We call them “NINs,” “Nine Inch Nails,” in homage to the rock band of the same name.
NINs are what we like our winter bluegills to be. A 9-inch bluegill, or darn close to 9 inches, is a very respectable bluegill in any season and NINs make enduring the brrr and shiver of freezing days on the ice that much more rewarding.
When lakes ice over, bluegills become the ‘star of the show’ Read More »
In Pennsylvania the traditional start of trout season is in mid-April – that’s for all the open-water anglers across the state.
But for thousands of anglers who brave cold winter temperatures and stand on frozen water there is no set date. For them, trout season starts when the water solidifies and it’s safe to pull a sled where once only a boat could float.
When the water finally hardens in Pennsylvania, it’s trout time Read More »
I learned this one in grade school: The fork says to the spoon, “Who was that ladle I saw you with last night?” The spoon replies, “That was no ladle, that was my knife.”
Honestly, an elderly ice fisherman repeated that joke while the Frozen Chozen shivered on a thickened lake. The only thing that prevented us from giving him a cold bath was our compassion and the fact that the lake’s largemouth were going crazy for the spoons we jigged. While that may have been the dumbest lead I’ve ever written, spoons are a truly viable lure for catching iced-in bass.
Targeting bucketmouths through the ice? Think spoons Read More »
The simplicity of a hair jig is stark and wonderful. So is its effectiveness, especially in the cooling waters of fall and early winter.
Looking like a mustache in need of a face, the hair jig will entice bass – largemouth and smallmouth – from lakes, rivers and creeks. I’ve also caught walleyes, rockbass, redbreasts and channel cats with hair jig, but there are better cold-water offerings for those species.
In cold fall waters, hair jigs work great for bass Read More »
If the vegetation is starting to color up but not yet showing fall’s brightest hues, it’s probably time for bass fishermen to use lures that range medium-deep, according to the writer. The time to go really deep is a month or more away. Photo by Vic Attardo.
No need to dig really deep for bass in the early fall Read More »
When you want to figure out how to catch a fish, look at its mouth.
Sharks aren’t vegetarians and guppies don’t eat meatballs. In both cases, it’s not only a matter of size but how sharp the dentures. But rockbass are the rule breakers. About the width of a swollen pinto bean and with no visible pearly whites, an adult rockbass will take everything from a crayfish to an ant.
Fall rock bass provide fast action and a tasty meal Read More »
Legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne, tragically, is dead, but I know how I’m going to honor his memory this fall.
I’ll press in my earbuds, put on “Ironman,” or some other Black Sabbath standard, and go catch some Susquehanna River smallmouths using lively stonecatties for bait, or fly-fishing using a stonecat streamer pattern. I realize the whole “getting stoned for smallmouth” theme is crass and juvenile, but I can’t seem to shake it. And stonecats are flatout the best river bass bait out there.
Stonecats are the best river bass bait out there Read More »
The Lackawaxen is one of the great rivers of Pennsylvania.
In the spring and later in the fall the Lackawaxen is full of stocked trout but now at the end of summer, before the fall Fish & Boat stocking, it is the home of scattered warmwater species: smallmouth bass, rock bass, some bluegills and my favorite – redbreast sunfish.
Lackawaxen River’s redbreast sunfish brighten September fishing in Pennsylvania Read More »
When I picked up the flailing smallmouth and looked down its throat to remove my fly, the bass appeared to have swallowed a can of black pepper.
Its boney lips, mouth and gullet were encrusted with tiny black flecks – only it wasn’t pepper, it was ants: dozens and dozens of winged and wingless ants, size 16 by fly-fishing measurements, and the insects were packed together like a pearl pudding.
Fly fishing the ant drop: Be ready for the best river smallmouth action Read More »
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