Central Pennsylvania Bass Fishing

Philipsburg Bassmasters 7th Tournament of 2012: Lake Raystown (September 9, 2012)

2012-09-09T23:07:00.001-04:00

Today was my club's 7th tournament of the season and I did not have high expectations for this one. There was a Jim's Anchorage tournament today so I knew that with my small boat, that I was not going to make a long run for the fear that someone would be in my spot after running for 30 minutes to get there.
I started out fishing up in Snyder's Run but did not have any luck. I decided to make a run to near Seven Points and made a quick stop to a rocky point with a steep cliff near it. That quick stop ended up being where I fished all day! They were eating my Power Team Lures Finicky Tickler like it was candy! That Hog Tonic scent really attracts the bass! I caught 4 keepers off a dropshot fishing along steep banks. Whenever I would come up on a tree I would throw a senko into it and usually get at least a nibble (darn bluegills).

I caught my kicker fish which was only a 2.54# largemouth on a senko. Around 12 o'clock I caught my 6th keeper on a dropshot on the point where I started and ended up culling a 12oz fish.

I ended up finishing with 7.54lbs with 5 fish. One of my fish died so I had to take a 1/2lb penalty. I ended up taking 1st place for the day which was really a surprise.

I can't praise Power Team lures enough for the exceptional quality of their baits. I am happy to be on their pro-staff and their baits alone helped me win today. I don't think I could have had the success I had using any other bait. A couple guys in the club weighed 3 fish but no one else brought in a limit today. Everyone reported catching fish and I had 76 degrees for water temp on this September morning.

Next tournament is September 22 in which I will not be attending. A buddy of mine is getting married and I am in the wedding! Should be a fun one.

I am heading out to Colorado this coming Saturday for a nice getaway with my wife and her family. Going to do some fly fishing out there in which I will try and post some pictures.

My next tournament I will be attending is September 29 at Curwensville Lake in which my Club is hosting. Guaranteed 1000$ payout if you are interested please contact me!

Next club tournament I will attend is October 4 at Lake Chataqua in New York. Should be a blast!
Tightlines!

Philipsburg Bassmasters 6th Tournament of 2012: Sayers Dam August 25, 2012

2012-08-28T09:08:00.000-04:00

Well I just finished up my 6th club tournament of the summer which was held at Sayers Dam. I have never had much luck fishing Sayers in August so I did not have high hopes coming into Saturday. I went up during the week one day and only managed to catch 2 11 inch fish in the very stained water.

Saturday was no different with the water conditions as it was still very stained and there was a lot of junk floating around as well.

I figured I would do what I have been doing all year which is dropshot but that did not seem to pan out. Topwater in the morning also did not produce. The trusty senko as well as a Power Team Lures Sick Stick did the trick for me. I caught about 7 fish on either one of them. The PTL Sick Stick is absolutely SICK on a wacky rig!

I ended the day with 3 fish for 3.00lbs. Good enough for a very surprising 3rd place finish! My next tournament is September 8 at Raystown Lake. Should be a fun one!

Tight Lines!

Philipsburg Bassmasters 4th and 5th Tournament of Season: July 21,22 (Allegheny River, Pool 9) and August 4, 2012 (Kinzua Dam)

2012-08-09T10:07:00.002-04:00

We had our 4th club tournament on Julys 21 and 22 at East Brady (Allegheny River, Pool 9). This was our biggest even thus far with a total of 11 club members coming out and fishing this tournament. It was a 2 day tournament in which Saturday night we fished from 4-8:30 and Sunday morning was 6-12pm.

We launched Saturday evening and I went to the spot where I usually start. I started fishing under a bridge and about 1 hour into it I got my first keeper. I decided I was dropshotting for smallmouth all evening and it seemed to pay off. I couldn't find any schools of smallies but I was able to hit a couple spots where I found 1 smallmouth here and there. I worked myself back up river towards the launch and I ended up in catching 4 keepers for the evening. My biggest fish for the evening turned out to be a smallmouth that weighed 1.94lbs. After day 1, my total of 4 fish for 5.59lbs put me sitting nicely in second. Only one other angler had 4 fish for the evening and I was sitting only ounces behind him.
I hit pretty much the same spots the next day and everyone else reported having a difficult time catching fish. I ended up with one keeper smallmouth for 1.04lbs which kept me sitting in second place for the tournament. It was a good time to say the least and I enjoyed fishing the Allegheny River.

