This was a really cool fishing trip that Austin & his Dad, John, Joe Yancy, and I went on. We stayed in a cabin that was right on the bank of the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River in Pendleton County. We fished the North Fork, the Smoke Hole, and several other streams, tributaries, and lakes on this trip. We lucked out on the weather that week and many trout were caught, John eating several of them. We also got to see and do many interesting things like hiking to the top of Seneca Rocks and mountain biking Dolly Sods. The planets really lined up for us on this trip. In addition to the great weather the rivers were just right, being too high and swift to fish the week before we arrived and week after we left, trout had been stocked the week before we got there, as well as, the week we were there, and to top it all off the Mountaineers won the NIT national championship that week, which we were fortunate enough to be able to watch in the evening when the fishing was done.
Bluestone Lake is one of the nicest natural resources that we have in Summers County. I never had much opportunity to fish it growing up as access to the Lake requires a boat of some kind. Fortunately for me I married into a family that has camped and boated on the lake for generations. In addition my good friend Austin bought a bass boat and has been gracious enough to take me on several trips. You can catch all kinds of different fish fro
m bluegills and crappie to largemouth and smallmouth to stripers and catfish, not to mention a variety of other species. I've even got to turkey hunt a couple of times from the boat, although I'm yet to bag one. I've caught and been with people who have caught a wide variety of fish on this lake. I saw Austin's dad, on two different occasions, hook into a monster musky only to have it shake the hook before he could land it. Big game fishing is cool, but one of my favorite things to do is to go up there and bluegill fish. It's great when summer is at its zenith and it's too hot to catch anything else. There are always plenty of bluegill ready to cooperate.
