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

Well, we are 2 months into the new year, and I've yet to land a fish. My goal to catch a fish in every month of the year will go unfulfilled. Perhaps for this year, I'll have to modify that goal to be that I want to go fishing in every month of the year. Winter fishing is always tough, and for me, the best bets are either trout or walleye. I'm not an ice fisherman, so I need open water, which has been tough to find this year so far. Even the Mon was mostly iced up during mid-late January, which is pretty rare. Many trout streams were locked up tight. I missed my best opportunity in early January before the super deep freeze set in. I finally got out on the final day of January when some slightly warmer temperatures allowed some of the ice on the Mon to retreat just far enough that I was able to wet a line one evening to try for a walleye below the Morgantown locks. With water temperatures hovering just above the freezing mark, I knew most fish would be deep and lethargi

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

Chad and I took off this past Friday and Saturday in search of trout. Sure enough our trip started with a breakfast feast at the Casselman Inn before braving the cold. We even had to traverse a little leftover snow to get to Grantsville, MD on I-68. After our big breakfast, getting bundled up, and somehow managing to get into our waders with the extra bulk from breakfast and all the layers, we started fishing the Cassleman River delayed harvest area. For me it started off slow, but I finally found a pod of rainbows willing to take a very slowly presented wooly bugger. I ended up catching about 10 standard sized rainbows before my toes got numb, and I walked back to the car to warm up. Chad caught a few fish, but didn't luck into a pod of fish like I was able to find. First of the year - even if a little guy. We decided we would then warm up in the car and head to the Savage River trophy trout area below Savage Reservoir. The water here, like Cassleman, was low, clear, and c

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.