Hat Trick for stripers 5/23/2014

Another week - another fishing adventure.  It's been the same old story the past few weeks.  It rains on Wednesday and Thursday ruining the rivers for the weekend.  However, this time I had plans to head out to Pittsburgh for the weekend.  Before going though, I was able to get some fishing in with Ken and Billy.

The night started out well as Ken and I hooked into a double!  Always fun .... water temps up at Beltzville are now up to 64 degrees.  We fished with about 4 other boats tonight.  Our normal lures were successful again.  I'm surprised there aren't more people fishing up there.  Oh well ... more for us!  Besides, you still have to know what to catch these "wipers" with, right?

Ken hooked into this beauty and GEEZ did she have a fat belly.  I think she ate a coyote!  Nice fish, Ken.

Billy got into the action with this sweet walleye!  He is one funny dude.  Reminds me of my buddy Chad!  I'm sure we will all get together soon for a funny episode of the steeler fishing blog.

I know all this striper catching is going to come to an end soon, but is sure has been a memorable spring up at the "DEAD SEA!"    
 
I do believe our count for this trip was 15 fish.  Yes, we lost a few as usual but that comes with the territory. I can't wait for the next trip out.  Thanks for some great company tonight fellas.  FISH ON!

steeler

p.s. We were yelled at tonight for covering our light with a baseball cap.  Yes, it's not the safest thing to do.  However, nobody was near us and that light is so bright.  Besides, I think the fish bite better when that light is dimmed somewhat. Mr. Ranger - please accept our apology.  It will not happen again.

Fireworks ON and OFF the water 5/16/2014

The dogwoods are STILL blooming at Beltzville!  If you read my blog last week this will make sense.  Despite having tremendous success at Beltzville last week, our plan was to fish the North Branch of the Susquehanna River this weekend.  However, Mother Nature had other ideas and dumped nearly 2 inches of rain Thursday into Friday.  What to do ... what to do?  Yep, let's hit Beltzville and chase stripers again.  We launched around 9:20 and had our first fish in the boat 5 minutes later.  Simultaneously, fireworks at Penn's Peak started bursting into the mountains to our north.  We knew this was a sign of things to come.

Nice 18 inch FOOTBALL of a smallmouth to start the night off! 

And the striper bite began in 15 feet of water.  Are they finally moving up?

NOPE!  They are still deep and enjoying life chasing schools of bait fish around.

The CHUNKY eyes joined the photo session!

After a lull in the action, we put the rally caps on and WHAM! Back in the ball game.

Water temps were 61 degrees tonight.  Water clarity improved from last week.  I would estimate it to be 3-4 feet during this trip.

Sure is fun catching nice stripers like these.  We have a good idea where these guys will be ...... and at what time of the night.  

Third walleye of the night!  Add 9 stripers and 2 smallmouth to the total and we had another good night out on the lake.  Unfortunately, we did lose many fish tonight.  For some reason, we just couldn't bring them all in.  There were a good 6 or 7 fish (not to mention another BIG one) that should have been brought into the boat.  The stripers were being stubborn tonight.  Camera shy?

Steeler - 10 fish.  Chad - 5 fish.  We've been doing lots of  catching the past few trips!  Chad even catches things on the way home from fishing trips .... Z's

Until next time ... thanks for reading the "steeler" fishin' blog!  

The Dogwoods are blooming 5/9/14

The rains here in Pennsylvania have prevented us from fishing the rivers, but good OLE Beltzville Lake is always a solid "PLAN B!"  Our plan this evening was to search for ... and find the stripers.  We launched around 6:00PM with water temperatures at 57 degrees.  The recent rains put water visibility at about 2-3 feet.  The water was choppy from winds blowing to the south.  We knew this was what we wanted and that any bait present was sure to be pushed up against the shorelines.  Man, were we in for a surprise!  After about 3 hours, we only had one smallmouth bass in the boat.  It was a FOOTBALL at 19.5 inches!

The week before, we only landed one largemouth bass in 7 hours of fishing.  However, we remained positive and kept chucking lures. Around 9:00, I hooked into a 20 inch walleye.

We still couldn't find the stripers and decided to head for deep water.  Guess what we found?

The stripers were out in deep water having a blast feeding on baitfish!  We threw various jerkbaits, crankbaits and deep divers into the frenzy and came out with 22 stripers in a little over an hour.  Most fish were in the 3-8 lb. range and we sure did have some fun.  It went something like this ..."Chad, get the net!  Take a picture .... Dave, get the net!  Take a picture."

We couldn't pull a double because while one of us was collecting ourselves and releasing a fish .... the other had a fish on.  A wise man (darkside from EPFR) once told me to keep an eye on the dogwoods blooming and the moon being full.  Well, the clouds and fog prevented us from seeing the moon, but the dogwoods are blooming.

Just want to give a "SHOUT OUT" to Reel River Adventures (Chris & Ken) for my sweet "football season" hooded sweatshirt.  Yes, it keeps me warm.  However, I think it brings me some good luck while out fishing.  I'm sure you can purchase one by visiting their website at http://reelriveradventures.com/

Rumor has it that "Cheddar & Horseradish" potato chips also attract schools of stripers boatside.

This was when "Sammy the Striper" told me about the Cheddar & Horseradish chips attracting their school to the boat!  Haha!

I'm not going to post all the fish but there was a good sample.  I may go back and edit this report if some pictures came out better than others.  We've been taking I-phone pictures the last few trips.  It may be time to bring the digital camera back out.  I will say this .... the fog was so thick that we couldn't see 10 yards from the boat.  I'm guessing this had something to do with the blurry pictures.  Anyway, it was a GREAT night out on the water.  I was able to boat 16 fish.  Chad added to the count with 8.  I'm making this post two nights later and both of our thumbs, arms, backs and necks still hurt from reeling in these willing participants of this adventure.  Until next time ....

steeler