On 8/4 the club fished at Kinzua Dam which is one of my favorite places to fish. I fished around the Bridge all day throwing mostly Optimum Baits Wacky shads and AA Worms Straight Tails and absolutely smacked the bass. I love these baits and you definitely need to try them! I caught 4 keepers for the day cycling back and forth between 3 spots. I didnt hit my fall spots yet because the fish are still relatively deep. I ended up taking 4th place with 5.76lbs topped off with my 2.52lb lunker smallmouth. Next tournament is August 11th at the 3 Rivers in Pittsburgh! See you there!

Philipsburg Bassmasters 3rd Tournament of 2012: East Branch Dam July 7,2012

2012-07-11T22:13:00.000-04:00

Our 3rd club tournament of the year was held this past weekend at East Branch Dam in Wilcox, PA. I have never been to this lake before so going into the day, my goal was to just weigh in 1 fish in order to get some club points.     I took my dad with me and I met him at his house at 3am. We met Woody in Bigler around 3:30am and we were on our way. We ended up launching around 5:45 and there were only 4 boats in the tournament. A total of 6 club members participated for the day.     Jeff Wood ended up bagging a limit real early in the morning on a topwater bait and taking first place and Ed Eckess found a limit of smallmouth also for 2nd. I was able to pull in 3 quality keeper smallmouth for a total of 6.03lbs with my lunker just missing big fish with 2.51lbs. Lunker was 2.60.

I was throwing a dropshot all day and with 45 minutes left, I found a place that wouldve won me the tournament if I could have had more time to fish it. I ended up fishing it way too fast and was not able to take my time.

Our next tournament is July 21 and 22 at the Allegheny River Pool 9 (East Brady.)

If you are interested in joining the club, please email me at jtmoslak@gmail.com or call 814-553-4831    We could use some new members. Tournaments are 25$ and we have a club meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of Every month at Reliance Fire Hall in Philipsburg across from Weis Markets.

Tightlines!

Philipsburg Bassmasters Lake Erie tournament: June 16,2012

2012-07-11T22:00:00.001-04:00

Our second club tournament of the year took place on June 16, 2012 in Lake Erie, PA. We launched out of Presque Isle Bay around 5:30am.   One of my good buddies came with me to fish the tournament who had a little bit of experience fishing the lake. Jeremy Lake was the 2009 winner of the FLW College Fishing tournament held on this amazing fishery.

Going into the day, we had a pretty solid plan in place. We knew we were going to dropshot... dropshot... and dropshot some more.    So after placing a nice Tackle Warehouse order, we were well ready to go for the tournament.

After blastoff, we made a run to just outside PIB to fish a pipeline that Jeremy found while fishing with Penn State. We fished there for around an hour and I ended up putting 2 keeper largemouth into the boat. Both Jeremy and I knew that those fish wouldn't be good enough to get me into the money so we made about a 4 mile run to fish 15ft of water. As soon as we got there it was game on! We ended up catching probably 25 keepers between the two of us. I can't say enough about the Shimano Stradic and St. Croix Avid rod I was using. They held up very very nicely this tournament and the drag on the Stradic was perfect. Also, the Gamakatsu hooks I was using made for a perfect hookup everytime. I think I only lost 1 fish the entire tournament.     Also, I could not have caught as many fish if it wasn't for the Tabu Tackle Whiptail worm I was using. This and another bait that I won't name really produced some nice fish for us!

We had a great time and cannot wait to go back! Jeremy has a Fisher's of Men Regional tournament there in the fall and I would love to go back up and prefish it with him.       I ended up in 2nd place for the day with 3 Smallmouth for 8.15 lbs with my lunker being 3.07lbs.   1st place was taken by Jack Lynch with 9.15lbs.     Jeremy almost won lunker for the day with a 3.74lb smallmouth. Here is a couple pictures of our fish for the day!

Tightlines!

