Penn’s Outdoors

As a follow up to our article on Pennsylvania’s chain pickerel, I noticed that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission just did a survey on Lackawanna Lake.  And look what they found…

Actually, they found not one but two 28 inch chain pickerel estimated weights at about 8 pounds.  The lake is located about 7 miles north of Scranton.  The survey also found a health population of crappie and bluegill.

As hunters, we often are reluctant to criticize any parts of hunting in fear of lending support to those who wish to do away with all of hunting.  I am very aware that even this small blog can be used as anti-hunting ammo if I say the “wrong” thing.  But beyond anything, this blog is meant to take an honest look at fishing and hunting in Pennsylvania and beyond. 

Last night, I was channel surfing and saw parts of an episode of a hunting show on The Outdoor Channel.  They were bear hunting in California.  They were using dogs.  I had never witnessed a bear hunt with dogs.  Basically, the dogs chase the bear around for awhile, the bear climbs a tree and then the hunter shoots it.  What struck me was how little sporting effort the hunter put into the hunt.  Sure, the hunter had to keep up with the dogs but when they got up to the bear they were talking in normal voices and had normal movement.  No stealth was used.

So, I began wondering by what standard do we judge whether something is included in the sport of hunting or not.  I came up with three basic criteria.

1) Is it legal? - In this case, bear hunting with dogs  is legal where they were hunting. 

2) Does it promote an ethical harvest? - Anti-hunters don’t comprehend that good hunters have as a primary concern an ethical kill without suffering of the animal being harvested.  In this case, I have to say that the hunter very effectively and efficiently harvested the bear.

3) Is it sporting? - This is the one that can be very subjective.  Sporting, to me, is defined by the degree of skill and technique that needs to be administered by the hunter to harvest the animal.  For me, this bear hunt with dogs failed to demonstrate any significant degree of sporting effort by the hunter.

Now, I am not going to California to picket against bear hunting with dogs.  There may be a lot of good reasons why they use dogs there to hunt bear. But if anyone would try to introduce it in Pennsylvania, I’m not sure I would support it. 

How about other areas of hunting?  What about hunting in fenced in pay to hunt preserves?  One Pennsylvania hunting web site specifically denounces fenced in deer hunts.  How about hunting deer over bait?  I predict hunting over bait will be a debate for our entire State in the next 5 years.

The debate on some of these issues can get quite heated and mired in details.  They are important debates for us to have, though. The sport of hunting in Pennsylvania will be stronger if we understand what legal, ethical and sporting forms of hunter we support and defend as part of how we enjoy Penn’s Outdoors.

*Picture by Templarion from Flickr.com

Central Pennsylvania Fishing has a great 2 part article on fishing for smallmouth bass in creeks.  Central PA is rich with streams that can provide some great smallmouth action.  This article will help you maximize your time on the water and improve your success.

By Timothy Risser

Salt water fishing is an obsession that haunts the soul, so I caution you to read these words with hesitation. You may find yourself waking up in a cold sweat longing to drive three hours across Long Island to toss a fly or plug into the ocean. Montauk is one of the select locations on earth that will haunt you like that for the rest of your life. The marine life is so abundant, and the fishing opportunities so great, an angler has to almost try not catching fish to have a bad time.

Captain Steve Thulin with a 20-pound False Albacore

I had the privilege to fish Montauk Point with Captain Steve Thulin, owner of Bass Kikker’s Charters, for eight incredible fall days in 2007. We targeted late September to make the 120-mile drive across Long Island, New York, where Montauk Harbor is located. We selected late September because that is when False Albacore begin to appear in that region.

If you are not familiar with catching False Albacore it is lot like cattle roping. There are several techniques for hooking up with a False Albacore, but that is only a small portion of the fun. The most popular technique to hook into a False Albacore is to cast a fly into a pod of breaking bait fish and strip the line with small twitches. This is very popular and effective in North Carolina where False Albacore fishing was made popular.

However, this technique proved ineffective in Montauk. We chose, instead, to blind cast flies while drifting, using a double handed line stripping technique. This was very effective during low light conditions and moderately effective during high visibility conditions. Double hookups were the rule, rather than the exception, during the morning and evening hours!

Author, Tim Risser, with a 14-pound Bluefish

Now, once a False Albacore smashes your fly, you need to hold on for dear life. This species can swim up to 40 mph, and is by far the fast swimming inner costal game fish. To put this into perspective the highly touted Bone Fish only swims about 25 mph.

