4/30 smallies

What a beautiful day. It was a pleasure just to be outside and enjoying it. And with the river being in perfect shape and it being the time of year it is I even caught quite a few fish. I caught fish on a big willow leaf spinnerbait and Vic's paddletail swimbait fished on a quarter ounce jighead, both swam slowly just off the bottom in a little pocket of slow water right next to some very fast water.

Oh me oh my oh it's a fish Ohio...

The only bad thing about being in Tennessee striper fishing was wondering how my smallies were doing back up here in the river. Went today to check on the girls and we had a very happy reunion, even had a bonus river largemouth thrown in. First real numbers day of the year as well I'm guessing 12 to 15 total. A bit surprising was that the majority of the fish I found today were in pretty fast current. Fish were on a electric blue grub, the fatter one I think Vic calls a husky grub, fished on an underspin. The only downer to today was slipping down and shipping a bunh of cold water into the waders! A small price to pay for the best smallie fishing of the year so far with good river levels looking forward as a cherry on top.

Striper mania (with a few sturgeon thrown in)

Just walked in the door from four days on the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers chasing fish. First off is the big one that got away story. So I hook this fish on my giant striper bait. I'm fighting the fish and Dan says afterward, "I look over and Steve is fighting this giant fish. Then I look over ten minutes later and he is still fighting it and I think Oh S%^$ I better go over there". Sure enough up along the bank rolls this giant sturgeon, I dunno six feet long probably. I have it up to the bank several times but we are below a giant dam with no sure footing and no place to take a pic or unhook the fish. I try leading it downstream to a better bank and it finally rolls on the line slicing it with it's sharp scales. It isn't too much of a fish story as you can see by the five footer Dan lands later in the trip as well a smaller one I catch. For some reason they were really packed into this spot. And NO we didn't keep them and even talked it over with the game warden we met later. In fact Dan sent the details off to their fish and game department and is supposed to get a certificate in the mail for doing so. The striper fishing was awesome early and late in the day, no numbers but great average size. It took us a day to get the feel for things, Dan caught his sturgeon and Dave caught a big ole paddlefish that had him ending up way downriver while I caught a couple stripers. Dave was a striper catching machine the second day while Dan and I only caught one or two apiece. I did hook a swell fish in extremely fast current that had me scrambling over the rocks and yelling in panic at some kid who kept casting right over my line as the fish ran screaming past them. I also caught a small sturgeon and a very long walleye that must have been a true trophy in spring when she was full of eggs The third day the fishing gods favored me with the lucky rock as I caught a swell striper in the morning and I think five in the evening. Dave and Dan also caught stripers as well I'm not sure how many as I was busy catching stripes. The forth day we passed on the stripers as it was the first day of the paddlefish snagging season and our striper spot would be a zoo of snaggers. Instead we went elsewhere and had a great time catching a bunch of dandy white bass. A highlight was watching this tiny asian lady who was a fish catching machine. Her boyfriend (or husband I dunno) mostly took photos and strung up fish as she caught one right after another. They left with a five gallon bucket full and a stringer too heavy for her to lift. It was a swell trip with several great fish caught but four days of climbing over huge rocks in the rain fighting fish has worn me out! I do know that casting the big swimbait on a two ounce jighead on heavy tackle didn't help with worn out feeling either Odd catches were a huge sucker, a big carp and a white bass and a drum that all ate the huge striper paddletail swimbaits Vic gave me to fish.

carpe italiano...

No trophy fish photos from the last week. A few small smallmouth from a creek before it blew out like everywhere else. A bunch of big bluegills and some small largemouth on Vic's new tiny tripletail grub and a big ole carp caught on a piece of crust from the bread of my sandwich. (Panne Italiano from Jungle Jims BTW, the best bread ever for carp bait and roast beef sandwiches)