I made it home yesterday around 5:00 p.m. and I'm sure glad to be back with my family and the dogs. They sure look like they miss me here in a pic my wife sent me while I was away. Looks like Max just got finished eating a Milk Bone... "Hmmmmm. Can I have another one, Mom?"
Josh and I left Sunday morning around 6:30 a.m. for the NB of the Susquehanna River. We stopped at the Farmer's Wife (Jonestown, Pa.) for a good breakfast and met up with Josh's brother, Jordan, and Jordan's buddy, Brandon.
We were suppose to have two rooms at Mark's Valley View, but a mistake was made and Mark only had one room available. We needed two. So, Mark found us two cabins at Harding's that were available. We're glad he did because the cabins were perfect.
We fished a good 8 to 9 hrs. on Monday and Tuesday. Sunday and Wednesday were half days of fishing.
The weather was fine, but the wind was a killer! It blew on the river every day except Wednesday. It made fishing plastics very difficult and that's what they were hitting. We did, however, get one fish on a Rat'l Trap, one fish on a jerkbait, and two fish on a spinnerbait.
Josh had much better numbers than I did on this adventure. I guess it was just his turn to put a "whopping" on dad! LOL ;)
The numbers and sizes were way down in comparison to last year when Josh and his father went to the NB in April, 2009. Flooding conditions existed about two weeks prior to our visit. You could still see the high water marks on the shoreline.
On Monday, I netted a beautiful 23" walleye on a tube...
Josh had some great fish. We only took pics of those fish 17" and over. Josh's biggest smallie went 17.75". She was a real beaut...
He caught several more great looking 17.5" smallies, too.
I also had a couple of nice smallies worthy of a pic.
We had two doubles on our trip. This is the double hook-up we had on Wednesday, our final day of fishing.
First Josh held them...
... and then me.
Jordan took his father's boat to the NB to fish from. His dad's boat hull is identical to mine. His console is totally different. His dad has kept it in excellent conditions over the years. Here's a pic of Jordan and Brandon in the G3.
It was rather cold each morning, but Wednesday morning took all prizes. It was 28 degrees when I awoke at 6:00 a.m. We had ice on our windshields. Needless to say, we weren't in a big rush to get on the water.
We made a roaring camp fire each evening. The night sky was beautiful with a billion stars shining. I even saw a "shooting star" on evening. I made my wish.
We cooked hamburgers and hot dogs over a the open fire on Sunday and Monday nights. Thanks to Jordan and Brandon for picking up supper for those two nights.
The water color was milky green in some areas and clearer in others. The water temp was around 53 degrees. The skies were partly sunny on Sunday and Monday. We had overcast skies on Tuesday and the sun broke through about mid-day. And Wednesday, was the nicest day of all. Although it started out extremely cold, it warmed rather nicely to 51 degrees. Too bad we had to get off the water by noon.
The wild life is abundant in the "Land of Oz". We saw several mature eagles and even saw one sitting on the nest. We came across several beavers that were swimming about the river. One even let us know he didn't care much for us being there when he gave a good "SLAP" of his tail against the water.
But the best thing we saw all week was spotted by Josh as we pulled along the shoreline to fish. It was a bobcat! We spooked it pretty well and it "hightailed it" up the mountainside.
There were plenty of turkey, as usual, in the mountains. We could hear them throughout the day and especially in the early morning. There was even a hen walking around the front yard of one of the homes along the river. That bird wasn't scared one bit of the folks who lived there.
Thanks go out to josh for driving his truck and boat all the way to the NB and offering me a ride. Hopefully, we'll be doing this again in the Fall of 2010. God willing.
Dad
