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The deep gorge of the Middle Allegheny River evolved from glacial action thousands of years ago, but Mother Nature still plays tricks out there today. Such as the surprising and powerful upstream headwinds that five of us encountered last Saturday in Warren County during a 10-mile float for smallmouth bass.
Even when little or no breeze occurs above the shoreline, we always experience wind in our faces on the water. Sometimes it feels like a wind tunnel effect, as the river somehow inhales strong gusts upstream against the downstream water currents.
“Look at that,” my boat-mate Gary said, pointing to a bend in the river downstream and a tall, steep hillside there that should have blocked the breezes. “How can it be so windy way down here under the mountains?”
Shortly afterwards, we entered a straightaway near Thompson Island, and the headwinds really kicked in. White-capped waves actually formed on the surface, and the five of us, in two canoes and a kayak, stopped fishing and dug our paddles in, just to make progress downstream. Two miles short of Camp F-Troop, we abandoned the float trip and put in at Conklin Run, and Gary volunteered to walk down to camp to fetch a vehicle. “Next time I’ll bring an electric trolling motor!” he yelled back at us as he set out along the dirt road.
Earlier in the day, though, the winds were calmer, and we did some serious angling. We put in at Black Creek, 10 miles up from camp, with Todd and Billy in their Gander Mountain canoe, Gary and me in my battered and bent old Sportspal 16-footer and Brett in a borrowed kayak. We paddled downstream and steered to the narrower flows around islands, where we often encountered the fast runs and deep pools that hold gamefish. We beached our watercraft several times that morning and got out and fished.
I caught the first bass, a small fish on a big lure, but Gary caught the most. On Friday he had visited Wal-Mart and bought a Mepps Comet spinner with a soft plastic minnow attached. “That’s a strange-looking lure,” I told him Saturday morning, but he caught six or seven smallies with it anyway, some of them good-sized.
Todd, Billy and I stuck mostly with our favorite Rapala lures and Frenzy Minnow crankbaits and tossed them into the currents and eddies time after time. We each landed two or three fish, not counting Todd’s “big one that got away.” He hooked a lunker in a deep run and battled the fish for five minutes until the line tightened and snapped. Billy and Todd both gave out a disappointed groan, but one minute later, the fish reappeared. It leaped into the air three feet from Brett’s nearby kayak and displayed an orange Frenzy Minnow lure loosely attached to its lip. At the peak of its jump, the big smallmouth spit the lure and then plunged back into the river. “At least 17 or 18 inches long,” Brett estimated. “Probably more than two pounds.”
But there was one more big fish yet to come. Across from the mouth of Thompson Run, Brett found some deep water below a shoreline of big boulders. He chunked in a big spinnerbait — which I think is an alien-looking whirligig contraption of a lure — again and again into the dark green waters and finally hooked a big fish that pulled him and his light kayak along the surface. But the fish eventually tired and Brett boated him. It turned out to be a 17-inch walleye that we tossed into a cooler and later pan-fried and snacked on over our evening campfire.
Right after the walleye catch, though, the big winds came, and our fishing day was over.
Good luck out there, and have a great week outdoors.
Don Feigert is the outdoors writer for THE HERALD and the ALLIED NEWS. His latest book, The F-Troop Camp Chronicles, and his earlier books are available by contacting Don at 724-931-1699 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Visit his Website at www.donfeigert.com.
Sports
Related Photos
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Two F-Troop fishermen beach their canoe on an island to fish the riffle.
Outdoors: Paddling into the Allegheny River headwind
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WM baseball, Sharpsville and Wilmington softball playing for D-10 titles
Sharpsville and Wilmington softball teams and the West Middlesex baseball squad return to the diamond today to compete for District 10 championships.
