Mountaineer Chronicles

As spring quickly approaches, many folks begin to long to break the winter blues by hitting their favorite trout streams. Trout are coldwater fish and are definitely more active and catchable in cold water than other Mountain State fish, which is why they are pursued in the colder months. While trout are easier than warmwater fish to catch in cold water, they are definitely not immune to inactivity during especially cold water. Here are a few tips I've found to help me make the most of my late winter or early spring fishing trips. Early spring ice formation on a wild trout stream in western MD. Fish spring fed creeks and rivers. Streams with large spring influences stay much warmer in winter than freestone creeks. Springs in West Virginia usually discharge at around 50 degrees year-round, so fishing creeks and rivers with spring influence will have much more active fish than streams that may be hovering around freezing. In WV, the Elk River is the most well known and access

I've started to realize that sometimes with my somewhat limited time to get outside, either for fishing, hunting, hiking, or sightseeing, I get in too much of a rush to see everything , and therefore overlook whats in front of me. I try to just cram two or threes days worth into just one day. All too much, I get too hung up on maximizing the efficiency of my time fishing. Efficiency when it comes to fishing is the number of fish caught per hour, or if targeting big fish, it could be the total inches of fish caught per hour. Sometimes it can even be about just covering as much water as possible. All of these metrics of fishing success or efficiency again cause me to rush. Places like this are too special to rush through Even when hunting, I get caught up in this mode. In order to explore as much territory as possible, I've found myself rushing through cover while stillhunting, which usually just leads to spooked quarry. This rush, either while hunting or fishing, ultimat

I didn't keep that great of a log, but to the best of my recollection, I fished on about 20 different days in 2013. That certainly isn't a ton of time compared to some, but is quite a lot for others. Some of my trips were all day, some were not much more than an hour. Overall I didn't catch anything enormous, but I think I did well considering. Here are some highlights from the year. First fish of the year and the only one I ate First trout of the year - gotta start somewhere First and largest brown of the year - early March, Savage River I always spend a lot of time after these guys each year For better or worse, a lot of my small stream brook trout fishing is with this guy Sometimes those rough fish can be pretty - this is a spawning male striped shiner from NF at Seneca Rocks I lucked into several slab crappies like this from the Mon Of course fishing the Mon, you'll catch some sauger too This monster redbreast sunfish came from De

A post was made on the wvangler.com message board that begged the question "Is catching fish the point?" and it linked a video response. It got me thinking.... Here was my response on the message board, copied to here: "If it didn't matter, we would focus as much of our time and energy in the least productive times of the year as we do in the most productive times. I'd have to say that the Elk has more people fishing during hatches that make catching fish easier. The freestone streams don't get pounded in the middle of winter when the water temps are 34F, so yeah catching fish matters. With my increasingly busy schedule and additional responsibilities, I find myself scheduling my longer fishing trips into periods when the probability of poor fishing is as low as possible. I don't take as many winter fishing trips. I don't fish as much in the heat of summer. I try to maximize my potential, and we all do something like that to an extent.

I've been slacking on writing any blog entries for a few months.  My last entry was about WV day, and its now early September, but I've gotten re-inspired to post.  Its mostly due to my cousin who has started a blog herself, and her entries have inspired me to write again.  She writes about running, family, faith, and "frilly dresses." If that interests you check out her blog here . Onto the topic I want to write about....Fall.  It is certainly my favorite season of the year. Fall in Mountaineer territory is a gorgeous site with mountains ablaze with the red, orange, and yellow of the changing leaves. A view of the fall colors on upper Shaver's Fork in WV I know many people love the warm weather of summer, but the crisp temps, lower humidity, and clear blue skies are in my opinion the perfect weather combination - not too cold to be a nuisance, but not so hot to make it unbearable. Along with the change of weather comes many other welcome changes for me.