my white whale

“There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of man.” ― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick I've always bit a bit obsessive about my fishing. And after last week I crossed the line. You see Dan Drews taught me how he catches big shovelhead consistently. And well I was fishing and had a strike and set the hook into a really big fish. Im sorry I meant A REALLY BIG FISH. Which after a few minutes just simply came off, leaving me standing there trying real hard not to scream or cry like a little girl. So I fished. And fished. Every day, catching a few but knowing my big fish was just a cast away. My coworker took to calling me Ishmael of Moby Dick fame and one morning after wandering in way after daylight for the third night in a row my wife said "I think this is getting a bit out of hand". But then it happened. After the temperature hit 100 I waited till three am to hit the river. I'd switched to a heavy flipping stick and heavy mono the day before but now wasn't even catching the small and medium fish I had been catching. So I picked up a medium spinning outfit with 12lb line and began fishing with that. Five minutes later the fish hit. The spinning rod bent double and 15 minutes later it was still a standoff with me losing about as much line as I was gaining. My arm began to hurt a bit but eventually I was gaining. Then the fish just stopped. I didn't know if it was hung up or simply just resting. Out of my pockets came the cellphone and wallet and into the river I went. At 4 am. But when I waded out to the fish it began to move and five minutes later I had a deathgrip on a big lower jaw and drug my fish to shore. I think I'm going to take at least one or two days off from fishing...

The Little Miami this weekend

Waded the LMR with four pound test and hooked this little channel that felt like a ten pounder on ultralight tackle. also caught a couple smallmouth, a drum and a sauger, Then after dark caught four shovelheads and two channelcats. No real giants but a nice average size. I did have a big fish on that pulled off. Thats two in the last two trips very upsetting.Still a beautiful night with fish biting regularly, very nice

some photos from LMI

Pictures from the last couple weekends working for Little Miami Inc, a hike at fort ancient and "wildlife comes to you" at the trail center

Double Decker Turtles

Went to the Great Miami today before work. Looking down off the wall below the dam were a bunch of turtles on a rock. One little one had climbed right on top of a big one. I should have known it was going to be a wild day right then. Things started out a bit slow, with only a small catfish and a couple drum. But then some weight on the line. Not really a hit but instead the 1/4 ounce grub just felt heavy. I set the hook and was fast into a good fish. It ended up being a fish ohio sized sauger. Which had me pretty pumped up as I'd already caught three fish ohio sized fish of other species. Finally qualified for that master angler award! I was feeling pretty good about myself and caught a three or so pound shovelhead on the grub. About that time Dandrews did what he seems to do better than anyone, which is catch a big catfish on a lure. After a lengthy fight he landed this 35 inch fish. That red patch was a 2 inch square wound plus the eye on that side was milky white. I was going to make a joke about catching a blind fish but he's twice my size and the fish was as big as everything I'd caught put togethor so I decided not to. By then I was ready to eat and was leving for lunch when I heard a yell and he was fast into an even bigger one, around 37 inches if i remember right. I think thats the third trophy fish Ive taken his picture with already this spring BTW. After lunch I hit the other side of the dam for 20 minutes catching a goodsized quillback sucker and a small bass on the grub before heading in to work. A pretty exciting morning on the river

It's been a pretty good week. First took my 6 year old grandaughter fishing at Ceasars Creek. That's her first fish you see in the picture. It's name was Julie if I remember right. With Kally every fish goes in a five gallon bucket for a visit where she investigates it a momment or two and gives it a name before we turn it loose. A nine inch bluegill named Big Daddy was the best fish of the day. Definately one of the best trips of the year. Then next came the first of two trips to the Great Miami. Never really got into the smallies, I think they are still in a little bit of a post spawn funk but I did catch one that was a very lucky fish to be alive. The 11 inch smallie had a scaled line on each side where a big flathead had tried to have him for dinner but he escaped. A caught several channelcats on nightcrawlers along with a half dozen small drum total for the two trips plus two sauger on a jig. Today with the temps hitting the mid 80's it seemed like a good time to break out the belly boat for the first time this year. I took it to one of the state wildlife areas to hit a few ponds. The first I found seemed too shallow and I didn't fish the weed choked pond long before moving. Long enough though to pick up three leeches on my legs though! Then a much deeper large pond way off the road. Right away small bass hit my plastic worm every few minutes. Just about the time I thought that's all that was in there I set the hook and a big bass rocketed skyward. If you have never hooked a nice bass in a belly boat it's pretty exciting, they can tow you a bit and spin the tube around if they run past you, but I managed not to lose her. I ended up with about twenty small bass besides the one good one, all on a plastic worm. The odd thing was the fish hit best right in the heat of the day, the fish really turned off towards evening, right when you'd think it would be good. Just goes to show you can never tell whats going to happen when you go fishing...

Found a mayfly in the window of the trail center in Loveland while working there this weekend. I just had to put him under the wonderful microscope there to admire the amazing structure of those wings. It's something what a different world exists in minature all around us that for the most part we are oblivious to.