Here it is day two of Turkey Day Spey and it’s the last day.
The drought has not been kind to the USA and not to the Great Lakes Region. I
spent part of the day in Cuyahoga Valley National Park “CVNP”.
I chose to fish the Cuyahoga River “Hoga” today and she was
in amazing shape for being low. The
river has always had good flow even in the dead of summer lots of different gradients.
The river was gin clear in two feet or less, but two feet or
deeper she was green. I saw several shad
pooled up in the shallows I would imagine because of the cooler temperatures.
I would fish my sinking leader with 12-pound test tippet at
the end along with a simple shiner fly pattern. The Skagit line is a 440 grain
short head Freightliner by Scientific Angler. The leader set up was an Airflo
steelhead sinking leader 1.5”/second.
I finally saw other anglers today. Two of the anglers were
locals and one pinner was up by the bridge and did not come down.
The Hoga has a lot of silt, sand, and muck issues. Her banks
are in bad shape from all the erosion. The Hogs River basin is rich and fertile
for agriculture here in the CVNP.
I got to the river at 1030 am and with the highs today being
37 there was no reason to get there early IMHO.
I was ok with the slow day after all I always have zero
expectations of hooking a fish.
It’s nice to be on a section of a river and not see trash
and other footprints except for all the wildlife.
I could have fished another river, but I did not want to
fish around other people.
Well, the first day of Turkey Day Spey is in the books.
Mother nature has worked her magic of freezing temps and lots of wind and that’s
never a good mixture. I still tried, and I could not fish New York because of
the weather and road conditions.
I am headed out this morning after I eat breakfast. There are
only three rivers that are fishable right now, and I am choosing one that will
have less fish and most likely less people.
The days for me fishing with others around are rare unless you’re
a friend. Even fishing with friends is close to rare as well. With that said I
often fish in waters that have very few catchable numbers of fish on purpose.
On this day I choose to fish the Cuyahoga River. They did
stock it with steelhead last year and we will see how the return is in three
years. They will be stocking this river yearly with steelhead.
The access is plenty, but she has silt issues and has a lot of
sand.She has plenty of gravel sections
and deep holes. In a lot of respects, she reminds me of a smaller Manistee
River in Michigan.
I just pray that the areas that I have found over the
decades will remain the same, but only time will tell.
So, today I headed out to the river. I found her with good
flow and with 30” of solid visibility.
I needed a break from the restoration of my antique drafting
table project.
I got to the river in one of my favorite spots. This time I
saw boot prints on the trail, and this would be the first time I have seen another
person’s footprints.
I would be swinging a sinking leader that would sink at a
rate of 1.5”/second. I used a number 6 streamer
tied with a white body with an olive hackle collar.
I used 12-pound tippet and tried to redefine the definition
of insanity. I walked about 7 miles between the two stretches of water.
I had a solid grab in a throat where two current seams
converged. It was nice out today with the overcast skies and a gentle breeze. I did a lot of bush-wacking to get into one
spot lol I won’t be back there again. The wild razzberry bushes nearly ate me
alive! Lol
A person can either complain that there is nowhere to fish,
or they can come up with a plan to do something.
I chose to change it up and spend three days fishing around
the Niagara River around the Buffalo Region.
I would concentrate on the breakwall on the Niagara
River.
A person can catch a multitude of species there depending on
the time of year. An example of this is that in the spring a person can go from
catching steelhead, smallmouth, walleyes, and freshwater drum all
summer.
Figuring out how the flows affect your bait or lures is one
of the toughest parts of fishing in this area.
I needed to pop n jig my Ned rig because the freshwater drum
would only take the Ned Rig on the drop.
All the freshwater drum hit out in deeper water as I jigged
it back to me.
I had no idea the depths I was casting into.
I could only read the water so much. There was an
identifiable ledge and drop offs. I could also make out small cobble areas that
had a mixture of sand, pea gravel, and glacial silty loam.
When I found the above described areas, it was fish
on.
Needless, our fishing is always at the mercy of the
weather.
Yesterday’s freshwater drum palooza was successful in part
because of the southerly winds.
The water level was 2 feet lower unlike today it was 2 feet
higher with the northerly winds.
This is the only explanation I can think of where all the
water came from. This change in water levels made the fish push off into deeper
water, I think.
I fished the same nedrig but the north wind I believe with
the current stopped my 1/5 of an ounce to get to the bottom.
I changed direction of my cast. I even counted down to
different depths in the water column and had zero results.
It always amazes me with the variables that one needs to
think of when fishing. This is what makes fishing or any outdoor sport such an
adventure.
I also want to take a minute to talk about kindness. I want
to say kindness needs no words and you don’t need to speak the same language.
Here is my example. I was watching a young man from Turkey trying to find a
hammer to pound a few tents stakes in. I could have continued to watch him and
not offer the hammer that I brought, but instead I called him over to take my
hammer and go use it.
