CybrSlydr

I wasn't sure where to put this, either in the tackle or rod forum, so we'll start here and see where the mods move it. So, my rod has a lure weight rating of 3/16-5/8oz. I've used a 1/8oz lure on it before and saw that it's too stiff to flex enough to send 1/8oz lures more than a dozen feet or so. So I realize there is a reason for the low-end of the lure weight spectrum. However, what about the top end? For instance, I've gotten the last to LTBs and they've both had something in them that weighs more than my rod is rated for - the Live Target bait-ball lure, a Lunkermaster (I think?) baby bass spinner 1oz, etc. Now, when I think about fishing, I'm catching (eventually, someday...) fish in the 3-5lb range. This is also a very vigorous sport where the rod will be bending and put under much more weight and stress than a measly 1oz - same with the line. So of that's the case, what is the point of giving a top-end lure weight rating of 5/8oz? Is there a rule of thumb for the heaviest weight your lure should be? Etc? Thanks folks!

I think I need to clarify something - I didn't mean I lost all those things at Wallace Lake yesterday. That was the sum-total of what I've lost using the Nanofil the last... 4 times I've been out. Also, if you've read my previous fishing reports, you'd see the last time I caught a fish was... October/November. lol My brother and I are "WWF" - World's Worst Fishermen. lol EDIT: Incorrect - 3rd of December, I got one.

First off, shout out to my brother who turned 30 on the 21st but couldn't come with me because he had to work - and it was his third day of work and opened the store by himself. lol So, my friend Corey and his friend Mikey and I decided to check out the premiere spot in Ohio for steelhead fishing - The Rocky River up around Cleveland. Since he lives over in Maumee and I near Marietta, (90min drive for him, nearly 3 hours for me) we decided we'd start at Lagoon dam and work our way up. We'd been keeping an eye on the CFM of the river via the USGS website. It rained a bit on Wednesday so the water was up. On Friday night/Saturday morning, it crested at about 1000cfm - according to the USGS, optimal flow is 150-250cfm. But, I had plans on Sunday and Saturday was the day we could go. So we figured if things were too bad at the dam area, we'd head to Wallace Lake, which is also stocked with trout and contains other species of fish such as LMB, SMB, etc. They arrived at the dam about an hour before me and said it was too high/fast and to meet them at Maple Grove, so that's where we started. I was excited because when I got out and got my waders put on, I recognized the area from some YouTube vids people have posted. Initially, I started in the water about 10ft off shore down below the concrete wall above. I used some spawn sacks on about 3ft leader of flouro and a sinker. Unfortunately, as you can see, the current is pretty quick and too murky to see anything. Came up empty, so I moved up on top of the spot to where I took the picture and cast a few times before getting the spawn sack stuck in the tree. Ugh... Not much you can do about going further up-river at this point as evidenced by the picture. So after a couple hours of nothing here, we decided to go head over to Wallace Lake. Bad idea. We get to Wallace and find that, apparently, with this amazing weather (it was in the mid 60s) EVERYONE decided to come out to Wallace and do some fishing. About every 10yds or so on the shore, there were small groups of people. Corey and I found a spot in some trees that allowed for some casting and set up shop. At this point, I was absolutely furious. I'm going to say right now that Nanofil is some of the most garbage line I've ever purchased. Yeah, you can cast it a mile and a half, but when no matter what knot you tie on breaks off, it's not worth it. Worst $20 I've ever spent. I lost 5 spinners, a rattle-trap, three various lures from my LTB and about 4 hooks/worms - let alone about 4 size 8 trout hooks and maybe 5 snaps. And this was 8lb test! They'd get hung up and just... gone. Meanwhile, my 10lb Trilene XT wouldn't snap off for anything - but you lose a lot of casting distnace. So, after I vigorously remove the Nanofil from my spool and respool with the Trilene I suggest we break for lunch. It's about 1:00 by now and they agree. Head over to Taco Bell since it was close and found out that this Taco Bell is the absolute SLOWEST drive-thru Taco Bell in the entire world. Took 15 minutes from the time we pulled up until we got out. But, since I've worked fast-food, I understand things happen, so I wasn't too upset. After lunch, we decide to check out the Nature Reserve (I think #10 on the above map) and see what's going on further up-stream. Bad idea. Like Wallace Lake, the entire park was PACKED. Hardly anywhere to park, cyclist/walkers/joggers/HORSES everywhere and when we checked the spot for fishing, it was a 20ft drop-off with no shore access. So, we continued up-stream for a bit and looked for site #9. Just like before, people everywhere and no real shore access, though there was a 20ft elevated platform from which you could cast into the river. At this point, I suggested we head back to where we started. I reasoned that the water level would have been going down all day, so it'd be even better and nobody really seemed to be there, the river was a bit away from the parking and there were spots we hadn't tried yet down-stream. They both agreed and we went back. This time we fished for a bit where we were previously - I tried some green Powerbait on a similar setup as before and a couple different spinners. No luck - so I went further downstream and tried in some calmer bits before and after fast bits and bends - struck out again. We did this for a couple hours and none of us had any luck what-so-ever. Not even a single nibble that we could discern. Extremely frustrating. So around 3:50, we called it quits. We said our goodbyes and went on our way. Stopped off at Papa Jons to get some pizza for my bro in Cambridge and was home a little after 7:00. Scenery was great, river looks fantastic and great access, but we managed to pick to go on a day where we got nothing. You know, I'm beginning to develop a complex. -sigh-

Thus far my brother and I have lost 3 rattle traps and caught 0 fish on them. lol

Looks like we'll be hitting up Clear Creek Metro Park instead tomorrow. Only about an hour and a half away.

That's a bummer - I work Monday through Thursday.

