# Moderator On Vacation!



## Manayunk Jake (Oct 3, 2001)

Greetings All!

Yup, after only 1 week as the moderator, I'll be off the board Thursday through Saturday. Taking a little romp through Virginia for some sweetwater fishing. Hopefully everybody will behave until I get back ('cause I don't want to miss out on any fun!)

Remember to post those reports - the good, the bad, and the downright ugly! And I expect to hear from some of you guys who've been browsing late at night -- this ain't a one way street! The computer shows your reading, so how's about sharing?

Everybody have a safe and productive weekend!


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## FL FISHERMAN (Sep 30, 2002)

*What!!!!*

Vacation already!? Man with perks like that I want to be a moderator too!!!!   Lets all hope you are going to wet a few lines during your few days off.  See ya on Monday my friend.


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## FISHIN ROD (Feb 12, 2003)

WOW, what a cool job. I guess moderators get paid alot and get all those cool perks if they go on all those fancy vacations. lol  
I'm gonna put in my application right away. lol
congrats on becoming nj moderator


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## Manayunk Jake (Oct 3, 2001)

Greetings Jason!

With your reassignament, you COULD become P&S's first international moderator. Of course, you'd have to learn the lingo (it's called "sea fishing" in Europe), plus they really don't catch a whole hell of a lot across the pond. Sea robins (sculpins) are highly prized targets, and a ling is something to celebrate.

Since you are working on your distance game, you might want to try carp fishing. Yep, carp are the number one gamefish in Europe. And don't forget, catch and release is illegal in Germany (the Greenies decided it was too cruel!) Of course, a lot of fishermen "accidentally" drop their catch while unhooking.


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## Manayunk Jake (Oct 3, 2001)

Greetings FISHIN ROD!

Hey, if dubba-eww could take a month off, I guess I'm entitled to three days....

It'll be a new experience fishing the Harrisonburg area. Supposedly there are a lot of (uggh) trout, but I'm hoping to pick up some nice cats and maybe a new PB largemouth or smallmouth. The walleyes they can keep. One of the ponds at Massanutten has Amur (grass carp), and it'll be a hoot hooking one of those critters.

I doubt I'll hit every spot on the agenda (Smith Mountain, Lake Anna, Lake Robertson, New River, Shenandoah River) but it'll be fun trying....


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## AL_N_VB (Apr 3, 2002)

FL FISHERMAN said:


> Vacation already!? Man with perks like that I want to be a moderator too!!!!   Lets all hope you are going to wet a few lines during your few days off.  See ya on Monday my friend.



Moderator fer Hugh Hefner or a XXXX website?...get a real job


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## shaggy (Jun 18, 2003)

Jake, though our politacal views may differ (and hoping your trout guide won't be one Samuel Berger, he may have just misplaced his license, or with your new found fame as NJ moderator, have you been summons as a potential ... naah)  all kidding aside though, if you got some ultra light or light tackle, and going for freshwater trout, can be a blast (never flyfished, but want to), and good camp eating to boot. Hope you have a great time. Years ago, and I mean many a moon, used to hit Lake Anna once or twice a year for some camping fishing friends and good times. By the way, I got one of those easy to pack, light "duty" sandspikes if you wanna swing by and borrow it, and some Dead CDs.

Take care, be safe and most importantly, have fun. I head to SC first week of August, but after that I wanna arrange a meeting (strickly fishing and fishing talk no religion, no politics and we don't even mention Pepe le PU)!

Have Jeep will Travel.


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## cocoflea (Aug 1, 2002)

Jake 

You should do what I do when I go on vacation bring a laptop most hotel have internet connection and when I get back to the hotel I at least see what is happening


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## FISHIN ROD (Feb 12, 2003)

Jake
Thats not to far from me
I was out on the shanandoah last weekend, caught a bunch of small mouths. all under 10 inches. just caught small fish and a small beer buzz


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## sand flea (Oct 24, 1999)

Gah! I wish I'd seen this earlier!

Jake, I hope you get my e-mail but in the event that you don't, I'll post the relevant bits here in the hopes that you'll see it.

_Now here's an amazing coincidence. I went to college in Harrisonburg (JMU) and know the place like the back of my hand. Don't poo-poo the trout fishing. It kept me sane when I was away from the salt. But now I'm going to give you the piscatorial equivalent of the holy grail.

Tell your hosts to take you past Bridgewater into George Washington National Forest. You're headed for two sets of lakes, and I believe the one you're after is Elkhorn. Either way, it's the second lake on your way in. Locals will know where it is. But don't fish the lake itself. Hike about a mile past the lake until you reach the huge earthen dam at the back. Go over it, and there's a small limestone pool (50 feet across) where the lake pours in. It is packed with smallmouth bass, trout, and the biggest cats you'll ever see. I caught one over 25 pounds there on 4-pound test years ago. Turn over stones at the water's edge and catch crawdads to hook through the tail.

