Jul 22, 2017 4 min read

Jason Churney of the Eighty Four area has caught more than a few people speeding. He also has busted a few thieves and others who can’t conform to society. However, this past week he caught a real trophy.

Churney is a state police officer who likes to fish when he finds the time. While casting a sinking lure into the Monongahela River, he hooked what he at first thought was a large Channel Cat but was pleasantly surprised to find it was a big Muskie that had grabbed the lure. After a brief struggle, which reminded him of a few arrests he has made, he landed the prize of a lifetime. The fish tipped the scale at more than 30 pounds and taped at 48 inches. Who said there are no good Muskie spots in Southwestern Pennsylvania?

While on the subject of fishing, I spent some time with Denny Fredericks, who lives near Glyde. He had just returned from a trip to Lake Erie. If one remembers, he has had his hat in the ring for an appointment to the Game Commission and was a commissioner about a dozen years ago. I have known Fredericks for years and he makes for a great commissioner and one I consider the best I have known. Fredericks and 2 of his friends were fishing in about 40 feet of water and were catching one Walleye after another. In a couple of days, they had landed and released more than 150 Walleyes each day. Denny said he has never seen so many Walleyes hooked any time before. Most of them measured between 15 and 19 inches, while not big, was an optimistic prediction for next year’s fishery.

When I talked to him and he was excited about the fishing, I thought he was fishing for smallmouths. It is my opinion that Lake Erie might be the top place for catching a big smallmouth. I’ll even take that a step farther: It might be the best smallmouth water in the country.

Fishing for this hard fighting bass doesn’t require especially deep water. Many big smallmouths have come from spots such as Presque Isle Bay. The good times are right now for small mouth fishing in Erie.

• I was glancing through a Henry catalogue when something struck my eye. Many times it is the obvious that we overlook. One of the good points of Henry firearms is the fact that much of each centerfire rifle is made in Southwestern Pennsylvania, by local workers. But it is the chambering of many of Henry’s products that I find interesting.

Henry offers an array of lever rifles in the 45-70 chambering along with a single shot in the same caliber. Offered in 1873, the 45-70 is I believe, the oldest center fire rifle cartridge of all. It once was the official military cartridge that was utilized in the single shot trapdoor. How has it lasted so long? Its birth predates the auto and flying. It was once said you can fool some of the people some of the time, so after being used for more than 130 years, it must do something right. What it does is put a big hole in what you shoot and is perfect in heavy cover. A Henry in 45-70 should be the perfect heavy cover bear rifle.

A few years back, I wrote an article for the Pennsylvania Game News titled “Footsteps.”

The article was a form of thanks to those who had accompanied us on fishing and hunting trips but were now gone. I mentioned people such as Dave George, who waded out to the deeper waters and caught fish after fish while we caught one now and then. With each hook set he would say “Come in out of the wet.” He could catch trout.

Then there was the brother-in-law Fred, who taught me to fish with spinners. Another brother-in-law, Jack, left his footprints on me as he walked along Jones Mill in Somerset County and I could hear his hip boot straps slapping the sides of his boots as he walked. He also left a large share of footprints.

There was Don, who always said he hit a twig when he missed a buck. He was a good hunting companion. I remember sitting on a log in the blackness of a night with Jim Masson as the hounds trailed a raccoon. Their baying filled the night air. That was fun. I can’t omit Ed, who looked down on the only spike I ever took and swore it had so many holes in it that it died of Pneumonia.

They all left their footprints.

Take time to remember yours.

George Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.