Video - Late December Trout Fishing

Trout fishing has been great over the last several weeks. I've spent a lot of my spare time on the water. I finally managed to put a video together to show off some of the great action I have had. I hope you enjoy the video!



Here's a quick rundown of my last month of trout fishing:

November 27th I caught 14 Rainbows. On this black Friday trip, I was joined by 3 friends and everyone had great success catching fish! The weather was pretty nasty and uncooperative. We had brats in the parking lot for lunch and continued catching fish for a couple hours after.

December 20th I caught 5 Rainbows. This trip was a tough one and only through sheer time on the water did I manage to catch 5 fish. Some days are just tougher than others!

December 23rd I caught 5 Rainbows. During this trip, Dave and I got out about 3pm to fish for a few hours until dark. I absolutely blew them up for 30 minutes going 5/8. About that time, A front blew through with heavy winds and drenching rains and the fish turned off like a light switch.

December 29th I caught 14 Rainbows and 1 Brown. Another extremely windy trip! I found a very willing pod off fish next to a concrete break wall and caught 7 fish in short order despite the waves and what I affectionately call the 'ejector seat effect' created by waves bouncing off of concrete break walls. I caught my first Brown Trout in 2 years from this lake. After that I continued to pick up fish here and there and had my best numbers wise trip ever!

December 30th I caught 4 Rainbows and 2 Browns. The wind finally died down for this trip. It should have been really good but I struggled to get good hookups. I had numerous strikes with no fish to show for it before finally catching a crazy rainbow after 2 hours! After that I found a good area and picked away at 5 more fish before dark. I ended up with 2 more Brown Trout. I can't wait until these fish get a little bigger! In a few years they are going to be a riot!

12/5/15 Starting December off with a Bang!

Throughout the week, Mike and I were kicking around ideas for where we wanted to go fishing on Saturday. We knew we wanted to fish for Pike. I suggested a river that I have fished in the past but never fished for Pike. The river supposedly has good Pike fishing and some bigger fish too. I had personally never caught a Pike out of this river, but Kelly had caught a small one two years ago and I have had my line broken several times while fishing for Smallmouth so I wanted to give it a go. With the cold weather in the morning we decided to meet up at 1pm and fish till dark. We set up a shuttle to fish a short section of the river from a bridge to a dam just downstream. I had only ever been on this section two times before so while I had a vague idea of what it was going to be like, I wasn't entirely sure. The river was much more off-color than I expected but still had plenty of visibility. We launched and I headed upstream to fish through a section that I remembered looked good from a  previous float while Mike headed downstream. I was throwing an X-Rap around good looking laydowns over deeper water. I didn't see anything for the first 10 or 15 minutes and I was beginning to wonder if we had made a mistake coming to fish this river. I was fishing an area where there was a shallow section just off the main river channel. It looked to be less than a foot deep with weeds and a mucky bottom. It dropped immediately from a foot of water into somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 feet of water. The break looked really good so I was casting straight up it and bringing my X-Rap down the river right along it. I made a cast and jerked my lure about 4 times when I felt the thump of a fish hitting the X-Rap. I set the hook and began to reel the fish in. It didn't seem to be putting up much of a fight if any and I was just basically bringing the fish straight to the boat. I thought for sure that this was going to be a small fish and probably not even a Pike at all. I was wrong on both counts. The fish neared the boat and much to my shock it was a Pike and a BIG Pike at that. I think at that moment the fish realized something was up too and the battle really truly began. The fish began making long, powerful runs and executed several massive head shakes. Before long though I had the fish subdued and had my Lucid grips on it's massive jaw. I made the mistake of paddling into the shallow area mentioned before to get out and handle unhooking and photographing the fish. When I got out of the kayak I immediately sunk up past my ankles into nasty, stinking muck. It was not very pleasant and made handling and getting pictures of the fish much less enjoyable. My bump board was not nearly long enough to get an accurate measurement of the fish so I put it next to my rod and measured it when I got home. From the end of my rod to my mark was approximately 37". This makes this my biggest Pike of the year and my second largest ever! As I was lifting the fish for the first picture, Mike peddled around the corner. He said something to the effect of "oh what the hell?!?!". He was nice enough to snap some pictures for me and before long I released the fish. Pretty sweet! My first Pike from this river was my biggest of the year! The other unfortunate thing was that even though I had my GoPro on my head during the battle, I had somehow forgot to turn it on! No footage of my biggest Pike of the year :( At least I got some decent pictures and a sweet memory. The rest of the day was much slower but I had chances at several more fish without connecting. When we reached the pond created by the dam, I caught 3 more Pike in the span of 5 minutes. The biggest was probably somewhere around 20 inches. Mike caught one small hammer handle as well. My first impression of Pike fishing this river is very good and I already have other sections of this river on my 'to-do-list' for next spring.

