We also were able to get away for a few days after the holiday weekend and spent some time in Ocean City. It’s always nice to get away and relax and catch up on sleep every now and then.  The weather was beautiful in Ocean City as the ocean temp is still only 59 degrees the day time highs down there were in the mid to upper 70′s while here in Baltimore we understand it was in the 90′s.  After some good rest and relaxation it’s back to work and time start gearing up for hunting season as it is just 3 month away.

As we were heading home from Ocean City we drove past a grass hillside not too far from our house  and I saw a good size deer which already had antlers growing. They were just very thick spikes with what looked like it was just starting to split off to create the main beam of his antlers. They were only up just past his ears, but you could tell he was going to be a decent deer.

Makes me start thinking about hunting season and getting my gear out and start getting things fixed and tuned in to prepare for the upcoming season.   I plan to start these things over the coming weeks, in the meantime I have been doing some bass fishing in Loch Raven and the local rivers as I have had about enough of trout fishing for this year.

What is everyone else up to?  Are you vacationing?  Have you thought about getting your gear out yet?

Trout fishing is one of my favorite things to do, they fight decent, decent chance at catching a decent one since they now stock larger fish, and you normally catch fish!   I have probably caught 100+ fish this spring, maybe more.  I have had a ton of  fun and had some good meals as well as provided several family members with good meals.

Now that trout stocking is complete and the fish will slowly start to dwindle in numbers, I will start looking to find other things to catch for the summer months.

Soon, I will be turning my focus back to hunting as June is normally my month to get the bow out and start getting ready and getting back in the habit of shooting..  I also plan to write more for those who have noticed I have been slacking off, spring is always busy at work and this year I have been focusing more on fishing then hunting..  I never did make it out turkey hunting this year, but since last year was my first time out, I don’t feel I missed as much. However, next season I am looking forward to attempting to get out turkey hunting!

Has anyone been out turkey hunting or trout fishing?  Have you done any good?  Have you been doing some other kind of fishing or hunting?  Love to hear some stories or see some pictures!

While we were fishing this particular spot we noticed a large number of shad schooled up and swimming around in this spot.  They were all  probably 3 – 7 inches long and were in fact mostly just annoying. I think the large shad school was in fact spooking the trout.

After a little while longer we headed up stream to another location.   First cast I was able to catch another decent rainbow trout, we stayed here for the next hour and were able to see trout swimming around and we almost were constantly getting bites, not bad for mid-day two weeks after the last opening day.  I was able to land 3 more rainbow trout, 2 of which were very small and I let them go.   We only fished for about 2 hours and I was able to land 5 fish and keep 3, not a bad couple hours.

With stocking continuing over the next few weeks I will likely head out a few more times before I switch to summer time fishing.

Anyone else been out trout fishing lately?  How have you been doing?

So, I made my “last” cast.  Boy am I glad I did, shortly after it hit the water something hit it like a ton bricks and I set the hook and started reeling in. I quickly knew this wasn’t an average 12 – 14 inch rainbow but rather one of those slightly larger ones that they put in the river.  After it actually put up somewhat of a fight on my ultralight with 6 lb test line, I landed the fish.  I didn’t have my phone with me so I just took a picture of the fish before I cleaned them at home, but that last cast fish is as you can tell at the top in the picture below.  Measured 20 inches guessing between 2 – 3 lbs? maybe, but honestly not sure.  Made for a great meal for Amber and I though.

Sunday, I headed out trout fishing with a friend of mine and his son.  We went to further north spot on the Gunpowder as it looked like it would rain ( as it did) and we were not sure how hard it would rain so we wanted to be close to the car.  The day started out around 4:30 pm and like most days fishing, slow, there were people in the spots we intended to fish so we went to other spots near by.  My friends son caught a small rainbow after just two casts at our first hole, but that was it for a while.  A while later I was able to pick up one decent rainbow out from under a tree but with it starting to rain nothing seem to be biting.  It wasn’t until much later 6:30 – 7 that we started to get tired of the rain and headed toward the car, I said lets fish some of these spots that look less like pools but maybe are holding fish.  Well,  I was able to quickly pick up two trout, the first was very nice 18 inch rainbow the second an average 14 inch rainbow.  After that things started to slow down again so we kept walking, finally we found a pool where we could see several Palominos  swimming around so we figured we could give it a try… Nothing much would bite and finally my friend and his son gave up, one my last cast I was able to catch one more smaller rainbow and in told brought home 5 fish.  Not a great day, but certainly not a bad day. I didn’t think and had half the fish cleaned before I thought about a picture, so I lack pictures from Sunday, and plus it was raining so my phone was buried under a fishing vest and rain coat.. Sorry….

