Ocean City, MD July 2011

Well, just returned from a week long vacation in Ocean City, MD today - time to BLOG!  Although most time was spent with the family, I was able to get out and do a little fishing.  I'm not the avid salt fisherman but that's not going to stop me.  I stopped down at the local tackle shop near 28th & Ocean Drive, got licensed up properly, asked what to use and was on my way.  My girlfriend caught fish and that's always a good thing.  This allowed me to stay out a little longer - always a good thing.

Couldn't get the kids to go fishing because the ocean was much more appealing to a 12 and 10 year old.  We did have a good time doing other things (i.e. hitting the boardwalk, shopping, eating at every restaurant possible, going to the horse races, enjoying some amusement park rides, taking a sunset boat ride, swimming in the ocean & at the Hilton, visiting the wild horses at Assatique Island, etc.)  Anyway, here are a few of the pictures from our vacation.        

The ride to and from is always fun!  It offers great shots of the kids sleeping.  Tavion could sleep through a thunderstorm and hail the size of golf balls.

Olivia always finds a way to sleep in the strangest positions.  Hey, whatever allows her to rest.

Olivia getting her hair braided on the boardwalk.  "Dad, please stop taking pictures of me" is probably what was going through her mind.

Jess' first flounder of the trip.  In fact, this was the first fish boated that day.  We managed to bring in a total of about 30 croakers and flounder this day.  Not too shabby for my first time playing captain in Big Assawoman Bay.  Hey, that really is the name of this body of water.

My first flounder of the day was nearly a keeper.  It measured just a tad short of the 18 inches necessary.  I didn't plan on keeping any fish anyway.  The bait of choice for this trip were white 4 inch Gulps tipped with a little artificial bloodworm.  You can see it sticking out of this guys mouth.

Jess even decided to handle her own fish!  I was extremely proud of her considering there were a few guys on the trip that wouldn't dare touch these ocean (bay) dwellers.

Another flounder from the bay.  This was from day 2 of the trip.  Today, in the same amount of fishing time (approximately 3 hours) we managed 73 fish total.  There were some flounder, croakers and sea robins in that mixed bag.  Oh ... and it was entirely too HOT to fish any longer than 3 hours.

We had plenty of "doubles" while fishing.  Heck, we even had a few triples and quadruples.  Good times were had by all.  I'm not going to post pictures of everyone but please take my word.  These little croakers hit pretty well.  It's a shame they run out of steam so quickly on the retrieval.

Ugly Sea Robins like the Gulp as well.  These critters should hide on the ocean bottom!  Haha

Now, a trip to Ocean City, MD wouldn't be a trip without Pittsburgh fans visiting the "Salty Dog."  This is the best Pittsburgh (maybe only) bar in Ocean City.

My son ordered the Primanti Brother's Style hamburger (fries and coleslaw on top) during this trip.  Okay, he didn't have the coleslaw but the fries were slapped on top.  It was enough for him to order this Pittsburgh tradition.  Tavion demolished this burger like those hot dog eating contest guys on Coney Island.

The wild horses of Assatique Island were quite interesting.  They walk right up to you on the street, on the ocean, etc. This was probably Olivia's favorite part of the trip.  We have some pictures of a baby horse but I'm still waiting on an email.  I'll try and post some more pictures later.  Well, hope you enjoyed this blog like we enjoyed this vacation.  Until next time  ....

Lehigh River Crayfish Stocking Effort

Good evening Blog world and welcome back for some of my rambling.  I'll normally post pictures and stories of my fishing adventures.  However, this post is extremely important.  A buddy of mine is starting a crayfish stocking effort on the Lehigh River here in Allentown, PA.  The goal is to SPLASH as many of these little "clawed" creatures into the water for our native fish (smallmouths, trout, muskies, etc.) to feed on.  Would anyone be interested in helping the cause?  If so, send me an email with your email address, post it on my blog, etc. and I'll send the address where any and all donations can be sent.

