Buckeye State Chromers ~ Pic's

[solopaddler]

This time of year sees me putting a lot of miles on the hwy. Regardless of the conditions somewhere will be prime if you're willing to do some driving.

After an uneventful trip north on Wed to fish the Huron tribs I was looking to redeem myself with a good day.

My friend Adam lives in Ohio and after gabbing on the phone for a bit about some of the new reels he's making (he builds amazing custom centre pin reels), he says "get your butt down here asap the river is prime!!"

That's all I needed to hear.

 

Joining me on this quest for chrome was BillM and Fergie once again.

We met at my place Friday evening after work and hauled down to the Buckeye state.

Arriving around 10:30 we checked into our hotel, poured a couple of drinks and unwound a bit before finally hitting the sack.

Sat morning we met up with Adam and utilized his vehicle so that we could walk a long stretch of river. (We left mine at the downstream access then hopped in his truck and drove upriver).

 

Here's Adam with one of his newer creations:

 

 

 

The river was gorgeous, pool after pool and not another soul on the river. You'd never see that in Ontario.

 

 

Unfortunately the fishing was slow LOL!

The water clarity was worse than expected apparantly due to some upstream construction.

We worked the water quickly attempting to reach my vehicle so we could head upstream and salvage the day.

Still there were some fish caught. I had a couple on, none landed. Ferg apparantly managed to land 2 and Bill got this one while I was in camera range:

 

Here he is battling the fish:

 

 

(For you critics out there how's this for a new pose? )

 

 

 

After we reached my vehicle Adam had to say his goodbyes as he had reels to make, so we motored about 20 miles upstream to hopefully find clearer water and more cooperative fish.

We did.

 

I started things off with this decent hen:

 

 

The water's quite a bit warmer down there and there's lots of these guys in the river already:

 

 

I had it in mind to walk downstream as far as I could then work my way back to the car. Billy and Ferg are lazy slugs.

They stayed put near the vehicle not willing to put in the footwork....

 

There were thousands of fish in that stretch of river, many of which were clearly visible attempting to spawn on the gravel.

I'm not a fan of fishing for steelhead when they're on the beds so I concentrated my efforts on the deeper darker slots and seams.

There were plently of hungry takers....

 

This huge old tree was over 8' in diameter:

 

 

Some sweet looking water:

 

 

 

 

Some even sweeter fish :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had quite a little session down there, a good number of fish were caught, many more were lost in the heavy current.

 

Let me tell ya it was hard to walk away from that, but I was starting to wonder about the boys and how they were doing, so back upstream I went.

Apparantly the lads had found a decent little pod of fish upstream as well so the day was a good one all around.

 

(Billy if you've got any pic's of your or Ferg's fish feel free to post them bud. Wouldn't mind seeing them myself ).

 

Now it's time to start prepping for next week. 6 days in Michigan baby!!

 

Cheers, Mike

Edited March 23, 2009 by solopaddler

[highdrifter]

Oh there we go..

 

Brilliant!! And very tasteful budday.

 

WTG.

 

HD

[solopaddler]

Oh there we go..

 

Brilliant!! And very tasteful budday.

 

WTG.

 

HD

 

You shoulda been with us bud!!

[BillM]

If we only could have had a few more inches of vis I doubt we would have left the first spot. I am sure the fish were stacked up, but unless you were smacking them ontop of the head with golf balls, they were uncooperative. That little dip I took wasn't to much fun, lol. Gotta get myself a wading staff..

 

Ferg and I didn't break out the camera at all today, just the ziplock bags for the golden candy

 

I was going to follow you downstream, looks like I should have!! Can't wait to hit that place when the conditions are prime, with the amount of fish in that system, I can't imagine what it's like...

[yo_guy]

Sweet Chrome!!!

[Cudz]

Those spawners have some really pretty colours. Wow. Looks great.

[douG]

BillM, I have come way too close to filling my chest waders with some soon to be Lake Erie water and I don't like it one bit. Fast flows and rolling gravel give me the willies. Good for you for toughing it out.

 

Fabulous fish as always, Mike. Thanks for sharing your trip.

[BillM]

I got lucky and only soaked my coat. It wasn't very deep, but I ended up tripping over a big boulder and that was it. Scary feeling having your feet come out from under you, trying to regain your footing...

 

The weather cooperated and Mike was there to offer up some dry clothing Can't ask for better company I tell ya!

[Leecher]

Great report and pics Mike

 

Love the new centerpin your buddy Adam created.... great craftsmanship

And talk about the new pose..... I'm shocked :w00t: Though you'd be more artistic J/K LOL

 

Doesn't get any better than that!! Congratulations to everyone.... beauty

Jacques

[OhioFisherman]

Nice Solo, looks like an East of Cleveland trib, The Grand? Never been far enough up the Vermillion on the west side in my boat to see what is up there. My days on the Grand were before Steelhead.

[Sinker]

A++ on the new pose.......I love it

 

And I must say, I like the pics with just the fish, still in the water much better than the ones with the pose

 

Thanks for the report,

Critic

[jdmls]

Nice fish boys, to bad about the water clarity.... Mike I almost yaked up my lunch when I saw the pic of that sugar lips

 

Keep it up

[Guest steel'n'esox]

You must be a photography major your photos are amazing, not only the fish but more important the scenery, well done

[tibbs]

Fantastic report Mike.

 

Looks like a blast.