He went and drove his tents stakes in, and he thanked me in
his native language, and we continued with our evening. Later I called attention to the kids playing
in the campground roadway and pointed at the cars that had been driving too
fast.
This time his wife and the grandparents gave me a nod in appreciation
for making them away of the other drivers on the road.
By now it’s dinner time and I was warming up my chili. Then
the grandfather got my attention asking to come over and speak with me. His English
was very broken and in appreciation he invited me to have dinner with them.
I told him how honored I am that he is asking. I pointed to
my chili and other food I was preparing. He smiled and said no problem and went
back to his family. We exchanged lots of smiles and nods for the remainder of
the weekend.
All you need to do is be human and be nice and make others
matter.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the write up sorry it took so long.
There is also plenty of artwork also that I will be posting from the trip.
Its that time of year when our rivers and creeks are showing
signs of summer. These rivers and creeks are showing us their secrets. They
tell us a story about where fishing holes are. Where the fish would hold in
higher water levels.
Its during these times before the falls rains come when a
fisherman can learn about the river.Is
it tough work well yes because the sun is high in the sky and you can get
dehydrated fast.
Today I went to wade fish as low as you could on Conneaut
Creek.I had heard the lower has lost a
lot of her ability to hold fish and after today’s walk, I see why. She has
accumulated so much small cobbles and sand from the storms over the years. For
me it would not be worth the wade to get down there. Mind you this is summer
pool level, and the water was in places up to my high thigh. This would be impossible
to wade safely with another couple of feet of water in her water course.
I took my trusty TiCr TFO 6wt out for a walk. The rod was
lined with a GPX 6wt and an Airflo sinking leader it as a sink rate of 1.5”/sec.
I used my generic white streamer with a brown hackle collar.
I did connect with a few resident fish today. I saw several
Ospreys and one Bald Eagle. Its nice to see them flourishing.
I managed to see one fawn today while on the Grand River.
I hope you enjoy the artwork, and I am off to hike up into
Brandywine Creek Gorge.
I decided to go to New York today. I had chosen a Lake Erie
tributary to hike.I wanted to hike 8
miles, but mother nature’s wrath or evidence of would not allow it. You will
see what I mean by the videos and photos I will post. I ended up only hiking
5.5 miles.
As I hiked into the gorge I could tell this was going to be
an interesting day. While hiking to find the old roadbed I saw a mature Redtail
Hawk get harassed by some other birds.
When I got to the creek bed I saw a Bald Eagle.Then I was greeted by the sounds of flowing
water. She was in her summer low flow already. I was afraid of the rain we last
had that I would not be able to hike her today.
I have fished this creek before but from the downstream
section. I never got close to this area before. I am going to call this “The
Barrel”. It looks like to me a gun barrel for because it will shoot you out if
you fall and you will not be able to get back up from where you fell. I saw
that if I slipped into the water there would be zero chance I could get back to
where I fell from. As you can see there was zero chance for me to grab onto
something to stop my potential fall.
The creeks, many chutes and waterfalls made this hike a reel
treat.
I was in the shade most of the day and did not get started
until 0900.I needed the sun high in the
sky because I would be down in a gorge.
There was abundant life in the pools and riffels. I saw Red
Side Dace and other minnows. I saw plenty of midge activity and saw some black
stoneflies also.
I went to bed at 1700 because I needed to be up at 0400!
Yea, we love what we love lol. I made breakfast and ground some fresh coffee
and headed to the Hocking Hills State Park near Logan, Ohio.
I chose the same route as I have taken before. Last time it
was a hair over 11.25 miles and this time well should be the same.
I choose this route because normally there are very few
people on it.I got on the trail 0800
and it was frosty and 27 degrees.
I purchased over Christmas a few R1 Air Zip-Neck from
Patagonia, and I am truly impressed. It has kept me warm during the day off and
one rain two weeks ago when I went hiking at Paine Creek.
The rain came and gone the other day and some of the exposed
clay was wet and you needed to be careful.
As I would pass a few small creeks I heard the water flowing
through them. This hike would turn into a waterfall extravaganza. All the
waterfalls I saw were discharging into the few gorges I walked on top of.
I would end up doing 12.9 miles on purpose and it was worth
every step.I saw a few ppl, but they
were mostly at the bottom of the gorges. I did see two rappelling classes going
on around the ridges I was hiking.
I found a beautiful waterfall this day. I have never seen a
video of it and I will be doing some recon to get into the gorge to take some
other videos of it. I will not share its location because she’s a gem.
I did something on porpoise today. I set my GoPro up today
to take videos at 30 frames per second instead of 60 frames per second. I knew
the quality would not be the best, but they still look ok, I think. I will
return and retake them in the heat of summer.