Video - Thanksgiving Day Pike

Mike and I got an early start on Thanksgiving to get some fishing in before going to our respective family events. We got on the water by 9:00 or so and fished until about 1:15. We fished a section of river that we had fished during the summer but had not been back to since. Honestly, I was looking for a little redemption with this section of river. We didn't do very well when we fished it in the summer. It has so much good structure and water along a short section that I was surprised that we did not do better than we did. This section definitely redeemed itself in my eyes. I ended up catching 6 Pike and missing at least several more. I got all of my fish on two different lures: a 4" Rapala X-Rap and a 6" Bucher Baby Shallow Raider. I absolutely love the strike right at the nose of my kayak. It is those kinds of strikes that keep me coming back for more. I will let the video do the rest of the talking. Enjoy!

11/22/15 A Weekend of Missed Opportunities

It was a disappointing weekend of Pike and Muskie fishing. Without going into too much detail, I hooked and lost a Muskie right at the net during a snow storm. The next day I fished for Pike in extremely cold weather. I had two chances at fish and missed both of them! It may have had something to do with my freezing line and guides. It made for some awesome pictures though!

Video - Late Fall Pike Fishing

Here is a short video of my big fish from the weekend. Also my biggest Pike of the year.

11/15/15 Cause It's Never, Gettin' Any Better Than This!

