This was one of two nice brown trout that I landed on Tuesday evening. They are already starting to show their beautiful orange and yellow colors.

The day before my friend and co-worker Brian Neal and I decided we would try to get a couple of hours of fishing in on Little Mahoning after work on Tuesday. It was a great plan until I got held up a bit after my meeting in Pittsburgh, and then ran into construction and traffic on the way home. I had to decide on the fly if I was going to have to cancel our outing, or do my best to get to the stream by 6 p.m. Since I was thinking about getting more time on the water all day, I decided I would suck it up and make the trip. Because we were going to Little Mahoning, it made it about a two-hour trip for about two hours of fishing.

A quick stop at the house to take care of the dogs and grab my gear and a stop for bait at Streamside Supply was all that stood in my way from getting to the stream. We timed it perfectly because Brian was right behind me as we drove to our agreed upon spot. Just before we got to the stream, I noticed a pheasant rooster and hen in the field on my left. What a beautiful sight! They looked like a mated pair, which is a pretty rare find in western Pennsylvania. Then, just a few hundred yards further, I spotted a hen turkey waking along a field edge. I was already thanking myself for “going the extra mile.”

The fishing wasn’t great at first. We started where I caught the two golden rainbows on Saturday, but couldn’t manage a bite. I decided to walk upstream to where I found a long and deep hole during my scouting trip on Friday. I figured if nothing else maybe I could pull out a smallmouth or sucker to keep myself entertained. Although I was fishing for trout, I’m happy to catch anything, and it looked like it was going to be one of those equal opportunity days for the fish. After a few flips with a redworm, I hooked a good fish at the end of the pool. I quickly realized it was a nice brown trout, and took care not to lose him during the retrieve. A few casts later yielded another nice brownie, which I considered to be icing on the cake of a great afternoon. Both fish were longer than 12 inches, and provided a good fight.

Eventually Brian had to leave to water plants at his house, which might be one of the saddest reasons to stop fishing I’ve heard, haha. He’s a new home owner and is finding out what that entails. This left me to my own devices for the remainder of the trip. Although I didn’t catch another trout, I did catch a large sucker, which I estimated to be about 18 inches long. As the fish swam back into the pool I realized that it would be dark soon and decided to pack up and head home. As I drove away, I had to stop so five deer could cross the road in front of me. What a way to cap a great evening. Not only did I catch two trout and one sucker, I got to see pheasants, a turkey, and a group of deer. One thing is for sure, I can’t recall a single thing from work yesterday that frustrated me. Thanks again Little Mahoning.

I was all smiles after landing two trophy golden rainbow trout on the opening day of the 2010 trout season in Pennsylvania.

I took a walk along the stream on Friday and spotted four nice golden rainbow trout in an area that I never fished before on opening day. Since I didn’t know anything about this particular spot on Little Mahoning Creek, I figured I better get out early in case there was going to be a crowd. Admittedly I wanted to catch one of these four fish because of their uniqueness, and of course, size.

I decided to stop at Wal-Mart on my way out because I don’t own a stringer and I thought if I was lucky enough to land one of the big fish, it would certainly come in handy. I rarely keep trout because they’re not the greatest for dinner, but catching one of these trophies would mean a trip to the taxidermist. Despite having to stop, I arrived at the stream at 6 a.m. as planned. I was happy to see that I was the first person there, so getting the spot I picked out the day before looked promising. Sure enough I had the stream to myself and got to enjoy watching several trout rising to take flies off of the surface as the sun came up. As the morning grew brighter, I could see one of the golden rainbows out in front of me about 30 feet away. Due to the rain the night before clouding the water a bit, I couldn’t see the fish nearly as well. I could only make out the faint glimmer of orange as daylight reflected off of the water.

It wasn’t until well after 7:00 a.m. before a few more fishermen arrived. I was shocked at how few people there were. I was questioning wheter or not is was actually opening day! When the four older gentlemen arrived at just two minutes before the 8:00 a.m. starting time, they made up the last of the eight people fishing in the area.

I decided to try a meal worm first as opposed to a minnow. Golden rainbows aren’t big minnow fans, so I figured I would start with the meal worm, then switch to a white salmon egg, and finally a red worm. After several casts with the meal worm, I never phased the fish. I tried a few more times with a salmon egg, but still nothing. I decided to try plan C and throw out a red worm. Still, cast after cast drifted by with no response. Then, for whatever reason, the giant trout decided he had enough of this pesky worm drifting by and she decided to strike. The fight was on, and I knew my 4 pound line was going to face a stiff challenge. After about a five-minute fight, I landed the fish without incident. I couldn’t believe how fat it was as I hurriedly put it on my stringer before it flopped back into the water. No matter how the rest of the day went, I was going to be satisfied.

