Hocking

[ecoangler]

Had a chat with my fishing buddies on Saturday They are taking smallies in the faster flow of pool tails with stone on tubes. Several 17" taken between Clear Creek to Haydenville.

[Eugene]

Nice. It has begun.

[ecoangler]

I wish I coujd be there. I'll be testing Clear Creek outside of Bloomington, IN.
Plan to try the White River south of Indianapolis.

[ecoangler]

I decide to try paddling & fishing for thr 1st time since completing treatment. I work about 6 miles of the river on the last Sunday in July. Condition wer cloudy with slight chance of rain temps in 80's, flow was 82cfs.
Felt great to get back on the water. The early hours were slow. landed 3 smallies and a Fish Ohio rock bass on jigs with safety pin spinners tipped with a grub. This the normal for the first 2.5 miles and 2 hours.
As cloud cover increased and the livery traffic I switch to a #7 Skitterpop. Third cast ifrom thefast current into a small tree shaded eddy landed the smallie of the day. One pop and an 18" smallie was all over it. The fun was that we both carried the battle, on lite tackle, into the fast run and rocks.
I managed to wedge the yak between two rocks and work to land the bass. It was neat have an audience of 10 canoes as a cheering section. The bass made one big run under the yak upstream and turned my 2 pc. rod to 4 pcs.
Landed the 18" smallie and we posed for the tourists cameras before releasing.

That was the only rod I carried so I turned downstream for what turned into a 4.5 miles downpour drenching of the remaining 6 miles.

What a great day.

[Eugene]

Nice story. Thanks, Rick.