Big crayfish for big smallmouth

Most books on smallmouth fishing say to fish small crayfish flies because the big crayfish put up too much of a fight and the little ones are an easy meal.  It makes sense; big crayfish with big claws are going to nip something in the fight.  I’ve caught some big bass on small crayfish flies too.  Earlier this summer, I caught a big bass with a huge crayfish sticking out of its gullet.  At that point I knew I needed to get some big crayfish flies.  I finally got a nice big size 2 crayfish fly with some really big lead eyes to sink it.  I caught three smallmouth on this fly today and all were nice fat bass.  The critics agree, big crayfish catch big smallmouth. 

On a side note, people are pigs.  I picked up a bunch of trash on my way out today.  I threw away some tangled up fishing line, an empty granola bar box and granola bar rappers, and a kid’s raft.  I’m sure the raft got away accidentally, that’s why they prohibit them in the park.

I saw a snapping turtle and an orange koi fish.  Someone must have dumped the koi fish in the river, they certainly are not native.  I took pictures of both under water.  The snapper is hard to see because it was getting dark and the water was deep and dark.  It was pretty cool to see these critters.    

First smallmouth on a popper this season

My goal has been to catch a smallmouth on a popper for the first time this season.  I have not fished a popper much yet this season because I have not seen any surface activity and when I’ve been out I haven’t had a whole lot of time to fish so I’ve been fishing flies that I knew would have the highest chance of catching a fish. 

Yesterday evening I went out for a couple of hours before my wife got home for dinner.  It was 94 degrees and humid.  The river was low and cloudy and over 85 degrees.  I decided I was going to fish a popper until I caught a fish.  Nothing in the first pool I fished, on to the next pool.  I worked the rocky bank where there is a drop off pretty hard.  The first few casts didn’t get any kind of reaction.  On the sixth or seventh cast through this pool, a large dark shadow emerged below the popper.  As the shadow emerged, it become clear that it was a very large smallmouth, it hovered below the popper inspecting it.  I gave the popper a twitch.  The huge fish could not resist and ate the fly.  I struck to set the hook.  I felt a slight tug and lost the connection.  The fish quickly disappeared into the deep.  I switched flies out of desperation because I couldn’t get a fish to eat the popper.  I caught a rock bass on a crayfish fly on the last cast to avoid the skunk.

I went out again today.  It was 93 degrees and humid today.  The water was over 85 degrees.  The water was still low and cloudy, but had cleared some with about two feet if limited visibility.  I began fishing a crayfish fly because it was still rigged from last night and I wanted to get the skunk off before I switched to a popper.  I quickly caught a beautifully colored sunfish, and then a crappie.  I decided to switch to the popper for the rest of the evening.

I cast across a slow pool and gave the fly one good pop after it hit the water near the far bank.  A big smallmouth crushed the fly!  The fish leaped two feet out of the water, shook its head and threw the fly.  I was disgusted when I lost this fish.  It was a “f*cking damn it” moment!  Two big smallmouth lost on the popper.  Was I striking too soon?  Was the hook point dull?  What was I doing wrong?  Why was I losing these big fish?  Why couldn’t I land a bass on a popper?

I shook it off and kept fishing the popper.  I was determined to land a smallmouth on a popper today.  I worked my way around the bend and began working some rip rap on the far bank.  BAM! Fish on!! I finally landed a big smallmouth on the popper for the first time this season.  It was a nice feeling to finally have some success with the popper after some big disappointments.  I kept working the rip rap and caught another smallmouth, a big rock bass with some kind of parasite, and another good sized smallmouth.  I had worked my way to some posted property and had one small pool left to fish.  This pool had an eddy at the head of the pool and a downed tree on the far side of the pool.  I worked the eddy without a response and moved on to the downed tree.  First cast near the tree was a déjà vu moment.  A big dark shadow appeared from the depths below the fly; it hovered below the fly for a moment and sipped it in.  A brief tug and the fish was gone.  I saw it turn and swim away.  This was one of the biggest bass I have ever seen in this river.  It was literally the size of a carp; I could not believe I lost another big fish.  F*ck!

