this week in fish

Three fishing reports from this last week... The first is written by Dave that he posted on OhioGamefishing forum about our trip to Little Miami on 4/16------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I met up with Steve and Dan at the LMR on Tuesday evening. We got on the water at 5:45 just as the darkness of the impending storm loomed overhead. As our first casts hit the water it started to sprinkle and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. Over the next three hours we caught white bass after white bass. Some of them were suicidal in their attempts to impale themselves. On at least three occasions I dropped my lure in the water after unhooking a fish, or dipped the lure to get off some weeds and one of the little kamikazes would my hit my lure and take off with it. I started off throwing a 1/4 oz. white Roostertail, then switched over to a Flicker Shad. I caught 39 white bass ranging in size from 4" to 13.5" and one 10-11" striper. I dropped it as I was walking to shore to get a better look and a picture. Dan also caught a nice striper and a nice sauger and a drum. I don't know how many fish those two caught, but I know it was as least as many as me; so I would put our fish total in the 120-140 range. All in all it was a fun three hours of fishing. We got pretty lucky with the weather; it rained, but never poured. And the lightning stayed a respectable four to six counts away. We also caught a pair of turkeys trying to sneak up on us, but Steve outflanked them and flushed them out. Dan and Steve also heard some coyotes talking back to police sirens 4/18----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Had a nice short trip this evening in the sunny windy weather. Went to a big pond/little lake for three hours. Caught half dozen largemouths on a spinnerbait shallow as you could fish it. Right on the bank in the weeds flooded by the rain. Fun fishing like that when you can see the strike as the fish comes busting out of the weeds and nails your spinnerbait. And the best part was an osprey that hunted the whole time I was there. (it was close to the river). I never did see it dive and then right at the end it flew by thirty feet away carrying a fish. One of the best looks I've ever had at one. One fish had a huge dent in his back between the two fins on his back and down his side a bit. looked like something tried to eat him and came really close to getting the job done. All were fat as can be. pretty little footballs 4/20----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man it was cold today. But I was going to be driving right by one of my favorite places today so I thought I stop for a bit. Just to be safe since the temps had dropped like 25 or 30 degrees in two days I stashed a container of waxworms in the pack before heading out. Some years I find a fair amount of morel mushrooms close to this pond. I looked for a good while but not yet this year. There was however a carpet of trilliums blooming in the woods. I fished around the lake catching three small bass on a jig fished slooow and almost stepping on a goose nest. Which made the owners very mad. They hissed and looked very out of sorts till I fished on down the bank. When I got to the spot I see big bedding bluegills every year, I moved out and began fishing about nine or ten feet deep adjacent to the bedding area. I figured the gill had to have been thinking about moving in last week when it was 80 degrees and would be close by. It was pretty simple fishing really, a slip floater, rubber band, split shot and hook. Every few minutes the float would begin to rise and then lay on its side and I'd have a nice gill. Anywhere from seven inches up to nine. Not the most glamorous fishing trip ever but a fine way to kill a few hours on a cold sat evening. 4/26------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hit the LMR with Dan and the legendary House(Rob). The river was still up a bit but falling and muddy. Probably the worst possible conditions outside of flooding. We managed to catch several white bass apiece and Dan caught a sauger. I did also manage to have catastrophic wader failure and as I'm writing this my wallet and all its contents are spread out all over the counter drying out. But it was still a great time fishing with two of the best fishermen I know.