Scott Lattea's Blog

Brook Trout Fishing

2010-05-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

Weekend Fishing

2010-04-29T16:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my father-in-law Rich and his family had their annual fishing trip to the mountains. They all left on Wensday and were staying until Saturday but I had to work until Thursday. As soon as I got off work, I packed my bags and headed for the mountains with Tom Byers. We stopped at Glady Fork and did a little fishing there. We found the water to be very low and the fish were few and spokey. I managed to hook two rainbows on a little zebra nymph but I didn't land them. We thought about heading over the mountain to the North Fork Catch and Release area but knew that every minute that we spent driving would be a minute that we didn't get to fish. Because of the little time we had left to fish, we didn't leave Glady until late and didn't get to the cabin until well after dark. Once at the cabin, we learned that the North Fork Catch and Release had just been stocked that day. We were kicking ourselves after that but at least we could go there in the morning.

After a long night of poker playing, Friday morning came early and we were off to find some stockers. We hit the North Fork C&R fairly early but found someone in our favorite hole when we got there. We call this hole "The Honey Hole" or "Tom's Honey Hole" because there are always fish there. This is a really small but deep spot that holds lots of fish. Only two to three people can fish this hole at a time but four of five of us fished it all day, taking turns and catching lots of fish. I ended up with 16 fish for the day and I had the least amount of fish between us.

Saturday we ended up back at "The Honey Hole" and caught a few before eating lunch and then heading back towards home. Dan and I explored a few new places on the way home, stopping at Otter Creek and then and little brook trout stream that he knew about. We didn't catch any fish but had a good time exploring. I can't wait to get bakc up there and do some more hiking and fishing.

Fishing pictures

2010-04-29T16:19:00.001-07:00

Let is Snow

2010-02-06T14:28:00.001-08:00

Well we got a lot of snow here last night and today. I spent most of the morning shoveling it all out of the driveway. Now that the driveway is clear I can sit around and relax a little bit.

Dale Jr. almost won the pole for the Daytona 500 but just missed it. He will sit on the front row though with his team mate Mark Martin. The Bud Shootout is tonight at 8 and the ARCA race is on and has a local kid from Shinnston in it. Should be a good evening.

December Already?

2009-12-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, this blog thing got away from me a little bit. I planned on posting some pictures of my trip out to Yellowstone when I got back. That was September, and it is not December. I had a great trip out west, caught a lot of fish and I am sure that most anyone who is looking at this has already seen the pics by now so I will not waste time posting them.

Since then I have only been fishing a couple of times, both to Erie, PA for steelhead. The first trip was to early and the fishing sucked, the second trip was ok but not as good of fishing as usual. I am still waiting to get back up there.

I hunted several days of Buck season (which is still in) and ended up shooting a 4 point after passing on a nice 6 point and another unknown smaller deer. I still have my extra buck stamp, two doe stamps, muzzleloader season, a possible bow kill, and a bear stamp to look forward to. We actually have a bear hunt planned, although I don't know how great of a chance we have because I have never hunted for bear.

I should be posting more often now that I have gotten back into the swing of things.

Scott

No fishing here!

2009-08-11T19:11:00.001-07:00

Nothing new going on here. I have not been fishing since May!!!! This weekend, Amy and I are taking Carley up to PA to Storybook Forest and I hope to be able to sneak over to Latrobe PA to the Steelers training camp in the evening and check out what is going on over there.

On the 21st, I am heading west with my good friend Rob and his Dad. We are headed to Yellowstone for 10 days of fly fishing at its finest. I promise to keep the blog updated of my activities while there and to post some pics of the fish we catch. Until then, there will not be any fishing reports here.

Scott

Valley Falls

2009-06-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

Got out a little bit on Saturday looking for something to do. We ended up driving to Valley Falls State Park near Fairmont. We had never been to Valley Falls before but I am sure that we will go back. There are some nice looking hiking trails there and I know that there is a geocache or two there that I could get as well.

Gold Trout Video

2009-05-18T09:57:00.001-07:00

Gold Trout

2009-05-18T08:59:00.001-07:00

Sat pics

2009-05-16T21:18:00.001-07:00

Picture from the Nuntahala River

Sat May 16

2009-05-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

Got up today and went to the Nantahala river in NC. The water there was very murky but we found trout right away in the slow water. I caught two brookies right quick and Jimmy was catching fish too but his brother Jeff had not caught a fish yet although he had hook up several times yesterday and today. Jeff decided to get out his spinning rod and use a spinner, which opened him up to some great jokes. Jeff ended up catching two nice brook trout right away which kept us from riding him too hard. I ended up catching 4 trout at the Nantahala before we left at noon and went back to Cherokee.

In the afternoon we went back to the trophy section and an area that Jeff and Jimmy had fished the day before and said had lots of big fish. There were several gold trout visible when we arrived at the hole but we had to cross the river to fish it. The water is up a little bit even though the water is clear and the crossing was tough. I almost went down and was laughing about that when Jeff, who was behind me, headed back to the near bank. Jimmy and I made it across and started fishing when Jeff decided to make another try at the crossing upstream. Then I hear Jeff yell for help and see him either taking a swim or a quick bath, I am still not sure which.