On the way back to the car I made a little friend, a squirrel that kept following me in a playful kind of way.  He was pretty cute so I took some pictures of him.              

Quick outing before dinner

 I took an hour and went fishing before dinner last night.  It was warm and humid out, about 82 and cloudy.  The water was warm, above 80.  Warm water usually means aggressively feeding fish.  I really wanted to catch my first fish this summer on a popper.  I fished a white popper without luck.  Since I was short on time, I changed flies and went with a crayfish fly because they were pretty active.  I must have seen more than a dozen crayfish dart under rocks as I walked trhough the stream.  On the thrid cast with the crayfish fly, it got crushed by a big smallmouth.  After a good fight and the obligatory picture, I let him go and continued to fish.  I hooked one more smaller bass on the crayfish fly and then decided to switch to another popper now that I got the skunk off.  I threw a yellow diver for a while, I had one fish nip at it and one follow that wouldn't commit.  I walked down stream to another pool where a creek comes in and put a few casts through there before I had to go to meet my wife for dinner.  I caught two good fish, but still haven't gotten one on the popper yet this year.

Green Trout

I went out for an hour after work yesterday.  I fished a stretch of river that is about a 15 minute drive down stream from my house.  It's a short stretch of fishable water about a quarter mile of access.  Going upstream, there are two pools, then some pocket water before a bend in the river where the river transitions into frog water.  The first two pools were a bust.  The pocket water usually fishes well, but most of the pocket water was too low to hold fish yesterday.  I picked off a very aggressive fish in the last pocket before the frog water.  This bass leaped out of the water like a wild rainbow and continued to fight more like a trout than a bass, finally when I landed the fish, it was long and slender like a trout.  This smallmouth was basically a green trout.  I fished the tailout of the frog water near where a small creek dumps in and caught a few other small bass before heading home for dinner.

Night of the Crappie

I went out last night and fished from 8:00-9:30pm.  I fished a spot that I fish at often.  I have fished this stretch of river every summer for the last four or five years.  I thought I knew every hole, and each fish by first name.  Each summer I catch one, maybe two white crappie in this stretch.  Last night I caught three white crappie in one night!  The first came with a flash of silver and a nice tug, it turned out to be a real slab.  I caught two others that were not as big, but were still good sized crappies.  I also caught a really big smallmouth.  Normally this smallmouth would have been the highlight of the night, and it was a joy to catch.  Last night was the special and unique because of the crappie trifecta.  It seemed almost like the crappie outnumber the smallmouth here based on my catch rate last night, but I know its the other way around.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Its name means crooked river.  Clevelanders know it as the burning river.  The Cuyahoga earned the nickname burning river because the water on the river caught fire.  While it caught fire at least 13 times in its history, the Cuyahoga River claimed its name after the 1969 fire brought the river into the national spot light as the most polluted river in the country.  That fire resulted in the Clean Water Act and the creation of the EPA.  

Just south of where I live we have a wonderful natural resource, Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  The park has been there my whole life, when I was younger it was a National Recreation Area.  In 2000 Cuyahoga Valley was upgraded to a National Park.  I’ve driven through the park to get to places like Blossom Music Center or Peninsula Ohio, but I have never hiked around or fished in the park.  The Towpath Trail runs through the park along the Cuyahoga River from Akron to Cleveland.

I’d always avoided fishing the Cuyahoga because its reputation for being polluted.  A few years ago I began to hear stories about people fishing the Cuyahoga for steelhead and more recently for small mouth bass.  After hearing about huge small mouth caught with big crayfish sticking out of their gullet I decided I had to go fish the crooked river that caught fire years ago.

