A Little Success

Today was the Trophy at Indian Lake. I struggled to get the bites, only five bites all day, two of which I put in the boat. Fortunately one of those in the boat was 4.82lbs. Total weight was 6.43lbs. The big one was enough for 2nd Big Bass with a nice $264 earning, it came on a Lucky Craft 0.5 crank bait in the lily pads. The winning weight of just over 13lbs, came from a good friend of mine from college. This is two years in a row the the Tenwalde boys, Jeremey & Travis, of Ft Jennings have won this tournament. Congrats guys. Might have to make a trip to Erie this weekend for some Walleye & Crappie, if the weather permits. See ya on the water. 

1st Tournament of the Year

Saturday was the Ice Breaker at Indian Lake. This was a team event, which I opted to fish solo. I was boat #86 of the 128 boat field of anglers. Take of was a little slow, still breaking in the rebuild on the motor. About 8:00 I was fishing my 1st spot, here I was able to put two keepers in the boat within ten minutes. I was ready, the fish were on the same pattern as Friday...WRONG!!!  I did not boat another keeper until 1:30. I did have several short strikes and a short fish during the long gap between fish, like that counts for much. Come weigh-in time my three weighed in at 4.5lbs, far behind the 15.68lbs it took to win. I just looked up the full results list on the Fishers of Men site and I ended up 40th out of 128. Not what I had hoped for, but respectful considering I fished solo. Only one other angler who fished solo finished higher. Now my thoughts are focused on Sunday's tournament, again at Indian. Practice went OK yesterday, a good number of fish but nothing over 2lbs. See what happens, it's still better than going to work.  

Boating Problems

Saturday after working around the house for a while I thought I'd get the boat out for a couple hours chasing crappie on Lake Loramie. I launched and idled out for a few minutes and decided to blow the carbon out of the motor. I knew with the cool water that I needed to let the motor warm up before running hard, so ran at 3500 rpm's for five minutes or so and then I put the hammer down. About 2 minutes later I noticed a slight power loss. I immediately shut it down but that was too late. I heard a clanking noise as I set down and knew I just blew it up. I had the powerhead off that night to see that #2 cylinder pulled a ring and chewed up the piston. So what happened, just as I hit the throttle the thermostat opened and cooled the cylinder with the 40 degree water causing the sleeve to shrink suddenly - My Fault. Fortunately I just happen to have a great marina close by, so I have to give Don at Phlipot's a big thanks, he has me back up and running in just 4 days. Morale of the story...in the spring when you think you you have the motor warmed up wait another 10 minutes. By the way 1st tournament of the year is this weekend, let you know how it goes!

Saugeye Lesson

The Old Man is learning.  Friday morning in just two hours he put on a clinic, bringing home six saugeye weighing in at just over 21lbs.  Now that's an awesome catch!  How did he do it?  He listened to me by fishing slow!!!  He said there were five other fisherman close by and nobody else was catching, they were all casting and cranking straight in.  Now of course just one day later I go out and had six 15" fish in an hour and a half, not the big fish like Dad, just nice eaters. Today's bite was a little different though.  I was still fishing slow, but I had to jig a bit more and the fish all hit on the stop.

March Fishing Trip

Being such a nice sunny day today who can resist a little time outdoors. I made two short trips down to the creek to make some casts for one of the best tasting fish that swims, Saugeye. First trip was just over 2 hours and yielded 3 fish: 2 around 14 inches and 1 nice 4 pounder. 2nd trip I had another 14 incher on about the 5th cast. 1/16 ounce jigs with white tails seems to be working even in the muddy water. Color and size is not the key though, you have to fish slow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most folks up and down the bank, cast and reel.  I work the jig with the rod & reel down just to take up the slack. Get out there and give it a try.

Florida Fishing

Recently I made an escape from the winter doldrums of Ohio for a week in Florida to visit a friend. Of course no vacation is complete without some time on the water or better yet the entire week. This year instead of flying down with carry-on luggage and sending some older equipment down in advance, I was joined by the owner of the local marina and we drove down allowing me to bring my good rods. The trip started of with a blown trailer tire in Kentucky about 4 a.m. in the rain; once repaired and 12 hours later we arrived to sunshine and 75 degree weather. We fished several lakes in the Lake Placid area, catching fish at each one, but no slaughter fest. Over the past four years fishing half a dozen lakes in the area, I have especially come to enjoy Lake June. On our 2nd to last day we held a little fun competition on lake June. I fished solo against the other two in the 2nd boat. The wind was blowing out of the SW 15-20 mph first thing in morning, I shot across the lake while the other two hid from the wind by the ramp. Spot 1 was a small weed bed I found last year up on a sand flat; in about 15 minutes this only yielded two line squeakers. Next I made a forty minute idle up a canal to where we spotted a good fish on a bed at the beginning of the week. Once near the area with the bed I boated five more small keepers in about 10 minutes using a Black Trick worm. I did not see the big female on the 1st pass so I made a 2nd pass thru the area when I came to the bed I thought she was on I pitched two feet to the side; she bit and just my luck I lost her in the brush. So I fired up the motor and made the long idle back out to the lake, along the way trying to figure out on the way how to improve on the small limit in the box. As I came out of the canal I looked across from the mouth of the canal at another little cove that was too shallow to get into last year & thought I'd check it out. A quick shot across the bay only to find that the water was lower than last year. As I stood on the trolling motor trying to find something to fish I looked down at the water to see a big fish spook of a bed close to the boat. Instanly I took my foot off the motor and let to wind carry me away from the bed. After fishing near by for a while I returned to the to try my luck at the big one. 1st cast missed the bed by ten feet. Instead of just reeling in and making another cast, I fished it in and caught a short one. Next cast had the distance, but  just right of the target and nothing. Cast #3 was just left; as I was getting frustrated with myself for the poor cast I felt the thump. I set the hook and knew instantly it was the one. About half way to the boat the reel disengages as it had done the day before. Here I am with the one I was looking for turning the crank and nothing was happening. Keeping my thumb on the spool I was able to keep from going free spool, a couple hard smacks on the reel and I was back in action. With a little more fighting and the tiny little crappie net that was in the boat I finally landed the fish. Now I was out to add some some quality fish to the box. After a quick run back to where I started the morning off, I grabbed my cranking stick with a Lucky Craft 1.5 and a few casts later I had a three in the box. I had caught that fish earlier in the week. I fished a couple more spots and upgraded a bit more, nothing too spectacular. Finally, the short six hour day was over and it was time to see how the other two did. We pulled the boats out and got out the digital scale. Ed only had one fish that went 2.5, Don had two that went 4.5, one of which was a nice 3.5 pounder. I told them I only had five little ones just for a little fun. It did not take long for them to call me a SOB. Five fish weighed in at 12.5 with the big one at five even, not a huge fish for Florida. A couple hours later we sat down to a feast, joined by a few of the neighbors of saugeye I brought down with me. As I am writting this now it is 32 degrees & raining; I look out the window to see Lake Loramie is high, muddy, and there is still ice; no getting the boat out this week. I guess I will have to get thru this week by looking back at the day I lost a good one, but actually landed the big one. All times are good on the water, just some are better than others. 

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.  As an avid tournament and recreational fisherman, I'd like to share my opinions on fishing as both a competitive sport and casual hobby.  I'll be blogging about my tournament experiences, offering fishing tips, writing about equipment I like and don't like, and expressing whatever else is on my mind.  If you like to fish the lakes and rivers of Ohio like I do, I hope you find my blog especially interesting.  And feel free to comment on my posts. Well, gotta go, I think I have a bite!