan and whatever else electronic you can think of on the boat. Water temp ranged from 44-47 degrees. I saw tons of life in the water. We caught several hickory shad on jigs. No stripers though and we couldn't find the trout and I couldn't get anything on the fly. On the way back out we stopped and all switched up lures and Luke promptly landed a 27" monster speck on a purple soft plastic slick. I immediately switched over to that and caught ten or so trout. They wanted it thrown right on the edge of the dropoff where the creek went from 2-3' to 10'. Very slow twitches with mind numbing pauses and the bite was just a tap.
Wednesday, I decided to make a long run to Ocracoke based on a report of 80 drum caught in a hole way up in a creek. I was an idiot and didn't think about the super low new moon tides. Got there and made three attempts to get in. No dice. Poked around a few other spots and tried to get into another creek that has been very successful for me over the years. Too low. Headed back south and was promptly reminded that I should fish where the fish are. Luke and Natalia had landed two dozen drum and were now smoking the specks, dead drifting mirrolures in the exact same spot. Several 24s in hand and Luke got another 26". I couldn't get them to eat a fly but got 4 nice specks on mirrolures.
Thursday I decided to head north and explore more of Swan Quarter. Warmer weather and bright sun was perfect looking for reds. I poled all over some of the prettiest water one can find in Rose Bay and saw what may have been a small school of puppies, but couldn't confirm. They did not eat the fly. My spot that worked so well last time was a dud. Meanwhile, Luke and Natalia landed 75 trout on the same channel, and don't know how many 24" fish they caught. Another 26" came to hand. Yet again, I should have fished where the fish were but can't fault myself for trying to find my my favorite fish and sight cast to them.
I feel like I'm beginning to get the hang of this trout thing and as a fly fisherman, it is fun throwing a really light spin rod to them with mirrolures and whatnot. I'm working on fly technique for them. Not a shabby start to 2026 and I'll be heading out west at the end of this week. Should be getting some trout fishing in along with some snowboarding, if there's ever enough snow!
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Great numbers!
Thanks French!
Reports from NC of folks already finding cold stunned speckled trout in the creeks. They have another storm coming this weekend.
Not shocked. This is brutal, especially in those areas.
Drove to Colorado on Feb from Richmond. It's two roads, 64 to 70. You spend 12 hours on each. Not bad at all. Saw some Hokie Sigma Chi bros in Denver and am 5 days into shredding the gnar gnar on my annual winter sojourn. It's warm here even in the mountains. Hasn't been below 20 and this is the worst year for snow in recorded history. I fished one hour on the Blue river 5 miles below Silverthorne. Gorgeous run and got absolutely skunked.
I went to the Denver Fly Fishing Show last saturday. It's the biggest in the world and is the same setup as the Edison, NJ and Atlanta shows, of which I used to be a fly tier at. Ran into lots of friends from the industry and drank a bunch of Model Zeroes. I always have a blast there. Even saw some ladies wearing my feather earrings. Just being there made me really want to go fishing somewhere warm.
Pic of a Bonefish I caught some years back
Speckled trout season closed in NC and a bunch of recreational anglers are making some legal moves to try to force the state to immediately start doing what it will take to protect and enhance fish populations in NC in accordance with the state constitution (I think). I don't remember all the details, but it seems the amount of jobs and money from recreational fishing far and away outnumbers the economic impact of their commercial fisheries, and yet, like in VA, commercial interests dominate management of the resource. By-product waste and purse seining is indiscriminate and damaging young fish stocks, same problems exist here in VA with Omega and their factory ships in their menhaden harvest. Water's been cold, 33.something 10' down in the York isn't conducive to da liddle fiddies. My second knee replacement is behind me, with PT grind to come. Should be good to go by late spring, if there are any fish left to go after.
Don't get me started on the politics of it all. Latest I've been told is the cousin of a bunch of netters is now working for marine police at the Cape and phones them every day to let the netters know where the law dogs will be riding around, so they can illegally net in other areas.
Visiting daughter and SIL and celebrating wife's father's birthday in Melbourne, FL. Went to beach a couple days. Old beach fishing haunts which had exposed reef when I lived there are mostly covered w deposited sand. A real shame. Found some exposed reef in Indian Harbour Beach. Fished w live sand fleas, not really doing anything real serious. Water was beautiful w low enough visibility the fish couldn't see u.
Then a fishing 1st for me happened. Hooked an estimated 24" snook on a live sand flea. Brought him up onto the flat beach still in 3" of water and he came unhooked. Saw him clear as day. Pretty fish, nice yellow tail and black stripe. Swam back to grow up. Hooked a couple tailor blues on a M17 also. Nice day. Tight lines you all!
Still nothing here in the Mobjack area but a few nice fat rockfish. No trout, no reds yet.
Local paper reported several citations reported for big red drum at the York Spit. French, 3rd Gen and I fished that spit for cobia a few years ago, but I've not been out there for a while.
My Yamaha needed complete maintenance, but my regular mechanic is pretty stove up with physical ailments. As a favor to a long time customer, he agreed to do the talking and bossing and I would do the grunt work and try to follow directions. Top to bottom, with plugs, oil and filter, clean the injectors, fuel separator filter, lower unit and the first water pump I think it's gotten since the motor was made in 2005. I plan to sell out here in the not too distant future, so I won't be learning anything I'll need for the future as I'll probably not own another motorboat. It will be nice to start the season right, hopefully there will be fish to make it a good one.
I have seen some photos of big drum from Poqouson Flats earlier this month. They have been showing up in early April pretty consistently on the flats. Had not heard anything about them from York Spit, but it wouldn't shock me. People get them from the pier in Glouchester in late August/early September.