A fellow across the stream caught the second largest golden rainbow in the pool, so I thought at the time. Around 10:00 a.m., he yelled across the stream to tell me that he had his line broken by a bigger one than he already caught. I have no idea where this fish came from, but it was clear that there was still a really great fish out there.

Eventually the guys across the stream left and a man with his wife and son worked their way in my direction. They fished just below me and I could hear them talking about a “palomino,” which is what most people mistakenly call a golden rainbow. Still, I was only focused on fishing in front of me, while trying to stay warm. I landed a decent brookie and two smallmouth bass on minnows, and at that point I was satisfied that it had been a good day. I decided to throw one more cast before packing up. I heaved my minnow as far as I could and let it drift downstream below my location. At the end of the drift I started to retrieve my minnow when the woman below me said, “That fish is chasing your…,” when all of the sudden I felt my line straighten. I set the hook not knowing what was on the end of the line and the giant golden rainbow surfaced, sending chills down my spine. I wasn’t comfortable with how well I set the hook, so the battle raged on for more than ten minutes. When he got close to the bank I could see the hook lodged just on the outside of his jaw. I finally played him out and got him onto the bank with the help of the nice people fishing nearby.

I knew immediately he was longer than the first one that I caught, and now I had a dilemma. I only thought about it for a few seconds before deciding to keep both trout to take to the taxidermist. I figured it would be very unlikely that I would have a day quite like this on the creek again, and no matter what the cost, it would be worth memorializing it in a special way. After a few photos, I lugged the fish all the way back to my truck and put them in my wader container so that I could keep them cold and in water. I stopped at the local bait store, Streamside Supply, to have them weighed and measured for a Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission citation award. Both trout qualified by being over five pounds, but I learned that you can only register one fish of the same species per calendar year.

I had my fish measured for citation status at Streamside Supply. The first fish I caught was 22 3/4" long, weighed 6 lbs., 13 ounces. It had a 15" girth. The second trophy trout was 24 1/2" long and weighed 6 lbs., 1 ounce. It had a 12.5" girth.

I’ve had some great fishing memories over the years, but nothing quite like this. I have a feeling I’ll be comparing any future good days I have to this one for many years to come. And now that I think about it, it looks like if I get a trophy gobbler this spring I may have to skip the idea of getting it mounted now that I have quite an investment in my two fish. On the bright side, I know Angela would gladly swap two beautiful golden rainbow trout for a scary looking turkey any day!

I was asked to conduct a seminar at an event called Sportsman’s Saturday, which is being sponsored by Pennsylvania State Representative Mike Reese who serves the 59th legislative district. You can find more information about the event here. Apparently I was referred to them from somebody who heard me speak at one time or another, which is pretty neat. Because the weather is going to be pretty nice, I decided to do a “hands on” seminar on tree stand placement and safety. I plan to take both a climbing stand and a hang-on stand so that I can demonstrate both techniques. I will cover everything from stand placement to wind direction consideration, and most importantly, safety.

Believe it or not, I still know people who do not wear a safety harness, and it blows my mind. If I can convince just one person to start using a harness at the seminar, it will be well-worth my time. I’m even going to give away three harnesses that came with various tree stands that I purchased over the years. Now that’s a deal! Unfortunately, the vast majority of hunting-related injuries are the result of tree stand mishaps. Every year we see stories in the news about hunters who fall from stands, often times to their death. There is almost correlation to age, meaning accidents happen at about the same rate among younger and older hunters.

A 1993 survey conducted by Deer and Deer Hunting magazine found that more than a third [37%] of tree stand hunters will at some time fall from a stand, and that about 3 % will suffer crippling injuries. Of all the tree stand accidents, 75-80% occurs while climbing up or down. Most hunters injured were not wearing a safety harness/vest. Some reports have indicated that as many as 500 hunters are killed every year across North America due to accidents involving tree stands. There are another 5,000 to 7,000 permanently disabled and a further 10,000 to 15,000 hunters sustain less serious injuries.

The goal of my seminar will be to leave those in the audience convinced that “It can happen to me.” It only takes a split-second for a misplaced step to result in an uncontrollable fall, which can lead to life changing injuries, or even death. The simple act of wearing a safety harness can mean the difference between life and death. For more information on tree stand safety as well as a short on-line safety course, visit this excellent website:  http://tmastands.com/