Spreading the Sickness

Had the pleasure of sharing my time on the water this weekend with some very good friends who are relatively green to the local steelhead scene. As Brett mentioned in the previous post, when you spend a lot of time on your home water it's easy to take the quality of the fishing for granted. For me it was rejuvenating to see smiles on the faces of close friends as they released fish, to watch them pause and marvel at the beauty of our rivers, and best of all to hear them ask, "are we really in Ohio?" I could see their passion and focus intensifying with every cast, every drop of an indicator, every hookset...it was fun to watch.

The fishing wasn't what I'd hoped it would be, but we fished long and hard in spite of it, busting our asses for the few fish we did find and having a damn good time in the process. Here are a few of the highlights.

I put a post up about wild fish a week or so back. For any skeptics out there, here's proof that fish reproduce in our river systems.

Here's hoping I bump into this guy again 10 lbs. and 30 inches later

Joe-Doug starts his day with a dose of doo-daddies

Took all day but we finally found a chromer. Note creepy non-fisher dude haunting in background. Must have been doing a creel survey, as he was very interested in knowing what kind of baits we were using.

Pretty lady that broke a long drought

JD's first steelhead in over a year

Feisty hen that Joey fought like a grizzled steelhead veteran. He was clearly determined to get that new profile picture!

We've agreed in principle that next time around the fish in this picture is going to be an 80 lb. tarpon..

After two and a half days of hard fishing I thought I'd be satiated for a while... and then "Eastern Rises" showed up in the mail. I immediately threw it in the store DVD player and proceeded to ruin my night. Perhaps the sickest fishing video I have ever seen, and now all I can think about is getting back on the water and planning my next destination trip. I've got 4 copies at the store if you're looking for one!