Beltzville Lake Bass Bonanza 5/11/13

Friday, May 10, 2013 - I had a District XI Athletic Director's meeting at the Mahoning Valley Country Club.  Beltzville Lake is about a 10 minute ride from this location so "common sense" says "go fishing!"  HAHA!  After my meeting, I was on the lake in 30 minutes.  However, I wasn't feeling so hot and my trip lasted only 2 hours.  While there, I took notice to schools of BIG stripers and catfish feeding in the coves.  It appeared as if they were chasing trout fingerlings.  After speaking to a park ranger, my suspicions were right.  They apparently dumped thousands of fingerlings in recently.  The fish looked extremely grateful!  They wouldn't take any of my offerings so I watched in awe how they would SWOOP in and grab a quick bite to eat at the local TroutDonald's.

Saturday, May 11, 2013 - It was a late call to even fish.  It came down to heading to the North
Branch of the Susquehanna (2 hour ride) or staying local and fishing Beltzville (30 minute ride).  My buddy Chad really wanted to fish Beltzville and talked me into some night fishing.

This was the prize of the day.  We fished from 2:00-11:00 as we were beat on by the sun, wind, rain and eventually HAIL!  Yes, we withstood the urge to leave after that final storm and it paid off.  This LARGE mouth was pushing 5lbs.  I could kick myself for NOT taking a picture of its belly. It was bigger than a fat kids smile at an ice cream stand!

My buddy Chad hooked this smallmouth on a Pike while helping me land that largemouth above.  It was a fun few minutes for us.  This football was pushing 3.5 lbs on the Richter Scale.

We totaled 29 bass today.  Not too shabby for fishing the DEAD SEA!  Water temps ranged from 60-64 today.  The weather was absolutely ridiculous.  We went from shorts and t-shirts to hoodies and wet weather gear a few times.  The hail storm woke the fish up though.  NEVER leave during a storm.  The real storm of fishing fun starts when the rain exits stage right.  Here are a few more pictures.  Enjoy - steeler

All fish are CPR!  Catch - Photo - Release ...

Animal Planet MEETS the Susquehanna River 5/4/13

Oh what a night  day!  :0  Even Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons couldn't have scripted this day any better.  I'm NOT that old but using this reference will make you wonder.  HaHa!  I set the alarm for 3:30AM and hit snooze until 4:00AM.  I was on the Pennsylvania Turnpike heading for the Susquehanna River at 4:30AM.  However, on this day there was a special guest - my 12 year old daughter, Olivia.

Yes, she slept most of the way to the water.  But that's okay ... she was saving her energy to do this:

Water temps this morning were 58 degrees.  By days end we noticed it climbed to 62 on the fish finder.  Blue birds sky prevailed for every minute of our fishing adventure.  However, it was nature that stole the show today.  

Not quite sure what kind of snake this is?  It was pretty big though.  He somehow became entangled in my tube bait.  It took a minute but this slithery fella was able to swim away without incident.  We were also lucky enough to witness an eagle carry a BIG small mouth bass to his lady and kids for lunch.  Pretty good day on Animal Planet meets the Susquehanna River.  

My daughter had an outstanding time watching the eagles, the turkeys, the turtles, the red tailed hawks, the herons and even the Muskie that attempted to railroad a smallmouth I was reeling in towards the boat.  I had an outstanding time just spending time with my little girl.  Almost forgot - we also did some bass fishing

  

40 bass total today!  1 walleye on opening day (Catch - Photo - Release).  Spending the day fishing with your daughter ..... PRICELESS!  

Hey, not even the JERK who did this could have ruined our day

steeler fishin'