The trick is to set the hook and get your fly line cleared before the line burns your hand, gets tangled around something, or ties a knot in itself. We have termed this stage of catching a False Albacore, The Albi Shuffle. The fish is swimming so fast that the line makes a zipping sound as it peels through your fingers. After the excess fly line clears the rod guides, the stripping hand needs to move down to the reel in order to add extra tension to the drag. The reel will sing as the fish runs anywhere from 150 to 300 yards with the first pull.

I use a 75-yard, moderately-sinking fly line with 75 yards of orange dacron backing attached to 200 yards of Gel-Spun backing. This gives me a good gauge on how far a fish runs and where I am in the battle. While retrieving, pull up on the rod and reel down on the fish. Be careful to watch for quick short bursts of energy from the fish that can cause the reel to let go quickly and catch your knuckles. This is very painful and can happen in an instant.

Try to land False Albacore quickly as they survive better when caught and released fast. Fast is a relative term because the average battle last 10 to 20 minutes. When releasing False Albacore, hold the fish above your head and drop them into the water headfirst to rush water across their gill plate. This helps flood their body with oxygen allowing it to survive to fight another day.

Author, Timothy Risser, with a 13-pound False Albacore

Montauk is not prized for its False Albacore fishing because it is rumored to have a smaller physical size fish than North Carolina. I have had the privileged to fish both locations and have found this rumor to be unfounded. The average size for both locations was 10-20 pounds. Don’t let the weight fool you into thinking it is an easy prey. The biggest difference between locations is the size of bait on which they feed. False Albacore at Montauk feed on small bay anchovies that are about 2 to 4 inches in length. They also tend to be pickier than their southern counterparts in high visibility conditions.

What makes Montauk great is that if one species gets picky you can chase a different quarry very easily. Steve and I enjoyed landing Blue fish in the 5 to 15 pound range and Striped Bass in the 10 to 20 pound range on the same tackle. In fact, Steve and I both easily collected a Montauk Slam during our week at Montauk; a Bluefish, a False Albacore and a Striped Bass. Larger fish are prevalent in the area so be ready for anything when you book a trip to Montauk, Long Island.

I have spooled several of my reels up with PowerPro braided line this year.  I have been a Trilene XL guy for years.  Occasionally, I would get adventurous and put on some Trilene XT but all of these fancy smancy lines were not for me.  Fishing with kids has made the no memory aspects of braided lines very appealing.  Many fishing trips are spent getting bird’s nests out of the spool than actually fishing.  So, I shelled out the bucks and put on the PowerPro.

I have fished twice so far with the PowerPro spooled reels.  On both occasions, Trilene XL -1 and PowerPro - 0 despite using my favorite smallmouth baits on the PowerPro.  When retying this last trip out, I just couldn’t help but wonder if visibility of the braid was the problem. The place I was fishing didn’t have particularly clear water but the braid is sooo thick.  I’ve read all the articles about bass not seeing braid, but my confidence still sank.  As I went home that evening, I began to wonder if I had made the right decision in switching lines.  I know that next time out I will not start out with full confidence in my line, at least until a few fish prove me wrong.

Confidence is such a huge factor in fishing and hunting.  I am convinced that it is the difference between success and failure so many times when on the water or in the woods.  On a fishing trip to Black Lake, NY, the ingredients were right for a topwater bite.  So, I tied on a Strike King Spit-n-King and sure enough the fish started hitting.  But I couldn’t hook them.  I missed so many fish that night.  My confidence in my topwater ability sank dramatically over just an hour, resulting in even more misses.   When I finally landed one, it instantly became a picture fish despite being the wrong species.  

My first buck, many years ago, had nothing to do with my skill as a hunter but rather confidence in my spot.  It was the first Saturday of buck season and the rain was pouring down from the moment that I entered the stand.  Four hours later, I was soaked to the bone and freezing cold.  I wasn’t able to dry my glasses as I had nothing left that wasn’t wet.  I watched a veteran hunter call it quits and climb down from his stand.  Not me, despite not seeing a deer, I knew a buck was on his way.  About a 1/2 hour later, I saw a flicker of movement and watched a buck stop in an opening 50 yards away.  One shot and I had my first buck.  If I hadn’t been confident in my spot, I would have never sat that long.

Here are what I believe to be 5 keys to gaining confidence for your time in Penn’s Outdoors. Read more »

Want to know when the Fish Commission is stocking your favorite PA trout stream?  The Fish Commission has a database that you can search by County for trout stocking schedules.

Many people will go on vacation this year and operate a rental boat.  For those who don’t own a boat, it may be the first time or one of the few times that they operate a boat.  I have found this web site on boating basics very helpful in the past.  Please note though that it does not fulfill the boating safety test required for Pennsylvania.