Philipsburg Bassmasters 1st Tournament of 2012: Sayers Dam (March 30, 2012)

2012-05-24T17:24:00.000-04:00

So I had my first club tournament of the year on March 30 at Sayers Dam. My goal for this year was to win a couple tournaments and gain confidence in a few techniques that I have ignored since I have been tournament fishing (Jig and Dropshot, and maybe Spinnerbait.) My at take off I had a couple places in mind that I would hit throughout the morning. There was about 10 club members present at the tournament so I decided to head to a place where I didnt think I would have any company. I hit this spot for about an hour and finally, when I was hitting it one last time, I had a big largemouth hit my bait in about 6-8 feet of water. I boated my first keeper of the morning, a 4.19 lb largemouth. After fishing for a little while longer with no more bites, I decided to move to my second spot. There was a little bit of wind so I was guessing that this place would work fairly decent. I was right as I picked up my second and only other keeper of the day on a Rapala DT6. She went 4.96 lbs. I fished for the rest of the day and could not boat another keeper. In PA during March, a keeper bass had to be 15 inches as opposed to 12 inches after bass season comes back in. I caught many other bass on a crankbait that day and many of them would have been keepers had the limit been 12 inches. But anyways, when I got back to the launch I found out that 2 other boats had their 3 fish limit. I was happy to see though that the closest competitor to me only had 8.5 lbs with 3 fish and my 2 fish went 9.15 lbs to take the first tournament of the year and also come home with the Lunker pot. My next tournament is June 16 at Lake Erie. It should be an exciting tournament and I am expecting big things this year in our club!

Philipsburg Bassmasters Allegeny River/ Clarion River tournament (July 9 and 10, 2011)

2011-07-10T22:25:00.004-04:00

Today I fished day 2 of the club's two day tournament. Day 1 was held at the Allegeny River at East Brady and Day 2 was held at the Clarion River (Millcreek Launch.) I spent all of yesterday moving in and cleaning my new apartment so I was unable to make it to the Allegeny portion of this tournament. Some guys in the club reported that the fishing was decent that day.

My buddy and new club member, Joe Quick and I made it there and were on the water by 5:45. Whenever we launched and were heading out we decided to go the opposite direction of everyone else. We went downstream while the other 2 boats in the tournament went upstream. It turned out to be a pretty goo move for us.

We fished down past the second bridge and I caught my first fish of the day on a Rage Tail Craw flipping it by a dock. I then missed another fish that looked like it wouldve been a keeper.

We ended up fishing for a little bit longer and Joe hooked into a nice keeper largemouth. It weighed in at 1.78lbs and actually took lunker for the day!

After fishing a little bit longer, I moved to a spot that looked like it would produce.. it was a feeder creek that dumped into the Clarion and was very shallow..i ended up catching 4 or 5 fish in this little area and got my second and only other keeper.

We made it back into the weigh in and Joe and I found out that we were the only ones who were solidly on fish! There was 1 other guy who weighed a fish today as the other two had a rough day on the water. I felt pretty good knowing I went into a place that I have never fished before and actually figured something out. I ended up having 1.80 lbs for my two keepers and took 1st place for the day! Joe's 1 fish put him 2 hundredths of a pound behind me and in 2nd place for the day. Since the tournament was a two day tournament, they combined the weights from the two days and I ended up finishing in 3rd place for the second tournament in a row and cashing a check and Joe ended up in 4th place and taking home a check for the lunker.

In all, it was a great day and I had fun trying to figure out fish on a very tough place, the Clarion River.

I will not be able to make the next two club tournaments on Kinzua Dam on July 30 because I am getting married that day and on August 13 at Raystown because I leave for my honeymoon in Alaska that day. The next time I will be in action with the club will be August 27 at Sayers. It will probably be a rough one for sure but I am really looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

Philipsburg Bassmasters: Lake Erie Tournament (June 18, 2011)

2011-06-22T17:11:00.004-04:00

Well, Adam Hurley and I hit up Lake Erie for my club tournament back in June. I have never fished Lake Erie so I was pretty much going in blind for the day. I did a little research and had some ideas on what I was going to do and what areas in the bay that I was going to try.
We got on the water around 6:00 and we headed to our first spot. On my very first cast I hooked into a 14.5inch smallmouth. I knew it was going to be a great day. I ended up catching 4 fish from my first spot and managed my first keeper of the day. It was a 15.5inch smallmouth.

