I was out on the river one evening before dark. I decided I wanted to fish a waterfall that I have fished before to no avail. The last time I fished this waterfall was a while ago and I didn’t really know how to approach it. This time, I knew exactly how to fish it. I drifted a Clouser crayfish fly under the falls down through the run, I also drifted through the eddies to the side of the falls where I know there is an undercut ledge. I caught two good sized bass in about a 20 minute period. It was a great feeling to finally produce from this location that had skunked me in the past. I was going to try fishing poppers too, but it got dark before I had a chance to go to the popper.
A couple of weeks ago, my buddies and me went out on the Lake in search of Erie walleye. The forecast was for rain beginning at about 11:00am. We motored out about 10 miles off shore in search of some walleyes. We set 6 trolling lines and trolled for about a half hour. The wind began to pick up and white caps began developing on the water. We pulled in the lines and headed for shore because of the rough conditions and the concern of an approaching storm. We quickly got some minnows and rigged up the perch spreaders and went after the perch. Between 5 of us we caught more than 20 perch. It was a lot of fun. When we docked we dropped of the perch to be cleaned and fileted. My buddies fried up the perch the following night and said it was great. I couldn’t make the fish fry because I was with my family celebrating my mom’s birthday. I’ve never fished the lake from a boat before, it was pretty cool. I hope to get back out and catch some walleye next time.
I fished a spot I fish often, but I fished up river this time instead of down river as I usually do. I caught a couple of bass, nothing exciting. I was going to keep moving up river when I noticed a drizzle. Before I could count to ten it was raining pretty hard. I began running down river for the car and it started pouring! I was soaked to the bone. My car got soaked as I got in and put my gear in the trunk. The worst part about this flash storm was the rain had ended in the 5 minutes it took me to get home. I probably should have just kept fishing; I was wet anyway.
After work one day, I went out and fished a local pond in one of the neighborhoods to the East of where I live. It was reported to have bass in it. I got there and the sun was high overhead. The water was crystal clear and there was a lot of aquatic vegetation growing up from the bottom of the pond. Aquatic plants are good for fish to hid in, but make fishing tough since you hang up on the weeds. I tied on a popper first and pounded the bank. After a while I decided to go sub-surface and tied on a scorpion fly. It has a rubber curly tail and rubber legs which bring out the predator instinct in the bass. The key to this fly is the weed guard. I fished it across the top of the weeds and down into the openings between patches of weeds. I found a spot where a large tree shaded a substantial weed bed and cast into the weeds. I felt a strong tug and set the hook on a very nice sized largemouth bass. I was thrilled to land this fish as it was confirmation that there were in fact bass in this pond and I had caught a pretty big one. I continued to fish and caught another smaller bass and a sun fish. I missed a couple of other strikes. It was a nice outing. I will certainly fish this spot again.
Last Sunday morning I went out on the river. When I was approaching through the woods, I saw a guy standing out in the water, he was wearing a fishing vest, and as I got closer I saw him fishing with a fly rod. When I got out of the woods and said hello, I realized I knew this angler. It was a guy I had made friends with during steelhead season. We would see each other daily and became friendly. I started seeing him at the fly shop. We fished through the morning. I caught a decent smallmouth right away. I had the fish in hand and dropped it. The fish got off and took off for the deep water. I guess it was an early release. We fished on up river and my friend caught a dink smallmouth, and I hooked a big fat rock bass.
Friday afternoon, I snuck out of work for a quick jaunt on the river. The water was high (for the summer) and muddy. I had missed several strikes on the popper and hadn’t caught a fish yet. I had a few fish follow and turn away. The fish were being very selective this day. I could smell the skunk… I kept working it hard and finally hooked up in a shaded pocket near the far bank. It was a decent fish. Size didn’t matter because this fish wiped the skunk away. Now that I was on the boards I loosened up a bit and proceeded to pull 3 more bass from the same small pocket. This was a surprise as usually when a fish is caught it makes such a ruckus that any other fish in the imidiate vicinity shut down making this a unique situation. It turned around a slow outing.
I fished on Saturday morning. The water was stained. The fishing started off ok with an average bass brought to hand. I expected a good day. After fishing a wide open pool, I moved into an area that had a lot of overhanging tree branches and brush. I tried to fish this spot and got hung up 6-7 times before moving on down river in frustration. I worked through some good water with not even a bump. I was beginning to get discouraged. I tied on a popper and began to pound the banks. After working some fishy looking areas on the far bank I saw a dark shadow emerge from the depths, the fish followed the bug for a moment, I gave it a final twitch to entice the fish. The fish just couldn’t resist any longer and crushed the popper. I patiently waited for the fish to have a good hold on the bug and set the hook hard! The fish leaped out the water and began fighting frantically trying to get free. This fish fought hard and jumped a couple of times making it the best fish of the day in both size and fight. Felling a little better about things, I continued to fish on downstream. I caught a couple more average fish. I went around a bend and began fishing the rocky bank on the far side of the river with a crayfish fly. I caught several dink smallies and rockbass on this stretch. The action was fast and entertaining. As I continued to fish down this stretch I was twitching the fly across the bottom and I felt the fly stop, I institivly set the hook and felt a hard tug. The fish turned and headed down river. I thought to myself, CARP! This fish felt huge, and began to rip line off the reel make the drag scream. I turned the fish and all of the sudden a monster smallmouth leaped from the water and tail walked across the surface before disappearing below the surface and charging down river again. I was so surprised I just let it run for a moment before I tightened down the drag a bit to accomadate the big bass. I landed the fish took a few pictures before releasing it. This fish was 20 plus inches and probably 4 lbs. It was about the same size as the large bass I caught a few weeks back. I think those two bass are the largest bass I have ever caught in this river. I could have gone home and felt like I had a great day at that point. Instead I drove a couple minutes down the road to another branch of the river and explored some new water. The water hear was shallow and there was a lot of bedrock on the bottom which is usually not so good for fishing. I did catch one average bass in this area before the sky opened up. It noticed the drizzle begin and headed back to the car. By the time I made to the car it was raining pretty hard. I had fortuitously parked under a tree which acted as an umbrella and shielded me from the rain. As I got in the car and changed in the front seat the rain gained momentum; I made it just in time (this time). All in all it was an excellent day on the water. If all I caught was that big bass it would have been an excellent day on the water. That was a trophy smallmouth in any body of water.
I'll be going back to school on Monday which will, no doubt, eat into my time on the water. I had hoped to head South and fish sveral rivers in Central and Southern Ohio before going back. Sadly that trip was squashed by work responsibliities. I just could not leave town for a couple of days as I had planned. I may try to sneek it in on Friday in the next couple of weeks since I have no class on Fridays... Only time will tell.
