I caught an idiot

May 26th-

For people like me, life is full of moments you'd like to forget. And this story isn't getting any easier to tell. If you're a fan of my misfortunes, and it seems there are many, keep reading...you'll enjoy this one.
After work last night I went to fish with Kughn at the AEP ponds outside of the business mecca of the free world, better known as Zanesville, Oh. These old strip mines are legendary for big fish, mainly due to the remote location and difficult access. I've been waiting eagerly to get some of the action. On the drive to the pond we saw a wild turkey run across the road. Shortly after that a Red Tailed Hawk flew down and almost picked up Kughn's Jeep. Saw a Cyote on the side of the highway. We were pretty much off the grid.

We had to hike in a decent distance hauling the gear necassary for the bellyboats. Bellyboating is basically an innertube that you sit in with waders that allows you to access areas that you normally couldn't fish. It was my first time using a bellyboat and it took me a while to get used to the gear.

The day didn't start off too well. After wrestling with the gear for some time i noticed that one of my fishing poles fell into the water and was gone. Luckily it was my older beater pole so i wasn't too upset. Some clouds started rolling in and lighting was starting to strike. I'm stuck out in the middle of this lake still uncertain how the hell to navigate in this boat. As I was making my way across the lake to the shelter Kughn found, I looked like what Kughn described as a Shipwreck flapping helplessly in the water. what a freakin ameture.
Finally the rain stopped and I was starting to get used to all the gear. I caught a few nice bass on spinnerbaits and wacky rigged Senko's. We got to the back part of the lake and Kughn caught 2 fish back to back on a topwater bait. I decided to follow suit and tie on a Heddon Tiny Torpedo.



Heddon Lil Torpedo
<-Treble hooks AKA: oh shit that hurts

I got one of the treble hooks snagged in a mesh part of the bellyboat as I was tying it on. I was trying to pull it out and somehow managed to put the other set of treble hooks RIGHT THROUGH MY DAMN FINGER. it was DEEP. and nasty. it was right across the top of the middle knuckle on my left hand. It went across the finger from one side to the other and was buried. barb and all. Kughn paddled over and the first thing out of his mouth was "please tell me you have a camera to take a picture of this for the blog." How compassionate. Unfortunately, I did not. Kughn and I sat there for what seemed like an hour debating on whether we should go to the hospital, or how to get the damn thing out. Generally you push the hook until the barb pops out the other side and you cut the barb off and then pull it back out the entrance wound. It was waaaay too deep for that. Hospital was out of the question at that point. Obviously no cell coverage. We were about a half mile down the lake and a good hike out. If I let the hook stay in and try to get back to the car, there was a better chance that the other set of hooks would get lodged too. Quite the pickle. I moved the hook around and it felt like it was only in the skin and no tendons or bone was involved. I looked at Kughn and said aight, im going to pull the damn thing out. I gritted my teeth and gave it the biggest yank i possibly could. As the hook came out, some white tissue was stuck to the barb. It ripped as i yanked it out. Blood started squirting and it immediately swelled up to the size of a grape. Kughn was dry heaving beside me and couldn't believe i just pulled it out. This is coming from a guy who guts Deer in the woods and ties them to his bumper and drives to church that way. I paddled back as best as i could being careful not to get the wound in the dirty water. To make matters worse, there was a Beaver in the lake that kept messing with me. He kept slapping his tail on the water and then would dive down. It was the first time in my life i was trying to avoid the beaver.

By the time I made it back to Columbus it was 11pm, about 4 hours after I hooked myself. I decided to wait until the morning to go to the doctor.
Doctor said there was no tendon damage, the white stuff i pulled out was tissue thats under the skin. The nurse came in to give me a tetnus shot and asked if i was ready to get the shot...uhhh i just pulled a hook out of my finger, i think i'll be okay.

I only caught 4 bass and Kughn caught 17. to make things worse, i didn't even get any good pain pills. What a shitty day.

