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 ...