During the week last week, the weather forecast looked absolutely amazing for the weekend. Mid 50s on Saturday and 60s on Sunday. I got an invite to go Musky fishing on Saturday and had been texting some friends about Pike fishing on Sunday. So with high hopes I set out on Saturday to begin my 'Esox Weekend'. The goal was to catch a nice Muskie and Pike both in the same weekend. Randy and I started out fishing Webster Lake on Saturday. I began the day throwing my usual Bucktail. Despite having a follow on the bucktail, I made the decision to downsize and throw a 4" Rapala X-Rap. Not too long after the switch I had a hit and it was fish on! Just after setting the hook though I began to realize that it was not going to be a big fish. As it approached the boat, it was obvious that we weren't even going to need the net for this Muskie. It was maybe a 20" fish. Pretty neat to catch one but we were obviously looking for something a little bigger. After a quick lunch at Pizza King on the lake, we picked up Randy's son-in-law Erich and headed out for round two. We fished a different area and had no luck for several hours. Just before getting ready to leave to head back to the area we had fished earlier, Randy all of a sudden had a fish on! This fish was in direct competition with my fish for big fish of the day. Randy leveraged it off at the boat and away we went back to the first area we had fished in the morning. Randy and Erich were both saying how they were feeling good about the area we were fishing and were expecting something good to happen. I wasn't feeling it and told them that I wasn't. As if on cue, during my next cast, I felt that familiar thump and set the hooks into what felt like a very nice fish. I think that they both thought I was joking, especially after all the talk about not feeling good about the fishing. When I stepped down to the 4" X-Rap I was using a lighter rod as well so when this fish made it to the boat, it made it a much more interesting fight. It had the rod doubled over into the water and was pulling for the bottom for all it's worth. It also made things interesting by trying to get the line around the trolling motor several times. Every time the fish took another run all I could think was "stay on there, stay on there". It was an amazing battle and one I will not soon forget. Before long the fish came to the surface and my 42.5" Muskie was in the net! After only a few minutes of fighting, photographing, and releasing the fish, I was completely drained. What a rush! The rest of the evening we had several more follows but no other fish in the boat. The next morning I had plans to meet up with Larry to fish my favorite northern Indiana Pike river. After an extremely stellar day of fishing last weekend, I was expecting great things from the day. So with my kayak in tow, I made my way up to the river. It was such a nice day that by the time we made it on the water, the temperature had already risen above 50 degrees. We fished a section of river that I had not had much luck on previously but had always looked good to me. I was again throwing the 4" X-Rap. The key with this kind of fishing is to really let the lure pause between jerks. Give it a few jerks then let it sit, give it a few jerks then let it sit. The fish almost always hit on the pause. Before long we were seeing Pike and we landed 3 within just a few hours the nicest being just under 30 inches. The 30" fish completely inhaled the X-Rap so much so that I was worried that it was going to be hooked badly. Much to my surprise though, the fish was not hooked at all but the lure itself was wedged in the fishes jaw. I could not believe it. I've never seen anything quite like it. At any rate it made 'unhooking' the fish easy and the fish released very well. Before long I got a call from Mike that he was headed out to meet up with us, so Larry and I got back to the launch and loaded our kayaks to head for a different section of river. I was anticipating catching a lot of fish at our next spot but when we got on the water, I was puzzled when we were having a hard time finding any fish. I eventually did get a decent fish from a deep run. Not too long after that, I was fishing a fast section of water. I felt a fish hit my lure and set the hook. There's a fish. Oh! It's a big fish! When hooked the fish immediately started thrashing it's head side to side like all big Pike and Muskies do when first hooked. Then it began bulldogging and running into the fast current. Before long my kayak and the fish were both out in the current getting pushed downstream while still battling each other. With a lot of luck and some skill I managed to keep the fish from wrapping around any of the numerous laydowns in this section. I could see that the fish was not hooked very well. Only one hook from the back treble was in the corner of the fishes jaw. I was so nervous that it was going to come off. Every time I reached out with the grips to attempt to land the fish it would thrash. Each time that happened I was just thinking how the next time it thrashed I was sure to lose it. Through some miracle it stayed on and I finally managed to land the fish after a battle of several minutes. It was a magnificent fish. It measured out at 35 inches, had admirable girth, and beautiful, dark coloring. Larry was nice enough to get some pictures for me. I stood there for quite a while holding the fish in the water and just looking at it in awe. Before long the fish was kicking and I released it back to the river. Cool deal. I got a big Musky AND a big Pike in the same weekend. It doesn't get any better than that. The rest of the day passed and Larry and I each caught another fish and had a few more chances apiece but mostly we just enjoyed the nice weather. 

11/8/15 Northerns in November?

