Let's go fish........Ahhh, screw it

The rotten weather all week has reeked havoc with the streams. Just when the streams were coming down to fishable levels, more rain falls. I opened the door to see a whiteout and howling winds. I can't believe my neighbours left for the Browns game in this shit. But it will be an great game, better me than him. I'm sure the 5lbs of deer chili I gave them last night will be the top item on the menu at the tailgate. There is suppose to be blizzard conditions tonight and what really sucks is I'll have to leave for work tomorrow at 5:30A.M.............yeah right.

Without anymore rain the rivers should be great late this week. All I want for Christmas is the Grand to be fishable this weekend.

Tis the season

Tis the season and after my vacation week, I see on the bulletin board that Doug is no longer with the company. Two weeks ago, Lennie retired. Mike is out from hernia surgery. Greg took a leave of absence and who the hell knows when he'll be back. I feel a pat on the back from the manager asking if I'm well rested.......Well, we all know where this is going. I have to take over Doug's accounts until they hire a new guy. The other thing I found out later was I have to work every other Saturday. During the winter months, I don't work weekends and I made it clear from the get go. You don't screw with my fishing time. I wasn't too happy as I hate working Saturdays and told them "start cranking out help wanted ads".

On the fishing front, chalk up another useless weather forecast. The weather channel was calling for a winter advisory for Sunday morning. It was suppose to be freezing rain and sleet. I woke up early in the morning and peeked out the window to see the street was dry. I drove to the Chagrin and it was running perfect. There wasn't supposed to be any rain until this evening. I kicked off the winter steelheading season looking for some fresh fish that came in with the last high water. It turned out to be a slow morning at the office. It was several fish here and there and I had to work over the pools. There must been a run of pygmy steelhead as I caught five of the smallest steelhead I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately the batteries in my camera died. I caught one buck that was 14” long in full winter colors and he had a kype jaw and humped back.

Then the day came to an end when the Gates Mill church clock started chiming in the distance and ten minutes later the skies opened and dumped a shitload of rain. I left the rain jacket at home thinking I didn’t need it. To make a long story short, I got soaked on the way back. It rained all the way back to North Olmsted. Once again, the Grand was coming down to fishable levels and the runoff shot it right back up. I was going to call off with the 24 hour flu. There is more rain for the upcoming week and this is the 3rd week in a row that the Grand won't be fishable.

Bling

The first push of Manistees have started to move up the rivers after the last blowout. Depending on what river you fished and how far up you went, it was bling or scrap metal. On the Rocky, it was bling-bling as every fish caught was in mint condition and full of fight. It felt nice seeing a fish jump and fight hard in water about 38F. But, the constant howling wind ran me off the river after a couple of hours in the morning. Two cups of java finally thawed me out.

I hit the Chagrin and it was a mix of bling and spawned out Pennsylvania fish. The thermometer barely got over 32F and I was tardy this morning as I arrived at 8:30A.M. It was a slow morning as I bounced from pool to pool. Once the sun got up the fish awoke from their slumber. Fishing tailouts, runs and slicks sandwiched between gravel beds was the ticket. Takes ranged from teasing taps to violent takedowns. I used the last of my uncured King eggs and once again I wasn't disappointed as I had my best day ever on the Chagrin. But, I got lucky yesterday and managed to score some uncured Coho eggs. I even got me some gold as a carp mistaken my white spawn sac for a boilie. The water so cold that the fat bastard didn't even put up fight. I hauled on the beach and he literally sunk in the muck.

The bonus of the day was the huge male that I landed on a frayed 6 lbs test fluorocarbon tippet. I'm terrible for not checking my line for nicks and frays. I previously caught 7 fish and drifted the last 20 yards of a pool before spilling into a gravel riffle. The takedown was hard and once I set the hook, I knew I had a bull on. I gingerly applied pressure and let him fight the current. He parked himself on the bottom and it was a battle of tug of war. I was afraid that the tippet would crap out and I wouldn't get a glimpse of the fish. I finally got him close enough and was the largest fish of the new season for me. I hauled his huge ass on the beach and the hefty ole man probably tipped the scales at 12lbs.

Taking tomorrow off for some much needed sleep and I'm glad as I'm getting tired of tying eggs every night. Sadly, my vacation week is coming to an end and it's back to the grind. Now that it December, we're starting off the winter steelheading season and this is where we separate the boys from men.