I was told there's some on some flats just north of Poquoson, along with big stripers.
There are some giants being caught on the flats of NC right now. Gun to my head and I still wouldn't say where.
My neighbor Paul, has been fishing typically hard, generally 3-4 hours, two guys, starting at sun-up. I say hard because these guys fish 120 days a year, so I excuse them from the dawn to dusk on the weekend crowd.
He's found a couple of small bluefish, and usually several rockfish in the 18-24" range while fishing for trout and reds, neither of which have shown up yet this year.
My foray into mechanica is again postponed due to the failing health of my mechanic, so my engine is still not ready to go, but we'll get to it when he's feeling better. Until then, I cope with the myriad of absurd demands in the world of the increasingly elderly. And of course, cheering on the small ball teams in the postseason.
If there are any of you left on the thread in the NRV? I will be house sitting in Giles for a couple of weeks early in June and would love to get on the river.
Nothing good to report on the Bay. Hoping to find something to bite in the uplands...it sucks around here.
I'm a couple of hours down 81 from there but I've been dying to make a trip up this summer. I'll see if I can get my schedule to accommodate.
Thanks'04. I have nothing scheduled at this point, but lots to do and folks to see while we're there. We lived in Giles
for 26 years, but have been gone for 13, so a lot of catching up to do.
Let me know if you have a window. newriverangler at that hotmail deal. Maybe we can rustle up a smallmouth or two.
So I've kept the random Almaco Jack I've caught off shore my entire life. I usually hate them. Figured it just wasn't my taste. I'm in Hawaii now went to the fish market and just asked for whatever the freshest thing they had was and a guy walked in with a fish so I said yeah that and didn't recognize it they called it Kanpachi. Told me 5 minutes skin down 1 minute meat down.
It was fantastic.... Guess I finally learned I suck at cooking jacks
I had always pretty much made do and eaten whatever I caught and felt like cleaning, but fresh and small were the guidelines, oh, and fried.
Got older and started releasing the bulk of my catches and started targeting food fish on occasion only. I always liked the flavor of some fish, but didn't like the consistency of the flesh, i.e. crappie or speckled sea trout. There were also some fish too fishy or oily for my taste, though I'd smoke them, like bigger bluefish, or stripers, and smoked spanish mackerel are edible and pretty decent for snacking.
One day long ago, a fellow Hokie turned me on to his method for getting his kids to eat fish that involved mainly soaking the well trimmed filets (get the red out) overnight in buttermilk. He made his own with a cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice stirred up well. Still fried, but the buttermilk drew out oil and fishy flavor for a cleaner taste, but it also firmed up the flesh, making mushy fish firm and all without negatively affecting the flavor.
I have also found that pretty much every time I've had fish served in a quality restaurant or cooked by a true chef, I love it, so I do blame myself for not learning more about how to eat more fish in more ways than fried.
Maybe in my next life?
i soak all fish/shrimp I'm going to fry in buttermilk, or even regular milk (just much longer), before frying
I'm cool with shrimp and some fishes without the soak. Walleye, for example, just don't need it and I've yet to eat a bad shrimp. I have tried the regular milk, like you say it takes longer, but I usually have some lemon juice handy, while regular milk we just don't use. I made a mistake a couple years ago and forgot to soak some cobia. My wife spit the first bite out and wouldn't eat it. When she asked, I told. Won't happen again, I assure you.
OK, last try on a dying/dead thread...
Will be in Giles the first two or three weeks of June, boatless but willing to fish. Anybody got room for a river run?
You need to get out there Mr. Fish. I've got a heavy a$$ old town sportsman kayak with trolling motor you're welcome to if you're feeling lucky. The registration is a problem b.c I bought it used and they didn't have the original receipt (it was used to them), so it's a bit risky though as it's technically out of registration now. Regardless, if you stop by Richmond on your way through, I'll throw in a bottle of bourbon for your house sitting if you post river pics.
So good to hear from you. I've thought of you and your family often and hope you are all well.
As for the kayak, after watching a friend wrestle with the powers that are the arbiters of such matters while trying to register an old kayak without papers, I'll thank you but decline. Flyguy might take you up on it, though. /s
Now, were I not in the company of the boss on this trip, I'd stop by just to say howdy and share a bit of the bourbon with you, but alas.
Sounds good and totally understand. Things are good here, mostly just more of the same, but looking forward to trying to get out of the water more this year. With the timing of my free weekends and the rains, I'm not sure I got out at all last year.
Well, as far as fishing in my neck of the Bay, you didn't miss a thing last year. The reds had really made for some fun fishing and the trout had gotten plentiful and larger, and then two cold winters wiped it all out. The rockfish run in the Fall has dwindled to either a lot of luck for a fish or two, or long runs across the Bay to drift eels. While the trout are still absent, missing their usual spring appearance around here, we still hope the reds will make it past the 757 this summer. If they do, I'll give you the head's up and maybe we can get you out. The docks of the East and North provided several years of good red fishing before last year. I've given up on "big fish" like cobia and concentrated on the docks exclusively, also forgoing looking for schooling rock in the fall.
The smallmouth, on the other hand, at least in the New River reports I've gotten are all positive, with plenty of big fish caught this spring by guys I know fishing with guides, primarily, but some really productive trips.
I finally fished for the first time in three months this weekend. Got in an hour and a half at the private lake in West Virginia that I luckily have access to. Caught some nice bass, a few of the monster bluegill the lake holds, and one ugly catfish. All on a black Woolly Bugger thrown on my 4 weight glass rod.
Then it started raining.
