8/23

Had a whole bunch of action from small bass tonight and finally landed one good one that streaked over pushing a wake in front of it and hit right after the electric blue three inch grub hit the water. Also had a bunch of tiny tiny smallmouth grab at the tail. Looks like to me there was a great spawn the last couple years and the future is bright...

hop skip and a smallie

Went to buy a map for an upcoming fishing trip to the north woods and spot hopped down the river on the way home. Smallies seem to be enjoying this cool weather and the recent rains and were biting well. About a half an hour before dark caught a good one on a pumpkinseed 3 inch grub anda 1/4 ounce jighead in fast water.

Photo dump...

So many fish so little time to post....

I haven't really posted a fishing report in about a week so I have some catching up to do...

I spent one evening seining small crayfish out of a small creek that's loaded with them. Crayfish will stay alive nicely for several days with little or no trouble as long as you do a couple easy things. One is keep them cool. I like to use an old cooler and then sit it in a cool shady place like the garage. The other is don't drown your craws. If you do not keep an air pump going they will use up all the oxygen in the water quickly and die. But here's the cool part. If they can just keep their gills wet they can breathe air. Just put a half an inch of water in your cooler and throw in a bunch of grass for them to climb on and they will keep fine.
So I took a bucket of craws, a spinning rod, a pack of old fashioned baitholder hooks and some small splitshot to another slightly bigger creek. What a blast, below every small riffle in the little knee to waist deep hole I'd catch a couple channels. Little guys, maybe a pound or pound and half on average but one right after another. Wading wet in a little creek catching tons of little catfish it doesn't get much better on a hot day...

Then I met Chris on the GMR. We fished a beautiful section of river, again wading wet and again killing the fish! I think Chris was using Vic's five inch grub from what I saw and I was using a three inch clear with silver glitter grub. Chris said he must have caught 12 or 15 and fished about half as long as I did so I'm guessing at least 30 or 35 easy for the two of us. Several times I caught fish on back to back casts. Mostly smallmouth bass in the ten inch range but we both caught three or four nice channels apiece too on lures. The fish were stacked up in a swift run of water right before it poured over a riffle between two little islands. A swell trip. Walking out I told Chris I'm only going to catch three or four tomorrow but one or two will be hawgs because I'm going to the pig pen...

I hadn't been back to the pig pen in a week and it was killing me. Conditions had been the same as they had been, low water and hot. Exactly the conditions that made big smallies pile into the swift oxygenated pool I call the pig pen. All evening I could hear thunder roll all around me and several times it got dark but it never did rain. The dark cloudy skies made the fish bite and I ended up catching five, which is good for the pen. I was fishing a clear with green back curly shad with the mylar instead of glitter. Which was what she hit on. And then jumped seemingly five feet in the air. And came down still connected to the lure after the jump so I was I was happy. The photo if anything doesn't do her justice. After that jump and fight I felt honored to have been lucky enough to release such a grand fish...

Smallmouth Sonny, a book review

Smallmouth Sonny of Bass Island Bar
By Bill Schroeder, illustrated by James Billiter

I have to admit I was very apprehensive about this book for a couple reasons. One, I'm a huge believer in the Little Miami Conservancy who put out the book and if I didn't like the book I would constantly be asked about it since I've become, for good or bad, permanently associated with the Little Miami River myself. Secondly the author Bill Schroeder is a man who does the things he does for the Little Miami Conservancy with no other motive than trying to do good. Good for the conservancy, good for the river, good for the world as a whole. I'd hate it if I didn't like the book written by this man. 
I brought the book home and set it on my coffee table to look over later that evening. My granddaughter happened to be spending the night with us and came into the living room and picked up the book. With no prompting from me she sat down and began to read the book aloud. I sat and got my first taste of the book by listening to her read. 
The book itself tells the story of Sonny, a smallmouth bass in the Little Miami River, that as a small fry is swept downstream in a storm and must make his way home. Along the way Sonny and the reader sees and learns about the natural world around him. 
I love the fact that it is a book about the wonderful world right out the back door. Too often children only know and learn about the TV animals. You know, lions and tigers, polar bears and great white sharks. It took me a quite a while a couple years ago  to convince a child at LMC's visitor center that river didn't have great whites because the only fish she had ever been exposed to were ones on TV. 
As I listened to Kally read the book I realised there was no reason to be apprehensive. This book contains all the elements of a non-fiction book presented in a work of fiction which will hold a child's interest. All along Sonny's journey home he encounters one animal after another and there is a bit of background information on each. Additional back pages offer more information on these and other local animals and plants for older or more curious readers. After reading the book my granddaughter on her own continued reading this additional information asking a few questions and starting a conversation about local fauna. If you want to see that spark of curiousity light up in a child that's just learning that it's fun to learn, AND teach them that nature is all around us and not just something on TV there's no better book than this one.
If you have a child in your life please get them this book. Not only will they enjoy it and learn new things but you will also help support the Little Miami Conservancy and protect the wonderful Little Miami River.

Buzzbait bass

A couple nice bass from yesterday. They hit on a buzzbait with a curly shad in place of the typical skirt. Towards evening I was joined by my friend Dave. After he promised not to tell anyone the location, even his mom. I think Dave was a bit dubious when I took him to the spot. A small hole maybe thirty yards long and twenty feet wide. But about three casts in a big bass sucked in his buzzbait and rocketed skyward. Although lure and fish were soon parted at least we both got a good look at it before it got off. It was a very big fish. The rest of the evening's fish were small but at least he knew I wasn't pulling his leg about the possibilities of the little hole..

nirvana

Today I fished a small stream I've been wanting to get on for a long long time. Even though its in southern Ohio there is little access to the thing. If your one of the three guys I go fishing with you know I've been talking about fishing this thing for about a year now. Well I finally got on her and it was everything I had hoped and more. The fish were very concentrated around any fast water with the very low water conditions and well it was amazing.
I caught most of the fish on a triple wing buzzbait with the skirt removed and replaced by the largest size curly shad. This is fast becoming one of my all time favorite big fish lures. The big curly shad and the triple blade let you work the thing like 25 percent slower than a conventional buzzbait. towards evening there was a big toilet bowl flush right under the buzzbait and the rod bent double. A big channelcat on a buzzbait?? Nope a 20.75" smallmouth!!! I'm a pretty happy camper tonight...