sunset and bass...

Now that fishing season seems started in earnest it seemed like a good time to make the long walk back to The Pond Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken. Sitting a mile back from the road, it usually provides me with some of my best trips of the year and this evening was no exception. Twenty plus bass in three hours with no company but some ducks, a deer, and a sunset. It doesn't get much better than this...

My Little Miami River Map

Feel free to use (for your own personal use only)

A sucker for rough fish...

Many of our rivers hold an amazing bunch of fish that are largely overlooked by fishermen. Hard to catch, hard fighting and growing to nice sizes, you would think these fish would be all the rage. But they suffer from either bad press or no press and an even worse name...suckers. After all don't permit have the same downturned mouth, are hard to catch on a fly and grow to roughly the same sizes? But permit are a glamour fish and suckers are called, well, suckers. Many species are highly intolerant of pollution and used by biologists as canaries in the coal mine when it comes to water quality. Many suckers have special adaptations such as reduced swim bladders to help them stay in place in swift riffles. The hog sucker even has a head shaped to use the water like air on a race cars spoiler to create downforce to hold itself in place. And the hog sucker, like many suckers, uses big pectoral fins like a darter or madtom to brace itself in place on bottom in a riffle's swift water.











Suckers eat algae and small invertabrates and will hit a nymph if you can present it right in front of them. They will not chase a nymph though, the key is to present the fly right on the sucker's nose. I find the best way to do this is with stealthy wading and a high stick/short line nymphing technique just like you would use for trout in a swift riffle or run. Often in clear water, if you wade carefully enough you can see the fish you are presenting the fly to, but most times the swiftness of the water hides the fish no matter how clear the water is. With this in mind, work thoroughly, keeping in mind the fish will not chase the fly. A good presentation seems much more important than fly pattern, any good beadhead will get bit if you put it on a feeding suckers nose. I do tie some brighter versions of my standard beadhead nymphs to make them more noticeable to a feeding sucker. I find a long fly rod is better, it gives you more range to short line a nymph and a longer follow. A five or six weight is just about right. Suckers sometimes get a bit big to land on little three or four weights and seven weights and up are overkill. When shortlining a nymph you do not need a strike indicator but on longer casts set your indicator up the line just a bit farther than the water is deep. Setting the indicator this deep will insure your nymphs are on the bottom where they need to be. Plan on losing quite a few to snags, if you are not hooking bottom every now and again you are not deep enough. As best I can tell, there are sixteen different species of suckers in the Little Miami. Some like the white sucker are very common and some like the endangered blue sucker are among the rarest sish in the river. If you happen to be lucky enough to hook a blue sucker, handle it carefully and snap a quick picture to send to me before setting it free. Actually all suckers are an important part of the rivers food chain and should be handled carefully no matter how common they are. Other non-traditional fly rod quarry that will hit a fly include carp and buffalo. Both pretty much will eat the same flies as suckers with presentation again being much more important than pattern.



My sucker and carp fly selection.



A standard short line nymph rig.



A good rig to use where you are losing a lot of flies. The shot slides off if they hang up, saving the fly.



An easy way to add another nymph to your rig without retying everything.

river otters

In the last few years a new predator has returned to the Little Miami after long absence, the wonderful otter. I'll never forget my wife and I standing high on a riverbank watching a family group frolic in the shallows. Otter seem to just enjoy life and even the adults spend alot of time at play. In 1986, the Ohio Division of Wildlife began to reintroduce the otter to the state. Since then they have spread over two thirds of the state.

guide to the most common insects/invertebrates found in various places along the Little Miami river:

Peters Cartridge Plant, Kings Mills --Hydropsychid caddisflies, baetid mayflies, heptageniid mayflies

Stubbs Mill Bridge --Hydropsychid caddisflies and baetid mayflies

Middletown Road --Elimia snails very abundant, Hydropsychid caddisflies

Constitution Park, Spring Valley --Baetid mayflies and midges

SR 350, Fort Ancient --Hydropsychid caddisflies, Psychomyia flavida and Elimia sp. snails predominant.

