Steelhead Trip '08

[BigBassin144]

Well, guy we got back today from our steelhead trip to eastern Ohio. Story now, pics tomarrow. Earlier in the week rain was forecasted for friday through Sunday. Didn't look good then, but we had been talking with our guide and they'd been doing good out there.

Friday comes along and the rain had set in. We kept checking radar and the rain seemed to have moved out to Lake Erie and only a very light rain was lingering on land. Supposedly. Well, I get home from school friday afternoon and we load the car head out. It rain 75% of the way to Ashtabula (it's between Cleveland, Ohio and PA.) We got to the hotel and checked in. We talked to our guide and planned to check it out the next morning.

So, after not getting a very good nights sleep, our 4:30 wake up call comes way to early for me. We meet the guide outside the hotel at 5:15 and of course, it was drizzling. Just to make this clear now, Steelheading is NOT a fairweather form of fishing by any means, but as the smalll rivers in north eastern Ohio rise, the also get dirty, which shuts off the bite since trout feed mainly by sight. So our guide called his buddy (the guide we went with last year who was booked this year) who was fishing a different river. He said the water was coming up and starting to get dirty.

We decided to check out an area of the river near us before driving to our spot or calling it a very short day. The water didn't look too bad yet, but the guide estimated we had about 3 hours of fishing before the water rose too much and it was unfishable. We also didn't want to wade in too high of water. So we drover to our spot, and since there was a steelheaders tourney going on this weekend we though it'd be really busy. It wasn't as bad as we thought so we made our way to our spot and waited till it was light.

As soon as it was light, we rigged up the fly rods. A wooly bugger tied under an egg imitation fly all under a "strike indicator" (or bobber as I like to call it) This was my first time really fly fishing, so I was kind of worried I wasn't going to do real good, but we weren't casting far, so I was alright.

About a half an hour into fishing, I hook into the first on of the day. An ok one compared to the next few, but really good compared to last year's catch. We landed her and took pics and released her. My dad caught the next one shortly after. An 18" dink, no pics of this one. Then my dad gets a nice hit and the fish takes off upstream. My dad had about 6-8 wraps of backing left on the fly reel before my dad got on the bank and chased the fish upstream. A bit later, the 10+ lber was landed.

It didn't take long for me to get one that was almost 9lbs, which we kept. Followed by another average sized one by my dad. I missed a few hits and broke off two, and my dad missed one and broke one off as well. In the 3 and a half hours or so at this spot, the water had risen more than 3". We moved a bit up river to a bigger hole and our guide hooked on while he was showing me where to cast. Unfortunately, it came off as he was passing the rod to me. After watching the mud line of the other side of the river grow bigger and bigger we decided to call it a day cause the fish had moved on or stopped biting.

the other guide at another river had about the same day we did, but with less fish. All the bites withing the first two hours then nothing. We ended up only fishing half a day and our guide invited us back for the other half a day after thanksgiving when he's got no one scheduled. After getting to the truck and taking off my waders, wet jacket and wet sweatshirt, we headed to breakfast. It was about 10:30 when we stopped fishing, but it was a fun day. Although it did rain 98% of the time we were fishing. It lightened to a very fine misting for about 15 minutes and completely stopped once for about 5-10.

Like I said, the pics from our camera tomarrow, and the pics the guide sends us, the day they get here. After the 4 hour rain/rain snow mix/ straight snow drive home, we stopped at a a local tackel shop to talk to the owner (a friend of my dad's) and show off our fish, and pick up our pre ordered BBZ-1 Shad swimbait, we headed home to "work on the mustang" which turned into watching monster trucks and drag racing on TV.

BB

P.S. (I know, I know, what else could I have to talk about after all that) but I do have to say, I knew fly fishing was much harder than regular fishing, especially getting the hang of casting, but I've got to give fly fishermen more credit after today. My casting arm is sore, and after only 3 hours of fishing. When you think about it, most of the time bass fishing, I cast with two hand, but flyfishing, one handed casting all the time, as well as 2-4 casts per retrieve, or drift I should say for steelheading. And the rods are heaver. Ok, now that's all.