It all started with a series of text messages: Mike: Any interest in fishing this Sunday? Me: What did you have in mind? Mike: One last Pike trip? Now there's a thought. I had never really considered fishing for Pike this late in the fall. What would it be like? Would the fish be catchable? There's only one way to find out. The good new is that the weather has been very moderate. Kelly was up for going as well so we planned on fishing from a canoe for the day. We decided on a 10 o'clock meet time as the forecast called for a low of 28 the night before. At least give the sun a chance to get up and give it time to warm up a bit. Sunday arrived and Mike, Malachi, Kelly, and I met up at the Elkhart River. We set our shuttle and managed to get on the river by 10:30. The temperature when we started was a balmy 44 degrees. Despite the chilly weather and water, we had high hopes for the day. Kelly and I started off throwing what I would consider some of my 'traditional' Pike lures, spinners and swim baits. We floated and fished through great looking water for a couple hours and never even saw a fish. After a few hours with no luck on the Pike, Kelly and I switched over to fishing for Smallmouth. I had Kelly throwing a jig and twister tail combination and I was throwing a fluke on a jig head. Maybe slowing down was going to be the key today. Within 10 casts we had our answer. I was moving the fluke along very slowly with a jerk pause retrieve. All of a sudden I felt the tell tale thump of a fish hitting the lure. I set the hook and was extremely excited to have hooked my first fish of the day. As it approached the boat, I saw that it was a Pike and a nice one to boot! Unfortunately the other thing I noticed is that it had the fluke completely inside it's mouth. With 8 pound flouroclear on that rod I knew what was coming next. The fish made a run and before I knew it, my line was broken and the fish was gone. Although it sucked to lose the only fish hooked after several hours of fishing, it gave me a good insight into what might work for us the rest of the trip. I quickly tied on a leader and another jig and fluke onto my rod and set kelly up with a leader and a Rapala X-Rap. Kelly, having never fished a lure such as the X-Rap, was a little unsure of how to use it. I gave her a quick tutorial and showed her how to work the lure. After a few casts her retrieve looked good and she was getting good action out of the lure. The fish must have thought so too. Literally minutes after switching to the X-Rap, Kelly had her first Pike of the day hooked up. It was a stout fish in the mid 20-inch range. When I got it in the net I could see that it had T-boned the lure and was clamped down on it as if it's life depended on it. I had a lot of trouble unhooking it. I ended up getting my thumb cut pretty badly by the Pikes teeth. I shouldn't have been stubborn and just used spreaders to start with to get the fishes mouth open. It eventually came unhooked and escaped without getting it's picture taken. Finally one on the board! After that we had relatively consistent action the rest of the day. I managed a pair of nice fish on the fluke. I shared our discovery with Mike and Malachi. After a bit of rumaging through their tackle, Mike was throwing a jerk bait and Malachi was using a fluke. As we neared the end of the trip the action intensified. I hooked a nice fish on the fluke. It immediately came to the surface and with a few head shakes, spit the hook out. I was disappointed but before I could make my next cast, Kelly all of a sudden had a fish on. It literally could not have been 20 seconds after I lost the other fish. Was it the same fish? I think that the fish I had on spit the lure then saw Kelly's lure and figured it was the minnow he had just lost so he went over to her lure to finish the job. We will never know. She said that she had about 4 feet of line out and her lure was just hanging in the water, when all of a sudden the huge fish came from out of nowhere and absolutely engulfed the X-Rap. The fish made several jumps and I remember seeing it come out of the water shaking it's head from side to side trying to free the lure. Before long, we had the fish on the grips and Kelly had landed by far the nicest fish of the day. We snapped some quick pictures and got the fish released. Kelly and I were both excited and shaking from the thrill. What a great memory. I'm so glad that Kelly was there and we got to experience it together. After that, I'm not sure what the difference was but all of a sudden everyone started seeing and catching fish. Kelly caught another nice fish approaching 30 inches. This fish had also T-boned the X-Rap and was clamped down on it. This time, I did the smart thing and used the spreaders. The fish was unhooked quickly and easily and everyone (including the fish) was much happier for it. Malachi got both his lure and leader broken off by a fish. He looked pretty down about it so Kelly and I paddled over and gave him a leader and I gave him the fluke off of my rod as it was the last one that I had in the boat. In the next 30 minutes he proceeded to catch two fish on it so I was extremely glad we gave it to him. I put on a musky lure as it was the closest thing I had to what was working. Within a few casts of throwing the Shallow Raider, I caught a nice Pike approaching 30 inches. He T-boned it and had all three hooks in him. After we released that fish I had two more smaller Pike follow without hitting my musky lure. By the end of the trip Mike finally got on the board and landed a decent Pike. All in all, the 4 of us landed 9 Pike and had at least several more opportunities each. What a great way to spend a November day! There may already be a return trip in the works!

11/4/15 Everything AND the Kitchen Sink

Kelly and I went out to a local river to fish for Saugeyes. We only had at most 2 hours to fish before dark. The time change was a rude awakening and it makes it extremely difficult to get out in the evenings. We were using jigs and soft plastics to target the Saugeyes. What we got was not what we were expecting at all. I started the night off pretty quickly with a decent drum. Within the next couple of minutes, Kelly yelled at me that she had a fish on. I paddled over to help her land it. That is when the fight got serious. Her rod was bent down over the side of the boat and the fish was bulldogging and pulling drag. Before long I realized that this was not going to be a Saugeye unless it was a world record class fish. After several minutes, the fish finally surfaced and we got our first look at what she had on the end of her line. Flathead! It was big enough that I put the net away. I knew that it would be of no use trying to get it into my relatively small net. The fish made a few more last ditch efforts to escape. The next time it came up, I got it by the tail and then by the head and lifted it into the kayak. This will definitely go down as one of the biggest fish I have hand landed. Kelly didn't want to hold it so she snapped a couple pictures of me holding it before I slipped it back into the water and released it. After the release, Kelly and I were both jittery and Kelly said her hands were hurting her from trying to hang onto the rod! It just goes to show that you never know what you are going to catch! This is definitely one of the coolest experiences I have had while fishing with Kelly. She even managed to catch a fish that I have never caught! I'm so excited for her and glad she got the experience of fighting that brute. Our rivers truly have an extremely diverse group of fish in them. They have everything AND the kitchen sink.