All and all not a bad year so far for me trout fishing, and I plan to try to get out one or two more times over the next couple weeks.

Have you been out trout fishing?  How did you do?

I also as a side note to this post  wanted to make a recombination, I normally take several different colors of Berkley’s Powerbait out with me trout fishing and switch back and forth depending on what the trout are biting. This year one color in particular has been on fire for me which I caught most of my fish on as well, so I wanted to pass that long.

Berkley Powerbait  with glitter in the color Sherbert. 

I also wanted to note that the second stocking for many streams in central Maryland is taking place this week and is the 4th and final closure for the spring trout fishing.  Saturday will be another exciting day of people heading out to catch some of those stocked trout. I will likely be one of those people and I too am excited between it being the last opening in my neck of the woods and the weather forecast calls for it to be nice.

I hope everyone will keep us updated with stories and photo’s from there fishing trips!

Below are a few photo’s of the fish I caught and a little info about them.

The smallmouth bass pictured above  was caught in a local river on a small Rapala jerk bait.  It was 13 inches long and weighted a little over a pound.  This fish was caught near a downed tree in late afternoon a couple weeks back as the water started warming.

Four casts later after catching the smallmouth bass above,  I caught the brown trout pictured below.  The brown hit the same small Rapala jerk bait from under the same tree that the smallmouth came from.  The brown trout was a little over 16 inches long.

Finally, the last picture is the most recent catch I have made which is from just today.

This very nice largemouth bass was caught just today 4/25/2013 at Loch Raven.  She was sitting on a spawning bed and what felt like hundreds, but was probably 30 to 40 casts before she hit.  I also changed plastics 3 times before she finally hit a red Senko.  I am guessing her weight right around 4lbs but I wanted to get her back in the water so I didn’t weigh her.  It was a lot of fun to watch her and make cast after cast too her before she finally took it. Plus it was fun to watch her suck the Senko in and she took off when I set the hook and was a blast to catch.

Well, with the nice weather forecast for this weekend I expect some good fishing stories to come from it.

Headed out this weekend?  Send us your fishing story and pictures!!

Tomorrow morning kicks off the start of the 2013 trophy Striped Bass season. I am sure for those whom are lucky enough to be heading out tomorrow they are chomping at the bit to get out there.  It is always a good time, and if you are lucky enough to hook up with one of the monster females it is a thrill, and a tasty meal later on!

Thousands of boats head out at or before sunrise to spend as much time and gas as it takes to troll around the bay in search of a trophy for each person on board. I am sure many will be successful and some will not be, but just spending some time on the water with friends and family motoring around makes it worth it.  If you are lucky enough to catch a Striped Bass that makes all the better.  The experience is what it’s really about and I could not think of a more pleasurable one.  I have some great memories of days spent trolling around enough know most ended with a less than favorable outcome.

I wish everyone heading out on the main channel of the bay tomorrow good luck and be safe as it looks as if they are calling for choppy conditions on the bay tomorrow after this cold front went through this evening.  :-(
If you do make it out tomorrow and are lucky enough to bring one of those trophies home, we would love to see some pictures! Leave a comment and attached a picture with it,  and again GOOD LUCK!

Turkey hunting is something fairly new to me, and as I live in the central part of the state there are less opportunities then in the western or eastern parts of the state.   Two of the local reservoirs offer bow only hunting for turkeys and they are Pretty Boy and Liberty reservoirs.  I know there are also a few places in Carroll county which offer turkey hunting with a firearm, however, they are done by a first come basis and with a sign-in sheet, due to the fact that this is a hike in the first place from my home to top it off I could be beat there and have no where to hunt I don’t commonly head over there.  However, I do know someone who does, and has told me there are birds in several of those locations just like anywhere they are hard to get on and get a shot.

Liberty and Pretty Boy Reservoirs hold smaller numbers of birds then other parts of the western and eastern part of the state, but enough to get out in the woods, hear some gobbling, and surely enough to try to get on one of them!

With work being crazy this time of year, I am not sure when or if I will be getting out into the woods after a turkey, but all of you will surely know if I do!

Anyone else getting out today, or this weekend?  I would love to hear of your experience and if you were lucky enough to harvest a turkey we would love to see some pictures!!!  Share them in a comment with us or send us an email.

Update:

Michael Sawyer left the blow comment, since we are having technical difficulties with the images being uploaded we wanted to go ahead and upload it here for everyone to see.  Congrats Michael awesome turkey!

Such a sad day, especially when a normally happy event is turned into a sad and tragic one for no reason.

