I'm excited to be the newest member of the Penn Fishing Team. Let's get right into a fishing report! I spent the last 3 days practicing and participating in the PA Bass Federation Western Team Regional fishing for the Bassmasters of Crawford County team. The event was held on the always beautiful Erie Bay. I must say, fishing was tough with a capital T. Smallmouth bass inhabit the bay from April though early July when they move in to spawn. The spawn is now over and the smallmouths are transitioning back to main Lake Erie. 2 weeks ago it was smallmouth city,  anglers are still getting some bronzebacks, but bites were few and far between forcing many to target largemouth to fill limits. With the tournament limit being 4 fish of 15" minimum, I felt lucky to have 3 on day one of the tournament. Of the 3 I weighed in, 2 were bronzebacks and 1 was a largemouth. Unfortunately, I did have my limit fish hooked twice but due to the acrobatic nature of these smallmouths, I lost both on jumps. I mainly fished a drop shot rig with various small plastics, worms, craws, goby style baits. I did manage one keeper largemouth on a spinnerbait in the shallows. I did quite a bit of weed fishing targeting deep weeds with craw style baits and a flippin stick. That produced several non keeper largemouth and several bites that when I set the hook I was rewarded with nothing back but my hook and weight. I still can't figure those out! The northern pike were also biting and I hooked at least 4 in the heavy weeds, talk about a fight! After day 1 I sat in 9th place and 9th was the last positon which a PA Bass Federation Championship berth would be awarded.
Day 2 started the same as the first, fishing deeper for smallmouths. They just didn't cooperate for me but I did manage to boat a keeper largemouth on the drop shot. I again went to my deep weeds and could only manage non legal largemouth. With the wind picking up, I went back to deep smallmouth areas and was rewarded with a 2.91 lb largemouth. Sadly, that was it for me and I weighed in 2 keeper largemouth on day 2. I managed to stay in 9th place overall and did earn a berth to the Championship. My team ended up in 2nd place earning us $780. Not a bad finish on what was a tough fishery for many.

In the coming weeks I hope to post reports on the Allegheny River, Chautauqua Lake, and Lake Wilhelm. Check back often for my outings and feel free to e-mail me with any questions or advice.