Fairview Lake Fishin' Frenzy 4/28/13

Woke up at 5:00 this morning and knew it was going to be a GOOD day!  I was unable to fish the Susquehanna River on Saturday.  However, my buddy James D. Rowe invited me to fish Sandt's Eddy on the Delaware River.  Well, the weather person said it was going to be nice up in the Pocono Mountains thus a change in plans.  We booked it up to Fairview Lake and were on the water by 8:30AM.  The birds were chirping, the sun was shining and I was SMILING!  How can you not smile when about to fish?

Water temps ranged anywhere between 55-57 degrees depending on where the sun was beaming down on the lake.  We were able to collect a nice mixed bag of smallmouths, largemouths, pickerel and a lonely rock bass.  There were no "beds" in the shallows but that should be happening soon!  In all, we probably boated 20-25 fish.  It was a great day out on a new lake.  Thanks for the invite James!

Notice the black tail and spots on this largemouth pictured above 

Funny, you can see me taking a picture in the background!

Jerkbaits and tubes were the TICKET today!  Thanks Wacky Worm and Lucky Craft!

steeler

Lincoln Leadership Basketball Year in Review 2012-13

Yes, this is a fishing blog.  However, I also double as a Head Boys Basketball Coach for Lincoln Leadership Academy Charter School in Allentown, PA.  As you may have already read in my biography, I also serve as the Athletic Director and Dean of Students at Lincoln Leadership.  We are a small "A" school in District XI.  This is our 4th year of existence and only our 2nd year as members of District XI of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (P.I.A.A.).  We finished 12-12 (13-13 overall including district playoffs) last season and barely made the district playoffs.  However, this season we finished 16-6 (17-7 overall including district playoffs) and made it to the semi-final game vs. Pius X.

Earlier in the season, Pius X defeated us 81-51.  We didn't take that "ass-whoopin" very well to say the least.  It made us tougher, stronger, hungrier and more willing to stand together as a team.  Yes, our season ended at the hands of Pius X.  However, we were better prepared and lost a tough one this time.  With 4:00 minutes remaining in the game, we held a 3 point lead.  Unfortunately, we could close and lost 48-40.  Proud of my guys though.  Here's a video sharing some highlights from our season.  Enjoy .... - steeler

p.s. The link is directly below this sentence.  It may be tough to see for some reason.  High school basketball is awesome.  Just check out the fan support from our students that traveled all the way up to Stroudsburg High School to cheer us on.  Amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnT-uhu50B4

The Vlad & Steeler show returns! 4/13/13

It's been nearly a year (so it seems), but the Vlad & Steeler show was finally able to produce a NEW episode.  Good to see you back our there fishing Wayne.  We were also accompanied by James (James D. Rowe from EPFR for a few hours).  Originally, our plan was to hit the North Branch of the Susquehanna River for some FAT smallies! That changed with all the rain this week! Anyway, we then had to settle for PLAN B - Beltzville Lake.  Early in the morning, this CHUNKY bucket mouth was sitting in about 20 feet of water & fell victim to a smoke purple tube.  Thanks for the photo op BIG GAL!

The water was nice and calm for the first hour this morning.  This allowed us to chuck tubes.  Here was fish number 2.  A somewhat respectable largemouth ...

Right before the winds picked up, this NICE pickerel decided to join the party.  Thought it was a musky when first surfacing.  It looked like an awesome fish once its gills flared up.  If the body would catch up with the head, this fish has potential to be a MONSTER!

Wayne didn't have such a great day! Unfortunately, the fish were being stingy and chasing my lures instead.  Sorry buddy!  Just gives you a GREAT excuse to get out again in the very near future, right?  This stick fish was sweet though ....

The winds were unfortunate today.  However, we are die hards and spent the day catching up.  Good day Wayne.  Still beats sitting at home on the couch.  Well, at least when it's NOT football season.  HaHa!

Hey Wayne and James, anyone see my sunglasses?  Oh yeah - they are sitting atop the house at the bottom of the lake now.  Never fun losing your "chick checkin' out" glasses.  Haha!  Just remembered that HUGE smallmouth I lost at the boat Wayne.  DANG!

steeler

Where's WALDO & Mooooooo ... 4/7/13

Spent Saturday night at my little brother's wedding.  Fishing was the last thing I expected to be doing on Sunday.  HOWEVER, the Mrs. encouraged me to get out of bed and chase some smallies.  Yeah, she's the best!  My other brother and I exchanged texts back and forth this morning.  Honestly, we both had to convince one another to hit the river (Susquehanna) for a few hours of fishin'.

