8/14

Lots of fun tonight a smallie bigger than the one in the photo tonight hammered my grub in a foot of water and went airborne flipping end over end like a gymnast before coming off. Then the fish in the photo must have jumped two feet straight up out of the water. The fastest water I could find was the ticket today The faster the water the more likely it had a fish in it.

risorgimento

Just yesterday I was fishing with my friend Chris and I found myself just going thru the motions.  I told him I was feeling a bit stale. That maybe (gasp) I'd had my fill of fishing for a few days.
So what does daylight the next morning find me doing? Fishing of course. And I'm glad I went, it was as if nature herself was trying to cheer me up. First up were two beavers swimming by unawares at ten feet away. Then seeing me circling back to give me a good once over before tail slapping the water and heading off. A bit further downstream and I found a turtle in the middle of a wide clear ripple. So I never have the guts to stick the waterproof camera actually underwater but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I double checked the seal and went for it. I'm thrilled with the picture. Ten minutes later I look up to see a beautiful doe bounding across the stream and right after hear loud cries to see a redtail hawk right overhead. I'm wading along and realize I've walked right up on a huge flat rock with a dark little pocket of deeper water on the upstream end. I dunk the pearl glitter curly shad and the pretty smallmouth you see in the photo hurtles out from under the rock to nail it. Then goes crazy hooked on the end of four feet of line dangling under the rod tip. All is back right with the world...

A swell night

The fish were on fire this evening. I'm guessing I must have caught somewhere around thirty but it could have been more. I try not to make it about numbers so once it gets past about ten I lose track. Two or three on a squarebill though surprisingly that didn't really produce considering how active the fish were. Two on a prop-r and the rest on clear with silver glitter curly shads and grubs. In lightning fast knee to mid thigh deep water with some big rocks in it for current breaks. Seemingly the faster the water the better. Here's a few of the better ones....

Smallie camp

I arrived at the spot in the dark. But it was a place I knew well, an old friend really, and I was comfortable sitting up camp by the light of a headlamp. There was a huge old sycamore log lying parallel to the river. This was the third year it had stayed in place and was not washed away over the winter. I peered over the log and sure enough they were still there, two poles about an inch in diameter and seven feet long I'd cut on a previous trip. A good omen. I unfolded my tarp and spread one end over the log tying it to the trunks of trees behind the log. In the grommets one the other side I jammed the ends of the poles which had been whittled to fit. A couple strings running out from these down to ground in front and tied off to some bushes and a nice lean-to was up in just a couple minutes.
 Back down to the rock bar and a few more minutes had a couple armloads of driftwood gathered for a fire. Some dry twigs piled up with a few cotton balls smeared with vaseline and shredded for a fire starter had a nice little fire going in no time. Not too big a fire because I love to stare at the night sky. Tonight a front was coming in so clumps of dark clouds flew over a starry background. Out here away from the lights of town stars shine in numbers you would never even imagine exist unless you've been to a place like this. I'm reminded of a quote I heard once where stargazing is akin to looking in the rearview mirror of your car. You are looking back into the past, seeing the stars as they once were 500 or 1000 years ago when the light we see now left them.
Soon enough though clouds thickened and real darkness settled in. Every now and again splatters of raindrops hit the tarp through the night but never actually enough you could could it a rain.
With the sodden skies dawn never actually broke but instead things lightened by degrees. At one point you could say yeah it's daylight now but you couldn't really say when it had happened.
This was the reason I'd made the trip here. Often the first hour of day in midsummer is worth the other twenty three hours put together. At least when it comes to larger than average sized fish.
Sure enough today was similar, the best fish were all early and size and numbers declined as the morning wore on. At first light the best spot was up in the corners of the eddies that form below riffles. Right in the farthest upstream corner where the slack water meets fast water. A bit later in the morning the deepest part of the run below the riffle was the ticket. First thing in the morning I'd tied on a four inch clear with gold glitter grub Vic had given me and the fish bit well enough that I never saw the need to change.
Sometime mid morning I'd caught enough fish that I'd lost track of how many I'd caught and the skies were really threatening to open up so I packed it in. Sometimes you need a trip like this out by yourself, alone with the river to recharge...

8/3 smallies

A swell evening on the old river tonight. It seems the smallmouth were getting tired of all the high nasty water the past month too and are biting like it's october instead of summer time. Also had a dandy channel hammer the grub along with about a dozen smallies. The ticket tonight was a clear with gold metalflake grub fished in fast water.

The last photo is a decent fish not really photo worthy but a nice 16 inch plus fish. But look close see that big line on his side where a bug shovel tried to eat him. It would take a heck of a cat to eat a fish that size I'm thinking...

Bass on a stick....

A technique so deadly, so effective in it's genius simplicity it's banned in 64 states, 28 Canadian provinces, and 39 South American countries. Using a handmade rod crafted out of select Franklin county papaw wood. Or is it Licking County? Perry? Anyways using exotic central Ohio hardwood, five feet of Trilene and a Vic Coomer grub, I present "Bass on a Stick". Please practice catch and release only when using this cutting edge technique....

And the beat rolls on

On a Vic Coomer clear with silver curly shad on a 1/4 ounce jighead fished in roaring fast water about chest deep. It seems as soon as the water dropped it was game on for nice smallmouth. It's been a very good five or six days on southern Ohio rivers