10/30/15 Different Lake, Amazing Results

I apologize for the delay in fishing reports and new posts, but I have been fishing during almost all of my free time. On Friday Larry and I decided to hit another trout lake in the search for more silver bullets. We must have made the right decision. We fished for just over 3 hours. I brought 11 fish to hand, lost another 4 that I had hooked up, and had numerous hits where fish just simply never got hooked. I had 4 occasions where I had a fish on both rods at the same time. 4 times!!! I never did manage to land a double but I did get at least one of the two fish in each time. Honestly, it was one of the better evening I have ever had trout fishing. The weather was absolutely ideal with temps in the mid 50s, a slight chop on the water, and overcast skies. The fish were very aggressive and hitting brightly colored streamer patterns right near the surface. The picture below is of my best fish of the night. It measured out at 17". This bright chrome fish did not look like a typical stocker. It had perfect fins, great coloration, and gave me a battle considerably longer than any of the other fish I have caught this fall. If you're thinking about getting out, the time is now! The weather is still nice and the fish are very active and aggressive.

10/23/15 There is a First Time for Everything!

A friend from work is new to kayak fishing this year. After hearing me talk about kayak fishing for trout he was extremely eager to give it a try. He didn't have a lot of flexibility day wise so even though conditions were less than ideal for a beginner we could get out Friday evening for a bit. The wind was pretty heavy but at least the temps weren't very cold. I caught 2 fish and lost one more in the first 15 minutes I was on the water. After that things slowed down but I did hook up on occasion and managed to bring two more fish to hand. All in all I went 4/8. After struggling for a while Dave managed to hook 3 fish and land his first Indiana Rainbow. Congrats to him and he told me that he has already been out again. I might have another person hooked on trout fishing!

10/22/15 Expect the Unexpected

Just one you think you have something fishing figured out, it puts you back in your place. In recent years I have had a lot of success fishing for Saugeyes below the dams in town. This year, I have not managed to land a single one. I have however caught a multitude of other species including Smallmouth Bass, Channel Catfish, Freshwater Drum, and Northern Pike. I had about an hour after work today to hit the river. With the way things have been, I should have known what to expect. About 5 minutes into the trip I had a nice take on a fluke. I saw the fish flash and was almost sure it was a Saugeye. It gets to the net and is a Northern Pike. Go figure. That was the only fish I caught but it was a beautiful evening to be outside and on the water. Plus I'll take a Northern Pike over nothing at all any day of the week.

10/18/15 Sunny Day Rainbows

With summer fading into fall, the air and water temps are beginning to drop. We've had some cold nights as of late so I thought that I'd give some trout fishing a try. I hit the lake about 10:30 to give it time to warm up as it was a chilly 29 degrees overnight. Once on the water I quickly got my fish fish on and lost it just as quick. Before too long though I tied into and landed my first trout of the year. After that though, it turned into a pretty slow day overall. Bluebird skies and no wind is definitely not my favorite conditions for this fishing. After a few hours the wind picked up and so did the fishing. In the last hour I was on the water I landed 3 more Rainbows and lost several more. All in all on the day I went 4/9. The 4 fish I landed were all obviously this years stockers and they all were right around 14" long. Catching less that half the fish hooked is not too great by anyone's standards. I think I need to go back to the drawing board again and rethink my flies. I just don't seem to be getting hooks into enough of the biters. You can read about my tactics for trout and watch videos of my system in action by clicking here: Trout Page. Get ready everyone, because fabulous Indiana trout fishing is just around the corner.

