Christmas

I was lucky enough to get out on Friday and Saturday. Friday with all the rain I decided to jump the border and head to PA. The water was dirty, but I still managed to do pretty well hooking into many fish. With the higher flows, it sure makes the fight much tougher, and more enjoyable to me. Fished up high and hooked into about half drop backs, half freshies.

It was a good couple days to get out as there was next to no one out. PA guys must not like the cold very much, as we walked up and fished any hole that we wanted too, it was nice. All fish caught on eggs, uncured as well as BorXofire cured. Fish came from fast water, as well as tail outs. We hit one tail out on Saturday just before we left, we hooked about a dozen fish in the exact same spot. Just have to cover water and find them!

Past few days of fishing

I have been on Christmas Break since the start of the weekend, and I have been taking full advantage!  I have fished everywhere from Elk creek, to the Rocky River today and have had a blast this weekend.  Fishing in white out conditions was the highlight so far.  Just felt right to be on the river during that time, and I guess we were the only ones that felt that way as we saw no one else out.  Had all the fish to ourselves and did quite well.

All fish have come on a combination of natural, uncured egg sacs and BorXoFire natural cured eggs.  Yellow and pink mesh being the hottest producing colors.  Get out while you can as we have some ideal temperatures for winter fishing as well as plenty of fish in the systems.

Here I had some natural steelhead skein that had previously been frozen and thawed.  Well as you can see it got a little mushy and the eggs starting popping all over.  Well instead of just wasting them I decided to see if the Fire Brine could save these eggs.  Well you can be the judge.

After.

Pautzke Fire Brine will plump your old deflated eggs up, and they are good to go again.  These will all be hitting the water tomorrow as we will be on another quest for the big fish.

Re-Curing eggs with Pautzkes Fire Brine

Today I wanted to cure up some nice red eggs for the dirty water conditions I will be fishing this weekend.  So I looked in my egg collection, and noticed that I still had a bad of BorXoFire cured eggs in pink.  I put them in a cup and filled them up just over the top of the eggs with the Red Fire Brine.  I put them in the fridge last night, and pulled them out this afternoon.  Boy are they RED.  It has a great color to it, and I am really looking forward to fishing them this weekend.  The thing I love about Fire Brine is that the eggs plump up VERY nicely in this brine.  If you have eggs that look slightly "deflated", put them in your choice color of Fire Brine, and you will have good eggs again.  They have 6 colors to choose from, and the best part is you can mix/match any colors to your personal preference.  Place the eggs in a jar or container, fill it up just over the top of the eggs and you're done!  The eggs will float, but as they soak in the cure, they will sink and plump up.  Leave them in the cure anywhere from 5 hours- a day or two.  If you forget about them, and it is a few days later, not a big deal.  Super easy and super effective on steelhead, what more could you want in a cure?

Here are some eggs cured up by Ben See from Steelheadalleyangler.com in Pautzkes Fire Brine.

Put these in Santas glass for Christmas instead of milk :)

12/12

Fished the Chagrin on Monday, with what seemed like everyone else in Ohio.  From my observations lately it seems that Monday is the new Saturday.  Despite cooler temps, and tons of slush there were still a lot of guys out.  Saw plenty of fish caught, including a few of my own.  Most of my takes were in the extreme tailout parts of the holes.  A few took in the middle of the runs, and even had a fish in the head of some really fast water.  Just goes to show that while you can predict where most fish will be this time of year, there are always a few in the faster waters also.  Pautzkes BorXofire made up for the majority of the catches, along with some eggs cured in FireBrine.  With rain on its way the rivers will be high and muddy once again, so watch those gauges closely and get out while you can before the deep freeze sets in, as it looks to be just around the corner.

If you are new to steelhead fishing and are looking to get out for a trip to learn the ropes, I suggest Robs Guide Service.  He offers fly, spin, and centerpin fishing trips.  Very affordable and will help shorten the learning curve A LOT!!
www.robsguideservice.blogspot.com

Big Fish

12/8

Well I just got done tying up a few dozen sacs for tomorrows little steelhead journey.  I think we will be staying in Ohio, looking to hit some of the smaller water in eastern Ohio.  I have tied up a multitude of eggs in several different cures.  I have eggs in BorXofire, Firecure and Fire brine.  I like to take a few different cures with me when I go on a trip.  I have fished a hole where all I did was switch up eggs from different cures, and caught an extra fish or 2.  We fished a hole on elk for a few hours one day and had landed a lot of fish between my buddy and I.  We thought it was "fished out" until another friend took our spot over using eggs that were in Pautzkes cure I didn't have at the time.  He proceeded to land about a dozen more fish out of this hole.  Just goes to show that having many different colors and cure combinations will optimize your chances at putting a few extra fish on the bank.

Gold label Salmon eggs from Pautzke!

Fire Brine

Ben See of Steelheadalleyangler.com has made a very informative blog for Pautzke about using their new Fire Brine and curing single eggs.  It's a great read, check it out.

Ben See, Curing single eggs with Pautzke Fire Brine

Crowds

Fished out east on Thursday, found PRIME conditions on elk.  Lots of fish were landed in all types of water.  Most of the fish were dropback spawned out hens.  All fish caught on Pautzke BorXofire natural color eggs, with Liquid krill scent added.

I fished out at Rocky River today.  Lots of fresh fish around, and the river has really given up very good numbers recently.  I was in a sort of mood today that I wanted solitude over numbers of fish, as there were a ton of people out today (as expected).  So I drove out east to a grand feeder and found only 1 car in the parking lot.  I fished my way upstream landing several fish in just under an hour.  I found exactly what I had set out for, a few fighters, and peace and quiet.  All fish caught on the usual BorXofire cured eggs.  Fish were caught in the deeper pools, in the tailouts.  It's about that time of the year where the water starts to get real cold, and you can find the fish holed up.  There were still several fish caught Thursday in the faster water, but the majority were in slower deeper water.

I also fished a creek that was recently stocked with rainbows.  I took out my fly rod and had some fun with that, first time using it and it performed very nicely.  I cheated and put Pautzke Gold label salmon eggs on my flies, I'm dirty I know.  But the trout loved them.