Didn't stop for three straight days. Some kids went out and tossed spinners in the pouring rain but I stayed huddled under the tarp cities we create in the woods and field and drank a shit load of beers. Finally stopped raining and I went out with the fly rod but the lake rose six feet. Those fish don't feed well on a West Virginia rising tide so I packed it in and drank a few more beers before heading back to civilization.
www.instagram.com/knotthereelworld
Lots of 30-40" drum being found in certain places in NC. I am still truckless through an epic shitstorm of buying process by Carvana. Avoid them at all costs.
Short form report:
Fished last Tuesday-Thursday at Buckroe. There were a ton of spanish around (I just ordered 30 fresh sibiki rigs to prove it.) Two of us got around 30 keepers over 3 days, with my friend Jiro getting a 22 3/4 incher that took over the leader board at the pier.
As for cobia, I only got two medium sized (2-3 pounders) on threadfins on Tuesday. After only catching two spot (that both got bluefished almost immediately) and no threadfins in the first three hours of fishing on Wednesday, I drove up to Wallace's Bait and Tackle and picked up some eels. First cast produced my first cobia of the day at 37 inches. I got one more very small one on Thursday. I saw around 30 fish caught over the three days, with the biggest being only 44 inches.
https://x.com/french60wasp/status/2061581938226327671?s=46&t=kEr-VGxMt7g...
Photos
Pretty work!
Great effort, decent results. Thanks for sharing.
Well, since 3rdgen might want to let us hear of his latest adventure, I thought I'd try to make it easier for him.
As for the Mid Peninsula of the Bay and here in the Mobjack Bay, fishing is not picking up much. The holdover rockfish are gone, and some speckled trout are being caught, but the reds haven't bothered to show, with the same report coming from the 757 area. Spanish Mackerel are showing up for those inclined (no me).
Hokie Paul continues on his pace for 120 trips a year, so I have routine reports and he says the water temp is up to 78. Needless to say, I'm not in any hurry to vacate my house sitting in Giles to get back to the Bay. Yeah, it's hot here, but not as hot and we're on a hill with good breezes, surrounded by woods except where the pipeline was laid, and daily deer, rabbits, squirrels and a groundhog for neighbors. No bear sightings since the first of the month, but I do keep an eye out.
It's also very cool that every time we go anywhere, a bunch of people are wearing VT stuff, a reasonably rare occurrence in Mathews and just common around here.
Well, fishing in the Bay has hit a new low. Hokie Paul reports 10 trout, zero rockfish, zero reds in his last 27 trips. The local inshore guide has curtailed his season due to lack of fish. I'm still hangin' in Giles and may for another three weeks or so just to enjoy cool nights, chilly mornings and low humidity. The lack of a report from 3rdgen is telling about the state of the fishing thread these days, we've dwindled to insignificance I guess. So I promise that barring some great news, I'll let it die. Good luck to those still here, Fall is on the way.
What about inland fishing?
I like reading you guys reporting, I just don't get the opportunity to fish the past few years.
Here on the Middle Peninsula, there is virtually no fresh water opportunity, save a couple of private ponds and one reservoir in Gloucester, with an electric motor only restriction. I have fished both, but it was always the saltwater here at my fingertips that I geared up for. After years of decent fishing, the current thing is really a bummer. When I first move here, flounder were my main pursuit, with croaker filling in in size enough to filet and skin when the flounder didn't cooperate. Trout were around, but I just didn't care about them that much, to be honest, though the area is eaten up with dedicated speckled trout enthusiasts. Then the flounder just seemed to disappear in this area but the reds moved in and stayed for several years. Last year, though, and this year so far, no reds. Winter temps killed most of the trout, and must have done serious damage to the reds as well.
Anyway, I usually did some crappie fishing in the spring, but have lost access to past places.
When I was a lad, we lived near the Susquehanna and my grandfather had a cottage in Kent County near the mouth of the Chester River.
I grew up fishing the bay from the shore and crabbing, fly fishing freshwater for trout and pan fish. I bicycled past Gary Diamonds shop every Monday morning when school wasn't in session.
My early days fishing were in and around Chesapeake, with regular weekend trips to OBX with the family to the Frisco campground. Freshwater we fished for bream and crappie with cane poles and worms, graduating to popping bug fishing as I aged, fished the NC piers a bunch as well as the surf from Sandbridge to Hatteras. Had my go for wild trout in mountain rivers, and settled on smallmouth and walleye as an adult. I have been fortunate enough to fish with guides as friends and mentors, and have even spent 5 days on your Susquehanna, 4 of them with Ken Penrod and some of the best smallmouth fishing on the planet during high muddy water at the mouth of the Juniata and surrounds. Penrod was a real trip, but he knew that water. Never had the money for destination fisheries or guides until I became one myself, but met serious anglers for tutelage. I remain an unabashed imitator in my fishing pursuits, if somebody's catching and I'm not, I'm doing what they're doing regardless of what I think or thought would be the best thing to do. I have so often seen stubborn fishermen getting outfished because they want to do it "their" way. I come around in a skinny New York minnit myself, and if I don't have what I need and can't just go get it, I try to come as close as I can to the successful lure/bait and live with that until next trip.
I'm at Carolina Beach hoping to get a bit of fishing in from the surf. Family trip so no serious attempts, but hope to pull a few on fishfinder and pompano rigs with whatever cheap frozen bait the local shops have. I'll change bait every other beer to keep it interesting.
Best of luck. Never know what'll hit that rig. Let us know how you do. I like cut fresh mullet and also fishbites myself.
