Larry A. Smail's Blog

A hint of blue sky!

The temperatures and humidity are to be leaning way towards the hot end of the spectrum all of this week. I decided late last evening that I needed to get out and catch a few fish early in the morning prior to these conditions being met.

Same view after the fog!

I was on the road towards Lock Number 8 on the Allegheny River shortly after 6 A.M. I had a lot of worms that wanted to be fished with. I obliged them all!

A nice doe crossed the road just prior to the dam’s entrance. I slowed down watching for any small spotted offspring that may be following her.

The river was engulfed in fog until the sun lifted high enough to cause evaporation of the water molecules. I witnessed a great blue heron soaring low across the river in the fog. The long-legged bird landed down river from my fishing site.

Bee-Balm!

Along the river’s shoreline are millions of minnows or shiners. The fish chased them continually until about 8:30 A.M. The little two-inch long fish would leap out of the water upon being chased by larger predatory fish. They appeared to be bass.  I hoped I wasn’t seeing those Asiatic (Flying) carp taking hold in these waters. All morning long I would see fish jumping in the waters. I saw carp and a muskie. I saw a large fish that I believed to be a gar. The scales indicated such a fish for sure. The fast-moving water clouded with murkiness made a positive ID difficult. However, later I saw the fish in its entirety. It was, indeed, a gar and the length was around the forty inch mark! I had some other gar sightings too, but these were in the 28 to 32 inch length category.

Phylox

I was blessed with catching four smallmouth bass. The lengths ranged from about eleven inches to fifteen inches. These all supplied some fighting abilities on light tackle. I lost several and missed several too.

The time reached 9:15 and the heat was becoming prominent. I decided the time to head home was nigh. I have paintings and recordings to work on!