10/10/15 The Fast and the Furious

On a whim, Kelly and I went down to Salamonie Reservoir to look for White Bass and Crappies. We didn't arrive at the lake until 5:30PM so we didn't have very long to look for fish. The good news: I got my kayak in the water, cast a small spinner on my ultralight rod, and immediately caught my first White Bass. Catching a fish on the first cast is usually either really good luck or really bad luck. Either the action will continue or that will be the only fish caught during the trip. Luckily the action continued and within a few minutes I was catching fish on consecutive casts. Looking out over the water, you could see Shad constantly being chased and jumping out of the water. Kelly started off fishing a bobber and jig around downed timber. She quickly caught her first crappie within minutes of starting to fish. Once I realized how many White Bass were in the area though, I had Kelly switch over to throwing a spinner as well. Over the next hour the action was fast and furious. We had multiple doubles and I really couldn't tell you how many fish we caught. If I had to guess I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50. Most of the fish were between 8 to 12 inches. If you've never caught White Bass before you might be surprised how well they fight for their size. They fight very frantically and the bigger ones can really pull hard. They make for great sport on light rods and Kelly and I both had a blast. It is always great when the fish are this cooperative.

 

Video - A Day in the Life of a Spinnerbait

10/3/15 The Impressive Esox Masquinongy

It was looking like one of those days. The forecast is calling for highs in the 40s. Winds ENE at 20-30 mph occasionally gusting to 40 mph. And a chance of rain all day to boot. So as I arrived in North Webster with rain hitting the windshield and the thermometer reading a balmy 44 degrees, I'm thinking to myself "What the hell am I doing here?" Despite the fact that we are probably at least a little crazy, we were here to do some Muskie fishing. Randy and I arrived at the lake just after noon and got set to head out. Despite the wind, the North and East portions of the lake were pretty calm and looked good. We began fishing the North bank and within an hour we had already seen 2 follows from really good sized fish. We went to fish another main lake point where Randy had recently moved a giant fish. We didn't see any fish there so we headed back to the first area where we had the first two follows. We began fishing and before long it happened. I made a cast to the breakline, began my retrieve, and in an instant I remembered why we were out here in these conditions. I set the hook into a fish and began pulling it to the boat. I couldn't tell how big it was but it stayed deep and headed towards me. As it approached the boat, Randy readied the net. It was now directly underneath us and to my amazement began to pull drag and I could feel it's massive head shakes. I have 80 pound braid on my reel and have my drag almost all the way down so pulling line is quite a feat. It really showed how strong the fish truly was. It came to the surface and we realized how big the fish really was! It gave a couple more head shakes and headed for the net. It was all over in less than 60 seconds, but what a rush! Randy grabbed some pliers and went to unhook the fish. He realized that it had already thrown the hook and was now sitting in the net waiting for a few glamour shots. Missing half of it's tail and with a large notch in it's upper jaw this fish wouldn't win any beauty contests, but it sure was an amazing fish! I pulled it from the net and we got several pictures and measured it at 46", making it the biggest fish I have ever caught. We released the fish back into the water and I stood there shaking from the thrill. Despite our best efforts all we had to show for the rest of the day was a 26" Pike. Any other day I would have been happy to catch it, but after landing a 46" Muskie, a 26" Pike looked and felt pretty small! I can't thank Randy enough for the invite and being the net and camera man both. This trip was something special and I will remember it for a long time!

9/27/15 Urban Fishing on the Dirty J

Mike and I got out on Sunday to fish one of the local rivers. This river continues to surprise and amaze me. The species that it contains and the quality size of the fish is quite remarkable and unexpected. Along with some nice Smallmouth, jumbo Drum, and a couple of Catfish, I caught my first Northern Pike from this section of river. It was pretty surprising and I'm really glad that it didn't break off my crankbait. I caught all my fish and Mike caught the majority of his fish casting crankbaits to riprap. The coolest part of this river is that you just never know what you are going to run into out there.