Fish (and others here)! Im gonna be on the beach on north side of masonboro inlet in a week. Gonna hang w wife on the beach and wet a line and throw some mr22s and maybe bounce some paddle tails off the bottom. What would u recommend for summer in that inlet. Ongoing vs outgoing tide? Etc.
Tight lines to everyone!
A lot will depend on what's there, obviously. Trout fishing was suspended after a cold winter, not sure how that has recovered. Flounder are rebounding some, I'm told, but still restricted. Don't know about the drum, but there should be some pups around. Only time I fished Masonboro, I was after flounders and got them on my go to saltwater bait these days, a gotcha jig head (or big eye type jig head) with 4" Gulp Swimming Mullet, I prefer chartreuse/white or just chartreuse, fished on the bottom. As for the tide, depending on location, I generally prefer a couple hours before and after tide change, with a beer break when the tide isn't moving.
Another possibility is pompano and whiting, both easily caught on a bottom rig with fishbites as an alternative to trying to keep fresh bait, though sometimes shrimp can be good, fishbites don't go bad in the tackle box.
Used to go get flounder all the time off headboats out of Margate, NJ. It's how I learned to fillet a fish at about 7 yrs old.
Fileting a flounder is an acquired skill for anyone, much less a 7 yr old. We were still in the scale, behead, gut and fry flounder mode until I got grown up and got the hang of getting those 4 nice filets from the bones. Now, I pretty much filet and skin every fish I catch and eat, freshwater trout excepted, even panfish like croaker and whiting when I eat them.
Thanks Fish,we'll give it a go. Im not expecting much.
Lot of guys catching Pompano in the first trough early in the morning here on Topsail. Maybe that will translate down around Masonboro.
Mike, if you can find some back water, a Johnson Silver Minnow in gold. 1/2 ounce or 3/4 ounce will get a Red to eat, even in the murky water down there.
Use sand fleas. Have the kids dig them up on the beach. Use bloodworm fishbites when you don't have any. Both are way better than frozen baits.
Sand fleas are great baits for pompano and croaker in particular. Flounder love them also, and I found that if you dig enough of them up, you'll generally find just a few soft shelled fleas which are guaranteed a bite if you can keep them on the hook, and flounder do seem especially fond of them.
As for fishbites, every surf fisherman should have a bag of at least the bloodworm variety. Not only are they generally better than any frozen baits, way cheaper than live bloodworms and they don't go bad. If bluefish are in the surf, I like fresh cut mullet on a float rig and there are times that drum and even trout prefer shrimp to anything else.
loved using them as bait when I was surf fishing a lot unfortunately they're nearly impossible to find on SC beaches anymore and the only reason I can figure is because the constant "beach renourishment" aka fighting a losing battle with mother nature to "protect" porrly planned multi million dollar communities
Yep, same goes for shark's teeth around Topsail, I've been told, and for the same reason.
We have infinite sand fleas at Litchfield Beach in SC. I unfortunately can't keep live ones on the hook when surf fishing long enough to use them as effective baits.
Must be nice, do they do a bunch of beach renourishment up there? Maybe I just suck at finding them from Charleston south
Nope, not that I'm aware of. It's a fairly residential (less commercial so less busy) are so maybe they are more abundant because of that?
Been hearing that fishermen think the beach renourishment in the OBX has negatively impacted the sheepshead fishing at Oregon Inlet bridge. Correlation if not causation.
I never catch shit on fishbites or sandfleas from the surf (though I keep trying). The only luck I typically have is with my trusty box of frozen squid. Luck, of course, is a relative term. I typically pull in skates/rays/dogfish, but occasionally I'll pull in some whiting or croaker.
Booked a 10 hour troll for tomorrow. They've been catching kings jacks mahi and some false albecore last few days. Hope weather holds.
I hope you busted them up.
Got my dad out for fathers day, after having a really rough time last week on artificial and some mullet I picked up some shrimp. My dad had a hard time keeping the trout buttoned up and we unfortunately only landed like 50% of the bites that all came in a 30 minute window but all good fish. 2 21" reds, 1 18" trout 1 23" trout (my new pb) that got a squirmy release after the bump board before a picture.
My reports from this year, apologies for the delay.
I went to Ft. Pierce, Florida. Went out with Knot Content Sportfishing two times. The guide is a buddy that I've met on previous trips from another buddy. Caught some really nice snook. Jumped around 10 tarpon throwing a NLBN swimbait and swinging it in the current. Brought my kayak down and explored around the backwaters. Located a school of small jacks and played with them for a few hours. Good tourist fun. Other days in the kayak were more of a grind.
In February, I went to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal for GT fishing. Our fishing rod tube got lost on the flights over. We also went to the north end of the Island after 1 day in Port Blair. So we had to borrow fishing rods from the lodge. Had multiple explosions on day 1 but couldn't hookup. We realized that the rods we had brought were more suited for GT than the lodges rods. The lodges rods were more adept for Tuna Popping. Ended up figuring it out over the course of the week and helped when our rods came on day 4. Big cupped poppers were generally the ticket with getting the most water movement. We ended up catching 60 or so over the course of the week. Largest being around 70 lbs. Andamans is more known for numbers versus size like in Oman. Limited time jigging except for the last day. We did catch some exotic reef fish.
Mainly been smallmouth fishing late spring/early summer. Nothing massive but have found some stretches with good numbers.
Will upload some pics later.
Trip of a lifetime. When I was in Australia I had a GT swim out and chase a schoolie mack that I was reeling in.
Congrats!
Pig African Pomp! Nice work!
GT... second fish spanish mackeral (the south pacific version the size of a kings here?)
Yep. He confirmed the mackerel thing and yeah, that was a GT.