We then decided to try another spot after the spot slowed down a little bit and fished the wall leading into the lake. Adam caught a bunch of fish on a senko and I managed a couple more. After the tournament was about halfway done, I decided to run back to that wall because I knew it would start producing for us. Luckily, I was right and I landed my 2nd and 3rd keepers in a matter of about an hour. I culled twice during that time and figured I had about 5.5lbs in the boat between my 3 fish.

With about 20 minutes remaining in the tournament we decided to fish in front of the Perry monument. On my tenth cast or so I threw a tube out and hooked into a fish I thought was barely legal when I saw it jump. When I got it to the boat, Hurley netted it for me and I upgraded my 1.5lb smallmouth I had to a 3.5lb smallmouth! After that we headed to the weigh in and I ended up in 3rd place for the day with 7.47lbs and my first ever check. I have a feeling this is going to be a good year for me (except I will be missing a couple tournament due to getting married! haha I will update on my club tournament on the Allegeny/Clarion River soon.

Thanks for reading!

Quick Update..

2011-06-22T16:55:00.005-04:00

Ever since I caught my first bass this season, it has been on!!! Here is an update of all the places that I have fished thus far.. what worked and what didnt work...

STATE GAMELANDS 151 (Slippery Rock, PA)I have been catching fish like crazy at the ponds on SGL 151.. Them fish are hungry and are eating everything. I have pictures of some nice bass that I will post later. It is nothing to go out in an evening and catch over twenty small fish.

Foster J. Sayers Dam
I fished at Sayers back in May with Freddie Burns. It was the first time that I have had my boat out since replacing the steering cable and a bunch of other stuff. The boat ran like a champ and I ended up catching 5 bass. They were difficult to pattern but I figured out that they were in the backs of creeks to avoid the muddy water from the wind and other pleasure boaters. I found them all on man made structure and used a Watermelon Red Senko and Purple senko to land all of the fish.

Curwensville Lake
I have fished curwensville lake 3 times this year. Once was from the shore and twice were from different friends boats. My first time of the year I was fishing from the bank with my family and ended up hooking into this chunky bugger. It was next to the beach in some wood and put up a heck of a fight. EJ didn't know what to think of "his first bass" haha.

My next trip out was with my buddy Jeremy and his fiancee, Bri. We fished the lake from his Jon Boat and both Jeremy and I had about 5 to 6 fish a piece. Most fish were pretty small but I ended up catching a couple decent ones. Cabin Creek spider jigs were the ticket for that day. I even caught a small musky on a cheap Matzuo Crankbait.

The last time I was out at Curwensville Lake was on an evening that Mary Beth and I had originally planned to fish from the bank. When we pulled in, my buddy Joe Quick and his wife, Mollie, were out on the lake in his new boat. They pulled in and picked us up. On my first cast I hooked a 3lb largemouth that had a big belly on her! I ended up catching about 6 bass that evening and all of them had some nice size to them! Mollie and Joe caught a couple 3lbers as well! What an evening!

Colyer Lake
I went out to Colyer with Freddie Burns for the first time since I was in college. We had a good time fishing it. We each caught a couple Pickeral and I ended up catching a few bass as well. All my bass were caught on either craw papi's, senkos, or a popper.

Stevensons Dam (Sinnemahoning, PA)
My dad and I took my boat out on the day of Mary Beth's Bridal Shower May 29, 2011. We were out all morning til about 1 o'clock and I ended up catching around 12 bass or so. Dad ended up catching around 8. All of his fish came from Junebug Senkos and mine were a mix of Junebug and Watermelon. It took us a while to get the big ones biting but we ended up catching a few dandys!

PICTURES WILL BE ADDED LATER!

Slippery Rock Bassin!! SGL 151

2011-04-27T16:30:00.007-04:00

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After getting skunked, ticked off, and any other word you can think of after my first 5 outings of the year, i finally figured out these PA bass.. First let me say that it has been absolutely miserable here in PA this year fishing wise... It has been windy as h*** every day i've been out and raining.. but i finally got a few bass..

My first 2 bass came on a green jig with a black paca craw trailer (my first 2 ever jig fish, crazy i know..) and the other 4 came on a screw in jig head with a junebug senko...

Right before it started storming, i caught this pig.. It fought like crazy but i finally landed it on my new st croix premier 6'6MH rod and my revo s reel... Couple casts later i had one on that would've gave this pig a run for her money....