It was a short time later that I hooked a really nice 20" gold trout. Jimmy was beside me and was able to video the whole thing. It was the best trout of the trip so far and was worth the trip down here. I didn't catch another fish after the gold today. Rain set in just before dark and it has been raining ever since. Hopefully the water will be ok to fish in the morning.

Friday pics

2009-05-16T18:59:00.001-07:00

Friday May 15

2009-05-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Woke up early and headed off to the Cherokee Trophy Trout section. This is supposed to be a fly fishing, catch and release only area that some big fish are stocked in. We got there early and fished hard, catching some fish but the big ones eluded us in the morning. I went to move the car down to another hole and accidentally rolled the window up on my new 5wt Orvis rod. I was mad at first but then did what any good fly fisher would do and got out the 3wt and went after those big boys.

Jeff did end up finding a Winston 4wt rod in the river with a Ross reel on it. It looked like it had been in there for a few days but it was still in good shape. I took this as a gift from the fishing gods since my rod got broken. :)

We never caught a big fish out of the trophy section but that was ok. We moved up river to fish for some wild trout and I ended up catching a wild rainbow and a wild brown. I only needed a native brookie for a trout slam but it was not ment to be and the brook trout, like the huge fish in the trophy section eluded me again.

Off to Cherokee!

2009-05-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well I am off to Cherokee NC this weekend to do some more fly fishing, much to the disapproval of my wife who said it was ok before but now realizes that I will be gone for two weekends in a row. Heh Heh!! Love you honey! Yea I will be paying for this one for a while but a trip to Cherokee and the new fly fishing only trophy trout section might be worth it. I plan on updating this while I am there if I have time so check back if you can.

Scott

May 9th

2009-05-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

We got up today, left the cabin and headed for home, but not without stopping by another stream to catch some fish. Today it was Gandy Creek. Didymo was a real problem here. It was my first time seeing this stuff and it got caught on my fly hooks and I had to clean it off quite a bit. I did manage to hook a nice little rainbow and fought it through some riffles until it came off. I also caught a little brook trout and then right before we left for the day, I hooked and landed a very nice Brookie that appeared to be native. It had a black mouth and a nice red belly but before I could snap a picture, he slipped out of my hand and was gone.

There would have been more pictures but I forgot the waterproof camera at home and all the rain and wet weather would not have been good for the other camera that had brought with me so I left it in the car a lot.

May 8th

2009-05-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

Fished the West Fork of the Greenbrier River today. It is a small but beautiful stream. Water conditions were up of course but I was able to manage 3 rainbows to the net. There was a big stonefly hatch around 2 o'clock but I did not see any fish rising. When I got back to the car, Rich and Brad both said they caught fish on dry flies. I then spotted one fish rising near where the car was parked so I had to try and catch it. I tied on a small caddis fly and cast to it. As the drift went by I watched a rainbow come up look at the fly and take it. I waited then set the hook, felt a tug on the line, and then the fly came out of the water and that quick it was over. That smart little rainbow never gave me a second chance even though I must have cast to him 30 more times.

May 7th

2009-05-12T19:08:00.001-07:00

May 7th was spent fishing on the East Fork of the Greenbrier river and Upper Shavers. The East Fork was a new steam for me and I managed to pull a brook trout out of there in some high water. We then moved to Upper Shavers Fork where the water was much higher and the fly rod was no good. Our friend Bill Vore managed to catch 6 trout right in front of us using a spinner and I was quick to head back to the car to fetch my spinning rod. It was raining and I had a rain jacket on with the hood up and was walking some railroad tracks back to the parking spot when all of the sudden a frightening sound came from right behind me. It was the sound of a train whistle. It sounded like the train was about to run me over and without looking I jumped off the tracks and onto the hill beside me, turned around in time to see the train coming out of a turn and headed right my way. The train was farther away then I thought thankfully and as it passed the woman running it smiled and waved as she passed knowing that she scared the begeezes out of me. I am sure that there is some kind of point game between them that they get points every time they scare a fisherman. I just hope that scaring a fly fisherman gives them more points than a spin fisher. :) Oh and BTW I did manage to catch a few rainbows on a spinner that day after I retrieved my spin rod.

More Photos

2009-05-12T19:06:00.001-07:00

May 6th pics

2009-05-12T19:02:00.001-07:00

May 6th

2009-05-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

Had a fishing trip planned for Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Sat. but mother nature decided to give us a hard time. After raining for days including about 2 inches of rain on Monday, I knew our trip was not going to include catching a bunch of fish.

On the way up to our cabin, we stopped and checked several streams, only to find them all high and muddy as expected. The sun was out though and that gave us a little glimmer of hope that the water would come down and we could fish some on Thursday.

I had been looking at a mountain trail called the North Fork Mountain Trial for some time on the Internet. This trail has some of the most beautiful views in West Virginia and the high unfishable waters made it the perfect time to go hiking up on the mountain and not miss any fishing time.