I stand corrected. Ok, but pretty fish.
Fish of a lifetime for most of us, that's for sure.
I had to go to Ventura CA last week for work. While I couldn't fish, I decided to walk out on Ventura Pier to see what people were catching from a very different ecosystem than I am accustomed to. I saw a guitarfish and two yellow pacific croaker get caught.
Weather permitting, I am camping with friends and chasing trout up at John's Creek in Craig County this weekend, and I am scouting for holes in the North Fork of the Holston close to home to try some evening topwater microfishing for redeyes, redbreast sunfish, and the occasional smallmouth.
Craig trip cancelled. Will try the North Fork of the Holston for some panfish in between summer rain.
Here's an inland report for y'all.... Drove to Colorado last week from RVA for a six week work trip selling my feather earrings to the Colorado locals at music festivals and art shows. Colorado is my number one state for sales. I had my old neighbor and buddy Evan join me for the drive out, which helped immensely. Took the trip in my new to me 2016 Silverado, towing my box trailer, aka home for the next 6 weeks. We stopped in Frisco for a hike, then ate some pot gummies and went to a free music show at Lake Dillon. The people watching was world class. Dropped Evan off at the Denver airport and I spent the day in Denver running errands before stopping in the Glenwood Canyon for a few minutes of evening fishing. I've driven through this canyon I don't know how many times and never stopped to fish it. Pulled off at a very busy exit and there were five other anglers in the water. Fuck it, my therapist told me I'm required to fish for mental sanity, even if it's just 10 minutes. She was obviously right, it helped. The caddis hatch was absolutely insane and I apparently was the only one fishing the right hole. Didn't see any other anglers land anything and I donged 'em with a dozen trout brought to hand, 13 if you count that same rainbow that I landed twice an hour apart. I will be hitting it again later this summer.
The drought out here is SEVERE. Massive fires just sparked in Utah now over 60,000 acres. The Colorado sky is grey and choked with smoke. I had ash all over my truck this morning in Silverton. The current water levels in the river are at late July levels, if not lower. It's going to be really bad for the fish come August and September.
My first event was the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Holy shit, this has got to be one of the best music festivals in the country. I enjoyed every single minute of it and had record profits. I'll do anything to be invited back next year.
My girlfriend and I explored Silverton, CO by foot, paddleboard and Silverado the past two days. We ate, drank, explored and offroaded through the mining camps amongst the mountains. This place is a true cowboy town in the middle of nowhere and you will absolutely die driving off of the Million Dollar Highway if you don't pay attention. I don't know how I ever moved away from this state 15 years ago but I am luckily to be able to come back often.
Some fish..... https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ_XwhxjQ4f/?img_index=1
Coupla pretty fish.
Thank you!
Very nice fish. Jealous
Thank you!
Heading your way for good by next spring if all continues to progress. We'll be neighbors (Bridgewater) and I'd love to buy you a beer and get a little skinny on the fishing that way. I've fished Mossy back in it's early days, and had a couple of great smallmouth trips many years ago as well, but other than heading to Highland for trout, I'm clueless on what the Shen Valley has to offer.
Unfortunately, I have very little recent intel as I have not fished locally in several years. I need to retire so I have some free time. I have fished several of the small trout streams in the middle valley area in the past and floated several sections of the SF Sheanadoah so I do have a little knowledge. But glad to meet up and talk anytime. Ran into HokieFlyGuy a few weeks back at a show selling his wares.
I'll be glad to meet a fellow Hokie, either way. I've fished with flyguy a couple of times. Fun fellow, indeed.
I got over trout fishing decades ago, but I guess I can get back to it some. I really want to figure out the walleye in the Shenandoah, but I'll have to get there and situated before I can figure out the best way to do that. 3rdGen had a guided trip there and caught several, so I know they're available.
Never caught a Walleye in the SF. Seen monster carp and Muskies. Smallmouth fishing was down for several years due to the skin lesions and other stuff killing them off but I think it has gotten better. Good news is the floating trips locally are pretty easy to do with many boat ramps close by. Sit on top kayak is my ride.
Not sure where they're located, but the walleye strain that was stocked are the New River strain, a hearty river fish with a spawning run in the spring. Big fish have already been caught, according to reports I trust. While walleye are routinely caught by anglers fishing for other fish, they are not usually caught in numbers unless one is after them in particular. Anyway, something to study on.
When the Shenandoah crashed due to the lesions and deaths, a friend of mine lost his livelihood guiding the river and ended up becoming the River Keeper for a while. It is good to hear that things are getting back to normal. Pre-crash, smallmouth were abundant in size, and my friend Cecil caught a 9-1/2 lb largemouth on one of our float trips in an early spring in the late 90's. For me, fishing from a kayak is like going from the penthouse to the outhouse. I've enjoyed a different approach and hate fishing sitting that low on the water, but on the other hand, what choice will I have? Not getting another raft, nix on the canoe same reasons, don't think a jet boat is in the cards. Oh well, I'll figure it out once I'm there.
Quick Google search says DWR stocks them downstream of the Warren Dam at Front Royal.
Fun fellow, indeed.
Don't you dare go spreading rumors about me...
I think you're going to want to play a lot in the 'Doah with a fly rod or ultralight for smallmouth. I did one wade trip on the Dry years back and hammered the Brookies swinging a wet fly.
Thanks for coming by! Great to see you!
Back in the office today after a week in Carolina Beach. I wanted to post a report on some of the fishing I was able to get in.
