West Virginia!

Jim Carlisle and I took an excursion to West Virginia to visit Jason Fleck and experience fishing in the great outdoors.  We departed Orange County at 7 am May 29th flying through Chicago arriving in Pittsburgh around 5:15 pm.  A quick trip to the rental car counter and a not so quick drive to Buckhannon, West Virginia through a torrential rain storm to arrive at Jason's home around 8 pm.

I brought along a box full of Berkley tackle to try our hand at musky and bass.  Jason said we would be on the Buckhannon River early the next morning right after buying our fishing licenses at the 24 hour Walmart.  After organizing tackle, we grabbed some much needed sleep.

We managed to launch the boat and get on the river by 7 am.  The edge of the river was lined with indigenes trees - sycamore maples, tree of heaven, etc.  The river bed contained trunks and branches from the same trees providing structure for the fish.  The birds were filling the air with their songs and wild life sightings were numerous - deer, eagles, cardinals, a hawk etc.

We fished various hard baits - a frog, Whopper Plopper and spinner baits using Abu Garcia reels spooled with 50 pound spectra.  Jim hooked up first on a small musky on the Whopper Plopper.  It was his first Musky.  We continued fishing in between rain showers.  We were wet but the rain stopped long enough for us to dry out. 

Jason caught a musky next, a 32 to 34 inch musky, on the spinner bait. He was so excited he had trouble catching his breath.  I was busy catching trees.  It was obvious I was a saltwater fisherman because the ocean contains no trees. It was good casting practice trying to get under tree branches.

We traveled further down river and Jim caught another musky - this one similar to the size of Jason's fish.  Around noon the sky opened up so we called it a day. 

We cleaned up, put tackle away then drove to Clarksburg to buy more Whopper Ploppers and some Frogg Toggs so I could stay dry.  We grabbed a quick meal at the 88 Bar and Restaurant in Buckhannon then headed home.  Jason's girls - Sage and Fynn, came over around 8 pm.

Friday morning after breakfast, we fished a couple ponds and a lake for bass using The General Powerbait in June Bug color while the girls fished for bluegills using live night crawlers.  Sage showed us how it's done catching bluegill and a sunfish. Even Fynn caught bluegills.  Jim and I decided to catch bluegills too.  The ponds and lake were muddy from the previous days rains.  The girls got tired so we headed home early afternoon.

Jason made a buffet for dinner including wild turkey meatball lettuce wraps, sausage wraps, fruit kebobs etc.  The girls mom, Hillary and her fiancé, Martin joined us for dinner.

Saturday after the girls went home, we launched the boat around 2 pm and fished the Buckhannon River until 8 pm.  We traveled 6 miles down river before heading back.  It was a gorgeous day - sunny, filled with singing birds and more wildlife.  Unfortunately the river was still high and muddy from the rains.  Apparently it takes days for the river to clear up.  Needless to say, the fish were uncooperative.  I did get plenty of casting practice and the trees were safer this day.

Sunday we fished the Stonecoal Lake.  We were on the water by 6:30 am and watched the sun come up over the hills.  Another gorgeous day - sunny, then cloudy, fog rolling across the lake then sunny again.  Jason showed us how to catch small mouth and large mouth bass and a walleye using The General Powerbait again.  Jim and I fished hard and received several bites but failed to land anything.  We called it a day around noon when the wind came up.

Monday we had to say goodbye to West Virginia and fly home to California.  It was a great trip and Jason was a wonderful host introducing us to the joys of the Great Outdoors of West Virginia.