Lake Toho: Rollinbass

December 10th, 2011-

Mark it down. 12/10/2011. Best day of fishing I've ever experienced. Dotson and I decided that Columbus sucks in December and took a trip to Orlando to charter the legendary Lake Tohopekaliga. Lake Toho is constantly rated as one of the top Largemouth fisheries in the world. 12lb+ bass sounded way better than freezing rain
We chartered with Captain Dean Puller of Gatorbass.com and had an absolute blast. We met Captain Dean at the dock and hopped in the boat. Dean was a terrific guide and an absolute hysterical charactor. After a 3 minutes ride in the boat we were at a patch of grass and catching fish. There is quite a bit of hydrilla and thick grass beds in Toho and we were nailing them right off the edges of the beds. 1 after another on the Carolina rig got tiresome, so we switched to wild live shiners. They're 6-8" live minnows that Bass just go bonkers for. Within minutes of the rig hitting the water there'd be a big ol Bass on it. No wonder shiners are nicknamed Bass Crack.

Once the shiners came out the action got ridiculous. There was fish on every pole. We barely had time to take pictures! It was Chaos in the boat. Our arms were getting dead tired from fighting the fish. We lost track around 30 and ended up landing 60+ in 6 hours. Dotson caught the biggest going 7.5 but most were in the 3-5lb range. I caught a new Personal Best Largemouth 6lb 6oz.
Captain Dean with gatorbass.com did an outstanding job and I'll definitely be back down to see him again. Thanks to the Dotson's for sharing an incredible weekend with Heather and I! Enjoy the pics:

One of many quality Largemouths

 Dotson with a powerful hookset!

Dotson his best of the day. 7lber!

These were the average size we were catchin all day. Giant's in ohio but small for Florida!

Monster hog!!

1st one on the Carolina Rig

Dotson holding another hog, me holding the camera. Again.

Good ol 3.5 to 4lber

2011 Season in Review Part 1

November 24th, 2011-
What a wacky fishing season...as soon as the water unfroze the heavens opened up and dumped rain on my pre-spawn parade. It rained something like 36 of 42 days. As soon as the monsoon season stopped it went directly to Death Valley-like conditions from Memorial Day until September. However, we still managed to get out and catch a hell of alot of fish. New spots were discovered, new techniques perfected, and bass were rolled. Here's a photo gallery of some of the better Bass we caught in 2011. One of these cold winter days I'll include a story or 2 behind some of the more memorable fish...or not.

Running Marathons and Rolling Bass

Again, Dotson's holding a 6+lber and I'm holding the camera

Yet Another 3lber from Mt. Vernon

Corey with 1 of many giants caught livebaiting in the Darby

Topwater Yum Dinger pig!

My personal Best LM caught in April. 6.2lbs!

Why am I always holding the camera for this dude!?

5lber straight ANGLED off a bed in Tennesse while golfing

All day, everyday in Mt. Vernon

Toby with another quality Mt. Vernon Bass

The biggest of 46 pictures caught in 4 hours in July! 4.5lber!

This picture might have been taken the day Yuengling hit ohio

Toby with 1 of 30 fish caught on an epic day jerkbaiting flukes

The Asian Sensation rollin smalleys!

19" Darby Smalley!

Mikey with an incredible Smallmouth!

1 of 46 fish caught on this epic day in July!

18" Darby Smalley on the last cast! NEVER GIVE UP!

PB Smalley on the Darby!

3lber at Waldrens early spring!

22" Fish Ohio Smallmouth caught on the Darby

See a theme here? It's Corey holding giant smallies and me holding the camera

This just in! I'm a slacker...

October 18th 2011-
So I totally Slacked this year updating my Blog...but that doesn't mean we weren't out catching great fish. Between a demanding job, a demading wife, and marathon training my free time was very limited. I'll just post a bunch of he pics from the year and maybe this winter i'll go back and write up the stories behind the fish. But probably not. Since, you know, I'm a slacker and all....Here's everything but the Bass which I'll post seperately. Enjoy!



My First Striper!



How come Poppa Rob is always catchin Carp???

14" Fish Ohio Crappie!

One of my favorite pictures with my favorite fishin' buddy

5.5lb Sheepshead caught out of the Darby!

EPIC day!!

May 21st, 2010-

Rain, rain, go away...

Central Ohio has had only 11 of the last 60 days where it hasn't rained. The water levels in the rivers and ponds are at record highs. While my grass is as green as i've ever seen it, it doesn't do much good for the fishing. This is the 6 week span that every angler dreams about...the 6 weeks that gets me through winter. The late april through May period where the big females expose themselves to spawn, and Males sit on beds protecting the spawing area. And the rain is ruining it all. Once that water temp reaches 60, they're going to start spawning regardless of my feelings about the matter. Selfish bastards...all i want to do is have my picture taken with you! Is that too much to ask?

We FINALLY got a reprieve in the weather today. Forecast was 80 and sunny after a cold front this week that had the highs in the 50's. Dotson, Mevers and I met up to see if this was going to be one of those Epic warm spring days, or one of the sunny hot days that push fish into deeper colder water.

All week we had been looking forward to the Ohio Smallmouth Alliance meeting where they'd talk about conservation, lure building (the boring stuff) and then we'd all disperse to the Darby to wack my favorite fish: the Smallmouth Bass. However, the rain has raised the water levels higher than snoop dogg, and the water flow was so fast they cancelled the meeting. We decided to go to Marysville and wack the hell out of some smaller bass since we were all itching to set some hooks.

I joked that the winner of our Derby would have to catch 25 fish. I was short...I ended up with 33, Dotson with 32 and Mevers with 21. We WACKCKED em. I DESTROYED fish on topwater like I've never done before. Hands down, top water is my favorite way to catch fish. The sun was shining, the beer was cold and the fish were biting. If that nutjob was right and the world ended today, it woulda been a-okay in my book...

After nailing a ridiculous amount between the 3 of us, mevers and I decided to go search for some big one's at a private pond in Delaware. This place was POPPIN. We continued banging em up. Here's some pics of the bigger ones:

2 Days Later- Career Best Smalley!!

April 3rd 2010-

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of catching "Dottie," Dotson's 7lb behemoth Largemouth, we went out to hold the "1st Annual Dottie Day Tournament." The field of competitors was a "who's who" of the rollinbass.blogspot.com community. Basically me, Dotson and Kughn. The 3 best fisherman I know. (care to challenge us?)

The 3 of us started out in the Darby and the conditions were perfect. The fish were hitting right on the edge of the current near slack pools. It was ideal for jigs. I was working a black 1/8oz football head jig with the leech trailer and felt it get hit like a ton of bricks. I patiently reeled in the slack and judo-chopped a hellacious hook set. FISH ON. This big lady was none too happy having a hook in her grill on a Sunday Morning. After a terrific fight Dotson landed the beast and I went ballistic.

19 1/2" 4.2lb Smallmouth Bass

Coolest part, she had at least 6 hook marks in her grill. How sweet is that? Catch and Release at its finest.

Kughn quickly picked up on the pattern and wacked a few small ones quickly. Dotson wasn't so fortunate. It just wasn't his day as several hookset attempts went unsuccessful. (that's a nice way to say he got skunked) Kughn stayed at the spot and continued his assault. All in all he finished with 8 smalley's including these nice 18"ers