How to purchase my book

By spring we expect to have a hardcover version of my book, The LMR for sale. Right now all I have available is the Cd version. By print a few of the photos might change and a few more grammatical mistakes fixed but the content will be the same as the CD. You can transfer the book from CD to your computer and it opens like any other PDF book. You can scroll down or select any page you wish as well as zoom in or out. You can transfer it to any of the book readers too. It's worked on those I've tried. Well I haven't really got it set up yet to sell online with a credit card but If you mail me a check for ten bucks I'll make sure and mail you out one within a week. My address is Steve Coomer, 120 South Sycamore street. Lebanon, Ohio 45036.
Be sure and specify South Sycamore. If you put just Sycamore it goes somewhere else. The book will come on Cd in pdf form. Most reader programs will let you scroll down or put in the page you want to see plus make the type as big or little as you want. It costs around two bucks to package and then mail it so I think that's a pretty good deal. If you river fish for smallmouth you will enjoy this book.

Twenty One Inch SMB

Ok so this has been the best week of smallmouth bass fishing I've ever had. I'll admit that, there's no way to act like "oh yeah, I've done that before". I've found big fish in two places and have hit em everyday. It's not often you catch three smallmouth that probably total 15 lbs and your not in lake erie or canada. I'll be the first to say I've been lucky and blessed. Today was the GMR. I bribed a guy that works the early shift to trade me today. Eric I owe you one buddy. The GMR had been a degree or two warmer than the LMR lately. I ran into Fischa yesterday on the LMR and he measured 52 degrees. That's pretty much getting down to saugeye fishing temps in my book so, desperate for that last bit of smallmouth bass action, I hit the gmr. Right away I did okay catching a 15 inch fish, losing another and catching one maybe eight inches long. Then things stopped. I hung up my grub and lost it and retied on a 1/8 ounce jighead instead of the 1/4 I'd been using. I also put on a 4 inch grub that I'd bitten about a half inch off of, making it a bulkier profile. My idea was that it would fall slower and I wouldn't have to reel as fast to keep it off bottom. I don't know if that did the trick or not because I only caught one fish. But what a fish. I threw like I have all week into a hard current break. The currents ripping along then 6 inches over way slower. Thump. I set the hook. The fish jumped. I didn't get a good look at it but it seemed pretty big. Then a screaming run and it jumped again. Time stood still. I swear everything stopped and it just hung there like in a magazine ad. Or at least it so seemed in my excited brain. Then everything went into hyperdrive. It's running, jumps once more, kinda wallows on top. And then I lipped it. A few days ago I was using braid in dingier water when I caught the 20 but things were clearer so I had 8lb mono on. So now swinging the fish up on the bank like the other fish was out of the question. I was so happy to lip that fish. Pictures, measuring, then holding in the water to rest then one last photo. I released the fish in a quiet little 8 inch deep pocket. It just kind of hung there resting. I snapped a photo then bent down and touched its mouth to lip it again and put it in the river. I jerked it's head away angrily and swam off strongly into the river. I swear it looked po'd even then. Gotta love that smallmouth attitude. I didn't fish anymore. From the sounds of the forcast things are about done after today anyway. I gotta admit I'm still a bit jacked up two hours later writing this one up...

Ligtning strikes twice...19" smallmouth

I texted Dave. "So you want to go fishing? I kinda been doing okay at this spot, cough, cough" The nice part about Dave is the guy is as paranoid about our fishing spots as I am. We've spent hours and hours each pouring over sat maps and sending each other ideas and wild theories. He's kinda like the neighbor on the old Home Improvement show. Remember Wilson that they never showed his whole face? Well Dave's posts are just close ups of fish so people wont recognize him and fish his spots. So Delta is the only guy on earth I'd trust with the exact spot I caught the twenty inch fish yesterday. He was already fishing when I got to the river. As I'm walking up he was taking a picture of a 15 inch fish and said he'd just caught another that size and had been there like ten minutes. I'm like cool. Now let's leave. He instantly got his stuff. You know Dave, the guy that caught three 18' fish in one day a week or so ago, he's all about catching a big smallie. So we hiked on up to the spot. I'm showing him, "Ok, so they are right here lying in this seam of really fast water right along that rocky bank. I caught the 20, a 17, and lost a 18 to 20 inch fish right here." I'm making casts, kind of showing him where the fish are and how I'm fishing it and Thump. Out of the water comes this huge smallie. At first I'm like...Ok this is a 20 inch fish! I fight it a bit and then land it without too much drama so I'm beginning to realize it's not as big as yesterdays fish but still a big bruiser. Dave gets his measuring board. 19 inches! I was pretty pumped, I'm sure I rattled on to Dave like a little excited kid. The potential of this new spot still has me excited three hours later. Water temp was 60 even, down a degree from yesterday. Only six or seven degrees till it slows with some cool nights in the forecast. Call in sick to work, take a vacation day, fake your own death. Whatever it takes, this might not last too much longer...



These two are from the next day. Water has dropped another degree. Fish still up in the fast run right on a current sleeve. Cold rainy, high in the 50's, The end is near...

