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.