10/29

Headed east this weekend with some friends.  Arrived to the river well before light, and we were rewarded with some good water all to ourselves.  The first three fish we landed all came on a triple, couldn't have started the day any better.  I look over and watch my buddy fighting a fish, I see my other friend swing back on a fish, and as I looked for my float in the stream, it was no where to be found, so I set the hook and boom fish on.  We all landed our fish and thought it was going to be one of those epic days.  We ended up hooking up with a bunch more fish before we decided to move.  Went higher up in the river system, and proceeded to whack some more fish in the lower clear water.  Boy were the crowds out today, and it was combat fishing.  We continued to dodge bullets, and fished among the crowds.  We were rewarded when we came up to a run, and the 2 people fishing it, left as we got there so we had a nice run to ourselves.  It was fish on for about 30 minutes as we hit fish on almost every drift.  Pautzke eggs in borxofire natural color with yellow mesh was the ticket.  All three of us were running the same drift, and time after time they would only take the yellow bags.  I have always heard people talking about color making such a big difference, and on this day that was certainly the case.  The water was clear, so part of me thinks that the yellow had a more natural tone to the eggs, and that made the difference.  After we left, we headed back to Ohio, and stopped at an eastern trib for a few hours.  We hooked up with several fish in that stream, and had most of the runs to ourselves.  It was a nice break from the zoo that we had fished earlier.  Most of the fish caught in the Ohio trib had some color to them, with a couple that were fresh.  The pink eggs in chartreuse mesh were taking most of the fish there.  Goes to show that it is always useful to carry a variety of colors and sizes, you just never know what the fish are keying in on.  The fall is starting to wind down, as old man winter takes his hold over northeast Ohio.  Enjoy the scenery while it lasts.

10/25

Hit up the Rocky River today, and hooked into a few.  Took my buddy Don out and got him into his first adult chromer of the year!  Certainly won't be his last either.  Rain is in the forecast for the next few days, though we will see how much of it we actually get.  I wouldn't mind a spike in the flows, as I am itching to get back out into a few special creeks.  All fish today were caught on Boraxofire eggs, in the natural color with chartreuse and pink mesh making up the colors.  It has been my experience that small details in fishing can make all the difference in the world, check your floats, check your main line, as well as your leaders.  Any fray in these will almost certainly end in a missed opportunity, which can be the missed fish of a lifetime!

Video

Ben See (steelheadalleyangler.com) put together this video of our day.  He does great work.

10/21/2011

Hit an east trib with some friends today.  Arrived early am, slightly unsure about what visibility we would be facing.  It was about 15" and clearing by the hour.  This was the day that every steelheader dreams about.  Perfect color, perfect flow, and fish all over the place.  I won't get into numbers but lets just say that we caught more than any steelheader needs to catch in a single day.  I went through roughly 120 egg sacs through out the day.  The hot color for me seemed to be natural color Boraxofire, with yellow mesh, although at times I think I could have caught them on a marshmallow.  The fish were holding in every type of water imaginable, fast slow, deep, shallow it did not seem to matter, hell we were catching them on the gravel in 12" of water (not lining them).  If you held your float cocked to the side, it would prevent hanging up on the gravel, and then your float would shoot to the side, and a nice steelhead would be thrashing around.  I will have to admit, having caught that many fish may have spoiled me, as this day was truly one for the memory banks.

Jumped the border

Today I jumped the border and went east to PA.  This was my first trip out there, and it will certainly not be the last.  I enjoyed fishing different types of water that I don't normally seek here on the Ohio tribs.  Anything that looked like it would hold fish did, and boy were they eager to eat some King Salmon eggs, cured in Borxofire.  I got to use my new custom floats that were made for me, from Steelheadalleyangler owner Ben See.  They are sick to say the least, enjoy the pics.

I have been busy tying up egg sacs for a trip out tomorrow morning.  I am taking 2 fellow Bass team members out to chase some chrome tomorrow morning.  There has been a slight bump in flow from the recent rain, with a little added color.  Hopefully a few eager fish have pushed in the lower parts of the system, and are eager to take an egg sac.  I will report back with how our day has gone, but hopefully we can bring a few fish for a quick photo op.

Canada trip 9/26/11

This was one of the most memorable fishing trips I have ever taken.  I had the pleasure to be invited out on this annual trip, and took full advantage of it.  Fighting a king salmon is unlike any steelhead I have fought before.  These fish will just bulldog you, they find the current and seem to just lay in it.  Their tales are so broad and powerful, it makes you wonder who is really in control.  The silver king made my trip.  It shot around the pool we were fishing, went up rapids as if I wasn't try to prevent it from going up there, pulling with everything I had.  It really is amazing to feel the power these fish hold.  At any second they can rip off 50 yards of line before you even know what happened.  I hooked one fresh fish that took me down river over 200 yards.  For 2 football fields I walked after this fish, merely just hoping it would stop running, but I soon realized that I was screwed.  I put the boots to that fish, and eventually the leader gave way.  I was extremely humbled by that fight.  Not all the fish were that excited, but every fish gave up a strong fight, which resulted in some sore arms after a few fights.  If you have never done so, I highly recommend a king salmon fishing trip.  There are a few rivers in Michigan that get good runs of kings, so you don't need to hop borders to catch them.  Although it's hard to beat the good company we had up in Canada.  I want to thank all of the guys that helped put me on the fish throughout those couple days, and I hope I have walked away with lifetime friends.  As they say, put the boots to em.

10/9/2011 Roe wagon debut

Well today I got my dad out in search of his first fall chromer.  Mission accomplished.  He had several hook ups, and a few brief fights before finally landing a nice bullet.  It was your standard 25" fall fish, but was full of fight.  I just watched as he enjoyed while it just ripped drag off of his Pflueger Trion spinning reel.  The berkley fireline held strong, as did his 8# vicious leader.  I switched to vicious flurocarbon line when a buddy of mine recommended it, and I have not turned back since.  In my experience it takes abrasion well, holds knot strength and is a good all around leader.  Anyway there were 3 of us that went out today, and no one took a skunk home.  The Chagrin had decent flow, about 24" of vis with a brownish/green color.  All fish were caught on roe bags, or for us Americans, egg sacs.  It has been a great start to fall already, finding many fish in the few times I have been out already, hopefully this warm weather will go away, and bring on cooler temps with many rainstorms.  We have been blessed already to get hit with lots of rain in late September, and that is why we are experiencing such great early fall fishing now!  Put the boots to em'.