Steelhead Season 2009 - Week 25

We have begun the annual run of WAR fishing here in North Eastern Ohio. River levels have come way down from the rain and melt off…which means every prick with a fishing rod in a 200 miles radius has decided to go out for their hero shots with fish pulled from beds…

The good news though that the circuses wouldn’t exist unless there were fish in the rivers. The bad news is that finding a fish that doesn’t look like a Christmas tree or hasn’t been pegged in the nose numerous times by the same yarn wrapped hook shank…

Bitter much? I digress…

Fishing the rivers finally started Thursday afternoon for me. Clarity wasn’t perfect, but the water was fishable. Due to some work complications, I was only able to fish for about an hour before the sun and cold set…one missed grab to show for my efforts…

Friday and Saturday were lost causes…suicide trip to NYC for some family support for my brother…

(View from our hotel)

Schmidt actually made the trip up on Saturday on his own and fared well. He was lucky enough to have no problem finding fishable water, and feeding fish…

Sunday was another gorgeous day, and with my 2 day absence, I asked my lovely wife to join me streamside while we both took in the sunshine. Of course I wasn’t as lucky as Schmidt, and walked into a hornet’s nest of fishermen…from every walk of life. We had the guy wet wading in shorts, the bait chuckers, the large hardware guy casting to beds. As I feared, I couldn’t even get a pull.

Looking ahead…a bit of rain tonight and tomorrow should spark things up a bit. It’s nice to be out throwing line again…