The "Vlad, Steeler & Chico" SHOW 3/24/12

Hello Steeler Fishin' nation!  Yeah, I know there are only like 6 people that read my blog, but we can pretend there are more, right? The Vlad & Steeler SHOW finally returned to the studios this past weekend.  We hit the road and wound up on the NORTH branch of the Susquehanna River - again.  I'm going to try and keep this story short as my NEW little guy (Kaden Matthew George) was born February 19, 2012. 

3:30AM - Vlad shows up in front of my house.  Hey, who is this puppy that is along for the ride?  Yep, it's CHICO ... Wayne's best doggie dog friend.  3:45AM - We are on the turnpike.  6:00AM - We launch onto the Susquehanna River.  And so the journey begins ... Wayne (Vlad) starts off the morning with a nice smallie

Please take notice to Wayne's NEW eye glass protection.  I'm guessing he was trying to match that cool hat!
It's now my turn to get on the board and as you can see ... Chico likes the taste of fresh fish. 

Water temperatures this morning started at 56 degrees.  It was pretty stable throughout most of the day.  The fishing was quite tough because of the wind we battled all day long.  We are not QUITTERS!  Besides, that's one helluva ride to our destination.  Besides, we wouldn't have it any other way. 

We didn't catch much in size today.  We were able to land about 30 fish total and even a few walleyes to boot.  Overall, we probably lost about 10-15 fish.  Some were missed because of the bow in our line created by the wind.  Some simply came unbuttoned.  Our theory was the jigs weren't too sharp.  Doesn't help that we caused this by jamming them into boulders all day long. We will sharpen our hooks next time out.  Tubes were the bait of choice today.  We used about 6 or 7 different colors to bring in fish.  Here is one of the walleyes that decided to pick up my tube. 

Here is another walleye that was cruising along looking to grub.  This guy was quite small but nonetheless a pleasure to land.  As you can see, Chico had plenty of room to roam around the boat today. 

The rain started in on us later in the afternoon, the wind chill smacked us in the face and fishin became hard work.  All of a sudden the bite just stopped COLD.  We tried changing up, fishing slower, etc. but nothing.  It's funny how mother nature can decide that we had enough fun and decides to throw us a curveball.

Yep, here is the aforementioned curveball.  Look closely and you will see that CHICO has two hooks stuck in him.  One in his foot and one in his hind quarter.  All was well until we put the boat on the trailer.  Chico decided to run up front and stepped onto a BIG jerkbait.  The first hook entered his left paw and Chico flipped out.  Chico proceeded to flail and try to rid the hook but only caught it in his hind quarter.  Now his two legs were stuck together.  Wayne tried to get it out but Chico bit him!  So much for man's best friend ..... but you can hardly blame the poor puppie.  We eventually calmed Chico down and broke the lure.  This freed his legs momentarily so we could find a local vet.  30 minutes and about $250 bucks later Chico was sedated and hook free thanks to the nice ladies in the Towanda Animal Hospital.   

It was a  LONG day but we had fun as usual.  Too bad the wind made it difficult to feel the fish bite at times.  We did manage to catch many fish in the 12-14 inch range.  That's a great sign of things to come.  Now we have to get back out there and find a few HEFFERS.  Here are a few more pictures from our trip

Thanks for tuning in everyone.  We had a blast out there fishing.  Hope you had a blast reading about our adventures.  Time to go check in on my new little guy.  Fishing is great but it's nothing like becoming a daddy again. I just have to keep up on the "honey do" list so my fishing trips can continue.