We fished out of Geneva yesterday afternoon to avoid the Walnut hassle. 4 man ticket on Reef runners and spoons.

Got out on the Mon on the 4th. Caught a few Smallies on a fire tiger Hot-n-Tot. My brother's pontoon is nice. Only problem is the launch at Black Diamond is way too short for his boat. Had a heck of a time putting it back on the trailer.

I kind of figured that would be the case at Arthur and last few times there have been a bust, so I have been avoiding.  I was thinking Saturday morning Yough and Sunday Arthur.  The Sunday thing didn't pan out.  I changed things up at the Yough on Saturday morning and caught some river minnows and crayfish for bait.  One thing is for sure, those darters are like smallmouth crack.  I was hoping to figure out some walleye bite, but I rarely had a drift make it through without a smallmouth at the end.  Some nice ones too on some relatively small baits.  They would not touch the crayfish though?  I remember times that I fished live crayfish before that they would get pounded as soon as they hit the water.  I was kind of shocked.  After running out of bait, I did okay with some plastics.  Senko was trusty and curly tail even got one.  Granted, I did not fish the slower deeper water, so chance of walleye probably wasn't all that high.  Maybe next time out I will stop at the bait shop and fish deeper.  I need to find a good darter imitation. 

I used a crabbing net with the mesh netting.  I'd put it down stream of a rock, then move the rock with my foot to have whatever is under hurry out.  It was kind of a PIA, but got about 10 or so in probably an hour.  That and about the same amount of crayfish.  A little nerve racking, since I did that as a kid and a snake come out once...  I didn't have much luck trying to catch the river shiners or whatever they are.  They kind of look like small chubs, so I bet they would work.  I got one doing the same way, but would see a bunch of them and try to scoop at them, but much too fast scattering.  That one took me about 5-6 drifts to get a bite.  The seemed to favor the darters much more.  I am not sure if a bait trap would work.  Might try next time.  Set it, go fish and come back.
 
I was using a medium sized (not sure number) split shot and caught rocks on every cast.  Luckily I had 2-3 tiny bb sized split shots and was using one with the darter.  I hooked through the lips.  Pretty tough fish, would stay on pretty well.  Although, I tried using after catching a fish and they weren't very interested in the dead ones.
 
Not sure if you get on 51 at all, but Shadlure in West Elizabeth isn't too far off the path.  Not as easy to stop as that Tackle Unlimited was, but adds another 10 minutes or so.
 
My guess is those tube jigs are mimicking darters?  I thought they always mimicked crayfish?  Regardless, those things are a rock on every cast for me.  I'm sure it comes down to getting the proper weight on them.

Porktown

My guess is those tube jigs are mimicking darters?  I thought they always mimicked crayfish?  Regardless, those things are a rock on every cast for me. 

My experience with tube jigs has been the same.

The two baits that I’ve found to be pretty good at *not* catching rocks constantly in shallow rocky rivers are bitsy bug jig heads and those weighted swim bait hooks withe little corkscrew wire keeper.

You can drag those bitsy bugs straight across the bottom and they seem to just crawl over almost anything. And those weighted hooks seem to be pretty good at staying near the bottom and just kind of snaking around the rocks. I seem to get hung up a lot more with the other kinds of weighted swim bait jig heads.

Ned rigs have been ok so far but I haven’t used them as much. Lots of bass guys swear by them so I’ve been trying them out.

I also have little to no top water luck on the yough. Like almost never.

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Not having a boat, catching keeper size walleyes has been quite the challenge for me, but I got my first two of 2022 over the weekend.  Have caught dozens of sub legal ones out of this particular waterway, so finally getting some keepers was pretty satisfying.  And delicious.  Caught these two plus one short within 15 minutes of when we started, then nothing for the rest of our outing there.  
 
My 12 year old son and I were messin around at Pymy Friday and Sunday evening, and both evenings got into white bass feeding frenzies wet wading a sandy flat that drops off to deep water.  Never saw anything like it before in freshwater.  Gulls were even diving at the bait being chased to the surface - guessing they were probably baby shad.  Most about a half pound, with a few pounders and a handful of 1.5.  Tons of 1-4# channel cats mixed in as well, and some short eyes.  Sure was fun for him and his buddy who went with us Sunday on light tackle.  Lost track of how many fish they caught Sunday evening.  
 
