Ohio Largemouth Bass

It’s mid summer so if I’ve been fishing for bass. Three times in the last week I’ve fished a public pond not far from my home.

It’s one of those places in plain view that for the most part gets overlooked by anglers. One reason is that it’s very weedy which makes fishing with anything other than surface flies tricky. So we’ve fished surface flies and done very well.

Above-Left: My friend Burt demonstrates the art of showing off the catch - in this case a nice bass landed on a “micro slider.”

Below-Right: I landed a nice one with a large black popper. We fished from my Outcast pontoons (more on these later) which allowed us to get to parts of the pond that rarely see any lures.

Beyond going large with the popper I was also fishing my 9′6″ 9 weight rod. I knew that if I did catch something of any size I’d have to work to keep it out of the weeds. The heavy rod and the little extra length allowed me to horse this large bass to hand.

A Concise History of Fly Fishing

This morning I finished reading “A Concise History of Fly Fishing” by Glenn Law. I like small books. I’ll never tackle “War & Peace.” I like to read but I don’t like to read the same thing for weeks so this book quickly got my attention.

Law’s “Concise History…” is exactly that, a great overview of the history and literature of fly fishing from it’s earliest days to current angling personalities. As a bonus, unlike many books on the subject it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a must have for any angler’s library.

“A Concise History of Fly Fishing” by Glenn Law with an Preface by Lefty Kreh. The Lyons Press, 2003. Available from Mad River Outfitters. Click here to enter the online store.

Outcast Pontoon Boats

I’ve just ordered two Outcast PAC 800FS pontoons to help me fish and guide Ohio waters. I first came across the Outcast boats in Colorado and was impressed with their quality construction and the fact that they are loaded with features. There are lots of pontoons out there but few of them seem as durable as these boats. Time will tell. I look forward to fishing them soon. Come and join me for a guided trip for Ohio bass, or steelhead season is not so far away.

Click here for a link to Outcast.

Smallmouth Bass

Almost every day I either take other people fishing or talk about fishing while working at the fly shop so it was very good to actually go fishing the last couple of days. Yesterday I fished my local smallmouth stream at what can only be described as the last place you would choose to fish this stream. I was in the middle of town, surrounded by construction and traffic but I had the stream to myself and the fishing turned out to be exceptional.

As I’ve mentioned over and over again in the stream reports, the water is way low. Finding fish is the key and presentation also seems to be important at the moment. I’ve stuck with flies that are natural “match the hatch” types. Yesterday I manged a lot of small fish and two about 14 inches. Today I fished a different location, one I usually pass up because it gets loads of pressure from all sorts of anglers.

The day was long. I fished about 3 hours with nothing but chubs and a couple of missed opportunities. At about the time I was ready to head for my porch and a cold beer I decided to fish a deep hole at the bridge that the bait anglers hit pretty hard. The friend I was fishing with had hooked and almost landed a nice carp there earlier in the day so I thought I at least had a chance at a carp. I went deep, fishing the Whit’s Hellgramite with two BB split shot to get it down. I felt a subtle take and hooked up to the fish in the picture. The deep bellied 16″ smallmouth fought hard, tail-walked briefly and managed one nice jump before coming to hand. The lesson learned the past few days… Get out of the fishing comfort zone and fish places you might otherwise pass up.

Largemouth Bass

Left: John holds a nice largemouth bass caught on the fly at the Wilds. This particular catch illustrates the old fishing maxim “if it ain’t working, change something.”

John had been casting smaller, dark colored poppers and had been catching fish but nothing very large. He changed his fly to a larger, yellow popper and the first cast the dark shadow of this fish came from over 10 yards away to investigate the “plop.” John held steady and allowed the fly to sit motionless on the water. At just the right time he stripped the fly making a nice water-chugging pop. The fish was on.