The Deer Field

Fished the Deer Field alone on Saturday. A brisk 10 minute walk brings you to the river that meanders along the distant ridge. Before Pa. liberal deer season this field would hold herds of deer mornings and evenings. They still come but in fewer numbers now.

A couple pics of the river. Far enough away from the dirt road that I park on and walk into from, in 3 hours of fishing I heard one distant farm tractor.

The smallies were cooperative this day. One of several I landed in the 12-13 inch class.

A Rock Bass coming in. Also called a goggleye or redeye they gave me some action between smallies.

A 5 inch sunfish trying to eat a 4 inch plastic bait. They have to have some piranha genes in them.

Leaves on the water reminding me that fall is approaching quickly. Sad to see the fishing trips end yet eagerly looking forward to hunting treks through the grouse and woodcock coverts.

A butterfly that caught my attention.

On the walk back through the Deer Field the grasshoppers filled the air. This one decided to hitch a ride on my hat.

So ended another enjoyable day filled with quiet surroundings and hungry fish.

The Yellow Barn

Caleb and I fished the Yellow Barn stretch of the river this morning. I started off fast with a nice chunky 13 incher.

Caleb had some action too.

Here he is working in another one.

I got lucky and pulled in the fish of the day a heavy 15 incher.

Here's one throwing Caleb's hook. If you look at about 10:00 you might see a brown worm flying through the air.

Here's one that "didn't get away".

Here's a long eared sunfish that slammed my 3 inch worm rigged on a 2/0 hook. How he got that big hook it his mouth I'll never know. Inch for inch their as scrappy a fish as any that swims and brilliantly colored.

With a skidder tire as a background some sort of bitten poses for me.

A butterfly that found this riverside flower appetizing.

This damselfly had romantic ideas about my rodtip.

We also spied a mink that didn't wait for me to take a pic, some deer in the distance, and several great blue herons that didn't cooperate either. All in all a nice morning on the river as summer winds down.

Ashamed to admit it but..........

I broke my first rule of never going anywhere, whether fishing, hunting or just for a walk, without my camera tonite. The day after my last blog I awoke with a pulled muscle in my back. After two weeks off work I went back to work last week. Tonite I had some free time and just had to get out on the river before the summer slipped away. I had some new plastic baits that I wanted to try out on the smallies, was in a hurry, and forgot my camera. I went to the same spot that I had seen the eagle and the big bucks several weeks ago but this time I fished upstream. The smallies seemed to like the new baits and I caught several in the 10-12 inch class in the first several minutes. As I worked my way upriver I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. Turning my head I saw an osprey winging its way upriver toward me. It set its wings and landed in a dead snag about 75 yards away, within range of the little Canon if I had remembered it. I watched it for several minutes as it paid no attention to me, posing handsomely. Cursing my forgetfulness I continued fishing catching several more, one a chunky 13 incher. After about an hour my back began to tell me it was time to turn back when on the next cast I had another strike. The fish came toward me as I reeled in quickly to keep a tight line. Suddenly it veered off to the side making the little Daiwa's drag scream. After several more hard runs she played herself out and slowly came into view. I eased her up to me and slipped my thumb into her mouth. A very nice heavy set 16 incher the best for me so far this season, and without a camera :(. After admiring the old girl I slipped her back into the river and headed toward the truck. As I waded back down river who should appear but the osprey making another fishing run no doubt. As he flew by me on the opposite side of the river he suddenly banked his wings and landed in another dead snag, now only about 40 yards away and proceeded to stare me down. I just had to laugh at myself on this hard learned lesson. Hope to get out this weekend for some more fishing and you can be sure I won't be "cameraless" again.

A Fishing Trip and a Rant

First lets get the rant out of the way. As I walked around the Back 40 the other day I came to this apple tree. The signs show that a small bear climbed up into the tree and broke off a branch. Why I don't know as there were no apples on this tree.

As I walked out to the pear orchard things got worse. This is an 8 year old pear tree. Just starting to produce fruit this year it was broken off at the base. This was a 12-15 foot tree.

The last of the damage. One of three tree protectors that the bear had bent over. Two of the apple trees were undamaged but the third was broken off about half way up its trunk. Being a young tree it will probably sprout up next spring from whats left if its trunk. I've had bears climb some of my bigger apple trees after the fruit but this is the first time they have done any random damage.

On to better things. Here's a pretty stretch of creek that is fairly isolated and usually produces a couple of fish.

As I was fishing the sounds of wings overhead made me look up. I thought I would see a Blue Heron but it was a very large dark colored raptor. Too large for a Redtail Hawk, and not the right coloring it may have been an immature Eagle. Sadly it was out of sight before I could get my camera out.

Fish on. The first fish of the morning.

A nice smallie about a foot long that put up a good battle.

The shallows of this section of creek were polluted with young crayfish. The smallies won't go hungry this summer.

Another smallie to match the first one.

After about an hour of fishing this section of stream I moved downstream to try a piece that was new to me.

I fished for about 2 hours on some nice looking water but could only catch a couple of small smallies. I hope to return to this stretch before summers over and try again.

As always I look for nature shots along the stream. Here's a Joe Pye weed blossom telling me summers moving right along.

Another woods turtle meandering along.

This Fox squirrel decided it was too hot to run from me and chose instead to pose for some pics.

So ends another wonderful day afield with some fish caught and some interesting animal sightings.

Selfish

Monday morning I slipped out to a little stretch of creek that I've never taken anyone else to. It doesn't hold alot of fish but it's isolated and beautiful, two things that I seek when I'm fishing or hunting.

Just like a movie script, on the first cast I caught this beautiful 13 inch Smallie.

Soon after releasing this fish I happened to glance behind me.

They couldn't figure out what I was, but they knew I shouldn't be there so they quietly slipped away.

Here are some random pics of the creek showing you why I love this stretch so much. I fished for 3 hours and never hear any noise from the civilized world.

I caught this feisty 12 incher on the far side of the little island in the background.

As always I keep my eye open for what ever wildlife presents itself. This time a raccoon appeared feeding probably on crayfish.

A few minutes later I realized she wasn't alone.

This area is a haven for turtles. Here's one I saw cooling off along the creek.

This one was really getting ready for the heat wave.

On the long walk back to the truck I spotted this woods turtle feeding on grass. By the mud on his shell he too had been cooling off in the creek.

So ended my trip to my isolated little spot. With limited time and so many places to fish, I only fish here once a year, but I'll be looking forward to my trip next year.

A Morning with Russell

My friend Russell came up Sunday for a morning of fishing. Last year we had enjoyed a nice evening along this stretch of creek so I thought we would try it again. We weren't to be disappointed.

1st cast and a fish on.

A feisty smallie in the 10 inch range. A whole lot of fun on light tackle.

We found some nice Rock Bass living there too.

The old guy mugging for the camera.

Russell read a story about a guy who had caught a bass which had just ate a water moccasin. When the guy lipped the fish the snake bit him. No water moccasins along this creek but Russell isn't taking any chances :).

The rocks along the creek make for some challenging walking.

We fished further downstream than I had ever went and came to this potential hole. It looked like it just had to hold a nice fish.

Fish on. By the bend in Russell's rod it had to be a nice one.

It's nice to be right once in a while

The catch of the day. 14 1/2 inches of battling smallmouth photographed and slipped back into it's home water to grow bigger for next years fishing trip.

So ended another enjoyable trip with Russell. We caught enough fish to make us both happy, had some great conversations, and planned to do it all again before summer gives way to hunting season.