Category: Chad

It had been years since I fished the southern part of the river. Water temp 72.0°F flowing at 90cfs.

It was all fun and games catching some small Bluegill:

• 

• 

Until this guy decided to come steal my spot and start hunting:

So I moved around the lake and started casting. In a few minutes I caught this monster:

Bill, Brian, and I headed back out later that evening to a different pond and I pulled in a few more:

• 

• 

• 

This was my 3rd Fish Ohio Sunfish. It was caught in public water near LaDue Reservoir. It measured in right at 9″ and was caught on an Ant with a Crappie Nibble.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I took a drive out this evening to try and get my 3rd Fish Ohio. Check out the colors on these two beauties.

I’m pretty sure the title says it all…

Try been wanting to get my father in law out on Lake Erie fishing for Walleye for a few years. It finally happened this year.

I got to do some casting (which is the method my father in law had been wanting to use) with a rod I purchased 21 years ago and never get to use because I always fish inland ponds and streams. I also caught one on a lure I inherited 28 years ago.

It was a beautiful day today, about 81°f, water temperature in the river was about 78°f, and the river was flowing about 40 cubic feet per second. The water was crystal clear. The wife and I saw schools of large gold fish, carp, bluegill, and gar. But after 3 hours I did not get any small mouth bass.

Getting ready for a trip out in Lake Erie I wanted to play around with some plastics while my Wife and Father in Law practiced casting.

• 

• 

• 

I decided to take Darwin out for a drive and a fishing trip.

Neither of my dogs have ever liked water, at least until today… Apparently this first Sunfish just looked chop licking good.

When I tossed it back Darwin went to go find it. I believe he thought we were playing fetch.

So as the next hour progressed I reeled them in, annd Darwin tried to catch them again…

It was a beautiful day in Northern Ohio today (70°f outside, and the Rocky River water temperature was about 63°f) . So before I ran out of sunlight. I took the top and doors off the Jeep and took an hour drive. I had my Diawa 6’6″ ultra light, a small box with a couple flys and a bottle of Berkley Crappie Nibbles with me. So I hung out and cast for a few minutes while the dogs stretched their legs and got a drink.

Apparently my bobber was more interesting than the fly most of the time but I landed a few Sunfish in the short time. I had a Large Mouth latch on, however about half was in it through the hook when it jumped.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The one with the purple color was absolutely beautiful. Even the others with such strong bright color were pretty awesome.

First Bass on a rubber

Went back to my Rapala for a few more. The water temperature is about 45°f the temperature outside is only at 36°f so it was a little chilly today.

We finally neared 50°f here in Cleveland. Christmas Day was nice and warm but we hit a quick deep, rainy, snowy, freeze. So I was excited to be at 48° – 50° for a few hours this afternoon. So I took both dogs out for some fun, and tried some lures that are out of my element. I even swung by Fin Feather Fur Outfitters in Middleburg Heights to pick up a new Husky Jerk Rapala. I’m not used to fishing when the water temperature is around 37°f – 38 °f. So today was a bit of trial and error. I tried all kinds of lures I don’t normally use.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The two lures that worked the best were these two Rapalas.

During the lull between dinner and dessert I took Jordan out for a walk around the pond. I hooked and reeled in four but only landed two.

I’ve definitely had less eventful after dinner walks.

I just learned that you can now text buoys out in the Great Lakes. This is actually pretty awesome, especially for any one taking out a boat. The phone number to text is 866-218-9973 each buoy has its own code that you text to the 866 number, what you get in reply is: Date, Time, Wind Speed & Direction, Wind Gust Speed, Air Temperature, Water Temperature, Wave Height, and Wave Interval.

If you look at a screen shot of the Current Buoy Map (Oct 2019) it looks like a pretty extensive network.

There is a website with a list of all the buoys, showing you the reference code that corresponds to each buoy. .https://glbuoys.glos.us/

I took Darwin out for a quick lap around a pond. I was casting a 9cm, Firetiger, floating, Rapala. Here is most of what I reeled in.

I planned on taking my wife out for a quick trip to catch some Bluegill. I took her to a spot where I got some monsters before with my old buddy CF. We have had so much rain especially out east that the water was so muddy the trip was proving to be a wash. But I remembered I had a buzz bait with me, and I thought “if there are Bluegill there should be Bass.” So while I was flipping a buzz bait the dogs enjoyed some off leash time running in between two corn fields. They didn’t quite know what to think of the baby Bass that would hit it.

Hopefully we just had the final snow of the season here in northern Ohio. I thought it was a good time to take a look at my gear heading into the spring. I’ve always been a fan of Diawa rods. But I haven’t used one since a catfish took my Diawa Sweepfire rod fishing at Wallace Lake one evening about 12 years ago. That night I was forced to go to my “backup” Fenwick 6’6” Bass rod and I have been using it ever since.

