Fishing Season - Six Weeks! (Page 2 of 2)

This is my absolute favorite Flex Seal commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17zyezuw07U

MKM, you reminded about some of the different terms we use either side of the border (soda = pop), and this commercial reminds me a gal I taught in a class years ago, who was from Philadelphia. She always said soda, and she also said "water" exactly the same way pitchman Phil Swift says it in this commercial. This one's a hoot!

I enjoy bluefin fishing. 
But the thing I most enjoy is the brunch that we prepare with a good wine and some delicatessen.

Catches are not sure,  but brunch is granted!!

Thanks, DE!

Sounds like you guys have had some good runs already. And you've observed, there's a whole lot more to fishing than catching fish!

Been out a couple of times since April began, with stellar results on April 1-2. First off, conditions were horrible, i.e., pouring rain, high fast water, and heavy winds ... no fun with a fly rod. Even with a couple layers of polar fleece under our waders, the cold water (barely above freezing) was biting our legs, and it was dangerous wading. Despite that, we caught +/- 30 speckled trout, and I even caught a small Atlantic Salmon. All were safely released except for a couple trout we each took home for a meal.

We got a bit pompous, as the few other anglers we came across reported having been skunked. I said to my buddy Greg: "Do you know why we caught fish and no one else did? 'Cuz we got skills! In fact, we were using Type III sink-tip lines, so were able to get our "flies" (Grey Ghosts, Wooly Buggers, etc.) down to where the fish were holding.

Had planned an outing today, but the winds are very high, and there was a fair bit of snow yesterday and last night in the area we'd planned to go.

I'm not one of those snooty fly fisherman that looks down their nose at folks who don't fly fish ... just the opposite.

I've got spinning gear and baitcasters also, and there a times, conditions, and species where they are the best choice to be successful. But for trout fishing (brookies, browns, and rainbows) flies usually out-perform everything else consistently, so that's my first choice. Trout usually prefer to feed on bugs on top of the water, and will usually ignore everything else if there's a hatch on (Stoneflies, Mayflies, Caddis, etc.). But I wouldn't think of going smallmouth bass fishing without Senkos, flukes, tubes & grubs, stickbaits, or poppers. And as far as speed goes, I can change a fly as quick as I can bait a hook ... not much to it, really.

Additionally, I prefer to release most of what I catch. Live bait makes most fish swallow, so they get hooked deep and mortally injured. A fly generally doesn't make it past the outer rim of their mouth (cartilage) so they can be released without harm, and no blood to attract larger predators. I also prefer not to keep larger females, as they are the egg producers that maintain the population. I don't judge anyone who wishes to keep a bigger catch, and love a feed o' fish as much as anyone.

Just a few personal choices I'm comfortable with ... nothing more.

The small, spit-across local stream that my buddy Doug and I anticipate floating each spring was expected to be perfect today.  We've fished it as low as 70 cfs and as high as 350 cfs as anything above that flow flushes out the eddies and makes it hard to float and fish.  Ideally the flow should be about 140-170 cfs.  Today the air temps were to hit mid 70's, water temps approach mid 50's  and the flow had been holding at 160 cfs since yesterday afternoon - absolutely the perfect conditions to thumb some big smallmouth bass while floating through one of the most beautiful rock gorges in southern Ohio.  It was also the only stream in a 40 mile radius that wasn't running several times its normal flow due to recent rains.

I woke up before daylight, loaded my yak and gear into the back of my truck, added a few extra 5" green pumpkin grubs to my tackle bag and waited on Doug to call while I made some breakfast. He called and told me he was expecting a guy to stop by to pick up a kayak he'd sold and he would be about an hour later than usual. I couldn't stand it and made the 1/2 hour drive to the take-out where we usually meet, thinking I'd also drive to a couple of the access points and check the flow before he arrived.  When I got to the takeout there were several  vehicles parked there as well as at the place we normally put in.  I didn't see any boaters but the stream appeared to be a lot higher than the expected 160 cfs.  I went back downstream and waited for Doug to show up.  A few more vehicles pulled in and I found out that a whitewater paddling club from Dayton had requested a 900 cfs release from the dam so they would have a good level to teach their newbies to play in the small rapids in the gorge. The release would last most of the day and ruin any chance to fish.

When Doug pulled up and I told him the story, we must have looked like two 8 year-olds that had just been told that Christmas was cancelled.  The good news was Doug treated me to lunch at a local diner before we went back home.  He's planning to take a couple mid-week vacation days if the levels are good next week.  Hopefully we can still get on the creek while the conditions are perfect.

DE

I don't lake fish much but I do get an occasional case of the "reds" and I've been known to whine a lot......

Englishman John and Hersch are trying to put together a river smallies gathering in VA (probably on the Doah).  If it works out maybe we can wet a line together this summer.

DE

This weekend is it for me! Boys trip, three days and two nights of canoeing, camping and line wetting.

We are putting in on the Colorado River just a tad bit underneath the Hoover Dam and floating 8 miles down river. It can be done in a day, so we are going to find the best camp spot we can, lay down camp and commence with the fishing!

Sunday AM we pack up and head back to reality.

One of my favorite parts of camping is cooking outside. I don't particularly care if I catch anything so long as I can spend time with friends and cook over a fire. A nice cat or striper would be fantastic but definitely not required for the weekend to be a success.

Thanks to Zurf for your advice as we planned this!

Wish us luck! Here are some pics of the striper in this particular stretch of river. Monsters.