Mostly smaller fish with a couple decent ones. Tons of throwbacks drove me bananas today. 45FOW outta Elk. Dispeys and worms for the most part. 3 on a flatline Bandit with some weight. I'm done with that Elk. The creek is so friggin low and that bar at the mouth just keeps getting bigger. Maybe Walnut for the next couple then it's up to Shades.

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

Gonna try to get out on the kayak after work on Thursday. Then I’m gonna try to get the boat out at Rosston this weekend. Then hopefully I’ll be on the Allegheny near tionesta the weekend after.

I’ve had a lot of other commitments the past few weekends so I haven’t been able to get on the water all that much, but I should be able to get my fix the next couple weeks. Hopefully we don’t get too much rain.

I was in Chicago over the weekend. Saw some nice smallmouth swimming around the docks near Burnham Harbor. They’d have been nice fish for a SWPA river, but they were probably babies for Lake Michigan.

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.

Finally got the boat out on the river. Put in at cowanshannock creek this afternoon and checked out (I guess?) pool 7.

There was some pleasure boat traffic, but it wasn’t too bad considering it was a warm sunny sunday afternoon in the middle of July. I was on Arthur Saturday, kayaking with some friends and it was a total zoo. The river was pretty chill in comparison. There were a couple tubers, but most of the other boats out were pontoons.

We got a couple channel cats but that’s it. Tried bouncing some jigs with night crawlers, threw some crank baits and paddle tails, i mostly tried stuff that gets bass and the occasional walleye or pike… didn’t bring any minnows. I figure I need to put some more time in to learn that body of water, and I imagine I’ll have some more productive days. I’ll definitely be going back.

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. 

Porktown
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. 

I still can’t catch any of those river minnows. How do you rig them to drift? Do you thread them?

The only time I ever have success with minnows is if I can get large shiners, so I just freeline them, and since the big ones have some weight I can cast them a bit. The smaller minnows don’t have enough casting weight and if I use a spilt shot they get hung up constantly so I spend more time re-tying than fishing.

I’m off Thursday and Friday this week. As long as we don’t get too much rain tomorrow, me and the girlfriend are gonna float perryopolis to Smithton on Thursday, then we’re headed up to a friends cabin at tionesta on Friday morning. I think we’re gonna get out on the Allegheny on Saturday.

I found a nice hole over on saw mill run where I can fill a minnow trap in like 5 minutes but they’re usually all pretty small though. I think they might be some kind of dace. I can also catch a few jumbo chubs on a hook and line. Maybe I’ll catch some minnows and give them a try this Thursday. It also looks like there is a bait shop in Wilkinsburg that has live minnows? That might be worth a look.

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.

I’ll hit shadlure sometimes if they’re open when I’m headed out. I go crazy early sometimes, so I used to hit lock 3 the day before. Lock 3 was pretty good at keeping shiners in stock too.

Ive been using paddle tails and flukes more this summer. They seemed like an obvious choice for a minnow imitation. The smaller paddle tails especially seem to get bit more often but it’s a lot of smaller fish. I’ve been messing around with the Ned rig too. I imagine if you get the color right, those might be a decent darter imitation? Darters probably dont do the vertical/upright nose down on the bottom thing that the Ned does tho.

Funny you mention the crayfish. I’ll occasionally catch a bunch by hand and try them too, but I also haven’t had a ton of success with them. They also don’t seem to be all that abundant in the places I’m looking, and they seem to average on the small side. We took the dog up to Buffalo creek a few weeks back just to check out the water and walk around… and it seemed like jumbo crayfish were under every rock I picked up. But the yough doesn’t seem to have the same kind of population, at least not where I’ve been looking. Water quality issue maybe? High water levels disrupting the reproductive cycles? Bass just ate em all? Dunno.

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.