Last Time Out Before Lockdown

Before I get settled in studying for exams, I took an hour the other night to get a little fishing in on the Grand.  The day was sunny, and cool between 50 and 55 degrees, the water was about the same temperature, and it was a tad windy out.  The water was super low and clear running about 170 CFS, but I gave it a shot anyway.  I had heard there were still some steelhead to be caught and a good number of lake run smallmouth.  The fishing wasn’t great, as to be expected with low clear water.  The only sign of a steelhead I saw was a big dark shadow dart into deep water as I approached the stream.  The shadow could have been a steelhead, or a carp.  Who knows?  In the short time I had on the water, I only caught one fish.  I hooked into huge lake run smallie.  This fish was hands down the largest smallmouth I have ever caught!  It was so big that I had trouble getting a good picture of it.  Sadly, the pictures don't do this fish any justice.  Well, that does it for a while.  I’m on lockdown until after exams.  At least I have some trout fishing to look forward to when I’m done for the semester; it’s a nice little carrot on the end of a stick.

Largest smallmouth ever!  These are all of the same fish.

A couple of pictures of a Blue Heron I came across on a previous outing.

       

Transitions

Warm temps and two weeks of low water might mean the end of steelhead season and the beginning of trout and warm water seasons.  The lake-run small mouth are in the rivers, the suckers have spawned.  Elsewhere, hatches are early and water is at June levels.  There are still a few steelhead in the rivers, but water temps are close to 70 degrees which will put an end to the run.

Looks like Steelhead season is just about over.

I've been out three times in the past few days.  The first day I fished a spot near the house, it was about 75 degrees and sunny out, the water was about 67 degrees, allowing me to wade wet.  I caught one smallie and had another chase the fly and turn away at the tip of my rod. 

The next time out I went trout fishing on Neshannock Creek.  The water was low and clear.  It was about 60 degrees out, I didn't take a water temp reading.  I talked to a couple of guys in the parking lot, one had done well on top and the other guy struck out.  Fish were rising, but I had a streamer rigged so I fished the streamer for a while to no avail.  After a while and seeing rising all over the place I tied on a caddis with a dropper.  I fished the dry for a little while before I had to head back to the car with nothing to show for it.  In hind sight, I should have fished the dry the whole time or fished a nymph rig.  The water was too low for streamers.  

I went out on the 19th for an hour or so before my wife got home from work.  The water was about 67 degrees and the air was 72 degrees. I wore shorts and waded wet. I fished a crayfish and a white streamer pattern.  I fished the baseball diamond near the house.  the water was low and clear, like it is in the summer.  There was a dead steelhead on the bank which was a sign that the steelhead run is over.  The warm water species were pretty active.  I caught a few smallies, chubs, sunfish, and some fat rock bass.  As I was drifting the streamer through fast water just below a riffle I hooked into a beast of a fish, I thought it was pre-spawn smallmouth.  As it surfaced, I realized its back was spotted and its sides weren't green, it was a STEELHEAD!  I beached the fish, as I was reaching for the camera the line slacked as the rod tip got tangled in a tree, the fish flopped off the hook and wiggled its way back into the water.  The steelhead was gone, my line and rod was all tangled in a tree, and I was standing there with camera in hand defeated. 

This is a shot from last year, but the fish I caught the other day was about the size of this little skipper.

It was great fishing in such a short time with a mixed bag of fish.  This experience truly exemplifies the transitioning in the season.       

Early Exam Season

The work load at school has been kicked up a notch as we approach the end of the semester.  I’ve been extremely busy studying for quizzes and taking practice exams.  I’ve been spending my time in the library rather than on the river.  Additionally, much like the spring trout season, final exam season has begun early with a take home property exam (which I am working on today).  Only we don’t owe the jump start on exams to the unseasonably mild winter and warm spring that has the spring hatches coming off a couple of weeks early this year.  I just hope the fishing is still good at the end of May when I can finally get out to chase some trout!