 

9/19/15-9/26/15 Whitewater and Trout Fishing

I took a vacation to Pennsylvania to do some whitewater kayaking from 9/19-9/26. We paddled 5 days of the 7 days we were there. On Saturday evening we paddled "The Loop" on the Youghiogheny River. "The Loop" is roughly half of the whitewater on this river. The river turns around a peninsula and almost comes back to itself. You can run this section then walk out a trail and be very close to the put in. On Sunday, we traveled to Maryland to paddle the North Branch of the Potomac River. They were doing a 1000 cfs release for the weekend. It was a very fun river with some fairly continuous whitewater, some great playspots, and cold, clear water. After that we paddled the full Lower Youghiogheny 3 times (Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.) On Tuesday I had an "incident" where I hit a rock and traveled through the class 3+ rapid Rivers End while upside down. I took a few bruises and scrapes from the rocks but came out relatively unscathed. It did however scare the hell out of the me so as a result, I was a little more conservative in running that particular rapid on our next two trips. All in all though the weather was fabulous and the paddling was awesome. I got some great surfing opportunities at Swimmers rapid and felt like I have gotten much better overall in the last year.

Now, to talk about some fishing. I had originally planned on taking my fishing kayak and running the Middle Yough and fishing for Smallmouth, Rainbows, and Browns. My plans however, did not work out. What I did end up doing though was taking an assortment of small flies and my 2-weight fly rod. On Monday 9/21, I fished a small stream called Meadow Run. There is a section of the stream that you can hike to called the cascades. It is a series of small ledges and waterfalls. I though that this would be a good starting point. When I began fishing though I could immediately tell that it was going to be a tough day of fishing. The water was extremely low and clear and the trout were very spooky. After fishing a few pools, I downsized to the smallest parachute fly that I had in my box. Within the next several pools, I caught my first fish. A beautiful male Brook Trout came up and sipped my parachute from the surface. It didn't give me much of a fight but what a beautiful fish! The pictures do not do this fish justice. Within a half hour I spotted a brown hanging in a small pool. I made a great cast and the fish immediately took my fly. It was a beautiful female Brown Trout. It gave a great fight and was also very beautiful. I thought that I had turned a corner and that the fishing was going to pick up. I was wrong. I continued to be plagued by spooky fish and slippery rocks and I finished the day having only caught the two. Even so, it was a great way to spend a day. I was out fishing a nice mountain stream with no one else around the entire time. Peace, Quiet, and Trout.

9/13/15 Sunday Fun Day

I met up with Mike and Larry to fish the Elkhart River in Elkhart. We fished the section from Studebaker Park to the Elkhart's confluence with the St. Joe. I was very excited to fish this section of water. The weather was cold to begin with but as the day went on it warmed up very nicely. The river itself was very nice. It had a nice gravel, rock, and sand bottom, very clear water, and good structure including deep pools, many bridges, and quite a few laydowns. I fly fished the majority of the time but also threw a spinnerbait looking for Pike. The Smallmouth fishing was decent with consistent action. The only downside was that every fish that I caught was on the small side (8"-10''). I probably caught 20 or so throughout the day. I only caught one Pike and it was very small. I caught it on my fly rod and I was very grateful that it did not bite me off. Larry managed to catch one decent Pike around 20 inches on a spinner. The highlight of the day was when Mike managed to land a beauty of a Walleye. This very nice 22" fish hit a spinnerbait. All in all it was a nice day, but I'm not sure that I would rush back to fish this stretch of river again.

Video - September River Pike

Here a Pike, There a Pike, Everywhere a Pike 9/4/15-9/7/15

3 rivers, 3 days, and Pike everywhere. Just the way I like to end my Summer. I was extremely lucky on Friday night and Saturday both that I did not get rained on. On Friday, a large thunderstorm went just South of where I was fishing. I could see lightning and hear thunder the majority of the time I was on the water. It never did rain much. I caught a few bass both Largemouth and Smallmouth. I also caught one nice Pike. It surprised me when it struck right at the boat. I also had a follow from a large fish but couldn't entice it to bite. On Saturday, Larry, Dave, and I drove to northern Indiana to fish a beautiful stretch of the Elkhart River. On the way, we drove through heavy rain, strong winds, thunder, and lightning. It cleared up a few minutes before our arrival at the put-in. A quick check of the weather on our smart-phones and we were prepared for the worst. The radar did not look good and there was almost a 100% chance of rain for at least the next 4 hours! We'd come this far so we decided to fish anyways, and wouldn't you know it, it never rained one drop while we were on the water! It turned out to be a very nice day with slightly cooler temperatures and partly cloudy skies. The fish agreed and it was a banner day for river Pike. I landed 9 fish all over 20 inches with the biggest being a stout 33 incher. The fish wasn't long but it sure was heavy. Without weighing it, I bet it was close to 10 pounds! I caught it right at the end of the day. I was just telling Larry how I was surprised that I hadn't even seen a bigger fish all day. It came from nowhere and latched onto my lure. It reminded me of a Musky strike and it was awesome getting to see it come from out of nowhere in clear water and smash my lure. Monday on the Tippecanoe River was a different day. It was extremely hot and sunny. The fishing wasn't anything to brag about but I did land 4 Pike throughout the day and had a nice fish follow to the boat before veering off. I hope to get a few more chances at Summer Pike but Fall is coming soon! It'll be here before you know it. Get out and enjoy the warm weather while it lasts!

