Thee Doggy Days of Summer

I had to go to Wood County Ohio today. I took the long way to get there good ole 224. I was in zero hurry. I then and went to fish and western stream in Ohio. I had zero expectations then traveled to the lowest access point armed with my two switch rods in the weights of a 6wt and a 7wt. I would throw on my back pack and walk to the river. The river I fished lays west of Cleveland Ohio. The sections of river I saw was mostly exposed bedrock “limestone” with an occasional ledge pool. I would see gar basking in the sun and then for was ever reason feeding or just acting out like pure craziness surface and slap the water with there face. I would use a floating fly like a gurgler / crease fly. This would be black over white and later changing to the all white version. I would also notice the larger gar 48-60” chasing down bait or loose pieces of fish flesh. I plan on developing a shallow swingable flesh fly for this reason. I do not use the common rope fly for gal cause the take and the temporary fight with the fish with out landing them for me is fine. For those fly fisherman who have landed large gar you know how dangerous it can be to release one unharmed with all those teeth and that alligator skin. I would find the holding lies for these. I fair hooked about 12 and the largest looked to be about 48” and not happy. The river was stained with that brown algae. Summer flows are upon us so please be careful while fishing cause the oxygen levels are very low. I hope you enjoy the photos. I need to purchase a new digital camera and so sorry for the not so stellar photos.