Leaderboard

I went to the BS Dam C&R access this morning and had a good time. I hooked what turned out to be a nice tiger trout. It took me down to about half of my backing and a guide was pulled over on the side rigging rods for his client. I had to go around and over his boat when chasing the fish. He got out of the boat and offered to net the fish with his bigger net and then take a couple of pictures. A little later I hooked another nice tiger on a crackleback. He was longer than the first one, but kinda skinny. Also got a decent rainbow along with about a dozen others. Glad to see the tigers doing well in the river. They fight like a brown on steroids with lots of jumps.

Spent some time above Delaware Town today. Made it to Wilson’s Creek. Did pretty well. White spinner bait and Roboworm worked best. Here’s the two biggest. The smallmouth had a crawdad in its throat! You can barely see it. My spinnerbait must have interrupted his morning snack.

Success! Whoop, Whoop! Took me three years to the day to find my lid. This fine hammered lodge stuff does not come up for sale very often and when it does it can be very expensive, but they are still out there. Found the skillet and got it for under 30 bucks. I was elated. Got it restored and right away Pat laid claim to it with the remark this is mine. She uses it for everything best deep skillet Imo we have ever found. Then the search for the lid began. I was aware I might have to pay up and would of if it did not break the bank. I reached out here to you all, searched on the inter webs and made phone calls to places that deal with cast iron cookware. Those people just told me good luck and you may never find it. Well as we browsed an antique store / flea market / booth type place that we frequent not 30 miles from the house. Pat looked down on the floor and said hey isn't lid hammered? I picked it up and got the chills. Quickly looked at the price tag, 14.95! Got to the counter to Pay and the owner said you still have some credit here. (Sold him some skillets) Paid for it from that. Some surface rust and top if the handle had from use the hammered pattern about polished off. I was pretty sure it was a match and arriving home it was spot on! The treasure went right into the e tank then cleaned and restored. Persistence paid off. Circa from the 1940s.

You went to the haystack and found TWO needles!! Awesome fishes! If you ever decide you want to catch a small fish, just to see what that's like....I can help. I love seeing the big fish you catch! Keep 'em coming, please!

I did a trip on the lower James yesterday. Caught more than I could count. Nothing huge but enough 12-14 inchers to make it a blast. Best baits were a Hellgrammite imitation in the fast stuff and a swim bait in between. Below Hootentown is beautiful.

Found me a jewel hiding under a layer of grease and carbon. A hammered piece. I knew what it was as I spied it. Price was right so I grabbed it. Three days in the E-Tank and it stripped it clean. Just finished seasoning it. Its a circa 40s single notch lodge size #8 deep also known as a chicken fryer. This will be Pat's. She seen some hammered Lodge before and wanted a piece but no way. Hammered can get expensive depending on the brand. So I am asking if anyone knows of a #8 hammered lodge skillet lid let me know please. Or if you have one we can do some business if you want to part with it. Don't send me to E-Bay either. Those sellers are way to high. Works for them as there are people that have deep pockets. Thanks

I had a feeling when I opened this up there was good news. I'm a stable genius.

The morning suspended bite is still steady. I fished with 2.8, spoon, and topwater. Included below is a picture of a tree loaded with fish. This tree sets in 38-40 FOW when the lake level is at 915-917 (tops out about 5ft below the surface). The tree is near the mouth of a creek and is the last dominate tree in a long line of timber. This tree is not a good weekend spot unless it is your first stop. The skiers will run you off. From the graph picture you can tell my boat is shallow....mainly for safety. The fish relating to the tree just pick a depth that suits them. The key with a 2.8 is to look for fish postured just far enough from the branches. The majority of fish always seem to be on the other side of the tree, but if you move your boat to the other side, the fish will magically appear on the other side again. This tree location also has roamers nearby but you need a group of 4 or 5 fish to create a competitive swimbait scenario. Trying to pick off an individual swimmer is normally a waste of time. Once you educate them with a 2.8 you can move closer to flip a spoon and your first few drops with a spoon are the high percentage casts. The topwater bite did not happen even with ideal cloudy conditions. The pictured LM was on a 2.8 and the SM was on a spoon. Had a few more nice LM in the rain. WT 84ish

I work remote so I had some time early today to run my dock pattern. I waited for the storms to pass and got out right at 6 am. Never saw another boat for 2 hours. which is good in a flat bottom river Jon. Caught these two plus some dinks. I think I have found someone’s pets😁