Seven feet high and rising. Looks like the trip I made to the Mad River Saturday was just in the nick of time. Might be awhile until it's fish-able again.

-TD

I feel like I'm hitting my stride on the Mad. Of course that's easy to say in the dead of winter when fishing is at its peak. But the trips lately are never disappointing and bring a nice mix of quality and quantity.

I hit both the upper & lower sections of the trout water today and was out for about 4 hours. I didn't count very closely but I think I tallied 9 or 10 trout. The flow was much higher than normal, which is always welcome as long as its not a mud bath. At 250 CFS and falling, things were in pretty good shape. The day started off slow but improved once I remembered a cardinal rule - always have enough weight to bounce bottom. Anything higher in the water column is going to be too much effort for the fish to chase at a time of year when it needs to conserve as much energy as possible. Couple that with my normal "go big" approach to bait, and things were rolling. The cream of the crop was a brown that took almost five minutes to land. Two pics below. I didn't have a tape measure on me so I eyeballed it against the net, figuring at least 17 inches. When I put a tape against the net later, it only turned out to be only 16 inches. Either way, I'm perfectly happy with a fish that size, especially since my best on the Mad is only 2 inches more. I'd like to do a little more exploring down river. I'm jonesin' for some fresh water to wade.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

-TD

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This was an important day.

Not only was it my first date with my new home waters, but it also completed my trifecta of Ohio stream trout fishing. Clear Creek is between Lancaster and Logan and is a tributary of the Hocking River which incidentally contains no trout. By rights, Clear Creek shouldn't either, but the state has seen fit to include it on a very exclusive list to receive stocked fingerling trout once or twice a year. The problem is, unlike the Mad or the Clear Fork, the fish here don't seem to get very big. Perhaps it's the slower pace of the water coupled with the heat of summer. Or, maybe it's the huge flow fluctuations that happen with the snow melt and then the rains that follow. Whatever the reason, trout here are stunted. From what I understand, anything over 12 inches is a rarity. I was here to see for myself.

Since six miles of Clear Creek is in a metro park, there's lots of easy access. I chose the upper section of the park. The scenery here is much more on par with what you'll find on the Clear Fork of the Mohican in northeast Ohio and some of my beloved Pennsylvanian streams. The stream channelization the Mad River is famous for never happened here and many towering rocks and pines add to the beauty. I started wading at a roadside access point and began working my way upstream. It wasn't long before I was at a beautiful pool that gave a few 6 or 7 inch brown trout. And then another hole and a few more trout. And another yet. The stream looked picture perfect and even thought the flow was a bit low at 40 CFS, some of the holes had to be at least 6 to 8 feet deep, likely deeper. I covered about a half mile and ended up with a little over a dozen trout. On top of that, I had quite a few hits & hookups that weren't meant to be. But ultimately, nothing over 10 inches was brought to hand today.

It was very strange seeing all that water and some great woody structure to go with it and not believing that there was a lunker brown hiding in the depths. I don't think I ever truly realized how much of my enjoyment of fishing came from the possibility of catching a really big one around the next bend. With that out of the question here (by all accounts anyway), I found myself feeling like something was missing from this experience. Any day with trout & pleasant scenery is a good day, don't get me wrong. But knowing that I'd wouldn't hook up with anything that might give my reel a run for its money was like a little black rain cloud.

My hope is that maybe I'm wrong. Maybe everyone else is wrong. Maybe there is an elusive 5 pound lunker who's managed to survive a few summers hiding under a bank somewhere along those 6 miles of Clear Creek. It's the kind of thought that drives me to keep doing this thing called fishing. But even if it isn't true, the fact remains that this stream will be an excellent one to learn the art of flyfishing, which I intend to do at some point soon. The browns are plenty and they are hungry. There's more room to swing a fly than the Mad offers and I don't believe you could find a prettier spot in the state to enjoy a day.

Since Clear Creek is minutes away from where I now live, I'm sure we'll get to know each other better in the months to come.

-TD

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Clear_Creek_-_13011.zip (122 KB)

The wife and kids decided it would be a good weekend to visit friends up in Michigan, so naturally, I decided it would be an equally good weekend to get out and wet a line. Temps were lined up to be in the low 30s, which isn't bad at all by my standards.

The day actually started off just plain rotten. I wanted to check in with a couple of big trout I'd scoped out last fall, and it requires private access through a farmer-friend's cornfield. My Honda Pilot made it down the dirt access road just fine but then hit a drift and bottomed out in the wet snow. I fought with it for 10 minutes or so, but having neither a shovel or cat litter (which works pretty well for traction when you're stuck) on hand, I was fully disabled.

I called the landowner who thankfully happened to be nearby working with his cows. He tried to pull me out with his 4 wheel drive pickup and my Pilot wouldn't budge. So I waited while he went for the John Deere. We hooked up and thankfully, the tractor had the beef needed to jerk me free. Wiew. That little incident could have been a lot worse. As it happened, I was only set back about an hour an half.

