Its summertime, and summertime means fast, furious fishing for quick bites and the constant search for old lunker bucket mouths hanging out in deep pockets in rivers and lakes. Ledges, points and brush piles become strike zones as bass tend to favor large helpings in the summer as the hard bite slows down with the rise of the thermometer. You have to adjust the way you fish for them, and knowing where they are at a certain temperature can greatly improve your chances of having a great day on the water versus just a day on the water. In the summer, bass like cover where ledges and sharp drop offs occur. They love points with cover where the current slings by the occasional dinner. However, this article will focus on the dense vegetation on lakes such as hydrilla and lily pads. These areas provide a great deal of shade for the overheated bass to shelter in while they wait for food. Lily pads are on a number of lakes in West Virginia and are a great place to catch some big bass in the summer. Most of the times if your lunker huntin’, early morning or when the sun goes down are the best times to catch motivated bass. To fish lily pads on most occasions, it is best to use weed less baits such as frogs and toads to match the food source of lily pads. If you’re skill is fishing below the surface of the water, then using small lizards and crawdads may be the best bet. Although, a lot depends on what type of bait is living in that area as to what you fish. There are many ways to fish lily pads in the summer, but these are some of the tried and true methods.

It’s early in the 2023 football season, but the Clay County Panthers are out using the little time they have through the summer to play some 7 on 7. The scene was Richwood High School, six teams took part in the 7 on 7 – Clay, Bath of Virginia, Buffalo, Richwood, Sherman and Pocahontas were all in attendance. Offense and defense from each team went head to head to see what they might have to work on as well as to get the cob webs out of their system. There was a monsoon early in the event with the promised rain nearly washing the matches out. It is football, however, and the CCP (Clay County.

In our state’s history there was a time when life was very difficult, a time when the first pioneers had nothing but natural trails to get where they wanted to go. Often times, it took weeks if not months to get supplies if there were any to get. Our ancestors built cabins, raised gardens and huge families and were always near or very close to a stream or river. The river was a passageway used not only for drinking and bathing but also as a way to get downstream to larger communities quickly. However, that mode of travel had its perils as did the cross country trails, whether they were wild animals or just the difficult terrain. Through adversity came he thought that there had to be a better way, a better way to get there and get back without the inconvenience and time factor. Where there was a will there was a way, and along came the inventors and railroad companies who laid lines along rivers and up hollers that gave way to industry and many boom towns that flourished around the rails. The invention of the steam engine changed the world as we know it. In the early days as the rail went across the lands, young lads watched it go by dreamed of being an engineer someday. There was something about the smell and the sound it generated that drove people to want to be a part of the railway.

Hey, it’s Lew comin’ back at ya’ with a Paw’s Day tale. Haven’t scratched the paper with my pen for a while now so I decided to kick the tires and refill the ink bowl. Here in the hills, June is Paw’s Week, otherwise known as Father’s Day or feel sorry for daddy week. We celebrate all week long, and it all comes to an end with the Paw Day parade. This year’s parade grand marshal is Rot Blocker. Been that way fer ten years now ‘cause everbody’s ‘fraid to tell him otherwise.

The 2023 North-South Football Classic game is in the books. South Charleston High School was the site of the event once again this year. The game promised to be a barn burner with the great football talent that was on the field including Matteo McKinney and Jacob Morton from our very own Clay County. In the first half, it looked as though the South Cardinals were there to play; they came out on defense and stopped the North Bears cold in their tracks. They had to settle for a field goal and possession went to the North Bears. It wasn’t long before the North Bears made their run to the money line doing a fancy double reverse to a pass, netting in a 63 yard TD. The North Bears never looked back from that point as the South Cardinals struggled to get real estate. The North Bears had the only real air assault in the game but couldn’t connect most of the time. Both defenses stood like walls.

The CAMC Foundation hosted a five mile run and a two and a half mile walk called Run for Your Life on Saturday in Charleston. The purpose of this event is to raise money to benefit colorectal cancer awareness and screening initiatives to help individuals who otherwise could not afford the critical screening they need. Their goal was $100,000, and this year, more than that was raised. More than 400 runners and walkers took the plunge into one of the most grueling runs in West Virginia. This is a five mile run that begins at Haddad River Front Park and finishes there, as well. One of the features of this race is surviving the hill to Spring Hill Cemetery. To get there, a runner must climb a hill that is close to 500 feet in elevation and designed to be conquered by vehicles and goats only. This is steep and difficult terrain, to say the least, and to run it with just leg power and a beating heart deserves more than a commemorative shirt.

The Clay County Middle School afterschool program is still seeking donated sewing machines. If you have a working portable sewing machine that you no longer need and would like to donate to a beginning sewist, please drop it off at the Clay County Library earmarked for the CCMS sewing class. The manual would be great to have with the machine. Please, include your contact information. In the case that the class is too small for the number of machines that may be donated, leave a note saying what you want done with it. Thank you in advance for your support!