Sign up and Join Fishing in PA Forum!

2011-04-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Hey guys!
Sign up and join one of the only Pennsylvania fishing forums! You can find me and a lot of other great guys including the creator, Nate Follmer, over there. Lets make this site the go to site for Pennsylvania fishing! It is free to join.

http://fishinginpa.proboards.com/index.cgi

Quick update!

2011-04-03T18:16:00.000-04:00

So far, the fishing in central PA in 2011 has stunk pretty bad. Mary Beth and I went out to prefish for my first tournament a week before it on March 19 and fished all day without a bite. Sayers Dam was 3ft flooded over summer pool.

The next weekend I went out with Mike Socash and had a horrible day. My steering cable snapped right off the bat in the morning so we trolled around the whole day without getting a bite. I threw everything I had and couldnt amass a bite. Neither could the other 7 guys in the tourney so we all got skunked..

The water level was drained 15 feet. No clue why and i think that big of drop absolutely killed any chance of a good day. Water temps were 40 degrees all day.

Miserable couple days. Hopefully it picks up soon!

Stocking up for 2011.

2011-03-01T18:57:00.000-05:00

2011 is going to be a great year for me in fishing (and in life.. I'm getting married in July!!) So what better than to organize my gear while the ice is still thick on the lakes. I also found some great deals in the offseason that benefited me as well.

Here is some of the new things that I bought:
-Okuma Trio High Speed Spinning Reel
-Abu Garcia Vengeance 7'0 ML Spinning Rod
-Abu Garcia REVO 7.0:1 LH
-St. Croix Premier 6'6MH Casting rod
-NOCS (Solarbat) 1001 Sunglasses
-Berkely HAVOC baits

I bought the Okuma reel and Vengeance rod to use for dropshotting this year. I haven't thrown a drop shot this year so it is going to be a learning experience for me. I figure if i want to do well on Lake Erie then I better get used to fishing it!

*** I will post reviews on these equipment whenever I get out on the boat and use them!***

Now, the past couple years, I have had problems on my small bassboat on storage and organization. I used to keep 2 huge tackleboxes in the middle of my boat. One had all of my hard baits and the other tackle was packed full with soft plastics. This winter I was reading on some forums and I think I found some tricks that will maximize my organization. Here are some things that I have done:
- Buying Sterilite plastic shoe box containers and seperating my soft plastics that way. (I will post pics when I get home.)
- Keeping all of my hooks and sinkers in their original packaging (At the end of the year, my plano box was a rusty mess from all of the corrosion on the hooks and sinkers.
- Cleaning out my storage compartments in my boat and keeping only neccesary equipment in there.
- Creating a storage space underneath of my drivers consol to store my life vests.
- Rigging up a Golden Rule holder and front light holder on the lid of one of my storage compartments.

So I have been busy this offseason. I will post some pictures whenever I get a chance.

Hope for the thaw!!

Peace out
Jimmy

2010 Fishing Video

2011-02-03T17:58:00.001-05:00

Here is a movie I for my 2010 year of fishing and hunting... enjoy!

2010 RECAP

2011-02-03T00:09:00.000-05:00

Well.. I kinda missed out on my blog in 2010.. This summer was really busy! Here is just a little recap and some pictures of 2010...Enjoy!

As you can see from my previous post, Sayers was pretty good early on.. A week after my last post, I had a tournament there and only landed one keeper bass. She went 3.76lbs. The next weekend was my first (and only) Fisher's of Men Tournament at Raystown Lake. Dave Kindleberger and I found a spot that I used to fish a lot in the summertime and worked it with a jerkbait. We ended up catching 4 quality keepers and tried hard to get that last keeper in the boat. We caught tons of small bass (and lake trout) but we just could not get that last keeper in the boat. I ended up with 2 nice smallmouth and Dave landed 2 nice Largemouth to give us a 6th place finish.

After that, I didnt fish any other tournaments except for a tough one at East Brady.. I caught 2 fish all day and none of them were keepers. I got to experience a new section of the Allegeny River so that was pretty cool but it was just a tough tournament.