Surf fishing was a bit hit and miss throughout the week. The surf was pretty rough and we were limited to a fairly narrow section of beach. We caught a good number of spot with a few whiting, pompano, small sharks, and small bluefish mixed in. Tried everything from cut mullet, squid, fishbites, etc. on mixed rigs but shrimp were the only thing that caught fish consistently. We hooked about 10% of the bites we got so we were mostly feeding.
We were able to get to the pier in Kure for about half a day and the fishing was much better there. Mostly spot on pompano rigs with small pieces of shrimp for bait. We did get to see a large tarpon hooked and fought at the end of the pier. Once the angler got it up they broke it off in order to keep it in the water. I couldn't get a real clear look at it, but I would guess it was in the 45" range based on the fight and the few glimpses I got. It made for an exciting few minutes.
The highlight of the trip was a 10hr charter we booked with Captain Dave Tilley on the Wild Rover III. We trolled several areas of offshore structure around 30-40 miles out. Most of the day consisted of dragging two downrigged spoons and two planers with strips of cutbait. We caught our fill of amberjack, barracudas, king mackerel, and a few other species mixed in. This included a good sized remora, which I thought was really weird. The first mate stuck it to the side of the boat and one of our parties' stomachs, which was pretty cool. The bite slowed a bit as the day wore on, but overall we got on them pretty good. I lost a really good fish early in the trip that I absolutely couldn't get a turn of the reel on, and it pulled off as I tried to work the rod up to gain some line. It was probably a large cuda, as we had several jacks and bonita bit in half by big cudas including one that nailed on top of the water. My son caught the biggest jack of the day and he was ecstatic - see pic below. He struggled with some seasickness early (one of our group was out the whole time) but bounced back and really enjoyed it. Hopefully logged some lifetime memories.
All in all a great trip and it was good to spend a full day on the water. I don't get to fish as much as I used to and I forget how much I really enjoy it. If it wasn't for work I think I could make it a full time gig. Tight lines everyone.
Little dude and an almaco... great work!
Almacos are better eating fare.
I will note, I only smoke ANY Amberjack for fish dip (and its great!)
Killer image and a memory he won't forget! Awesome!
Thanks for the report and pics.
Well, I finally found some river fish today. I went down to Mendota and found an open section of bank under an old foot bridge. I picked up four redeye- three on a rooster tail (yellow and black) and one on a rebel crawfish crankbait. Very skinny water with a lot of grass snags. No smallmouth, although I am more looking for steady panfish action and a smallmouth is a bonus.
small 1/32 tube jig...blue w/ white tail (caught a few thousand bluegill, redears, and warmouth on this color combo) black with blue tail or fire tail would be the backup color combo
small spinners...had best luck with blueish grayish roostertail...if they still make them (or something close to that color)
Not much has me breaking out the fly rods these days, but when it comes to panfish (excepting crappie), there's no better way to catch them if you can move around and have room for the backcasts. Mitigates the grass problem to some extent. Curly tailed grubs on light jigheads is a go to for me as well, but I've caught a surprising number of redeyes on smallmouth tube jigs fished on the bottom in slower, deeper water.
I really liked taking my fly rod out to farm ponds to harvest panfish when I was in HS.
Poppers on the surface were murder on those guys, felt like cheating.
I went to school with a farmers kid and mentioned looking for ponds with fish. He told me his dad was trying to get somebody to fish the panfish down. I rode my bike out with my fly tackle and he was surprised, expected a spinning outfit.
He called his buddy over and they sat and drank beers and grilled fish I caught. Just sat and watched and said they didn't realize how graceful fly fishing could be.
Got a standing invite to a few ponds once word got out a 15 yr old kid that flyfished with his own handmade flies and lures was willing to work the ponds.
Dry flies that mimicked top floating spiders and small poppers.
That was a lot of fun and good food.
I really liked taking my fly rod out to farm ponds to harvest panfish when I was in HS.
first kind of fishing I did. Dad got me a flyrod when I was 7 and would skull paddle me around a friend's pond after work and we'd fish til dark
in HS, I got into light spinning tackle...mostly rooster tails
in grad school, a buddy and I would take a canoe out to a local borrow pit and fish yellow poppers and sinking gnats
got into the small tube jigs when I worked in Lafayette, La and fished the Atchafalaya basin. hard to do much fly fishing in that much timber and overhanging willows. but tube jigs tight-lined around stumps and bounced on the bottom are killer
My daddy always took me out, but he flyfished while I did the boat skulling and fished with a cane pole. When I hit 10 or 11, I started using the cane pole as a fly rod to toss yellow poppers, no reel, no line adjustment but I still caught a couple of big bluegills and dad had to admit that I was gonna fly fish so we went to the local hardware store and he got me a flyrod and an automatic reel since the deal was, he bought us a 5 hp motor at Roses and paid for the boat rental and I skulled the boat while he just fished so I had to operate the fly rig with one hand. Also, I could eat a BBQ for every beer he drank at lunch back at the boat rental, and nobody said boo to mom. The good ole days on the Northwest River.
As I've mentioned, I am house sitting in Giles (Newport) for a spell, on a knob above 460 with a great view of Salt Pond Mt. (Mt. Lake) and a surprising amount of close up wildlife encounters. Deer daily within 20' of the house, more rabbits than I thought could exist even in a big yard like this house has, and this morning, strolling by was a bear, maybe a 2 yr old. Wife and dog were outside, wife saw bear, bear saw wife and dog, dog is very small so she was looking at the ground and didn't see the bear, thankfully, and wife was able to come back in and call me to see.
One thing has struck me during the weeks we've been here is the abundance, maybe the overabundance of deer in the county. On the roads, in the yards, singly or with fawns, and as many as 15 or more browsing in fields.