Smallies on the Darby

May 23rd-

Fishing is all about networking, and today was a prime example. Todd gave me some coordinates for a spot on Big Darby Creek where there's good Smallmouth fishing. I met up with a client of mine who is relatively new to the area and looking for good Bass spots. Networking in full effect.

The Darby is said to be one of the best spots in Ohio for Smallmouth, and I've been waiting all spring to fish it. The weather has been unseasonably warm and we haven't had much rain so wading through the river sounded like a great way to spend Memorial weekend. We threw on some old sneakers, plugged the coordinates into the GPS and set out to find Smallies.
Pretty quickly Mike hooked up with a Rock Bass on a Buzzbait. The day was off to a good start.
We waded through knee deep water casting around some awesome cover. Todd really put us on some fantastic spots. Aside from the terrific cover there were large pools and pretty good weed beds, but the fish had other things in mind. In particular, the dirty. It's prime spawining time.

We came up on some unique cover with stumps and downed trees. I threw a flashy yellow powerworm Senko in a small pool by a downed stump and KAPOWWWW!!! a nice smallmouth came up and wacked the hell out of the Senko. It was more of a reactionary strike than anything, but i was actually shocked when he hit it and barely managed to set the hook. The water was crystal clear and i didn't even see him come up on it.






I look like I'm fishing in the special olympics.







We left the Darby and moved down to Osprey Lake which at one point in time was a quarry and then a paylake. It's now open for fishing. I took Otter and Poppa Rob there once and didn't have any luck, so I wasn't very optimistic we'd find fish. Boy was I wrong.
Mike and I immediately spotted a big Largemouth right up by the shoreline. It looked like a good 3lber and we were excited until we saw a Bass twice it's size swim past; Then it got serious. This looked like the spot...Boy, was I wrong again. There were 3, 4, 5lbers all down the shoreline and we threw over 20 different types of baits at them. Buzzbaits, spinners, numerous colored senkos, live nightcrawlers, rooster tails, Heddon torpedos, topwaters. even tried a jig and pig right onto the beds. The Bass would either swim right up to it and just go the other way, or they just didn't care whatsoever. I'd definately never seen anything like it. We threw every single bait we had with us. They had one thing on their mind. BOWCHICKABOWWOW
Does it get more frustrating than that? Seeing giant Bass and not being able to catch them.

On a positive note, we found some great spots to hit in a week or 2 when the spawn stops. And the Copperhead snake we saw didn't see us. But most importantly, we weren't at work.
Mike hooked up me up with a Swivel, which lets you easily change baits without retying your knots. How the hell did I not know about these things??? He also had a hell of a nice set up for carrying baits that I need to get hipped to. Can't wait to hit these same spots with Mike after the spawn. So all in all i guess it was a successful outing. But next time we'll be expecting more "blogworthy" fish.

Fat Chicks on Golf Carts

May 16th-

Luckily, the weatherman sucks because they were calling for rain again all day Saturday and it ended up being a perfect day to fish. 70 degrees, overcast and just a little windy.

After a disappointing outing last week, we were bound to not waste our time. Nate went to O'Shaugnessy to check the Crappie bite, and Brian and I went to a lake by an apartment complex near his house. (for the record, Nate got skunked)

We were fishing senko's and there was alot of action in the clear water. B hooked up with a nice bass on his 2nd or 3rd cast. A few casts later he hooked up with this beauty.

2 decent bass in 20 minutes and it was heating up. I switched senko colors because they obviously liked what B was throwin. We decided to go around the opposite side of the lake and hit some drainage pipes. All of the sudden we hear this shrill from behind us, "YOU MUST NOT LIVE HERE." I turn around and there's 2 fat chicks sitting on the golf cart lookin pissed. Normally, when you see girls on golf carts it's a good thing. They're bringing you more beer and snacks. When you're fishing in a private pond and they're fat chicks from the rental office, it's not so awesome. The conversation went something like this..."Oh, i'm sorry, we didn't see a no fishing sign so we thought it was alright." "thats right. there isn't. it's in the rental agreement papers which state that fishing is a $100 fine." She went on in the same condescending fashion for some time and i basically stopped paying attention and started packing my gear. Brian was fixing his line when they rolled up and i could tell he wanted to make another cast. Guess that wasnt the battle to choose since B's ridin dirty without his fishing L's.

