The upper Allegheny would be a perfect place for stocking pure stripers.  They would thrive in the cool water from Kinzua.  There is probably enough flow that there would be natural reproduction.  But that would be the end of the trout, which is probably why they don't stock them there.  On the Saluda River in South Carolina we used to catch trout then throw them out for the big stripers.  That is where the one in my avatar came from. 

CPT, I agree they should be different in PFBC, but once more people start seeing Shenango River Lake next to state records, more and more traffic on that lake. I would bet that many of the wiper fishermen lining the banks of Arthur at night, have no idea there are wipers in Shenango.

crawlerman2
The upper Allegheny would be a perfect place for stocking pure stripers.  They would thrive in the cool water from Kinzua.  There is probably enough flow that there would be natural reproduction.  But that would be the end of the trout, which is probably why they don't stock them there.  On the Saluda River in South Carolina we used to catch trout then throw them out for the big stripers.  That is where the one in my avatar came from. 

I was at Ft. Jackson for work, maybe 18 years ago.  I got to talking to one of my clients about fishing.  He was talking about pulling huge stripers out of the river, next to the Columbia Zoo.  I didn't have my gear with me, but had an evening to kill.  I figured that I'd just go scope the water and see if I could run into someone reeling one in.  When I got there, I was shocked of how small the river was and how stripers would survive in "the deep south"...  This is when I learned how the landlocked striper program came about.  It was like 95 with 80% humidity, in May.  That said, being next to the water, the outside temps dropped a good 20 degrees.  The water was ice cold, compared to the outside temp.  I didn't see anyone fishing, but found a nice shaded area near the river and just enjoyed the break from the heat.  Would have been nice knowing the fishing there was good, and would have packed my travel rod & gear.  Beats the heck out of sitting in a hotel room, waiting to work the next day...

That's some good fishing in that area.  Makes me laugh when guys talk about how great WPA is for fishing...  No doubt, Erie is pretty good (when not in down years).  But need a pretty decent size boat to really do damage there.  I'm sure a boat helped you a bit down there, but like you said, 40lb stripers in a river smaller than the Yough, to compare to here.  You don't really need something 20'+ though.  With Murray, Marion and other lakes not too far away.  2 hours to Charleston, to hit up any migratory fish runs, and get a salt water fix.  Granted, it is basically Florida heat in the summer though.  There is a lot of work for me in that area too.  Too bad the wife won't move until she is ready to retire.

crawlerman2
if momma ain't happy, nobody is happy. 

Sums up why half of us live where we do! 
 
I too would take the heat over the cold too.  There is not much that I like about winter.
 
Got to go where the schools are if you have kids.  The better their education, the more doors it opens up, the earlier you can retire and move South!!!

Nice.  I'm heading to Emerald Isle, NC in a few weeks.  Can't wait.  Focusing more on smaller fish though.  Hopefully Spanish mackerel, bluefish, pompano and sea mullet.  I'll be taking my big rod, but I'm not all that much of a fan of catching sharks right in front of our beach house...  Not sure if my big rod, will handle most sharks anyway.  I might free line some fish on the pier, in hopes of a king.  Or see if any drum are around "The Point".  I've got things pretty well planned out.  First time there, so I am sure things will change when I get there.
 
Good idea on the wally world SOT.  I'm not sure if I could find it in myself to leave something that expensive though.  Even though it is saving money.  You'd end up losing that money and more if planning to strap it to the roof home though.  Not to mention the sail effect those things have.

We're staying about half way between the Rt. 58 bridge (south bridge) and the Bogue Inlet Pier.  Oceanfront house with extended family.  Still a bit pricey, compared to Hatteras.  Although, I do like the decks built right onto the dunes, and private walk to the beach, rather than sharing paths/steps over the dunes.  I plan to spend a good bit of time fishing the pier and the inlet point.  The pier seems to get a good bit of Spanish mackerel from their reports, and hear the boats do well at the inlet on them as well.  Hopefully similar to the Hatteras Point, where they are caught from the surf.  I doubt that I will do much fishing from the beach, maybe in the evenings or if I see birds working the surf.  My routine is usually, wake up around 5AM, when nature calls to empty the bladder and start the fishing day...  Fish until 10ish, when the wife and kids are just finally getting done with breakfast and moving.  Hang out at the beach the rest of the day, hanging out with the family.  Will likely do 1-2 days of something else during the day.  Would like to do some crabbing, but the wife isn't into hanging out in the sound in 90 degree heat...  Thinking to hit up the foot golf course.
 
I hear it is similar to Frisco, with the lower waves and clearer water.  Will have to keep an eye out for the rays.  That suxs.  The kids love body boarding.
 
Going to EI is more on the rest of the family.  I'm all about Avon.  Enough stuff to do, low enough key, price is right and I have a few spots on the sound, The Point, the jetties and the pier all within a 10 minute drive.  Out front is usually decent fishing too.  I have a pretty good idea of what wind pattern to go where.  Usually able to catch enough fish to have a fish fry by the end of the week.  Not really looking for anything huge.  Fun to catch, but got into a huge ray one year at The Point, and wasted 45 minutes of multiple schools of Spanish mackerel going by, reeling it in and releasing.