I guess the changes in how and why people hunt deer have produced an interesting, if not worrisome population growth. The younger generation is increasingly not interested in outdoor pursuits and wouldn't understand what it used to be like and how unusual it was to see deer routinely, at least here in Virginia.
Still, it's been like a zoo trip and a good respite from the blazing heat of the Bay. Oh, and for those of us who haven't been there in decades, what they've done at Pandapas Pond is nothing short of amazing. I may even rustle up a rod and try fishing a little next week. They stock it in the late fall and winter with rainbow and there are probably other panfish in the pond. Clean, well managed and a totally different experience from the weed choked mud hole that was Pandapas back when I lived here.
And lastly, the Palisades restaurant is still awesome.
Unfortunately Blacksburg has a lot of idiots that are calling for outright banning hunting of deer never thinking about the effects on their population, overbreeding, and overall health as a result. That and kids today are not as interested in hunting growing up.
Don't get me wrong, I quit deer hunting 15 years ago or so, but it was a personal choice as the hunting was getting easier and easier as the years passed. I would still hunt dove, and hope to find some fields in the Shenandoah to hunt, but I pretty much gave up on hunting in general as I aged, and spent more time on the water instead.
The problems in Blacksburg will just get worse, disease and property damage will eventually necessitate more drastic measures that will likely serve to further inflame the debate. Having been raised by a hunting father, I have enjoyed the pursuits and feel sorry for those who want to see more wildlife, but aren't willing to get out before sunup day after day, or sit in a deer stand all day, peeing in a jug and eating power bars. Or the joy of hunting with well trained bird dogs or of coming down a mountain trail with a big ole gobbler over your shoulder, the taste of a roasted wild duck, deer tenderloin or grilled dove breast wrapped with bacon...
The sad part is the conservatist in me is saying I should start. Heck, my wife likes venison and I can probably bag a half dozen deer a year by simply opening the front or back door and shooting a deer. They are in the yard continually all day long.
Same here in Washington County. I just don't have it in me to butcher them anymore.
Like the old timers used to tell me, when the deer hits the ground, the fun's over and the work's begun. I made an afternoon of butchering for the freezer, but first you gotta gut 'em, haul 'em home, hang 'em if the weather permits, skin 'em then cut them up into quarters and then get them in the house for the processing. It used to take me a long time to do this since I was a fanatic about what went into the freezer. No bones, not even a hint of fat (goes bad quick, even in freezer), fell or anything else that isn't red. I didn't do much roasts, just got things down to steaks, cutlets and stew meat with scraps boiled up for the dog's dinner toppings. Surprising how much meat can go in a small space in the freezer. I never got into making sausage or burgers, but jerky was fun and good as well.
Hunting should be a serious business, and for me, I just didn't want to kill any more big animals knowing also how serious it is for them. Dove, on the other hand, I just can't quit wanting to hunt them though it's been a while. Lot easier to clean a mess of dove than a deer or turkey, that's for sure.
I really like venison sausage and venison chilli.
You forgot the step of sending a sample to test if the deer is safe to eat now. What fun is Chronic Wasting Disease!
My brothers in law have just taken to cutting the tenderloin and a couple of other choice bits and grinding the rest into deerburger.
During hunting season in Craig County as a kid, every single roadside shoulder on Ponds Mountain had a camp site. Opening Day and Doe Day sounded like a gun range. The last year I went before Dad got sick, it was completely empty. I went from seeing a deer in the woods happening once every couple of years to seeing 15-20 a day in the backyard. The numbers are skyrocketing, and there isn't enough food for all of them.
I am seeing does all over the place and many fauns. We have 2 born in our backyard each year. Read Mtn preserve is right across the street from our house. There are predators up there so they come bed down in the neighborhood.
I've been here for almost 20 years but only saw bucks a couple times. Whitetail.
My M1a whispers to me sometimes but culling here would be irresponsible and not legal.
I just put together an M1a after years of wanting one. Found a McMillan stock for cheap and built it up like a quasi M25 clone. I've got it hitting around 1 MOA consistently but am still tweaking. I love it. My good friend had a National Match and a Super Match that I shot a lot over the years, and I had to scratch the itch when the opportunity came up.
We've had a cabin in the mountains of Wise County for as long as I've been alive and deer hunting was always a rite of passage. I can remember being a kid and not seeing a deer the whole week of rifle season during Thanksgiving. Lots of amazing memories, but not many involving deer.
The valley where I live had a rich history in farming and dairy in the 40's and 50's, and all that started phasing out in the late 80's. As the farms grew up, the deer moved in. I can remember seeing a deer at my family home as a teenager and it was as if I saw bigfoot. Now they are in my yard every evening, and if you drive the loop around the valley you can count over 100 on most evenings. It's crazy how the population has exploded as hunting has waned and land usage has changed. Responsible harvesting would seem to mesh nicely however there's an imbalance somewhere.
Hunger would solve that imbalance. I mean people's hunger. For many years surrounding the Great Depression, folks in the hills would hunt deer, bears, turkeys, grouse and even woodpeckers, meadowlarks and English sparrows for survival. It took decades for the hill populations to fully recover only to hit a different time when casual hunters faded into other pursuits and serious hunters managed deer for antlers without the necessary culling of enough does to offset the increased population because of their management, ie food plots, winter corn feeding, etc. I really don't think hunting will make a big comeback unless we're forced to eat woodpeckers and meadowlarks again and video games won't seem so important, so we gotta figure something out.