My wife came with me.  She walked the towpath trail while I fished the river.  I was surprised at the size of this river.  It is big water, actually huge water compared to the upper Chagrin where I normally fish for small mouth.  I covered about a quarter mile stretch of water rather quickly since I only had two hours before I was supposed to meet my wife at the car.  I accessed the river at a bridge near the parking lot.  I fished under the bridge and down river a bit where I caught a 10” smallie.  Ok, I got the skunk off, but it was not an impressive fish by any means.  I walked up stream and around the bend to where a braided section of river came back together.  This water looked very fishy, I was sure there was a huge bass lurking in there.  I tried everything.  I swung and stripped streamers.  I dead drifted and slowly stripped crayfish through the pool.  I even fished poppers on the seams and near the rocky bank.  I only had one fish follow and refuse a foot away from the rod tip.  I just couldn’t catch a fish.

I made sure I was back at the bridge where I started about 10 minutes before I was supposed to meet my wife.  I called her to see where she was, she was about 15 minutes away.  I decided to fish the up-stream side of the bridge where I only devoted a couple of casts when I began fishing.  I caught another smallmouth in the soft water between the bank and the bridge column.  I released the fish and continued to work that area.  Something smashed the crayfish fly and pulled hard.  I felt a few head shakes, saw a flash of bronze and the line went limp.  I lost a huge smallmouth!!  I put several more casts into the area, but that fish was not going to be fooled a second time.  The phone rang as I was changing flies.  As I answered the phone I dropped the fly in the water losing it, I reeled in my line; it was time to go.

The National Park is beautiful and the Cuyahoga has a healthy population of smallmouth.  I managed to catch a few fish the first time out.  I will definitely be back.  There is so much to explore and miles of new water to fish.                 

Crayfish, its whats for dinner

I got out for a couple of hours on Friday night.  I caught a few smallmouth, some creek chubs and a few rock bass.  One of the rockbass was a real slab of a fish.  The fish of the day was also the fish of the summer so far.  It was an 18" beast of a smallmouth.  All the fish I caught that night were on a crayfish pattern.  When I landed this huge small mouth I noticed its last meal was still sticking out of its gullet.  The bass had eaten a HUGE crayfish.  The crayfish's large claw and an antenna was sticking out of the fish's gullet, but you could tell it was more like a small lobster than a  crayfish.  This thing had to be four or five times the size of my fly.   Big food = big fish.  I need to tie some bigger crayfish flies.



Check out the cool black edges on its fins

Mmm... crayfish!

  

Day Trip to Oil Creek

On May 19, I left the house early and headed to Oil Creek.  I arrived at about 9:00ish.  I rigged up real fast then headed to the special regs area near the parking lot.  Fish were rising.  I caught several browns and rainbows on dry flies before noon when things on top slowed down.  I re-rigged with a tandem nymph rig and began fishing subsurface.  I had a few fish on and off and decided to break for lunch and a trip to the fly shop.  After a pb&J sandwich I headed to the fly shop grabbed some flies and got some direction for a good place to set up for the sulpher hatch at dusk.  Then I headed to a spot in the middle of the park where I fished a few heavy runs and caught several rainbows nymphing.  I noticed some fish rising upstream and switched to a dry fly to fish the surface for risers.  I missed a couple of fish, and put a few others down before I left to drive down river to get in position for the sulpher hatch.  When I got there, there were anglers lined up almost shoulder to shoulder.  I walked down stream and found a spot to squeeze into.  The bugs started but never really got going strong.  Some fish were rising but not many.  I fished to two risers one to my ten o-clock the other to my twelve o-clock.  I stated with an emerger and a dun without any luck.  When I saw a spinner in the water I replaced the emerger with a rusty spinner.  I couldn’t buy a fish.  It was completely frustrating.  At about the same time it got too dark to see the fly, the fished seemed to shut down.  I got out the head lamp and began the long walk back to the car.  By the time I broke down my rod and packed up the car it was about 9:45 when I hit the road for home.  I was starving, I had a two hour ride to get home, and I still had to pack for the Vegas trip.  I was going to have to leave the house at 5:15am the next morning to get to the airport to catch the flight to Vegas.  It was going to be a long day, but it was so worth it!