Well, nothing to report, fishing wise from my trip.  Broke my wrist early on in the vacation so no fishing, kayaking or crabbing for me.  Have a 2:30 appt. today to most likely get a cast put on at the Ortho.  

Here is my recap.
 
Sunday, fished the beach and got a pin fish...  I was spending a lot of time using my own lures, which ended up being a waste of time.  But first full day of vacation, I was just fine being there.  Saw a ton of fish breaking, just not interested in what I was throwing.  The birds were, and had a few close calls with diving birds.
 
Monday, hit the pier and tried to force feed the Spanish some flies (Surf Candy) and spoons that I made.  Huge mistake, guys were pulling them in left and right on Gotchas.  So, I broke down and bought a few.  2nd cast had a huge Spanish up to the pilings and bit through my leader.  Was pretty pizzed.  Ended up getting two small Spanish, a decent blue and two barracudas.  Had no clue they were in NC water...  Not the great barracuda, but some sort of yellow striped barracuda.  Had a bunch of other hits, another keeper Spanish flipped off half way up the elevator ride to the rail, and another sliced me off.
 
Tuesday tried the pier again.  Only bluefish hitting.  Only landed one blue and another barracuda.  I decided to put a shock leader on (50lb fluorocarbon to go with my 20lb fluorocarbon leader).  Not sure if that scared off any Spanish or not?  I didn't see any of them landed while there, so imagine they just weren't around.  I'm going with 30lb leader next year.
 
Wednesday we went to the Point (inlet).  That place was awesome.  It was a complete pain in the butt to get to though.  Had to walk about 1/2 mile from parking area to the beach, then another 1/2 mile to the water.  There was access to the sound there, with a ton of bait.  We netted up a bunch and took to the inlet.  The inlet had a nice 20-30 feet of shallow sand shelf, then dropped off into a deep channel.  I was getting bites on every cast of live mullet.  Got a 10" sea bass, a ton of lizardfish, and had a 15" or so blue fish shake off when I handed my rod to my nephew to reel him in.  Then had a huge bluefish on for a little while, but chopped me off.  I then switched over to bite leaders.  My nephew got a 14" flounder, 1" shy!!!  We went and got more mullet and the bite died off.  I came pretty close to having a heat stroke pulling the gear back to the car.  Kind of scary to be honest.
 
Not scary enough to keep me from heading back on Thursday...  Fishing was slower, but still managed a few lizardfish and my nephew landed a really nice 18" bluefish.  Thursday evening we fished the surf in front of our house.  Got a smaller pompano (kept of course), two nice seamullet, and two nice black drum.  The biggest drum was 19".
 
Thursday night a storm rolled in and made things rough on Friday.  I hit the pier for about an hour in the morning, since I had a 3 day pass.  Nothing.  They were catching bluefish, but was getting sick of Gotcha plugging with no action.  Friday afternoon, we decided to go crabbing.  After I set everyone up with crabbing gear, I decided to go cast net near a grassy area.  I ended up with about 2 dozen decent sized shrimp.  One was a jumbo, about 7" long.  We only got 3 crabs, but since we were frying up the fish from the week and had some shrimp (already in the fridge from the store), we kept the crabs too.  Those things are so good.  We steamed up a few of the fresh shrimp, but froze the rest for an appetizer at home.
 
I wish that I had fished the sound one of the days.  While netting, there were a few big fish harassing the shrimp and bait fish.  I actually cast netted a 12" red drum while going after the shrimp.  Pretty sure a day out there would have ended up with some good eats.  Very limited access to the sound there though.  Taking a boat out would have been nice.  There were days out on the ocean, 16' boats were out...  The ocean is really calm there with the right conditions.  It is similar to Frisco & Hatteras, where it is shielded by Cape Look Out, which is much larger than Cape Hatteras.  Also South facing, so any winds from the E or NE, made for calm, relatively clear bluish water.
 
I still like Avon better.  More stuff in walking distance.  Our house was awesome, easy access to the beach, but was a good bit more expensive than Avon for comparable.  A lot of trailer parks and trailers on Emerald Isle too.  Nothing wrong with that, I couldn't even afford a trailer in a trailer park there.  So, good for average folks owning a piece of paradise.  But just gave a bit of a trashier ambiance, many were 1950s-60s trailers that weren't really kept up.  For more than the cost of a week in one of the Hatteras villages, it just didn't feel right.  It took us 11 hours each way, so a bit longer than Avon too.  We got extremely lucky that we didn't do Avon this year, or would have cancelled on us with the power outage.

Good report Pork. Sounds like you had a great time.

Yeah, some of these posts take off in a new direction at times.  There were some nice size gulf stream bound charter boats within easy casting distance when I was fishing.
 
The leader thing had me upset, the dehydration/heat exhaustion thing was very close to sending me to the hospital half way through my vacation.