Paine Creek Ohio - Seasonal Change

 

2.1.2025 Todays Adventure

Good morning, folks,

I am going to head out today to see if I can catch some water falls at peak flow. Now they are most likely muddy, but I hope the creek is wadable. Well, we will see. I am back packing my waders in and changing out in the field. The footing is going to be a mess because of all the snow melting and rain.

I was out here about a month ago and I could hear the water fall or falls. We will see how this works out.  The Grand River right now is approximately up two feet from where she was last night.

Her tertiary streams are running hard, but they should be wadable. The snow melt will still be fully affected. The rain has stopped and that will help.

These waterfalls I am looking for are always there, but you need a runoff event to show them in full glory.

I am going to make breakfast here shortly and head out.

I just popped my head out of the house, and everything was frozen. Now I will need to delay my departure from the house.

My footing while traversing the slopes will be tougher than I would have anticipated with this overnight freeze fest.

Stay tuned folks,

Sonder

 

I have returned from the hike. My goal was to find the creek that is in the park. With all the rain we had received over the past few days I was hopeful it would allow for the ice to push downstream.

I hiked into the park with my 120-liter Sealine backpack loaded. I had my waders, boots, wading belt, and camera equipment.

The morning temperatures were in the 20’s. I could hear the water moving in the creek, but it still had a lot of ice in it.  I looked at the falls on my way down and it was heavy with ice.  All the work I would have needed to do to make it to the falls would have been epic.

I also needed to worry about safety. Being down in a small ravine there would have been no escape if the water began to rise and all the debris came with it.  I would be caught in a littoral human washing machine.

The more I thought about it the worse my thoughts became lol so needless to say I chose to hump my pack and me along the shoreline of the Grand River.

As I ventured into the swampy abyss of the lowlands, I realized the beavers had been very busy. They had created huge beaver ponds.

Some of the depths I measure with my walking sticks being over 3 feet deep.  Beavers always surprise me with their engineering feats.

On a side note, I don’t know what the name of the thorn ridden plants I always see in these types of areas, but they were so thick you needed a flame thrower. Side note I will not be here in the summer because the thorns would be so bad so bad!

It was a short hike and making it through the field snow with a heavy pack it was time it call it a day.

 

I hope you enjoy the art work!

Sonder

Merry Fishmas 2024 is in the books

I wanted to fish in NY but the water levels on the Cattaraugus (Catt) were just too sketchy.  You could not cross it because of the volume of water she had in her.

I decided to fish more locally. I chose two of our major tributaries to Lake Erie.

I chose the Gordo River and the Jawbone River.  The Gordo River sees decent numbers of steelhead, but where I fished her last that area fishes better in the spring. The higher you go the less people you will see normally this time of year.

The Gordo River had a solid 24” of visibility. She was running strong and there was no way, as you can see, that anyone was crossing that river today.

The Gordo River has a healthy population of naturally reproducing muskies.

I hiked into a few locations and swung my flies and did not get any grabs. It was good to get out and hike and fish.

After the Gordo River I was going to go to the Chagrin, but she was coming up all day and her visibility would be nearly zero.

I headed to the Jawbone River and there I would find no anglers too.

I walked into the river like I normally do to avoid detection lol. This river saw its first steelhead plantings this year. In three years, the fish will return to this river and so I wait.

The Jawbone River has issues between the sand, silt, and water quality issues.  She’s made great strides in being a cleaner river, but she’s still got a long way to go.

I only hiked 5.7 miles in total. I hope you enjoy the videos and the write-up. I am going to try and get out tomorrow.

 

Be well,

Sonder

Merry Fishmas the Grand River, Chagrin River, and Cuyahoga River

Will be on my Fishmas list tomorrow.  Hopefully the overnight flows holds true.  New York is to high to cross the river I want to fish.  

Ohio should be prime in some locations.  

We shall see how it pans out.  

Brandywine Falls - Cuyahoga Valley National Park

 I hope you like the artwork. It was a nice day to put on my waders and take a walk up Brandywine creek to the falls.

To cold to swing flies but not to cold for photos.

This upcoming weekend I gotta get outside! I am going to take a short hike in my waders. I am going to creek crawl and get some interesting photos.

Stay tuned,

Sonder

Steelhead fishing this weekend

 The weather is not going to let up for this weekend. The overnight lows will be well below freezing and with the winds jack frost will create slush in the rivers.

Looks like another weekend of fresh ground coffee, baileys, bourbon, pulled pork, and tying flies!

I was really looking forward to getting on the water. Be well friends and stay warm.

Sonder