We called Papa Rob who was on his way out to meet us. We went over to a pond by Island Club that we fished last year. I caught quite a few small Largemouths off the bank line on the same color senko we were using earlier. I was jigging the hell out of this thing and they'd pop it right as i let it sit. Ryan caught his first ever Bass on the senko, but I wasn't sure if the bass was bigger than the senko itself. It was good to see a big ol smile on his face knowing the senko works for him.

I hooked into a nice one but it got away. It was so big I'm going to take this hook with me:

Ryan knew a place for Crappies, so since we already caught a good amount of bass we figured we'd check it out. We roll over to this park and get set up ready to slay em, and the Park Rangers walked up. Luckily, my birthday present from my Mom was my fishing license. Brian and papa rob on the other hand: ridin' dirty. The rangers were really friendly and let us know the lake was for kids 16 and under and the fishing sucked. Ryan, you're fired. We decided to call it a day, and luckily we did because it rained about 20 minutes after we got home. Not a bad day.

Catchin Minnows on Minnows

May 12th-

I got a "hot tip" from a dude in a kayak when I was fishing last weekend with Ryan. He paddled up and told me there was a spot on O'Shaugnessy Resivoir where guys were catching 100+ Crappies a day. He gave me instructions on where to park and said to walk north a little ways and I'd find the spot. I was pretty pumped about the prospects...I dont really care much for Crappie but if they're biting like that count me in. What the kayaker didn't tell me is that there is 17 miles of shoreline on O'Shaughnessy. It's pretty much an 8 mile stretch of the Scioto River that runs down Riverside Drive that they have dammed off. It's one of the top 10 Largemouth spots in ohio.

I headed out to scout out the location and Nate and Brian were following when they got off work. Evidently they don't have "salesman hours." There were spots off Riverside Drive that you could pull off and park and fish. I hit a few of them and caught a couple Largemouth and a nice crappie. Nate and Brian met up and we headed up north to the Kayakers spot. I casted in and caught a nice crappie on the first cast on a minnow. Seemed like a good sign.

then nothin.

Jason came out to test his luck and we moved spots closer to the boat launch. There was a group of 8 or 9 Mexicans in the first spot I caught the fish at. Why did they have ladders on top of their minivan Nate? Anyway, these Mexicans were slayin Crappie. Brian saw a stringer full of big ones.

It was getting late in the day. 3 hours of fishing and the sun was going down. Nate and Brian caught a few small bass and crappies at the very end, but other than that it was pathedic.

Embarassing, Super.

I've come to the conclusion that I need a boat. That's a whole nother blog post itself...

Morning Bites

May 9th-

For some reason Ryan and I decided to get up at 4:50AM Saturday morning and hit the morning bite at Alum Creek. I had never fished at Alum before, but there are alot of different species and it's one of the better spots in central Ohio. On the way to the lake Ryan and I were talking about how we hadn't had that 1 epic catch of the spring. Today might just be our day.
We tried quite a few different spots but caught only some Crappie, Sunnies and a small Catfish. Nothing worth posting a picture of. It was pretty frustrating, especially being up that early in the morning. There's about a 10 fish minimum for each guy when you're out of bed that early on a Saturday morning. What a pitiful attempt.

