Temps hot like the sun!

 

Well mother nature’s fury is being felt around here in these parts and its in the form of high temperatures. Here are some prime examples of what I am referring to.

 

The following data is coming from the National Data Buoy Center for the following buoys:

Maumee Bay Buoy

   Edgewater Beach Buoy

   Fairport, Ohio

   Ashatbula Buoy

That information will paint a vivid picture of what mother nature is up to!

The other thing that’s plaguing our fisheries is the abundance of plants that are growing from the river bottoms!  They are a pain in the arse and they are everywhere. Some places are bad, and these weeds can be found in everybody’s water to some degree.

In early May the weeds were bad on the upper Niagara River and she was 48 degrees as an example.

This is one of the several reasons I rather not fish in summer!

I chose to stay in my state this time and wanted to go look at a few tail waters and on dam dam lol.

I did not leave the house until 0930 after a full breakfast and fresh coffee.

I arrived at the first tail water and met an ACE (Army Corps Engineer) park ranger. I was impressed because I did not know this was even a thing.  They were putting together a little dog and pony show for the public. I bid them a good day and headed up the trail.

After about 10 minutes the tree ended and the freshly cut grass began. I have always been amazed at how well kept these places are in general.

Before I broke through the trees, I could hear the rushing water coming from the discharge chamber of the outfall. The flow of water was at the summer pool and at the cfs was about 100.

Obviously, she’s running at the bare minimum to keep water in the river course. As I walked up the bank towards the dam, I saw a lot of down wood and submerged wood. While It looked extremely fishy it was not fishable from the bank, in the river “unless one would want to take a chance on unliving themselves” due to shifting sand, and would not be fishable by water craft either. The submerged/partially submerged wood was biblical and severe injury would most likely occur. No matter how you try and fish it the task will be extremely tough.

I put my 3” milky shad grub on with the 1/4oz jig head and stepped into the water.  Holy sh!t the water was much colder than I had anticipated. This outfall here must have been bottom fed today.

The weed growth was manageable, but I did not hook any fish. I did not lose any jogs either win win lol.

I walked up to the outfall to fish it. I thought surely of any place this is going to have something lurking in it shad, white bass, or wipers.

Well, I was shocked no one was home. I thought of all the different holding places there between the slack water, rushing water, and the eddy pool, someone would have been home! I was way wrong and fished it hard for 20 minutes and then pressed on to the second tail water.

At this tail water it was closed during the height of Covid. I had never been here before and will most likely never be back lol.

You must be part billy goat to get into the valley and the river bottom and when you finally get to the bottom there is no trail that parallel’s the river. I did not expect a asphalt trail down there, but traversing the bank is a no go.  The river had a uniform depth and I only saw one hole really.  This for me reminds me of the Mad River in so many ways!  With the lack luster river structure meaning its just ungulates and the river bottom is consistently uniform. This is boring to me and now I only wade fish, so this type of river topography is boring.  I did hook and land a little egg filled smallie though. This tail water was also at summer pool and was flowing at 199 cf/s.

After hiking out of the abyss I headed to my third and last point of interest. This would be a dam I had found in some aerial photos.

I arrived at the dam I saw someone fishing on the river left. I decided to take a walk and ask one of the landowners if I could gain access to the river from their land.

She agreed to let me gain access to the river through her land.  I got to the river edge and strung up the eggbeater.  I covered a lot of water by fan casting long and short. I was rewarded with one tiny smallie.

I pulled up stakes and headed for home. The temps were hot a hades, but I needed to get out and get some exercise.

Be well,

Sonder