birthday bronze

So today is my birthday. I'm not much of a birthday person. So I decided to spend it doing what I love most, wading the LMR. Right away on a minnow plug I felt a thump and set the hook into something solid. But it turned out to be a foul hooked carp. But a mirror carp with a few huge scales, very cool. Then a half hour later a small walleye, a real rarity in my part of the lmr. Followed two casts later by a saugeye that was a twin to the walleye in size. Which is to say small. By then I'd gotten to where I wanted to be, which is three riffles up from where you hit the river. The same riffle I caught the 19 3/4 at last trip and a 20 two or three years ago. Needless to say, your not going to see any pictures of the riffle. I call it deer riffle. I've seen more deer here than anywhere else I've ever been on the river. It's the Cades Cove of the Little Miami. Sure enough on the tiny island at the top of the riffle I can see the back of a deer above the vegetation, It raises it's head and turns out to be a small buck. A fork horn I think. I begin casting as the buck wanders off into the woods on the far bank. Five or ten minutes later I look up and see a doe stepping out into the head of the riffle maybe 60 yards up from me. It steps gingerly out into midstream followed close behind by another. They pause giving me a few stares before continuing across and up into the woods also. I decide the minnow plug isn't cutting it anymore and tie on a lipless crankbait. The first cast across the seam where the riffle empties into slack water and something nails it. Its fighting doggedly in the current. A catfish I'm thinking. Then it hurtles two feet straight up out of the water like it was posing for a magazine ad. Then again and again. I finally work it into the shallows and land it. 19 1/4, a very very nice birthday present indeed. After snapping a pic or two I release it and pull a pop out of the pack and just sit on the bank a while watching evening spread over the river. I hear a bird of prey cry and see an osprey winging downriver carrying a fish. Too soon I gather my things and hurry out as it gets too dark to see well. I could stand a few more birthdays like this one...