So let me talk a little bit about my summer. Mary Beth and I went on many fishing trips. Before this year, she had only caught a couple fish and none of those were very substantial.. So I introduced her and showed her some new techniques and she is really getting good! I think i found a new buddy for all of the buddy tournaments. She landed her first White Crappie, Blue Gill, Perch, Carp, Bullhead Catfish, and Largemouth Bass this summer. With each fish caught, I became more and more proud of her!

She and I share the love of the outdoors together as we went on my hiking, biking, and fishing trips this summer... oh. and BASEBALL.. We went to a total of 8 different major and minor league stadiums to see some quality baseball this year. Hopefully this year will bring the same fun and excitement.

SO.. when it became time for me to propose. I figured there would be no other way than on the boat at Raystown..on October 10, 2010 (10-10-10) the perfect day.. We found a nice cove to get away from the chop of the big lake (she gets seasick sometimes haha) and I got down on one knee and asked her to spend the rest of her life with me..

Needless to say, this last few months have been filled with wedding planning for July 30, 2011. We have a lot to look forward to (especially the wedding and our honeymoon to ALASKA!) She wants to join the bass club so she can fish all of the tournaments with me this summer. So I bought her a new fishing rod (a pflueger lady endevour.) Her first baitcaster.

So needless to say I've been busy. I promise to blog this whole year and fill you guys in on what is working and what isn't.. Catch ya later!!
I'll post a video as soon as I make one.

First Fishing Trip of 2010!

2010-03-20T01:55:00.000-04:00

I have been waiting for months to post a new blog about fishing... Well here it is!

My girlfriend and I took a trip to Sayers Dam in Howard, PA today (March 19, 2010).. I was itching to get out on the boat and blow some cobwebs out of it from sitting in the garage all winter. I also have a tournament there next weekend so i wanted to try and find a pattern.. if you refer back to an old post i made on here last March you will see that i did the exact same thing and the results today were just as good..

The lake is almost completely full as opposed to last year or even last week when it was almost completely drained.. The fish we caught today were along the banks slow rolling a crank bait... junebug senkos also worked... I got 3 bass today with my largest being a 3.5lb laregmouth... my girlfriend caught her first largemouth bass as well as a bunch of crappies too!

Fishers of Men National Tournament Trail

2009-12-29T19:42:00.000-05:00

I have been hoping to find a partner for the 2010 Fishers of Men season and finally, I did! I will be fishing with Dave Kindleberger this summer at the 5 Pennsylvania events! The schedule for these are as follows:
Raystown 04-03-2010
Lake Erie 06-19-2010
Shenango 07-10-2010
Kinzua Dam 08-21-2010
Sayers Dam 09-11-2010

I am really looking forward to fishing these tournaments! Erie is going to be awesome... Hopefully we can win some money this summer and qualify to fish at the Regional event this year. Dave has competed in this for a few years now and has done very well! He is a really good shakeyhead and senko fisherman so if the bite is on, him and I should pound them this summer. I will be sure to keep everyone updated on how we do... it sure is gonna be a fun summer!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T21:41:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to wish anyone who reads this a Merry Christmas!

Update 12/20/2009

2009-12-16T10:49:00.000-05:00

So I haven't blogged much lately. Getting my doctorate degree in physical therapy has made my life pretty hectic, to say the least. This post is probably going to be decently long, but I plan to update on some end of the year stuff.

SO the tournament season ended at Curwensville Lake where i finished in 5th place again.. Pretty much every tourney i fished in this year i got a top 5 which i was very happy with considering it was my first full year of tournament fishing. I didnt practice for the Cville tourney and I weighed in 2 fish for 3.5lbs. I found them on a green pumkin/purple flake lizard and a sweet beaver on a shakey head jig. Ive never used a beaver on a shakey jig before but i think i may have found one of my favorite baits!

I ended up finishing in 8th place in my club.. If i would've fished in all of the tournaments like most other guys in the club, there is no doubt in my mind i would've been contending for the title. I was the highest finishing rookie this year so that was one of my goals that I accomplished.

Our tournament director for our club is stepping down and asked me if i would take over as our clubs tournament director. I am probably going to take this position because I want to be more involved in the club and will hopefully allow me to move up in the totem pole.

I have big plans for this summer. I am planning on fishing in all of my club's tournaments and my ultimate goal is to fish in the Fishers of Men tournament trail. I am hoping on fishing with someone right now but he usually fishes with his gf who just had a baby so if she cant fish with him, then i'm all set for next year!

