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The wonders of West Branch Reservoir

My first West Branch Reservoir fishing trip ended with our boat 15 pounds lighter than it was when we left the dock that morning. Looking back on that fine spring day in 1977, I recognize how unfamiliar I was with the ways of reservoir fishing. I knew, based on reading, that 90% of the fish live in 10% of the water. But little did I know the fraction of suitable bass and crappie habitat was defined by cover. Cover includes stumps, and so it was that day in May more than 40 years ago that I got up close and personal with one of the numerous stumps on the bottom of West Branch ...

Second chance gave Lake Milton new life

One sunny morning more than a few years ago on Lake Milton, I spotted a surface commotion that begged for investigation. As the Bass Cat glided toward the splashes and ripples, I recognized the source of the fuss. It was a 6-inch smallmouth bass with a 5-inch yellow perch in its mouth. The bass and the perch were in a predicament. The smallie obviously bit off more than it could swallow, and the perch was too far into the bass’s mouth to wiggle free. It was a stalemate in the truest sense of the word. Both fish were doomed to die that day, either from exhaustion resulting from ...

The time spent learning to fish Mosquito Lake

My love-hate relationship with Mosquito Lake dates back to 1977, the year I began to widen my fishing horizon to include waters beyond the reach of the casts I could make from the banks of creeks and ponds. That was the year wife Barb and I went on a Saturday to Southern Park Mall to buy shoes and returned home with a brochure from one of the boat dealers displaying their gleaming fiberglass vessels in a spring’s-coming exhibit in the concourse. Smitten with the notion that we could own and operate a 16-foot tri-haul Arrowglass pushed by a 35-horsepower Johnson outboard, Barb and ...

Understanding the Sanders situation with Browns

It finally happened on Sunday evening. Shedeur Sanders got his shot at playing in a real NFL game. Sanders entered in the second half of the Cleveland Browns’ 23-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens after starting quarterback and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel was evaluated for a concussion. When it was announced on the CBS broadcast, the expected played out. Sanders has been a polarizing figure since his days playing at Colorado, so some fans believed he was about to get his shot to prove people wrong and others expected him to flop. The latter happened as he finished 4-of-16 passing ...

Time moves on, bringing changes to fishing and regional waters

One thing we anglers can count on is that change is inevitable for our lakes and rivers. The Berlin Reservoir of 45 years ago is considerably different from the Berlin of today. The same goes for Milton, Mosquito, West Branch, Pymatuning, Shenango and, well, you get the picture. Rivers and lakes everywhere ebb and flow every day and every season, changing as the seasons advance. Weather is a major factor. Age is another. Aquatic plants, water clarity, invasive species and a myriad of other factors contribute to our waters’ quality and productivity. It’s interesting to me ...

Remember the dangers while fishing

It’s a truth of human existence that when we put ourselves in harm’s way, bad things can happen. We don’t always get dinged, however, so we tend to dismiss the potential for danger in a trade-off for the fun and adventure that can be the reward when we step out of our comfort zones. Danger? Fun? You make the call. Consider fishing, for example. We can get up tomorrow morning, make some coffee and settle in front of the television to watch great sport without even leaving our driveways. Or we can pour steaming coffee in our traveler mug, hitch up the boat and drive up to ...