I started on the Landis trail about 1115 AM and hiked uphill for an hour before reaching the ridge line on the top of the mountain. The trail started out being like a normal walk in the woods but the farther up I went the more rocky and steep the path became until I reached the top. Once on top I found some nice camping spots and and the trail followed the ridge and had paths that split off of it and went out on the rocks cliffs that gave spectacular view of the mountains nearby.

The main attraction in this section of the trail is a place called Chimney Rock. This area offers an almost 360 view of the area. I was not disappointed at all with the view and can say that the view is well worth the hike. There is also a geocache at chimney rock which was a bonus. (if you don't know what a geocache is check out www.geocaching.com for info)

I did not go back down the mountain the way I came but instead followed the trail North which lead me down the mountain a different way offering more breath taking views and I even spotted a bald eagle flying by. I took time to eat some lunch and just sit there and feel like I was on top of the world. I finally made it back to the bottom of the mountain about 4 hours after the trip started with some great pictures and a hike that I will never forget. I'll post some pics of the hike as soon as I can.

Scott

Man's best friend and The Casselman

2009-04-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

Well this morning I had to take my dog, Abby, to the vet in Morgantown to have surgery done on her leg. Abby has to spend the night there and I knew it just would not be the same at home without her so to offset some of the bad, I went fishing today..kind of a yin for the yang so to speak. I got directions to a river in Maryland called The Casselman that is catch and release trout fishing and it was only about 50 miles from Morgantown. There I found a huge stone bridge that dates back to 1813. The area is full of old building such as a mill and some houses that look to be from the 1800's as well.

It was raining today and the water was cloudy and seemed to be rising a little and that made the whole river look like it could hold trout. I had to fish every bit of water to find the fish but it seems that this river was full of trout as I did not have a hard time finding them. ( I would like to think it was my superior fishing skills but really I know better) I landed 8 fish before I took a break for lunch around 2 o'clock. I quick bite to eat and a call from home saying that Abby was fine and resting after her surgery, and I was back to fishing again in the rain. I landed 4 more trout before calling it a day and quiting early to head for home. All in all it was a good day, even if my buddy was not there to greet me when I got home, she will be tomorrow. It also looks like I have found a pretty good spot to fish near Morgantown also.

Pittsburgh

2009-04-14T20:40:00.001-07:00

I got off work early on Tuesday and when I came home, Amy suprised me with a spur of the moment trip to Pittsburgh to do some shopping. We actually left Carley with Amy's mother for the night and spent the night in Pittsburgh without her. It was Amy's first night away from Carley ever. After an evening at the mall and a movie, we hit the hotel which had a cool view of the Three Rivers. Wed came early (even though we got to sleep in till 9am for once) and we made a trip over to the Duquesne Incline which will take you up a big hill for an awsome view of Pittsburgh. Neither Amy or I had ever done this and it was something that we had always wanted to do while there but never had. I would recommend this to anyone who has never done it. After that, I had to head home so that I could go back to work (bummer). Here are a couple of pics from today.

Still working on this blog thing.

2009-04-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well I changed my blog to a new layout and now I have messed up my pictures. I will be working to figure this out. In the meantime, be patient with me. LOL

2009-03-26T04:27:00.000-07:00

Steel fishing

2009-03-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

Steelhead season is winding down all along steelhead alley and these giant rainbows will be heading back to lake Erie until fall. This past weekend gave me a chance to make a day trip to Erie, Pa and fish for them before they are gone. One of my brother deputies, Ben, made the trip with me and we quickly found some fish at the Rick Road access site but the water level was low and clear and the fish were pretty skiddish. I managed to land a few in the morning and Ben hooked up a few times although he was not able to get anything to the bank. We took a break for lunch and then moved down to the lower Elk Creek Access to see if we could find some better water. The water conditions were about the same there but we were able to do a little bit better as I landed a few more fish and Ben landed three fish down there. We left Erie around 6PM and headed back towards WV, satisfied with the success of the day but in Erie, success brings the urge to catch more steelhead and I am already thinking of one more trip to Erie before the warm weather flushes the steelhead out of the creeks for summer.

Deer Season

2008-12-01T19:35:00.001-08:00

Killed a little 8 point on the second day of gun season here in West Virginia. The very next day I came down with some kind of flu or sickness. It was terrible and can honestly say that I have never been that sick before. I am over it now and trying to get back into the woods for another shot at a nice deer.

2008-11-23T20:08:00.000-08:00

Went fishing up in Erie PA this week. I was there with Rich, Jeff Petroski, and his brother Jimmy. The fishing was great. I caught this nice 11lb 7 ounce male steelhead. I am probably going to get it mounted because I have been wanting one to put on the wall and this was the prettiest steelhead I have ever seen. The picture does not do it justice. The weather was very cold up there this week but it was worth fighting the cold to catch the fish. In all, I landed 26 steelhead in three days. Not bad at all. Now I am back home and getting ready for the opening of rifle season tomorrow. Hope to put a big deer on here as well.

Scott