We started fishing around noon and the clouds were covering the mountain side.  After about an hour, the sun peeked through, but so did the gusting winds.  GEEZ!  It was like a hurricane but without the rain!  This completely eliminated the tube bait bite.  HOWEVER, the jerkbaits were the ticket today.  Steve and I chucked Lucky Crafts from noon to 5:30.

Water temperatures ranged from 43 to 44.9 today.  In total, we brought 23-24 fish on board.  Most were in the 15-16 range.  If memory serves me correct, there a few nice fish today.  2 were 17 and 1 was a sweet 18.  We also took pictures with a walleye.  Haha!  Unfortunately, Steve lost his favorite Lucky Craft.  A musky decided he wanted to swim around the river with it hanging from its' mouth today.  :(   We also had about 5 or 6 fish come unbuttoned.

Great day of fishing that also included watching 1 adult eagle hovering above with three little ones.  Can't wait until next week!  I'm guessing this week of nice weather will really wake the smallies up.

steeler

Fishin', Torque Tools, Tubes, etc. 3/29/13

The title of this post is the "cliff notes" version of today's fishing adventure on the Susquehanna River.  Started fishing around 10:00 AM this morning.  Had some minor trolling motor issues.  Apparently, one of the trolling motor batteries has a bad cell.  That's a project for later.  What did we do?  We took it way way back to the early days.  Yep, we anchored down from spot to spot.  No fancy smancy I-Pilot today.  Geez, life is tough, right?  HaHa

Anyway, water temps hovered at the 38-39 degree mark all day long.  We were able to float upon (1) hole that gave us a reading of 40 degrees.  No surprise, this hole gave us a few fish as well.  Air temperature high was a pleasant 45 degrees.  We had the occasional rain shower- but nothing too bad.  Heck, we could see snow squalls in the nearby hills.

Overall, caught my first fish of 2013 today.  In total, we were able to bring 25 fish to the boat.  Tubes, Jerk baits and clackin' raps were on the menu today.  Good times out there today James D. Rowe.  Let's see how Beltsville Lake measures up tomorrow!

Cold Water Fishin' the Delaware Water Gap

Checked another one off my BUCKET list today.  HaHa!  I was lucky enough to spend this 1st day of December (2012) with fellow EPFR member, Chris Gorsuch (Darkside).  It was my first time ever fishing the Delaware Water Gap, so you know the deal.  I was like a kid at Christmas!

However, these New Jersey smallmouths are a bit more stubborn then their cousins from Pennsylvania.  We were ONLY able to boat 3 fish in about 5 hours.  I'm 100% certain the 35-36 degree water temperatures had a lot to do with this.  Chris and I both had 2 other bass hooked, but the snowy banks just didn't want that many pictures of these good lookin' fish today.  Yep, we lost them!

Despite the lack of cooperation from these gorgeous finned specimens, it was still a great day to be out fishing.  The air temperatures hovered around 31-32 degrees, but it was not all that bad.  We were both bundled up pretty well.  Warm clothes, a ski mask and the possibility of  catching fish usually keeps me warm!  

Thanks again for getting me out on the drink today Chris!  Much appreciated.  Again, if you want to check Chris out just Google "Backwoods Angler TV" and check out all of his informative episodes. Time to hit the sack!  Hope everyone enjoyed this adventure.  Happy Holidays!

P.S. These are my first ever smallmouth bass caught in the month of December!  Wonder if I can catch some in January?  - Steeler

Tip of the day - Always fish the 3rd or 4th day of a warming trend during the COLD winter months!  Not the last day of the cold front like we did.  Haha!  Just another good tip from Chris I'll be storing away for future trips.

North Branchin' for SMALLmouth Bass 11/10/12

For many months now, I've been telling my buddy Rich we would hit the North Branch for some small mouth  bass.  This past weekend the stars aligned, the mooned didn't matter because we fished during the day and the mush mouth bite was on!  Haha!  The fish didn't cooperate as well as expected ... and we couldn't find the BIG ones, but it was a great time.  All in all we collected 38 fine specimens from the Susquehanna River.  Rich even had a scratch 40 inch muskie about 5 feet from the boat.  All fish (including the muskie) were caught on tubes this trip.  We fished many deep holes, shallow banks and eddies thanks to some great trips from Chris Gorsuch of Backwoods Anglers.  Thanks again for all your help Chris.  It is appreciated! Nothing like turning another buddy into a River Rat!  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Something almost had this guy for dinner not too long ago!  He was released yet again to live another day!

steeler