So onto the fishing. I didn't want to push my luck any further in the cornfields so I backtracked to an easy bridge access site. My first fish made all that earlier trouble worth it. As soon as I hooked up, I knew he was big. Big fish make me nervous. They're only a weak knot or a chaffed line away from premature freedom so playing them is always a delicate act on 4 lb test line. A few minutes later, I netted an 18 inch Mad River brown. That's my new best for this river and certainly just the ticket to make the earlier troubles of the day quite forgettable.

If there's a silver lining to the cloud of winter, it's a nice big trout.

-TD

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This blog has been on the back-burner for far too long. I didn't fish much during last summer but I did end up taking a day in October in which I received the proverbial skunking. The day wasn't all bad though. I perched myself on an overhanging branch and watched a couple of buisers lazely enjoy their Sunday afternoon in a deep hole. I made a mental note to come back later as they weren't interested in anything I was offering that day. I find summer and winter fishing on the Mad River to be polar opposite from each other. I do great in the cold and terrible when it's hot. So obviously, right now is a great time to get out and enjoy it. I have a few pics to post, including my new personal best fish on the Mad from a couple of weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the real reason I've been so quiet on here is that I spent most of fall buying and remodeling a house in the country near Lancaster Ohio. I'm now minutes from Clear Creek which is an added perk, so I'm sure you'll notice some reports from there popping up in the future as I start exploring. Of course, the Mad is a little further drive than it used to be but since we have family in that area, trips are still being made, I assure you.

If you've had any good trout outings lately, I'd love to hear about them. -TD

There's only one thing that rivals sleeping in on Saturday mornings. Spending a beautiful sunny morning on the Mad at one of my favorite spots. Right off the bat, I landed a beautiful brown estimated at seventeen inches. I say estimated because my tape measure broke during my last trip after taking a dunk and getting rusty so I was flying blind this time. Having been fortunate enough to cradle a few sixteen inch fish over the last few months, I think this guy had another inch on them but that's just speculation. Either way, it was a great start to the morning. Several more smaller browns were landed during my hike upstream. The strength of wild grape vines never ceases to amaze. Check out the pictures of a vine holding a decent sized tree from floating further downstream.

-TD

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It's surprising what you can accomplish in a short amount of time if you go fishing at the right time. Of course, figuring out the right time can be a little tricky. You can up your odds by picking the first or the last hours of daylight or going when the water is flowing nicely. But mostly, it seems to be just a matter of the fish gods smiling down and providing the right amount of luck. Either way, after a day visiting family nearby, I hadn't left myself very much time for fishing and it was 6:30 pm before I made it out to the stream today. Thankfully, it's not getting dark until around 8:30 so that left me about two hours to fool a few trout.

Looking back at my journals since the middle of March, I haven't had a Mad trip that hasn't resulted in at least one trout 15 inches or better. Actually, all but once, 16 inches has been the magic number. Granted, the only truly big brown has been from my trip to the Clear Fork, but all things considered, it's been a fantastic spring.

This evening, I started working my way upstream from one of my favorite bridge locations. Right away, I hooked into a fish that kept the streak alive. 16 inches, measured after a well fought battle. Since they've had time to mature in the stream rather than the hatchery, Mad browns are some of the feistiest I know. This fish came from a faster pool of water, but I soon entered a long, deep, slow section which proved more of a challenge. In faster flows, browns don't have as much time to examine a bait. They have to decide quickly whether it's something worth eating or lose the chance. The opposite holds true in water that isn't moving very fast. It becomes more difficult to entice.

This section of stream really impressed me as having all the qualifications for big trout. It was deep and had plenty of old logs littering the banks which provided the much needed cover for a wary old brown. I didn't get a single nibble, which really surprised me. My suspicion is that maybe there's a territorial brown trout making its home there, a bit harder to fool than most. I'll be back, I'm sure. Continuing on, it was hard not to notice the light splashing at various areas upstream as fish would rise to sip bugs off the surface. I did catch a couple at this location but it wasn't the fastest action ever and the measurements were pretty average.

Soon after, I encountered my first canoeist of the season. A dad out for a paddle with about four of his daughters. It was a good reminder to involve your kids in whatever sports you enjoy on the water. Fishing, canoeing or even just overturning a few rocks looking for "crawdads", making memories is what's it's all about.

After catching a total of six, it was time to head back. With the flora in full bloom along the banks, it proved to be a beautiful spring evening to be on the stream.

-TD

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Not too exciting of a report today, but I did stop by the Mad for about a half hour on my way back from catching a few catfish at a local farm pond. My wife and kids had been in Michigan for the week and I was due to pick them up at the in-laws so I only had a little time left. I tossed a spinner at a bridge location in the middle section of the river for a while and only came up with a single fish. If you're a fly fisherman, it's getting to be prime-time for fishing dries if you can figure out what they're eating. Fish were jumping all over the place. One of these days...

However, they were very reluctant to hit on my offering which I kind of expected. I never seem to do that well with spinners. Oh well. Better than using the stinky catfish bait that was roasting back in the vehicle. The brown that I did catch was small, probably about 9 inches. Beyond that, I had a couple of taps but no solid commitments.

It was misting a bit and the river looked very nice. For a moment, I wished that I had chosen to wade the Mad with my ultra-light instead of targeting cats with my noodle-rod today.

-TD