8/29/15 - 8/30/15 The Infamous Esox Lucius

I spent the bulk of this past weekend chasing Pike. I managed to land quite a few, from the lowliest hammer handle, to the a true beast over 30 inches. I had quite a few more shots than what I hooked up on and I even saw a true Indiana giant on Sunday.
On Saturday 8/29, Larry and I hit a section of the Elkhart River that neither of us had been on before. It rained off and on all day but never rained so hard that it was a major problem. the biggest problem was getting good pictures as everything was wet so it was hard to wipe off water spots. A lot of my pictures were ruined by water spots. The trip got started on a somewhat sour note when on my second cast, a small Pike devoured my fly and broke me off instantly. Bad news in that I lost my fly, good news in that I had seen a Pike after less than 5 minutes of fishing. The 2-mile section of water we fished was absolutely loaded with great features. It meandered a lot, had tons of deep runs, tons of laydowns, several feeder creeks, backwater areas just off of the main flow, and a nice hard bottom in the main channel. After immediately losing my fly, I switched to my spinning rod and fished a large double blade spinner bait the rest of the day. Unfortunately I forgot my SD card at home so I didn't get any GoPro footage of the action. It still blows me away how aggressively Pike will take lures. In a backwater area, I had a Pike swirl on my lure on my first cast into the area. After it missed, it followed the lure until it got into shallow water then stopped and sat there. I cast past the fish. As soon as the lure hit the water, the fish quickly swam off and disappeared from sight. After only a few seconds, the fish slammed the spinner and the battle was on! The biggest fish came from a small backwater area just off of the main flow. I made a cast into shallow water (probably less than a foot). I immediately saw a fish hit and miss my lure. I reeled it in and cast again. I could see the wake of the fish coming for my lure. This time the fish slammed the lure and got hooked solid. It was a beautiful fish measuring just over 30 inches and was my biggest fish of the weekend. We had about 5 hours to make this float but I could have spent upwards of 10 hours fishing this stretch. It looked THAT good. Larry ended up catching his first very Pike and both of us caught several Smallmouth over the course of the trip. A great day on the water for sure.
On Sunday 8/30, I made a solo trip to the Tippecanoe River. The river has been extremely high and muddy all summer. Now that it had finally come back to normal, I was curious how it was going to fish. There were numerous river-wide log jams that made moving upstream very difficult and time consuming. Within minutes of starting to fish, I started seeing signs of life from Pike as I had several fish swing and miss at my spinner. The Smallmouth Bass were in rare form and I had a hard time keeping them off my Pike lures and I must have caught somewhere around 30 of them throughout the day. They were all between 10 and 14 inches. I even fished with the fly rod for a while and caught 8 on a large streamer. I did end up catching a few Pike in the low to mid 20 inch range. The fish I did catch were very aggressive and would hit my spinner shockingly hard for their size. I saw quite a few very small Pike over the course of the day. This bodes well for the future of Pike fishing on this river. I also had a follow from a GIANT Pike. By the time I saw this fish, I have seen tons of Pike over the course of the weekend. So believe me when I say that it was hands down the largest fish I have seen it quite some time. It followed my spinner to the boat and without thinking, I immediately started into a figure-8 as if I was Musky fishing. The fish didn't buy this tactic but it never hurts to try it. Overall I had an awesome weekend chasing Pike. I'm looking forward to continuing the hunt this coming weekend. If you are reading this and are looking for an adventure this weekend, drop me a line.