20 inch smallmouth bass

So it was the usual mad dash to the river after work. Today I did good, there was about an hour left of daylight. I went right back to the spot I caught the 17 inch fish yesterday. Same lure. A three inch grub on a quarter ounce jig head. It's swift. Really swift. I threw the grub right into this hard current break and let it sweep downstream in the fast water. Thump. A hard strike and I had a fish on. About a 15 inch fish. Then a few cast later a good fish that bent the rod double before coming off. Maybe five casts after that. Thump and the rod bent double and the line began peeling off the reel. It felt heavy. I'm thinking catfish. I was actually kind of disappointed, which I never am catching a cat. But I had high hopes for a good bass here. Then skyward came this fish. Profanities were blurted. Things speeded way up. It was jumping and line was peeling off then it was tailwalking almost at my feet. and then finally it was safely in hand. Its always so nerve racking with a big smallie, I swear I lose half of the big ones they fight so dang hard. This time I was lucky.

BTW go fishing! Right now is the best time of year to catch a good one.




20.5 inches

This week in fish...

Alone time

I was just about to start with a diatribe about how I can like an individual but people as a whole are jerks. It was then I had an epiphany. That's just not right, individuals(taken as whole? Does that make sense?) are assholes. Worried way too much about what is on TV that night, if their team is going to win, what the fat mom on duck dynasty is cooking for dinner. I've always been a loner, now I'm well on my way to becoming a crusty old bastard. It's funny but the one time I'm a nice guy, when I like myself the most, is when I'm by myself. Alone poking around the river, I find the time the think about more than Dancing With the Kardashians. I'll stop sit on a rock and just watch the river a spell. Something I'd never do out fishing with someone else. It's funny but I'm more likely to catch a bigger fish by myself too. I'll try something different, experiment a bit. Let's face it, a lot of big fish don't get caught because someone is just trying to catch just as many fish as the other guy. The few guys I do go fishing with seem to feel that way also on some level. They are about as likely as me to wander off into the bushes for an hour or two looking at inky cap mushrooms or fallen leaves. These same guys are just as likely too to fish way too hard in driving rain or snow because their gut tells them too. We sometimes end up back at the truck having fished the same stream for five or six hours having only spoken five or six words. But somehow we "went fishing together". Anyways, one thing I've taken to doing when fishing by myself is tucking a small sketch pad in my pack. Some times it sets there untouched, sometimes it adds so much to my time spent outside. It forces me to slow down, notice things, look at the things I miss most of the time. Could anything be better training for a fisherman? For being a person. Who knows eventually If I draw enough I won't be such an asshole myself...

Helpful websites concerning the LMR and GMR watersheds

http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/?m=real&r=oh

real-time streamflow compared to historical streamflow for the day of the year

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http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=10

Fishing reports from all over Ohio

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http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=iln

Current water levels and predictions for streams all over the state

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http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/

Google map type site that also shows topo lines

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http://www.littlemiami.com/

Homepage of Little Miami Inc. Best maps available on the LMR

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http://littlemiami.com/LITTLE%20MIAMI%20RIVER%20ECOLOGY%20AND%20HISTORY.pdf

ecology and history of the LMR

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http://www.miamiconservancy.org/

Website of the Miami Conservancy District

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http://redandthepeanut.blogspot.com/search/label/Oil%20Pastel

natural history blog that often features the LMR

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http://cincinnatibirds.com/

great birding site

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http://www.buckeyeflyfishers.com/

Local fly fishing info

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http://www.littlemiamistatepark.org/

dedicated to the stewardship of the Little Miami State Park.

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http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/AZFish/tabid/17913/Default.aspx

A to Z Species Guide - Fish

Today I had to be way upstream at Oldtown above Xenia to photograph the opening ceremony for the Tecumseh Preserve on the Little Miami. The preserve is on the site of the village that Tecumseh spent his youth at. It's also where Daniel Boone was brought as a captive of the Shawnee. Due to the fact that there might be valuable archeological items as yet undiscovered the preserve is open by appointment only. As part of the ceremony there was a reenactment of Tecumseh fording the LMR. I took some photos of the LMR I thought were pretty cool...






After the ceremony and a bit of stormy weather I had the evening free to fish. I tried a spot a few miles away I had kept in the back of my mind as a fall spot to try. It was for the upper LMR very deep with a fine riffle. Right away I caught a nice saugfish and a spotted bass. A few minutes later another saugfish bopped my jig in what became the pattern for the evening. Two or three saugfish and then a spotted bass then two or three more saugfish. They were stacked up in the deep run and I must have caught at least a dozen. Then I set the hook on what I thought was another saug-o-matic and out of the water blasted a huge smallmouth spitting my lure back at me. It was a very big fish. After a minor meltdown, some cussing, angst, and a bit of soul searching it was back to catching saugs till dark. Even with losing the big smallie I was very happy with adding a new place to my list of spots. (Google maps is the greatest thing ever BTW) I ended up with 3 spotted bass, a 14 inch smallie and lots and lots of saugs. Every fish came on this hideous gold mixed with pearl and metalflake three inch grub that I've probably had in my pile of tackle at home for 15 or 20 years! Rummaging thru restocking my pack it was just a case of "huh, I'll try that".