Jake, I swear to God this place still haunts my dreams. And almost no one knows it's there because they never bother to leave the lake..._


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## shaggy (Jun 18, 2003)

Sand flea, the Dukes, got accepted, but as the person I am, and since they only had "club" lacrosse at the time (and the girls team did pretty good this year in the NCAA), graciously turned them down to go play at Salisbury Stae, only to find out college lacrosse wan't fun for me. My mom wasn't real happy, you going to college for a degree, or play lacrosse, well she was right. Left SSU, went to AACC to get myself "right", graduated TSU (go Tigers, beat the Dukes), and ended up playing some indoor lacrosse and club anyhow. Moral of the story, youth is wasted on the young, and or young at heart.

Do have a niece attending there, brings me back some nice pepper jam, everytime she comes home, and yeah, the lacrosse at the time may not have been there, but with her there, I hear the fishing stories and I think, wasted youth  

Have Jeep will travel.


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## BigJeff823 (Oct 14, 2002)

*Jake*

WOW!Your the new moderator;Thats cool!   What ever happened to Eric the old moderator did he quit or somthing??????????????


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## Big Rad (May 19, 2003)

sand flea said:


> Gah! I wish I'd seen this earlier!
> 
> Jake, I hope you get my e-mail but in the event that you don't, I'll post the relevant bits here in the hopes that you'll see it.
> 
> ...


GAAGH  My son and I were just at Massanutten. We were complaining about the lack of quality fishing...MAN!! The highlight was seeing gigantic snapping turtles. Well there is always next year.......That hike might have kicked a crippled man's azz but next year I should be all better!


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## Manayunk Jake (Oct 3, 2001)

*Mess-O-Nuthin*

Greetings flea!

Well, didn't get your email in time, but I don't think I would have been able to make the mile hike. Carol and I decided that Massanuttin is Indian for "mess of nothing".

We caught zero fish on the resort property, couldn't find any water in Shenandoah Park, caught an eight inch largemouth from the South Branch of the Shenandoah, and a five inch bluegill from Lake Shenandoah in Massanatta Springs. It wasn't us - locals flogging the water with fly rods were coming up empty, too. Three fellows who were out in a boat all morning on the South Branch came up with three smallmouths up to 11 inches.

We saw some beautiful spots - the problem (as always) is access. Private property signs were posted all over the mountains. Can't say I blame the owners -- every public access we went to had trash laying around (mostly 7-11 night crawler containers.)

I had a dream spot like yours on the Tohickon Creek in Bucks County, PA, about a an hour from Philadelphia. Great fishing for smallmouth, pickerel, redbreast sunnies, and rock bass.You had to park at a bridge and wade three miles, but it was worth it. It was easy to catch fifty fish a day on ultralite spinning combos with four pound test and 1/4 ounce spinners and plugs. It was destroyed when the PFC built a dam to create a sprawling resevoir so the locals had a place to put their sail boats. Such is life.... 

You should return to that dream spot and see if it changed any... or maybe not. Sometimes the memories are better without the reality!


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## Manayunk Jake (Oct 3, 2001)

Greetings Big Rad!

You talking about those two turtles in Painter's Pond? I think they were softshells, not snappers. Carol and I nicknamed the larger one Otis and the smaller one Cleetus. Otis was keeping a careful eye on us while we fished off that metal "pier", but he didn't go for any of our offerings.

We used chicken livers and night crawlers, and even a soft shelled crawfish we found in one of the brooks on the property. We caught nothing.
We had a few little bass follow my cherished rebel tiny floating crawfish, but bo hits.

A lady we had bumped into the day before said she had caught two cats from the "pier" the night before on pieces of crawler. I was wondering if maybe the cats were flatheads, since we weren't getting any hits on the livers. She didn't know what kind of cats they were. I asked if they were silver (channels) or brown (flatheads) and she said they were black! A man on the bank said the lake was stocked with "butter cats". I thought I had read channel cats somewhere in the literature, but I couldn't find it again.

On the first day, when we were scouting the ponds, we met an eight year old with six largemouths on a chain stringer. Biggest one couldn't have been much over seven inches... it was a sad sight! He told us he had caught a 30 pound cat near the pier (but he had estimated his bass weighed "a pound or so"....

We took a loaf of bread down to the Arboretum Pond to check out the grass carp population. Threw the entire loaf in, and saw nothing but hordes of stunted four inch bluegills attacking the floating slices.

Of course the sales pitch included a reference to the two larger private "lakes" on the other side of the mountain. Carol and I passed on the $20,000.00 offer to find out firsthand what lived there....


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## Big Rad (May 19, 2003)

*I saw you out there Jake*

If you were the guy out there by your lonesome...........


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## Manayunk Jake (Oct 3, 2001)

Greetings Big Rad!

Nah, I don't fish without Carol. She usually brings me luck, but that pond was pretty devoid of fish. No wonder they stock it ten times a year with trout....

I think next year I'll break down and spring for a return trip to Pintail Point, MD. Lots of fish there. This Fall we're going to try lake run brown trout and maybe steelhead in Pulaski, NY. Otherwise we'll stick to our home waters. Hopefully the 'tank will break open this Fall. A few nice blues, trout, and rock would be a welcome sight!


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