Beechmont Road --Rheotanytarsus midges and bryozoan, hydropsychid caddisflies, baetid mayflies, and flatworms

Wooster Pike --Hydropsychid caddisflies, baetid mayflies, Rheotanytarsus sp. midges, Elimia sp. snails

Behind Lake Isabella --Hydropsychid and philopotamid caddisflies, heptageniid mayflies, Elimia sp. snails predominant. Large mussel bed present

Upstream of the mouth of O'Bannon Creek in Loveland --Hydropsychid caddisflies, baetid mayflies, flatworms, heptageniid mayflies, Elimia sp. snails

Old Kings Dam site --Tricorythodes mayflies, Hydropsychid caddisflies

Downstream of Todds Fork --Waterpenny beetles, Hydropsychid caddisflies, Elimia sp. snails

The Narrows

Located in Greene County, the Narrows Preserve is one of my most favorite spots anywhere. I didn't mean anywhere along the river, I meant anywhere. Here the glacier pushed the river out of it's bed and the river cut this valley in forming a new one.
The Narrows is a long skinny park and a wide level trail offers excellant access to the river. Just above the park the river twists and turns away from the road and offers some great fishing to anyone willing to bushwack. Downstream in the park there are some of the finest trees you will ever see with huge sycamores hundreds of years old lining the river. About a half mile downstream of the parking lot two huge trees, one on each side of the river, are strong candidates to be the biggest tree in the whole watershed.













The lower half of the park is a great place early and late in the day to spot wildlife such as deer, though on nice evenings the trail fills up with hikers. The big trees draw piliated woodpeckers and the park is a bird watchers delight. Early one spring I heard rustling leaves and stepped off the trail along this lower stretch to investigate and found a half dozen garter snakes just out from hibernation. One of the best looks I've ever had of a mink was also here in the Narrows. The mink foraged along the riverbank, coming within ten feet of me before realizing I was an awfully funny looking tree and bounding off.






There is quite a bit of beaver sign in the parks lower half. Walking the trail quietly right after daylight and watching the river is a good way to spot these giant rodents. I've also been startled by beaver slapping their tails in alarm when they spotted me first.






At about a mile and a quarter from the trail head the river turns creating a long riffle/run/riffle called Brenda's Riffle that offers some of the best fishing in the river's upper half. A lovely creek enters the river here too and a primitive campsite (permit only) located nearby is a great base to spend a long weekend exploring the river and surrounding woods.

Basic Fly Selection for the Little Miami

A warm water river like the Little Miami holds a tremendous variety of life when compared to a cold water stream like your average trout stream. The fish in the Little Miami are much more likely to eat a fly because it looks like something good to eat rather than an exact copy of a specific insect or fish species. I try to carry good generic flies like the parachute adams that might imitate any of a dozen things on the water at any one time. For smallmouth a generic stonefly/hellgrammite pattern cast upstream and across and allowed to tumble back like an insect caught in the current is most times a top producer. Early and late especially, a deer hair bug
fished in the slick at the tail of a pool and around structure can produce some exciting strikes. I like a slightly smaller bug than is normally thrown in ponds for largemouth. And I really like my smaller version, the googly, for non stop action. Here's my recipe for tying the googly-

First you tie in a tail of fox or squirrel and a peice of tinsel.




then you wrap the tinsel forward till it covers about 60% of the hook shank and tie it in.



Next tie in wings from a saddle,I like grizzly but in truth use whatever I have left over from tying dries.



Then you take some deer hair and loop the thread over it twice. As you pull the thread taut you release the hair with your fingers letting it flare and spin around the hook shank.





Repeat tying in bunches of deer hair till you fill up the hook shank completely.








Tye off the thread and trim the deer hair.



epoxy on your eyes and your done.




Also don't be afraid to use some flies usually thought of as just trout flies. A good nymph pattern tied in a variety of sizes will draw a strike from just about anything that swims in the river. A generic nymph placed gently in front of a buffalo or carp can sometimes draw a take from these fish usually only taken on bait.