This offseason is going to be a time of fighting off the bait monkey! With all of my spare time I am constantly on different forums reading about different rods, reels, baits, and techniques. I would like to have 2 more rigs for the coming year. My first rig is one i know i will have which is a Revo Premier (santa is bringing it) paired with a Powell Max 704c. This will be my new jig rod! I am so pumped because Powell rods are some of the best on the market. I would also like a new spinning outfit.. I am thinking a 6'6 MH spinning rod or shorter that i will use for skipping (docks, trees, etc.)

Since the lakes are now froze over, I have been cleaning up my gear and counting it to see what i need and dont need for next year. I counted all of my bags of soft plastics and i realize that I have way too much (you can never have too much though, right?) 150+ bags of plastics is a lot. haha. Here are some pics of my gear. Just goes to show you i've spent way too much money this year!

Check back later for my blog post about my trip to erie for steelhead!

Sayers Dam Tournament 10/4/09

2009-10-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

Well after prefishing for this tourney a week beforehand, i felt very confident in what my game plan was going to be. While prefishing, i found bass on artificial structure while deadsticking a senko... come tournament time however, this was not a very strong pattern.

My buddy paul was fishing in the tourney for lunker and caught a small keeper right off the bat. I could not get bit all day! I went back and forth to my 2 hot spots all day without many bites. I snapped a fish off at a dock early in the day. I had to really work to get my keeper. after my 3rd trip back to some grass, i flipped a senko into some weeds and ended up landing a 1.5lb largemouth. Thank God i caught him.. I was so discouraged but i knew perseverance would pay off... mostly everyone else in the club had a hard time too. i ended up in 5th place in the tourney. The leader found some fish and caught 13lbs worth.. 2nd place had 1 bite all day and caught a 3.5lber... so in all a bad day turned into a good day at 11:30.. i got some valuable club points and hopefully secured my place as rookie of the year!

Some News and a Tourney coming up!

2009-10-02T22:41:00.000-04:00

So there has been some good things goin on as of late... I joined the Slippery Rock bass fishing team and have been helping get some sponsors.. I contacted 2 companies that were more than willing to help our club out! California Tackle and Venom Lures! I've never used California Tackle's line of baits before but I am sure they work. They have some potent scent they use on their baits called RoadKill (its a really strong garlic based scent developed by Dennis, the owner of California Tackle.)

Also, Venom Lures are the manufactures of an amazing line of Tubes, creature baits, and jigs! I have been using their products for a couple years now and am very satisfied with their lures!

Also, Scott Laukhuff added me to his prostaff at the CentreSportsman Tv Show.. I write some blogs for them and will be testing out some baits for him that he is currently developing! I am really excited to help Scott out as he is a great guy! and an awesome Outdoorsman!

I have a tourney coming up on Sunday at Foster Sayers Dam in Howard, PA.... I went out and practiced for it last saturday. I found a pattern that should still produce this weekend. It is calling for the same kind of weather. If that is the case then the fish need to look out! I will post a blog about the tourney and how it went on Sunday. I need a strong finish at this one to put me on top the standings for Rookie of the Year in the club! and possibly a top 5 in points!!

It's time for me to hit the sack! i have to get up at 5:30am for the 1st day of Pennsylvania Archery Season!

Catch ya later!
Check out these links and tell them Jimmy Moslak sent you!
The Centre Sportsman TV Show
Venom Lures
California Tackle

Check out my College Fishing Report I wrote for the Centre Sportsman!

2009-09-26T11:49:00.000-04:00

Hey all.. I talked to the Centre Sportsman who is a good friend of mine and he asked me to write a college fishing report for him on his website! Scott is an avid outdoorsman who has his own television show called the CentreSportsman.. his show is very cool and very informative! check out my post and his website out at http://www.centresportsman.com

Catch ya later!

Raystown Lake Tournament 9/13/09

2009-09-15T10:26:00.000-04:00

I had a tournament on Raystown Lake in Huntingdon,PA on Sunday for my first ever tournament on Raystown. I used my knowledge gained from my first ever trip to Raystown (see my previous post) in order to catch a few fish. The fish weren't biting like they were a couple weeks ago when i was there but that didnt stop me from pushing and fishing hard to get a fish in the livewell. I worked a no wake zone for the first part of the morning near snyders run but to no avail... so I told my buddy Tyler that we were gonna make a run for the area right before Seven Points Marina. I told him not to let me stop until we got there.