We all live or have lived in a cocoon at some point in our lives, living out our dreams as we see fit. From birth, most are taught that you go to school, get out, go on to higher learning, enlist in the military or join the workaholics in the daily grind of making a living and putting meat on the table. We have not progressed far from the natural instinct to get up and make sure we have food, something to wash it down with and a roof over our head – none of which comes without work. We work so that the life blood of consumerism, tax revenue and money will continue to keep businesses alive and running but also keep the hounds away from what’s left in the bank book. The daily grind of playing house, raising a clan and keeping the lights on is nearly a 24 hour a day job that leaves little time for any efforts to remember who we are deep down. Unless we have been financially endowed, the weekly ritual of scanning the bank book for a little extra to put away allows little time to remember that there is life beyond the status quo.

It was Regionals time for the CCHS track team on Friday, and Mother Nature slung down some hot rays melting the field and all those on it. Here, participants would run, jump, and throw their way into CCHS track history. Also, here is where they would also have to place in the top three of any event to move on to state level competition. This year, if you have read the paper, you know that the track team has been a force in the track world all along. It was now make or break time. The girls’ and the boys’ teams both had a great chance of getting a free trip to the state competition; all it would take was guts.

The 2023 baseball season ended for the Panthers at their game against Hoover last week. The boys started the week with a little momentum going into the sectionals. However, the Lewis County Minutemen, Roane Raiders and Braxton Eagles stood in their way. The first game against Lewis County would get their week going on a sour note. At the end of the game, Lewis County beat the Panthers 11-1. It was not the way they wanted to start, but they just couldn’t get a hold of the pitching of Lewis. Roane was going to be a tough one; but the Panthers jumped on the pitching of the Raiders and got the game going in their favor. By the time it ended, the Panthers beat Roane by the score of 5-1. The Panthers’ dogs were still in the hunt as they prepared to go bat to bat with the Eagles. A win here would move them up to the semi finals, a loss and the 2023 season would be over.

The season also ended for the Lady Mustangs this past week when they butted heads in tournament play against Summersville Middle School and Ravenswood. The first was a game that left you scratching your head a little. The Lady Mustangs were facing the Lady Bears of Summersville for the third time this year in the first game of a single elimination CWVAC tournament. They sent “Smokin’ Brooklyn Morton to the mound to face them. She lived up to her title; as the Lady Bears sent batters to the plate Brooklyn set fire to them with her fast balls. The Lady Bears couldn’t hit anything she pitched. For them it was like trying to swat yellow jackets with a log chain. On the other hand, it was a feeding frenzy for the Lady Mustang bats; there wasn’t anything they threw that the Lady Mustangs couldn’t hit. At the end of the very first inning, the Lady Mustangs made them wish they hadn’t spent the gas money to come. It was 15-0 as jaws hit the dirt. It made a person wonder if a white towel would have been a good choice at the time. When it was over mercifully in the third inning, the Lady Mustangs won the game 17-0. Brooklyn Morton had once again pitched a no hitter, striking out four batters in three innings. Skiley Wilmoth had the hot bat going 3-3 with a double and 3 RBI’s. Jadeon Delwarte was 2-2. Lainey Nichols was 2-3 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI’s. Rylee Murphy was 2-2 with 2 RBI’s. Addison Taylor was 2-3 and Layla Parker was 2-2 with an RBI. Lily Nichols was 1-2 and had 3 RBI’s.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023 Docket Schedule for Magistrate: Rider, Charles “Jeff:”. 09:00 AM, State v. Jennifer Lively, Bench Trial, Brandishing deadly weapons; threatening or causing breach of the peace. 09:00 AM, State v. Jennifer Lively, Bench Trial, Misdemeanor Offense for violation of Protective Order Mandatory Provisions. 09:30 A, State...

Since 2002, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) has recognized September as National Voter Registration Month to encourage eligible Americans to register to vote or to update their voter registration information. The WV Secretary of State’s Office is proud to join NASS in this annual effort. West...

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The Elk Conservation District (ECD) provides local self-government leadership and initiative for the development and conservation of soil, water, and related resources. In cooperation with private landowners, government agencies, and private organizations, we will develop an integrated planning, education, and management program that will protect, restore, and enhance those resources. The ultimate goal is to protect and conserve our soil, land, water, and related resources for the health, safety, and general welfare of our state’s citizens. In addition to our conservation planning services, we also assist in stream restoration and provide educational programming to schools and civic organizations about the value of conservation and stewardship of the environment.

Clay County and Big Otter Volunteer Fire Department joined together this past week for some beneficial training in the usage of battery-operated HURST band extraction tools. These tools aid in rescues when lives are at stake, making recovery faster and more efficient. This training was held by Nicholas Burkholder, manager of Interstate Rescue Sales.

The monthly meeting of the Clay County Landmarks Commission and Historical Society was held at the Clay County Library on Aug. 4, 2022, at 6 p.m. This meeting was attended by Janet Koch, Jannette Douglas, Jerry Stover, Jeanine Samples, Carol Hutchinson, Oscar Hutchinson, and Katelin Hall. President Jerry Stover, called...