When I was younger, squirrel hunting was my favorite thing to do (other than fishing). I can remember sitting on the football bus getting ready to play a big game, and all I could think about was where I was going squirrel hunting the next morning. You could kill a mess of squirrels on the mountain and before you got back to the house you wouldn't have any left as the old timers would take them off your hands. You couldn't pay someone to eat squirrel today, and no one is hardly left that knows how to cook it. I had an old friend that, till the day he died, would gladly tell you that his mother's squirrel and gravy was his favorite food of all time. It's a shame my kids aren't able to enjoy those times and people as they were a big part of my childhood and adolescence.
The world is in a strange place, and I certainly agree with what you state. My old friends used to have a saying when they made it out of the hollow with a job or other means, that they couldn't wait to eat square bread and round meat. They somehow thought store bought bread and cold cuts were better than the homeade biscuits and tenderloin they had to eat growing up. Most were poor but they never knew it and lived better than the majority of us now. Get us a 30 rack of Busch Light and a couple of hours on the porch and we can probably solve some of it.
Good memories.
In my teens, in the seventies, I would go out and get a couple of squirrels with my single shot .22 handed down from my grampa. I'd clean them and mama would fix either squirrel giblet gravy or a squirrel pot pie. Mama grew up in the community of Henry in the moonshine capital of the world... Franklin County, Virginia. Her dad kept the family fed (mother, father, six kids) through hunting, fishing, and a garden.
The funniest story however, was when she took my daddy home to meet her parents. 1950, I think. They walked into the house and her mother was cooking a opossum for supper! When daddy stayed, she knew she had found the right one.
I like how the thread name was changed to All Seasons thread! Here's the latest on my Colorado summer trip....
Spent the past five days fishing the San Miguel near Telluride, then hiked my ass off 5 miles up the Gunnison, then floated and waded the Roaring Fork for three days.
The San Miguel is gorgeous from Telluride down. I fished further down on the highway to Norwood. I recommend further down as there's less pressure. Dry / Dropper territory. That means a dry fly with a nymph or wet fly "dropped" off the back. Frankly, I rarely have success with this set up. It's super popular amongst guides and generally very effective, except for me, for whatever reason. I'd just as soon throw a dry or double dry, or swing a wet or double wet. I caught one rainbow on six dry eats. Terrible catch ratio, but every single fish ate chasing the dry downstream. Very odd behavior. The Ridgway / Ouray area has been hit by a big fire, called Gold Mountain. I left Saturday morning and it had just started. Today it is over 14,000 acres. The fire has enveloped an area I was camping in two days before. It is dry as a bone out here and a very scary start to the fire season.
Saturday I hiked way up from Pleasure Park on the Gunnison, which is a fabulous big Western river. Lots of Browns in it. The amount of grass hoppers was astounding. The wind averaged 30 mph and gusted to 55. Usually there is a massive Yellow Sally hatch this time of year, which is a yellow stonefly. If they were there, they couldn't fly in the wind. Mending was impossible and accurate casting was a total crapshoot. The heat and water temps didn't help and I stopped catching about 1 p.m. Water temps play a huge roll in trout being comfortable. They want it 65 or lower. It reached 68 in the afternoon, and was probably warmer in certain spots. I landed a few nice fish, one right in front a spin angler who stopped to ask me lots of questions about fly fishing. The Texas old timer was tossing a 1/16th jig with soft plastic minnow and doing well. Spin fishing for trout just feels so wrong but he was a nice guy and we talked Redfish and Speckled trout for awhile. A half hour later his 15 year old kid walked up the opposite bank from me, stopped in the same hole and proceeded to catch 14 browns in about an hour on a small Rapala. Sigh. He handled the fish correctly but those trebles absolutely destroy fragile trout. Just goes to show that they wouldn't eat a grasshopper but can't resist the action of a lure. That lateral line is a big deal to fish.
I waded and floated the Roaring Fork three consecutive days with my good buddy Jarrod, the owner of Aspen Outfitting. Fishing is hit and miss. The water levels are where they should be in August and and grass hoppers are here early. Jarrod caught a gorgeous Cutbow with a big Rapala stuck in its jaw that had been there awhile. He was fuming. Again, six barbed hooks do some serious damage to a trout. That is one tough fish to still be alive, much less eating small flies is impressive. He is better off now and I've got a new Rapala on the dash of the Silveraydo.
I'll fish a few more mornings or evenings the next few days and then the hardcore fishing will be mostly over for me. I've got to tie feather earrings for these events upcoming. The water levels are frightening. I don't know what these guide services will do in August. Regardless, the first two weeks of the trip have been great. My schedule looks like Aspen for the next several days, maybe Denver, then on to Steamboat, Lake Dillon, back to Carbondale / Aspen area and then I'll mosey on back east late July or early August.
Some pics
Good report. Awesome trip, nice pics. Don't agree with the spin fishing for trout take, I use what will catch fish in the situation and conditions given, and for me, spin fishing is often much more effective and satisfies me just as well. Debarbing hooks should always be part of a catch and release endeavor, and removing the front treble on jerk baits was my usual move, but Joe's Flies caught me a ton of fish when I used to fish for stockers, and I doubt I did much damage to them with that. I do get not liking seeing fish getting torn up, but that's a different story than just spin fishing for trout in general, I think.
Squirrel is fine meat and I defy anyone to say otherwise. Like you said, folks just don't bother. Quarter them, bread and fry them in bacon grease, butter or Crisco, make squirrel gravy and put the pieces back in the gravy to simmer. Nirvannnnnnnna Baby on a homemade biscuit. Only thing wrong with eating them is the smaller bones and the occasional shotgun pellet, but in a stew, squirrel adds a flavor that chicken can't match, leading to claims that the first Brunswick stew was made with squirrel. And like dove, can't buy them in the store.