This is something for a good cause, and I will definitely post pictures of this effort in the very near future.  Right now, we have a (cost) price of 1000 crayfish for $180.  Every dollar will help with our effort to provide the fish with some hearty food to chase around.  Hopefully, we can make a difference.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.

steeler

"SPLASH" Night Fishin' Adventures

Rather than go back and attempt to tell a story from every fishing trip this year, I'm simply going to post a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.  My buddy Wayne and I probably started our night fishing season in early April this year.  Yes, I'm too lazy to look at the pictures to be exact, but we have been called CRAZY by quite a few people.  We are out there night fishing when the temperatures drop into the low 30's but who cares?  The fish are biting so life is good!  Who cares if you have to chip ice of your guides every few casts?  NOT US!  LOL  We usually fish Beltsville Lake in Lehighton, PA.  This lake has been called the DEAD SEA by many fishermen/fisherwomen, but we have established a decent pattern on this particular body of water.  No, I'm not going to give away our lures of choice or specific location where we find fish consistently, but I can throw a hint or two every now and then.  We fish for stripers, walleyes, largemouth, smallmouth and pickerel.  Every now and then the occasional trout, musky or catfish will latch onto our offerings to check the boat out - but so be it.  We take a picture and splash almost every fish back into the drink!  We also like to fish Marsh Creek in Downingtown, PA and Lake Wallenpaupak up in Hawley, PA.  I hope you enjoy the pictures while you are sitting there off task at work.  No worries though - I won't tell your boss about the slacking off and issues (obsession) you clearly have with fishing like ME.  Enjoy the pictures

This chunky walleye decided to DESTROY my topwater selection around 3 in the morning.  SPLASH

Nothing beats a BIG largemouth bass!  I've been lucky enough to hook into nearly 20 bass over 4 lbs. this year.  I'm off to a good start and hope this trend doesn't stop anytime soon.  It's too much fun - SPLASH 

Here was the 1st connection of the night - a decent smallmouth named SPLASH :)  This was a great night by the way.  Totaled nearly 33 fish that night on a NEW and top secret top water lure.  I'm sure this thing will be all over the market within a few weeks because it works like peanut butter does for jelly.  I'm not kidding!

Believe it or not I actually do catch a few fish while the sun is out.  No, I'm not a vampire!  SPLASH

Are words really needed for this shot?

Yes, sometimes you have to make a silly face!  Stripers tend to make us happy!  SPLASH

Here was the BIG brother of the family!  Believe it or not my first ever striper at Beltsville was 14 lbs.  I caught it up near the dam using a BIG Husky Jerkbait.  See, here is one of those hints I was talking about.  NOTHING beats a striper attacking a topwater lure between the hours of 1:00 - 5:00 AM.  SPLASH

The "EYES" always make for great night time pictures!  SPLASH

We know where the walleyes hide at Beltsville!  SPLASH

I always enjoy catching these toothy critters (A.K.A. pickerel)  SPLASH

Hope you enjoyed these pictures.  I have so many to go around but these were on my work laptop.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting my blog.  Hopefully you have something to now push you through the day.  P.S. SPLASH simply means all fish were placed back into the lake.  I hope to catch them all again one day. 

steeler

Pike Fishing Ontario, Canada 2011

What better place to start my blog career than posting a few pike fishing pictures from May 2011 in Ontario, Canada? I'll keep it short and to the point for my first post.  I traveled to Canada with some great guys from May 20-27, 2011.  We stayed at Singleton Lake http://www.singletonlake.ca/facilities/fishing/  It was my first ever fishing trip north of the border and it didn't disappoint.  Our target species was the Northern Pike but there were several other species that decided to join in the fun.

In all, there were 6 of us that went on the trip.  In our cabin was my brother Steve and good buddy (and weekly fishing partner) Wayne.  We had an absolute blast chasing around these toothy critters.  If I remember correctly, the 3 of us totaled nearly 300 fish.  I don't have totals or pictures of the other 3 guys, sorry.  Steve left after 5 days and will NEVER hear the end of it b/c we caught some of our biggest fish over the final 2 days.  A special thanks goes out to Mr. Tom Gonya for inviting us along.  It was the trip of a lifetime.  Thanks to Pete (owner) for the outstanding hospitality.  The trip cost roughly $400 per man. You just can't beat it!

                             My 1st picture worthy pike

Wayne's SWEET smallmouth

Steve's 1st picture worthy fish

Another decent pike

Steve's Perty Pike

Nothing like fishin' amongst the MOO's

A sweet LARGE mouth bass

Okay, another SWEET largemouth

A rainy and SLIPPERY pike

These guys keep trying to "steal the show"

                     Wayne's JERK bait bonanza

                                          Another fine specimen

Mr. LARGE mouth making another appearance

Even the crappies put up a great fight

Wayne's BIG pike 

I still can't get over this perty small mouth

Wayne had to try and keep pace

and last but NOT LEAST - my favorite picture of all