When we got there, there was a team already fishing on the shallow point in the weeds but that was ok.. all my fish before came just down from there. So we were workin that area throwing a wacky rigged GreenPumkin Senko. after a little bit i had a real nice hit and i could see the fish take off with it.. I was pitching into about 12 feet of water that was about 10 feet infront of the boat. Well i swung and rolled the first fish. probably 30 feet down from there i swung and missed another nice one... so i hurried up and put the rod down and threw in a Watermelon Red Senko texas rigged with a 1/8 oz tungsten weight on it.. that thing no sooner hit bottom and WAM! that fish took off with it.. i set the hook and my net man netted it smooth as silk.. here is a picture of it

That ended up being the only keeper i caught all the day but i learned if you miss a fish, to not give up on it because i didnt give up and ended up with a 2.22lb Largemouth and 6th place in the club tourney...
Catch ya later

Slippery Rock Creek, September 2, 2009

2009-09-02T23:14:00.001-04:00

I am taking a little break from studying and figured I would give a little update about the fishing in Slippery Rock Creek.... It's awesome!!

I drove around and found a bridge that crossed over Slippery Rock Creek in Slippery Rock, PA... so i decided to park there on Sunday and give it a try.. i talked to a couple guys who were there and said they mainly fish for trout but there are bass in the river. I assumed that they were all dinky smallmouths in the river but i love catching bass so i knew i may have found a hotspot... i begain by throwing some crankbaits at the fish but couldnt get any bites... as soon as i switched to a topwater... the fish havent stopped smackin it! Ive been using a Matzuo popper and holy man the fish here love it...

on sunday i caught one smallmouth and missed 3 others. Yesterday i fished for a little less than an hour and caught 5 smallmouth and 2 small largemouth! i couldnt believe there were largemouth in this creek! my biggest as of yesterday was probably 2 fish that may have been 12 inches but fun to catch none the less..

today was a different story.. after class i decided to hit up the creek (5pm)... not long after i got there i continued throwing that little popper and bamm!!! something annihilated it! it was the biggest fish ive caught in a river in my life! granted ive always been more of a lake fisherman and rarely fish the rivers but i may have just became addicted! i didnt have a scale or a tape ruler but this bass was every bit of 18inches... im still pumped about it!

Raystown Lake 8/24-8/25/09

2009-08-30T14:28:00.000-04:00

Hey all.
I figured I would give you a little post about my trip to Raystown Lake on August 24 and 25. I have never fished this lake before and i wanted to get a nice little camping trip in before i started grad school at Slippery Rock. So, my buddy Tyler and I decided to plan this trip.
We arrived at Raystown around 9am on monday morning. by the time we git the tent set up and the boat in the water it was around 10:30. we fished til about 6pm that night and had a blast! What an awesome lake! Tyler was fishing for panfish most of the day and he caught about 30 fish each day. The quality of the fish wasnt very good. all of the panfish he caught were dinks but still had a really good time in doing so.

I was fishing for bass all day. I started out targeting coves and wood as there is alot of both at raystown. The bass didnt seem to be sticking to the wood like i thought they would be in 79 degree water. It took me til about 2 oclock to really put a pattern on and find the bass. I started targeting bass in ~10-20ft if water in the grass. I would just pitch my 5" Watermelon Red Senko into it and bam! the bass started cooperating with me. I put about 5 or 6 fish in the boat in the matter of minutes! granted, the bass werent very big but were very fun to catch and get some great pictures of!

On day 2, we made a run up passed beer barrel bay and began targeting grass again. This time i didnt catch any fish in the grass and found they were in steep drop-offs. I caught 3 bass on a watermelon Wooly Hawgtail and a keeper greenie on a crankbait on a rocky point.

SO in all it was a very fun relaxing trip. i caught about 15 bass in 2 days in an unfamiliar fishery. so i was pleased with how i did. I would love to go back in the fall or early spring when the bass are hogged up. I caught a decent sized smallmouth too so that was another goal that i accomplished for the trip.

enjoy the pics! Catch ya later