Aug 3, 2013 4 min read

I have done very little fishing this summer. It seems that it is always raining or the water is high and muddy.

If we get a break in the weather, a nice warm evening will find me sitting on a dock near Greensboro, fishing for channel or flathead catfish.

This is one of those fishing sessions where if you get one bite, it’s OK. The chair will be comfortable and the drinks will be cold.

The pretty, scantily clad girls on the boats that go by wave, and the old man dreams. It might be of a big fish, or it might be about youthful days and pretty girls.

We’ll be using chicken livers, minnows or even nightcrawlers as bait. If a big one is hooked, either my fishing partner, John Dino, or I will scramble to assemble the net.

We never seem to remember to put it together before fishing.

We smell like fish and have deer blood stained on our jeans, but that doesn’t mean we have any foresight.

If the catfish aren’t eating our bait, we will start tossing in plugs and retrieving them. The are some big muskie around that part of the Monongahela River.

At one time, Dunkard Creek was considered the best muskie stream in the southwestern part of the state, and it empties into the Mon not far from where we fish.

A few years back, Dunkard suffered a massive fish kill, ruining this great muskie water. The mouth of George’s Creek is a good spot to troll for muskie, and the creek also has a great name.

Actually, there are a good variety of fish in the southern Mon. Panfish are common, but the river also holds sauger, walleye, bass, white bass and sheepshead.

Our method of fishing is old-fashioned and laid-back.

That is in contrast to my method for trout fishing, which requires constant movement. The same could be said of working a water for bass.

When fishing for walleye, we either drift with jigs hugging the bottom or troll with lures.

These are old-fashioned methods and a are a break from all of the activity, The only caveate is the hope that the dock doesn’t sink, or I don’t fall off.

• Remember how we used to hurry and get our antlerless deer license applications in the mail to our county of choice? You had to get them in early because if you waited a few days, it meant you were getting shut out in your county of choice.

My how things have changed. Licenses can be purchased as late as the week of Thanksgiving in the two units that take in Washington and Greene counties.

I mention this only as a reminder that antlerless licenses are on sale through the mail at this time.

• Most people know that I am a fan of Leupold scopes. No product, hunting or otherwise, has a better warranty, and you have a better chance of encountering a Yeti than having your Leupold scope fog up.

In other words, when hunting big game, especially in bad weather, go Leupold.

However, though I never thought I would say it, I have been shooting with a scope that is a bit more clear than my Leupold. It is called the Nightforce.

It’s big, heavy and is foreign-made, but it is bright and clear. It is also awfully expensive.

It’s adjustments work to perfection, and 1/4-minute of angle click moves the point of impact 1/4 inch at 100 yards.

I must admit the Nightforce is an impressive scope.

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