Anyone else enjoying the weather?  Finally a few good warm days to get the fish out of the winter deep water hideaways.  Of course with it being early spring many of us that hunt also fish, and there are certainly more fishing opportunities right now then hunting.   Spring turkey season is just a couple weeks away but we will talk about that more later this week.  For now we look at all the fishing opportunities that are out there, from shad and perch, to spring trout fishing, to the lakes and ponds are coming alive with bass, crappie, bluegill, and even catfish.  On the bay side spring trophy rockfish season is just a couple weeks away!  Even crabbers are getting their gear out and dusted off ready for the arrival of the first good Maryland Blue Crabs of the season.

So many choices on what to go after and yet each one has it’s own positive aspect as well as challenge.  Me personally, I try to go after as many different fish as I can each year, of course with a few at the top of the list.   This season I have already been trout fishing several times including my opening day experience.  Just yesterday with the arrival of warm weather I went to a non-stocked stream that has native brook and brown trout in it and hooked two small brown trout but lost them before before I even got them out of the water.  I went bass fishing a few weeks back at Loch Raven when it was still cold, mostly to just get out and see if the equipment still worked (Nope didn’t catch anything).  The next several weeks will be action packed as bass will be spawning soon, trout season is in full swing and we have another opening day just around the corner.  Spring  Trophy rockfish season starts and for those lucky enough to make it out on the bay they might get one of the tasty trophies. ( as a side note, if you are heading out send us pictures of your rockfish, as I am jealous, haha)  Really, send us your pictures of no matter what your catch is this spring, summer whenever, we like to see what’s going on in the outdoors. For that matter just have a cook picture from camping, hiking, whatever it might be we would love to see!

As fishing season continues we will HOPEFULLY have pictures to share with you of the different fish we are able to catch and I am sure plenty of stories to go along with it .

One of those stories is from the other night,  I went out trout fishing it a friend of mine and his two sons,  I didn’t catch any trout and the other 3 only caught 1 fish.  Slow evening, but we just went out for a couple hours before sunset.   While we were on the river around 4:30 we had 6 deer come running to the top of the hill above us, they were clearly spooked, but still it was interesting to see them, and for a minute we all thought they might come running down the hill and cross the river right in front of us.  Then on the way home, we drove past a field that I normally see deer in and we slowed down just to see what was in the field, well no surprise there was at least 15 deer out feeding in the field from little to big.  Cannot wait for late July I’ll take a drive by that field nightly to see if any of those deer are a big boy!

Been out fishing lately?  What did you catch?

This year was no different, well other than WHERE is Spring??????  We dressed fairly warm but man it was cold. Water was very cold, probably high 30′s guessing of course.  Pretty sure I lost most feeling in my hands for a good 30 minutes.  Once we stopped fishing around 9 it took a good walk and some heat from the car for me to regain use of my fingers. Good thing I didn’t loose a hook I would never have been able to re- tie.   Spring please come soon!

It didn’t take long, my second cast I caught a fall fish also known as creek chub (Pictured Below), not what I was looking for and of course I returned it to the water.

Two casts later, my fourth cast I caught my first rainbow trout.  Probably about 12 inches long.  The next two hours were a lot of fun in total I caught 7 rainbow trout, which is pictured below, however, I apologize I did not get any pictures from this fishing trip of even pictures of the fish we kept due to the fact my phone with camera was under waders and how cold my hands were!  I also lost several more fish and of course had a ton of missed bites! sneaky trout!  My friend ended up catching 2 or 3 and lost a couple as well.  Overall, for fishing for a little over 2 hours not a bad day.  Between the two of us we kept 6 of the rainbow trout that were between 12 and 14 inches.

My last catch of the day was probably my most interesting, right as we were deciding it was just too cold and we needed to go warm up I hooked one last fish, as I was reeling in the fish I realized this wasn’t a rainbow trout or a fall fish but rather a palomino trout (pictured below).  These are somewhat new to Maryland waters as I believe they have only been stocking them in central Maryland for a couple of years in small numbers.  I caught one of these many years ago in PA, but never caught one in Maryland while fishing.  They sure are bright and fight a little harder, at least I think he did.  But upon reeling him in I saw I had a perfect lip hook and he was only about 10 inches long so I decided to let him go for someone else to catch.  Pretty fish and something different to add to my list of fish I have caught this year.  Plan to keep track of just what I catch this year and will be sharing throughout fishing season!

From now on I will try to get my own pictures of the fish I catch to share in my posts!

Did anyone else get out yesterday or today for that matter for opening weekend of trout season?  How did you do?  Have any stories or pictures to share? we would love to see or hear about your experience!