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Official TOO Catch Thread

Creamer

Active Member
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Athens
Yesterday was one of those days. The universe was telling me not to go. It was going to be brutally hot. Recent rains had all the major flows around me muddy. My hope was to hit a small feeder creek to one of the bigger flows, but it was a gamble whether or not it would be clean enough to fish. I rolled the dice. When I passed the main flow, it was pure YooHoo. Chocolate milk. When I saw the feeder creek, though, it was clean enough. It's usually gin clear, I still probably had at least 18" of visibility yesterday. It would end up getting cleaner and cleaner the farther upstream I went.

With it being a small stream, usually catching smaller fish, I carried a 1 weight fly rod. Basically, the super UL spinning rod of the fly fishing world. It's a twig. But, it matches well to the normal catches here, mostly sunfish and rock bass.





My favorite fish in Ohio is the longear. These little guys are amazing.







I found a few bass, they usually run under 12" here with the occasional 13-15" bass. I catch both spotted and largemouth in this stream. This spot made my day for a while. A bass that size has that little fly rod buckled to the cork.



More average size, largemouth.



So I had come to one large hole, and spotted a big shadow (right of the stump in the pic below). My first thought, "that can't be a fish." My second thought, when I realized it was a fish, "that can't be a bass." Wrong again. It was a TOAD for that little creek. I had never seen a bass this size there in several years of fishing it.



I was pretty sure it had spotted me scaling the bank to get into position to cast, before I saw the bass. I made a few casts with a few different flies, it wouldn't budge. I figured I'll work upstream, rest the fish, and try to sneak back in on it in an hour. Upstream, I found some bobcat tracks (I think) in the mud.





I came back to that big hole, and carefully waded in to about knee deep, in casting range of that stump. I watched, saw nothing, made a couple of casts, then spotted her. She was swimming with a 10-12" bass, towards the bank on my left, and she was close. When she turned back towards the middle, I put the fly about 3' in front of her and gave it a couple of twitches. She casually swam towards it, opened her mouth, and inhaled it. I was in shock. She went nuts, jumping like crazy. There had to be 8-10 jumps, most of them completely clearing the water and crashing back in. After a couple of tense minutes, I had her.





I think the jumping played to my advantage. She wore herself out going nowhere. Had she run on me, I probably could not have stopped her. I held her in the current for a minute or two until she was revived, and off she went. My rod measurement I took had her just under 21".



This is what she ate. Just a nothing-imitating "critter fly" I tie.

 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,856
260
SW Ohio
Ron and I joined a few buddies this late afternoon and evening for some catfishing the fun way. Each boat had 18 floats rigged with different baits. They weren’t biting like crazy but we did boat 15 total and leatherback turtle but only kept 5. We all got poured on and drenched by the 10 o’clock hour at burr oak but we ate like kings when we got them filleted and fried. We enjoyed at least 3 pounds of fresh channel cat and not one piece was left. Had a great time even though it stormed on us later.
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Creamer

Active Member
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Athens
We were in NC over the weekend, near Ocean Isle. There was a pond behind the house. The bigger the fly I threw, the smaller the bass I caught. Weird. This one ate a bluegill spider.



This one stole a little worm fly from a bluegill I was sight casting to.



And when I threw bigger stuff, this happened.



Go small or go home?
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,741
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North Carolina
We were in NC over the weekend, near Ocean Isle. There was a pond behind the house. The bigger the fly I threw, the smaller the bass I caught. Weird. This one ate a bluegill spider.



This one stole a little worm fly from a bluegill I was sight casting to.



And when I threw bigger stuff, this happened.



Go small or go home?
Overachiever 😂
 
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Creamer

Active Member
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Athens
Weekend before last I went with two friends to TN to trout fish. I am the freakin rain magnet. I can't go down there without it raining. We got there Friday evening, fished all day Saturday and Sunday until about 1PM before coming home. Saturday it started raining in the early AM hours and rained all the way until about 4PM.

The magical herbal soda of east TN.



I caught plenty of trout, they just were all kinda small and almost all rainbows.





The two small streams we wanted to fish were blown out from the rain. The big rivers handle rain well but the flows were not great for wade fishing. Saturday night we tried mousing in the dark. I had several blowups but never hooked any fish.





Sunday the flows were super slow, 10CFS from the dam, and fishing was tougher. This was the best one I caught before we left.



Good times, cruddy weather.
 

Creamer

Active Member
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Athens
@Creamer well done. That Mousy McMouse Face is the best mouse pattern out there, I’ve caught some dandy browns on it up north.

That bigger mouse got no strikes, so I downsized to a small mouse that is similar but has a Howitzer popper head on it. I just slow chugged it back on long casts and I think I counted 7-8 strikes. That mouse, unfortunately, didn't have a stinger hook in the tail. Not sure if that's the reason for the no hookups, but it was fun either way!
 
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Creamer

Active Member
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Athens
I got drawn in the Castalia trout lottery this year, and last Thursday was my assigned date. If you've never done it, the lottery application is open for the month of March and it's only $3 to get your name in the hat. If you're drawn, they assign you a date/time. All catch and kill, no releasing of fish. Catch your five and you're finished. You can take 2 more adults with you and up to 3 kids. I was bummed 1) my son wasn't drawn this year and 2) my date was a week day and his school absence request was denied by mommy. So, me and two buddies went.



The hard part is not catching smaller ones. It's ridiculously easy fishing, and I used barbless hooks. If a small trout ate and I saw it, don't set the hook and usually the fish will spit the fly. The only time a small one couldn't spit the fly, for me, was the first fish of the day.



After that smaller one, I was able to target the bigger fish and not make mistakes.





The brown was really long but skinny. I didn't care much because I was hoping to get one decent brown trout.



We came to the last hole and I needed one more fish. There was a TANK brown trout that followed my fly a few times but wouldn't eat. I turned my attention towards the tank rainbow a ways below him. He played ball.



I got to use my priest I made earlier this year to deliver last rites. The other fish really aren't small, but next to that 7-8lb non-sinker aided 24 1/4" pig, they look small.