Fishing With Ryan

This is a picture of poppa rob when he was a young angler

Makin Believers 1 Senko at a Time

May 2nd-

It was tournament status Saturday afternoon. Ryan "Poppa Rob" Robinson was blowin my phone up at 10:15 to wet a line. 4 hours later, he finally showed up with his entourage. Not helping any stereotypes there buddy. His cousin Dre and 2 of his friends came along for an afternoon of fishing for Smallmouth on the Darby. We were going to meet Otter too, so we were rollin 6 deep. I was pretty pumped about this trip. My cousin Todd gave me some coordinates on the Darby were he's caught Smallmouth. We drove out to meet Otter and noticed the water on the Darby was MOVIN. Why the hell didn't I think of this? We got rained out yestereday with tornado force storms and my dumbass wanted to go fishin on a creek. Since we were out in country we stopped to hit Osprey Lake which used to be a quarry and at one time was a paylake. What a waste of time. Nothin but tiny bluegill. The mexican beside us did catch a big snapping turtle. mmmm turtle tacos...

Poppa Rob ready to DO WORK SON

We decided to move camp to a pond at an apt complex off Bethel. It was a pretty good spot and we started catching big bluegill right away. After nothing more than a few Gills I decided to ditch the live bait and target some Bass. I switched to a swimming senko and set off around the far side of the pond. The pressure was on because I've been talkin so much game to Ryan that the senko HAD to pay off. The bluegills were biting the senko like crazy but they're too small to catch on the rig. I knew eventually a Bass would hit it. I felt a tug and set the bejesus out of the hook. It was the biggest Bass of the day! I caught 2 more the same size and had another one get away.

I left my camera over with the gear so I didn't get pictures. Brian and Dre ended up catching 8 bass on live bait.

Brian showin how they do it in FLA

Brian and Dre play football for Ohio State. Its always a blast to fish with those guys because they both can fish well and it always fun to talk football. After those 3 nice bass Ryan was sold on the senko. I set him up with a Senko starter kit...hooks, all different kinds of senkos and showed him the different rigs.

Hopefully soon he'll be able to catch at least one fish. That's alot of gear to haul around and not catch anything. Next time Poppa Rob, bring more 6 packs...

I want to be a weatherman

May 1st 2009-

Weathermen have the greatest jobs. "eh, i'd say about 40% chance of rain." it may or may not rain. I'm qualified to figure that out on my own. Needless to say, their accuracy rates aren't on say, a doctors level. Would you want an architech getting things right about half the time?

Jason and I came extremely close to becoming the weatherman's next victim. Friday evening Jay and I went to the lake off Grandview and 670. It rained all morning but cleared up and the forecast called for clouds and a possible pop up shower. Clouds were moving in and out quickly but we didn't get hit. That was going to change quickly.
As soon as we came out of the clearing in the path you could see at least a dozen monster carp right up by the bank. We tried for a second to catch one on a worm, but there wasn't time to waste. We were there for the bass. We got a couple bites on live bait but there wasn't a fish to be had.
This lake is disgusting. There is trash EVERYWHERE. It sits right off the overpass and the first time i was there a bottle came flying down that had been thrown from a passing car. I think it's too nasty to hold bass. There were carp everywhere and they were active. Musta been spawning. I threw out some live bait and it slowly took off. I set the hook and it felt like a rock, but i knew it was carp right away. I got it up to the bank and yelled down to Jay to come with the pliers. The fish threw the hook and swam off. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Get that nasty bastard off my line. Welp, we're here and there's carp. We might as well try to catch em.

As I was getting ready to bait the hook again Jay looked up and said "I dont' like the look of those clouds comin." It was a wall of black. We were at least a half mile from the car and it was coming. The temp was dropping and it looked ominous. We packed our stuff up and high tailed it out of there. As soon as we got back to the car it started POURING.

After fishing we were in the mood to eat some fish.We came back to the house to grill some Salmon and the rain was hammering down. Then the tornado siren started going off and Franklin County was under a Tornado Warning! The only thing to do at that point was to go to the basement, drink daquiris and play darts. Guess it ended up alright.

40% chance of rain huh? Guess he was right afterall.