 

Nice! I’ve heard that white bass will do that. I have seen the wipers do mini versions of it. Usually lasts about 30 seconds, then done though. When the baby gizzard Shad start to school up and skim the surface. Fun to watch, but would rather get into one like yours that they are biting.

Porktown
Nice! I’ve heard that white bass will do that. I have seen the wipers do mini versions of it. Usually lasts about 30 seconds, then done though. When the baby gizzard Shad start to school up and skim the surface. Fun to watch, but would rather get into one like yours that they are biting.

Yeah, I've seen the 30 second wiper version at Arthur and make some futile attempts to capitalize on it when I see it.  One evening in October a couple years back in a shallow area, there was about 15 minutes of it and we got into some but they were all 12-14" fish.  
 
The white bass started well off shore in one big frenzy, and then as they get closer they broke off into smaller groups and the chasing becomes more sporadic, but they were going for a good 30-45 minutes off and on.  Even after the chasing stopped, they hung around and that's when the channel cats moved in.  Guessing they are conditioned to know they'll eat well as the clean up crew.    

Fine kettle of fish. 😆

Fisherlady2
Lake Erie is playing nice. Took the dogs out with us today. We went deeper looking for better quality eyes and found some but we got into steelhead so ended up sliding south a bit trying to avoid any more steel. Best bites (for eyes and steel) were dipsies with medium UV spoons. Mostly dark colors today. Had a blast boating the steel (ranged 22" to 27")

  "And to add to the debate... our boat has a 30 gallon box under the floor, we plumbed it as a live well but actually use it as a bleeding tank. Get fish out of net, cut gill feathers with kitchen shears, drop fish into tank and let it swim till it bleeds out. Then put them on ice.  Exchange water every 4 to 6 fish."
 
 They do look nice/clean and fresh the way you do them. 
 

Got on the yough last Thursday and floated perryopolis to Smithton. Got about 15 bass between two of us. I got 3 that were right around the 17” mark, plus a bunch of smaller ones. Pretty good day on the water.

Hit the Allegheny yesterday, west hickory to tionesta, three of us in two kayaks and one canoe. Everybody put at least one fish in the boat. I got a handful of bass but nothing to brag about. My girlfriend got a 20” smallmouth on a senko. Another pretty nice day.

Does anybody on here know if that launch at whitsett is public or private? It’s about a mile or so downstream from the perryopolis launch.

Yea it was the only fish she landed for the day but it was a good one. I don’t think I’ve ever caught a 20”. Should have got a weight on it.

Ok who has seen this?

https://www.fieldandstrea...EX105vqEp3BNIsa6_wCbqE

Looks like the Harmarville launch got another one this week.

Me and the girlfriend hit French Creek with the kayaks today and did like 6 miles- Carlton to the outfitter’s take out just below Utica.

I threw a Ned rig with a Zman trd pretty much all day, and I gotta say, I am now a true believer in the Ned rig. I probably landed over 20 bass, and had maybe another 10 more spit a hook. Action all day. To be fair, half of my fish were dinky 10” and under, but there were plenty of quality fish too, including a 17” and a 20” tank that weighed close to 4lbs, which is definitely a pb.

My girlfriend threw a weightless senko all day and got maybe 5, but they were all good sized. She got a 17” too. Waaay more action overall on the Ned tho.

We didn’t even try to fish the grass, all the fish came in rocky areas with current nearby, and we mostly fished by banking or leashing the kayaks and wading, although a few came while floating. Didn’t even really get to fish the last mile or so below Utica because we had to paddle to the take out, but that looked like some of the best water.

First time on French creek too. It’s a great little river. Tons of fish, great scenery, not a ton of other people (for a Sunday). I’ll definitely be going back.

We also got caught in 3 mini rainstorms. I suspect the weird weather was probably why the fish were so active. Pretty wild day overall.