Everyone has heard of it but if you haven’t fished it, you don’t know what you are missing.  At least that’s what I’ve been told.  I’ve never fished it.  I hope to soon.  But for now, I will just have to enjoy Presque Isle Bay through articles like this one.  This article by FishErie.com covers:

• Description of the Bay
• Boating
• Shore fishing (You don’t need a boat to enjoy some good fishing.)
• Ice fishing
• Largemouth and smallmouth bass fishing tips
• Perch fishing tips
• Panfish fishing tips
• Muskie fishing tips
• Northern pike fishing tips
• Steelhead fishing tips
• Salmon fishing tips
• Walleye fishing tips

There aren’t many places in Pennsylvania that you can exprience quality fishing for such a variety of fish species.

Pennsylvania Back Country has posted a six part video series of a PA elk hunt on YouTube.  The video is fantastic and is a cool look at a fun hunt.  It also helps to disprove the myth that PA elk are tame and easy to hunt.  My favorite part of the video is watching the hunter show the trophy to his family.

With the decreasing number of fishermen in Pennsylvania, it seems to be rare to meet someone new that likes to fish as much as I do.  My daughter has started playing soccer this year.  At practice one evening, I heard two of the dads talking about fishing.  It didn’t take long before I was part of that conversation.  Now, I look forward to every practice to talk fishing. 

During one of our conversations, we talked about PA’s most underrated fish, the chain pickerel.  Pickerel can be a lot of fun.  These feisty fish can provide fast action under the right conditions.  So, I decided to do some research on fishing for pickerel.  Here’s what I found.

Pickerel Species

Pickerel are a member of the pike family.  Most people know about chain pickerel but there are two other types of pickerel in PA.

• Redfin Pickerel - The redfin is a small pickerel in the Delaware River watershed in Pennsylvania. It can also be found occasionally in the Susquehanna River watershed.  These small pickerel rarely exceed 12 inches.  You’ll know you caught one by the fins which are unspotted and reddish.

• Grass Pickerel - Grass pickerel are found in northwestern Pennsylvania, in both the Lake Erie and Allegheny River watersheds.  They have wavy markings on their sides.  They also don’t usually exceed 12 inches long. 

These species are not targeted by anglers due to their small size.  Chain pickerel are a different story. They can make for a rewarding day of fishing.  In Pennsylvania, chain pickerel are almost exclusive to the Delaware, Susquehanna and Potomac River watersheds. They are popular in the Poconos region.  If you are taking a family vacation to the Poconos, a trip with the children to a local pickerel lake can be a highlight of the trip for everyone.  Here is how the Fish Commission describes the chain pickerel…

Identification: Chain pickerel can grow to more than 30 inches long, but one of 25 inches and four or five pounds is considered a trophy in Pennsylvania. The state record is an eight-pounder. Two-pound pickerel are common where the fish have enough to eat. The chain pickerel hides easily in its weedy habitat, with its dark, greenish-yellow back, fading to lighter yellow-green along the sides. Over the sides is a pattern of dark chainlike markings that gives the fish its name. The belly is white. A dark mark, like a clown’s painted tear, appears below each eye. The fins are unmarked and pale. As is typical of pickerel, both the cheek and the opercle, or gill cover, are fully scaled. Chain pickerel have a long snout. The distance from the tip of the nose to the front of the eye is greater than the distance from the back of the eye to the end of the gill cover.

Habitat: Chain pickerel live in and around weedbeds and sunken stumps and logs in natural lakes, swampy ponds and manmade impoundments. They can also be found in the sluggish parts of clear streams and in the naturally acidic, tannin-stained waters that drain boggy wetlands, as in northeastern Pennsylvania. Chain pickerel are commonly shallow-water dwellers, but they can live in deep lakes. They don’t travel far from their selected home areas, and they tolerate a wide temperature range.

Where to Go

Chain pickerel aren’t located everywhere in PA.  In fact, their primary region is mostly in the northeastern part of the State.  The Fish Commission’s list of waters holding chain pickerel include only 27 of PA’s 67 counties.  I, personally, know of a few bodies of water not on this list that hold some pickerel but the list is a good place to start your search. Read more »

Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives has approved a resolution approving an audit of the deer management program in PA.  The resolution specifies that it should be done by an independent out of state source. 

