You just don't have a spey rod to fish shad on...🙄😁

MyWar
I dunno. I only get a walleye here and there on the yough, always by accident.

I did forget nightcrawlers tho. I wanted to try drifting some night crawlers on jig heads but that didn’t happen. Probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. I’m pretty new to targeting eyes, so somebody that knows what they are doing might have more success in that WN stretch.

I nice, lively leech on a jig head or a lindy rig type set-up slow bounced on the bottom may be good for the eyes in the river but, probably have a hard time keeping the smallies away too.

eyesandgillz

MyWar
I dunno. I only get a walleye here and there on the yough, always by accident.

I did forget nightcrawlers tho. I wanted to try drifting some night crawlers on jig heads but that didn’t happen. Probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. I’m pretty new to targeting eyes, so somebody that knows what they are doing might have more success in that WN stretch.

I nice, lively leech on a jig head or a lindy rig type set-up slow bounced on the bottom may be good for the eyes in the river but, probably have a hard time keeping the smallies away too.

Yea I was really hoping to try something like that. Since I’m kind of inexperienced going after walleye, if I’m not catching anything, it’s like “are the fish here?” Or is it “am I doing wrong”? Assuming alot of species tend to hit live bait more readily I’d have more confidence doing that at first. I’ll try that next time. Thanks for the tip.

I decided the Yough. Probably poor decision. I was tucked away in the woods along the bank for about 45 minutes when a nice little thunder storm cell came through. The radar said I was sort of lucky, only hitting the edge of it. 1 mile down stream where I wade had the purple radar. It put a bunch of leaves and small branches in the river too.

No eyes. I tried bottom bouncing some crawlers, jigs and crawlers, jigs with fresh caught minnows. Only ended up with some smallmouth. I decided that I had enough no eye torture. Switched to targeting smallmouth and did okay. There was a nice tree in the water that was getting a ton of surface activity. I got one smallie out of it, anchored by it for a good hour. Just couldn’t find something they really wanted. Paddled back up to the pullout area and decided to go full out senko. First two casts, hook up. Thought that I was going to have a field day. Three other hits and couldn’t button them.

Got fish on a new rod and didn’t have any fish break me off. So it was an okay outing for being close to 90. I have a feeling if I went to Arthur, I’d be washing a skunk off of my hands. And burning another 3-4 gallons of gas in the process.

I’d take a day like that over Arthur. I never get tired of those river smallmouth.

Getting skunked at Arthur wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so crowded. You always have the chance of getting a big channel cat or the random wiper.

Two were nice ones, 14”-15” range and fat, in deep water, so gave a nice fight. The others were 12” range, which were okay. One smaller than my jig…. So definitely beat a skunking.

I saw a school of gar, which was pretty cool. A large turtle too. Saw probably 10 or so drum and I think an eye or two. I have to say the clearer water in the Yough is a bonus.

I keep my boat near Arthur and much more comfortable on it for a day of fishing. It is really stable, able to walk around on it without any sense of tipping and barely any rocking.. It’s slow, but for a day on the water, it is nice to be able to get up and walk around a little. Always a little fun to fire it up and cruise too. Boxing a few crappie is worth taking it out, but I never do well targeting them on deep structure (besides the dinks, with maybe 1-2 keeper size). Getting that possible wiper has been less and less of a probability in the past few years. I used to be pretty confident in getting 1-2 every other outing and really into them at night. Rarely getting any under 20”. I have only caught a handful over 20” in the past few years and none over 20” this year. I am pretty sure with the amount of bait in the lake, they are not stocking enough to keep up with the pressure.

With Arthur being about twice the commute, and even more if I try after work, it makes the Yough more and more of a better choice. Especially in this heat. I’ll probably stick with the wading in this heat though.

I posted this and talked to the wife, what do we have going on? Besides my daughter’s first day of work (15), nothing. I figured that I did a good bit of stuff outside, enough that my shirt was completely soaked with sweat. Why not go wade for 2-3 hours? I was probably napping for 1-2 of them if I didn’t.

Probably should have napped, but not horrible. Fish on, in maybe 10th cast (hit on 2nd cast). I probably should have just packed it up then. Nothing after that for about an hour. Then while wading to a spot, just casting on my way there, I tied into something that pulled like a wiper. Took me on 2 drag peeling runs. One was going upstream too! Broke the surface, didn’t jump like a smallie usually would, couldn’t see what it was, but it was strong. Then unbuttoned. On a Senko (Basspro Sticko actually)…. Could have been a carp, cat, smallmouth, smaller musky or other. After that 3 bites and nothing hooked.

I did talk to a passing kayaker. Got a 20” eye on a minnow. I think Eyes is right on the minnows.

Porktown
Then while wading to a spot, just casting on my way there, I tied into something that pulled like a wiper. Took me on 2 drag peeling runs. One was going upstream too! Broke the surface, didn’t jump like a smallie usually would, couldn’t see what it was, but it was strong. Then unbuttoned. On a Senko (Basspro Sticko actually)…. Could have been a carp, cat, smallmouth, smaller musky or other.

Big freshwater drum maybe? I hook into a big one every once in a while and those things can really take off on you. I’ve had em hit senkos and bitsy bug jigs too. You’ll see some HUGE ones in the water from a kayak.

I hooked into something across from Smithton beach once. It hit a live shiner. Same deal- big runs, peeling drag, then broke off. Never jumped, but swirled near the surface a couple times. Never got a good look at it though.

I like to tell myself it must have had teeth because it chewed through like 8 or 10 lb flourocarbon (can’t remember exactly what I was using), so maybe a musky. But more likely, it was just a big @ss drum and a sloppy knot just failed.

I’ve seen some of those big nasties in there. Good possibility that is what it was. If so, glad it self released! I caught one at Lock 3 on the Allegheny many years ago that was pushing 30”. Had to be close to 20lbs. It didn’t fight like it was that big, but still some nice pull. They get pretty nasty looking when they get big, like black drum.

Spent a little over a week trying to catch some walleye on the NY side of Erie. First day I caught a 26" with some dumb luck and a crawler harness. The rest of the week I managed to catch several very large drum. Back to the drawing board I guess.....