SOFTBALL
Class A Championship
Coach Bob Zikovich's Sharpsville Blue Darlings (15-2) battle a tough Saegertown (18-2) squad at 2 p.m. today at Penn State-Behrend in Erie. -
PIAA Track Notebook: KC's Wareham made round trips to "The Ship"
The most impressive race during this weekend’s PIAA Track & Field Championships did not take place at Shippensburg University, nor will you read its results in any newspaper on or any web site.
To be sure, it was a race against time, but not in the sense of being defined by a coach’s hand-held device, nor Seth Grove Stadium’s scoreboard clock. -
Hickory girls grab PIAA Class AA Track team title
SHIPPENSBURG — This news bulletin just in: Mercer County athletes dominated during this weekend’s PIAA Track & Field Championships.
Nothing new there, you say? Well, perhaps you’re correct, considering how well the area aggregation annually accounts itself on Memorial Day Weekend at Shippensburg University. Therefore it was not surprising how much hardware was hauled home — once again. -
PIAA Track: Hickory's Bell, Lubarski, Regginello grab gold
SHIPPENSBURG — There’s a big difference between being seeded 1st and finishing 1st — Matt Bell can attest to that.
After settling for silver last year, the Hickory High senior put the shot 59 feet, 6 3/4 inches Friday afternoon to garner gold at the annual PIAA Track & Field Championships at Shippensburg University. -
WM to play for D-10 baseball title; GC, Sharon, Sharpsville lose
Four area baseball teams were in action on Friday in the District 10 semifinals as the squads battled to compete for District 10 championships on Monday.
West Middlesex rolled past error-prone Linesville, 8-0, in Class A action at Slippery Rock University’s Jack Critchfield Park.
In Class AA, both Sharon and Sharpsville suffered 2-1 losses. The Tigers fell to Saegertown at Ainsworth Field in Erie while the Blue Devils lost to Titusville at SRU.
In Class AAA, the Grove City Eagles were denied the chance to defend their D-10 crown after suffering a 6-3 loss to Warren at SRU. -
Farrell volleyball falls in D-10 semifinals
The Farrell High boys volleyball team suffered a 2-0 (25-15, 25-12) loss to Saegertown on Thursday night in the District 10 semifinals at Meadville Area High’s “House of Thrills.”
“This was the first year we made it out of the first day (pool play) of the playoffs,” said Steelers’ coach Dan Dragicevic. “I’d like to cite my seniors (Eric Demus, Anthony Perkins, Jaylen Chambers and Lawrence Hughes). -
Locals ready to go for gold at Shippensburg
Now that Mercer County is on the map, it’s incumbent upon the area aggregation to chart a course for the ultimate destination — Seth Grove Stadium’s medals stand — during this weekend’s PIAA Track & Field Championships.
Led by West Middlesex High sprinter Clay Allen, many Mercer Countians are seeded at or near the top of their respective events for the annual 2-day marathon at Shippensburg University, which commences 9 a.m. Friday. It will continue beginning 9 a.m. Saturday. -
D-10 Playoffs: Local teams go 6-for-6
ä Grove City 1, Harbor Creek 0 — At Slippery Rock University’s Jack Critchfield Park, what the Grove City Eagles couldn’t accomplish themselves, the Harbor Creek Huskies unwittingly did for them.
Unable to plate runs themselves, Torin Smith scored the Eagles’ only run when teammate Tyler Devine’s seeming inning-ending pop-up to left field was dropped by Harbor Creek’s Chris Merritt in the bottom of the 7th inning of Tuesday’s tourney opener. -
Great year for WM track; local qualifiers listed
It’s been a big year for the Big Reds.
Though there’s no official documentation, the 2011-12 academic year may be the most successful in West Middlesex High’s athletic annals. -
SPORTVIEW: Local names Kroko, Lutz, Kareklas in news elsewhere
IT’S ALWAYS GOOD to hear of former area people who have gone on to athletic success in other areas, or the family of former area residents. Following are a few of those stories:
ä Bob and Betty Kroko of Sharon are avid followers of professional baseball. No, not necessarily the Pittsburgh Pirates or Cleveland Indians like many local fans.
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