Interestingly, the vote on this resolution was unanimous.  Does this mean that hunters are being heard by the folks in Harrisburg?  I hope so.  Yet, my cynical side wonders if this audit, which will cost between $100,000 to $200,000, is a cheap way to try and pacify us.  I go back and forth between hopeful and cynical. 

A quote by hunting advocate State Representative Moul in the Evening Sun keeps echoing in my ear… 

Moul said he’s talked to representatives from the Game Commission about how displeased constituents are, but “I may as well have been hitting my head on the wall.”

This sums up what most of the critics, like myself, feel about the Game Commission.  We feel that they are unresponsive and uncaring about hunters.  For the 1000th time, most of us understand and agree that we can’t go back to the old days where deer were over-abundant.  But when some studies show zero deer per square mile in regions of Pennsylvania’s once deer rich woods, we are mad!  There needs to be a balance. But even calls for balance are like hitting our heads on the walls of the Commission.

So thank you to the PA House of Representatives for approving this resolution.  We look forward to the results of this audit.  Obviously, we don’t know how they will turn out but this is a step in the right direction.  I’m going to stop typing now before I turn cynical again.

Here’s the press release from State Representative Moul…

House Approves Resolution to Study PA Deer Management Program

04/09/08

Moul says analysis needed to ensure proper balance in white-tail population

Rep. Dan Moul (R-Adams/Franklin) voted to approve a House resolution that calls for an audit of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Deer Management Program to determine its effectiveness.

The resolution directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC) to enlist the services of an independent outside auditor in the wildlife and habitat management field to analyze the white-tail deer population in Pennsylvania.

“As an avid hunter, I am growing increasingly concerned about the management of Pennsylvania’s deer population,” said Moul. “I have heard many concerns expressed by sportsmen that the deer population on state game lands is virtually depleted. This is worrisome. I welcome an independent audit of the Pennsylvania deer population and the Game Commission’s deer management practices.”

The study will examine the changes in the white-tail deer population over the past 12 years, analyze the Game Commission’s management goals and the impact of these policies on the deer population.

“This audit is a precautionary measure aimed at determining whether current deer management practices are working,” said Moul. “It is important to maintain sensible management practices that will achieve a balanced and healthy deer population and enable us to preserve our rich hunting tradition in Pennsylvania.”

*Photo by audreyjm529 from Flickr.com

Great post for fly fishermen on building a fly tying station at The Tennessee Valley Angler.  Author, Insane, states that it can be made for under $30.  Real good price when you compare it to the prices in catalogs. 

Ever wonder what it is like when they stock trout.  This video from Youtube gives some insight to how trout are stocked. These trout are headed into the Bushkill in the Poconos.

Most of the attention of articles goes to the Central and Western sections of Lake Erie.  Don’t get me wrong.  They are outstanding fisheries but also don’t make the mistake of overlooking our home State sections of the Lake.  This article at FishErie.com covers Pennsylvania sections of Lake Erie in detail.

The article gives some background information and then provides some information on lake conditions.  They go on to discuss 3 popular areas of Pennsylvania Lake Erie waters, the Mountain, the Trenches and Neashore Areas.  Here’s a sample from the section on the Mountain.

The mountain is known for its steelhead and lake trout fishing. These cold water fish move to the mountain as the lake waters warm. Consequently, the best fishing for steelhead and lake trout at the mountain starts in mid-summer.

The article goes on to discuss specific seasonal tips.  It spends some time on boating the Lake and for good reason.  Lake Erie can be dangerous!

Boating on Lake Erie is not like boating on any other body of water in Pennsylvania. The lake is vast and can be deadly. If you do not have an appropriate boat, you will be risking your life boating on the lake.

Tackle and techniques are discussed.  They provide detailed instruction on popular trolling methods:

• Flatlining
• Planer boards
• Divers
• Downriggers
• Weighted spinners

Perch, walleye, smallmouth bass, steelhead, lake trout, and salmon are all discussed.  Here’s a sample from the smallmouth bass section…

Popular spots on the east side for smallmouth bass include the “cribs” off the Hammermill plant, and off Raccoon Creek Park. Look in the 20 to 30 foot range for bottom structure and you should be in smallmouth territory.

I can’t tell how old this article is.  But it is does have good information for anyone planning to take a fishing trip to Lake Erie.  FishErie.com also offers lots of other resources (detailed in our resources section) including fishing reports, forums and maps for fishing Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie.

Its getting to be about the time of the year that Paraleps become the bug du jour for Delaware River trout.  This is often a small window of opportunity occuring in the last weeks of April.  Check out Delaware River Club’s Al Caucci article on Parleps for more information.

*Picture by Zero-X from Flickr.com