Some funny looking "saugeye"

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With the weather finally breaking I headed out to Paint Creek Lake to try and catch some saugeye. The lake itself was still mostly frozen over with hundreds of gulls and geese standing around on the ice waiting for open water.
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I was aiming instead for the spillway, locally famous for it's saugeye fishing in late winter. Fishing for several hours produced no saugeye for me and only a couple for all the fisherman there. But I did manage to connect on some fish. Crappies in an unlikely spot, right below the dam holding over rocks with no brush around, hardly classic crappie water. But hey in late winter any kind of action is good action.
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Paint Creek itself is one of Ohio's prettiest streams, lined with beautiful cliffs cut by melting glaciers at the end of the last ice. Even without the fishing, its a great destination just to see such a gorgeous stream. An added plus this trip was an adult bald eagle perched high in a streamside tree.
Sullivantia, one of Ohio's rarest wildflowers, blooms in the gorge in mid-summer. In some early history of the area, a Shawnee named Waw-will-a-way was unjustly accused of scalping a white man. This Indian encountered three white men in the Paint Valley bent on revenge for the scalping. They shot him in the chest, yet he killed one and severely wounded the other two before he succumbed. He was buried at the junction of Paint and Rattlesnake creeks. The creek also has several caves in the tucked into the steep cliffs that were once used as shelters by prehistoric peoples and according to local legend by some early outlaws. I took a bit of time away from fishing to explore a huge rock overhang that would make a wonderful shelter in rainy weather. There are literally miles of amazing rock formations in and around the park. Nearby Seven Caves is worth a visit to with awesome rock formations, it's famous caves and beautiful old trees. Once a tourist attaction it is now a quiet park located just a couple miles below Paint Creek state park.


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