Plenty of similarities, differences between fishing for sport, work

July 16, 2023

For all the fun and joy we anglers gain from sport fishing, we sometimes forget it is rooted as a sustenance activity. Catch-and-release movements have accelerated, and perhaps even elevated, fishing to its place today as a pastime popular among people from all walks of life. Rich or poor, we can go fishing for the sole purpose of recharging our batteries, reconnecting with nature or simply because we love it. But it wasn’t always that way. For millennia, people have gone to the water to feed their families and neighbors. Fishing was work, every bit as laborious and essential as ...

Knowing when to call an audible on the lake

July 9, 2023

In fishing, as in most activities, it sometimes becomes necessary to call an audible when the original game plan goes awry. The day started on a bright note as fishing friend John Hirschbeck and I readied the Bass Cat for a few hours of fishing on one of our favorite local lakes. We launched the boat, and I pulled out a drop-shot rod to pick up where I left off last week on largemouth bass taking advantage of prime conditions to restore the fat they worked off during the spawn. John picked up his spinning rod and began casting a stick worm. It was looking like a headline-making day ...

Local legend to be honored with ‘Lou Blaney Memorial’

July 7, 2023

This past Friday, the racing world lost Jean Lynch of Apollo, Pa. In my mind, she is the first lady of auto racing. She did everything but drive a racecar. She was a scorer and timekeeper for the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR, Cart, and an official for many sanctioning bodies including DIRT and the All-Star Circuit of Champions. Locally, she was at one time the General Manager at Sharon, Tri-City, and West Virginia Speedways. She handled many duties at Lernerville Speedway. She served on the board of directors for the All Stars and was the coordinator for the original Ohio Sprint ...

Summer provides a wide variety for anglers

July 2, 2023

Bass anglers are entering the season when they can practice catching fish on a variety of lures and tactics. The largemouth bass spawn is finished, the females have recovered and the bucks have abandoned their guard duty over this year’s fry. Water temperatures at our local reservoirs are in the mid 70s, and the bass are feeding throughout the day. Early summer bass are active and scattered in all kinds of cover and structure where they can eat crawfish, perch, bluegill and shad. All of this means those who want to try their luck on bass can experiment with tried-and-true ...

Testing fishing truisms at Lake Erie

June 25, 2023

The afternoon sun burned a hole in the clouds as another classic fishing truism was about to be re-enacted. I pitched my jig to the end of the rock jetty as the sky brightened. It sank only a couple of feet before I felt the “tick” of the bite. The fuse was lit, so I set the hook and a three-pound smallmouth bass rocketed to the surface and cartwheeled across Lake Erie. It was exactly the aerial show I’d envisioned as I planned a visit to Erie last week with fishing buddy Ted Suffolk of Canfield. Experiences over the decades painted vivid pictures of what we might expect as ...

Father and son build special relationship through fishing

June 18, 2023

First fish, biggest fish, fun fish. All of them are special, but even more so when they are experienced with special people. As fishing buddies go, none are more special than dads, the fellows who thankfully introduced most of us anglers to the oohs and aahs of the sport we love. Today we salute our fathers and the values they instilled and the lessons they taught their sons and daughters. I am grateful Bob Wollitz is a fisherman who despite his many years of long hours of overtime at Packard Electric still made time to take his son fishing. Now 94, Dad’s “fishing” ...