So for this coming summer I bought 3 Diawa rods, all fast action. I got one 7’ Crossfire medium weight for Bass, and two 6’6” Procyon light weight for Bluegill (one for my wife and one for me)

A few years ago I got my wife a pink and black Ugly Stick as an introduction to bass. Really this was more of a introduction to fishing, it was the whole package: learning how to cast, learning how to cast different lures, spinning reels, retrieval… She wants to do more fishing, and I want to take her out to more locations, but my favorite type of fish to eat are bluegill, and she only has a bass rod.

So here is the controversy I want to start. Lots of companies have abandoned their “light” weight product line and substituted the “ultra light”. Or if they still have “light” it’s 1 model, it only comes in 4’6”, and it’s a medium action at best. How the hell am I supposed to cast a lead bodied ant to the other side of a pond / inland lake with something that’s shorter than me and as rigid as an over cooked spaghetti noodle?

I’m serious, I purged my fishing rods when I turned 30. I cut down from 30 rods to 2. Every year for my birthday my old buddy CF gave me a SilStar rod. It became time to pass those on to others. Since the spring of 2005 I have had a 6’6” St. Croix, light weight, fast action, rod for Bluegill. But I didn’t want to take that rod out while I teach my wife, or others (friends children) to fish. So I got a Diawa Procyon for myself as well.

It took an entire weekend of searching to find a reasonably priced 6’6” light weight rod, Berkley, Shakespeare, Ugly Stick… the search options on their website sucked. It took until today clicking one model at a time and having to expand specs on each model number to finally 4 days later find that Ugly Stick makes a 6’6” light weight 2 peice spinning rods. But they still don’t state what the action is. I spoke to a few people and when they heard I wanted a 6’6” light weight fast action spinning rod no one knew of any. They had medium, or ultralight. The one guy, I have to quote, “I don’t know man, that sounds like a custom rig to me.”

A custom rig! A custom rig! This is northern Ohio! We live on Lake Erie! It’s the 11th largest lake in the world! It’s surface area is 9,910 square miles! But the great fishing rod seller at my local store tells me a 6 foot 6 inch, light weight, fast action, 2 piece, spinning rod is a custom rig.

About a year or so before we were married I decided it would be a good investment to get my wife a rod and reel. I am sure this wasn’t going to be the first fish she ever caught. But it was probably going to be the first time in a very long time she caught a fish. So I got her an Ugly Stick, a Pflueger reel, red Power Pro braid, and a Rapala. It was fun watching her reel these in.

My understanding is that many states have angler recognition programs. Ours here in Ohio is called “Fish Ohio.”

I’ve qualified for two in my life. Its nice that you can release the fish back into the water. For both of mine I just submitted a photo on the ODNR website.  Here’s the link. http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/fishing/fish-ohio-recognition-program#tabr3

I took a crack at bow fishing about 11 years ago. It was a a great fulfilling experience. Not only did I get a fish by the end. But it was awesome because I was able to build the bow myself. So it was extremely gratifying getting a fish with a bow that I built myself.

If you want to check out more bow fishing, I would recommend checking out Beka Garris on facebook, or her website https://wbp13046.wixsite.com/bekagarris/blog-1 she is into bowfishing more than I ever will be.

It’s been about 4 years since I took out a rod and did a little casting for about an hour. Most of the Bass as you can see but the Sunfish hit pretty nice.

In 2010, after watching my neighbor / mentor / great friend / old buddy aka CF get multiple Fish Ohio awards year after year for almost 3 decades he and I headed out with his friend Doug to a public pond.

CF gave me my first spinning rod and reel, he helped me pick out my first compound bow, got me my first Fish Ohio, taught me to tie flies, make my own bow strings, and tried to teach me how to cast a fly rod. Somewhere in all that he snuck in many other life lessons. He passed away in 2016 but I will always remember my first Fish Ohio.

C.F.

Several years ago, I helped a friend take his nephew fishing. It was a great afternoon that ended with us removing a fishhook from a duck, and a chicken paprikash dinner. It’s been about 7 years since we took him fishing and every time he is in town I understand he asks to go.

This is how to tie my go to knot.

I went to New York with my in-laws in October of 2013. My brother-in-law, father-in-law, and I went on a trout fishing charter, we had a great time and reeled in 6 very nice trout. Of course none of us took pictures. When we got back my father-in-law and I went down to the dock to cast for a bit, he got a hit and reeled this guy in, this little guy is the only fish we caught all week not on charter. 

Here’s a couple of Smallmouth I reeled in from the Rocky River.