We're looking to hit it up on either Friday or one of the weekend days - think that'd be enough time to let it settle a bit?

I've got the floating green powerbait dough stuff - a couple #8-#12 hooks, anything else you suggest? It's been raining so I anticipate the water to be fast. Get some flourocarbon line too. 6lb test sound right?

That's good to know - I picked some up a few weeks ago, the green kind. What size hook? Like a #3 or so?

According to Google Maps, Urbana is about 2hr 45min from where I live, so if I'm going to head that-way, I figured I'd check on here to see if you folks had some suggestions on what parts of the Mad River to hit up. We do have waders now, so if there are shallow fast bits, we're good to do those. ODNR has a map, which is why I knew to look around Urbana, but I have 0 knowledge of the bits it talks about. https://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/Portals/wildlife/Maps/Rivers & Streams Maps/madriver.pdf Any insight/assistance you folks can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, thanks for the input folks! I think I'm going to pick up a Rapala X-Rap.

So I've read that in the winter, jerkbaits can be that go-to lure for finding those cold fish. Awesome - so I've been thinking about a jerkbait. But then I got thinking - since it's switched to winter here in SE Ohio, we've been looking more at rivers and such for fishing. Reason being is flowing water, like rivers, doesn't ice over so we can still fish it. But jerkbaits don't work in flowing water, do they? Specifically the suspending kind? The flowing water kinda negates that point, correct?

Now that my brother and I have some waders and it's supposed to get warm this weekend, we're looking at the Hocking River to see if there are any good places to fish. We are East of Athens over in Washington County - so we'd be going at it towards Athens. Any information you folks have would be appreciated.

So, should we look further down-stream for them? On what kind of areas do they like to stack up?

What kind of water level/current do trout like? The water was really, really high and moving very fast. I threw a weightless texas-rigged fluke just to see how the current was and it wouldn't stay submerged for more than a few seconds. Do you know of any good resources on where to look for trout in that kind of river? Thank you.

Man, as often as we've struck out, the amount of "better luck" we have accrued should land us a pair of 20lb LMB!

Some of you may have seen in the Northwest Fishing forum I posted about going here to see if we might be able to snag some trout or LMB. Today, my brother and I went to try it out. We left around 9:30am, bit of a later start than we wanted, but it is what it is. It's just over two hours to drive there from our house. We stopped at Taco Bell in Cambridge to grab some breakfast and then headed up to Gander Mountain in North Canton to pick up some supplies with money we got for Christmas. Got my brother some Berkley 8lb Nanofil for his setup, I got both of us an electric green 1/4oz inline spinner Rooster Tail, some Berkley Power Bait for Trout (green kind) and we both grabbed some Frog Toggs waders and two pairs of wool socks - http://www.froggtoggs.com/cascades-2p-rubber-bootft-26808.html Must have been on sale as we got them for $80. I also picked up a Rapala scale/fish lipper combo. I was thinking that since the park site said you could catch pike that I didn't want to deal with teeth and figured a lipper would be great to pair with the long-nose pliers I already had. So, we arrived at the first location and realized it was nowhere near the Cuyahoga river. So, we used our phones and Google Maps and went to the next one. Unfortunately, we didn't really... plan smartly for what to wear under these. I DID bring my Army issue waffle bottoms to wear over some sliding shorts I have from baseball, but I didn't want to change into them and just wore my jeans and a the wool socks. BIG MISTAKE. Jeans rode up to mid-calf or higher on both of us, though we made it work. We now know how to better prepare to wear the darn things. Tight, thin layers underneath or something like gym shorts. Compression shorts to prevent chafing as well. Good news is the waders worked as advertised - we made it to the Cuyahoga and got in near the shore. Unfortunately for us, the river was super fast today. It looks like we're around the tail-end of the snow melt, so the river was really high too. We made about 5 casts before looking for a new spot. Bad news is we were on a time crunch as is so we spent the vast majority of the time we were going to fish hiking the Oxbow Trail (btw, protip: figure out what the trail signs are before you go - two wavy lines apparently doesn't mean "to water" like I assumed and might just be the trail icon... d'oh) and made it to the "scenic view". You can also see it was completely foggy too. The whole dang day, it's been foggy and lightly misting. In the low 50s/high 40s, so it was chilly. Not in those waders and a hoodie walking up and down the darn trail it wasn't. lol We were both soaked with sweat. Eventually I took off my hoodie and just carried it. By the time we got to the scenic view, we'd pretty much run out of time to fish and had to be on our way home. We were both pretty bummed - yet another strike-out fishing outing, hours away. Here's our route. Blue is the outbound route, green is when we circled back to try and reach the Oxbow pictured above and orange is the return route to the car. As with Mohican park - looks like it'd be a great place to fish in the spring once the river level is much lower and slower. Someday, somehow - we will catch a d**n fish...

Looking at heading up there on Monday to do some river fishing. Think I'll stop off somewhere and see if I can find some hip waders so we can actually traverse the waterway. Anyone with experience in this area?

Lucky man to have a wife that will put up with you behind the camera! Great stuff!

Originally, my brother and my friend Corey were going to hit up Cascade Valley Metro Park and/or the Gorge Metro Park near Athens, OH but decided upon Mohican State park at the last minute. According to Wiki, " Mohican State Park is a 1,110-acre (4.5 km2) Ohio state park in Ashland County, Ohio, United States, about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of downtown Loudonville. The state park is surrounded by the 4,525-acre (18.31 km2) Mohican-Memorial State Forest. Mohican State Park is located along Ohio SR 3 and Ohio SR 97. The Clear Fork of the Mohican River flows through the park and joins the Black Fork about a half-mile east of the park to form the Mohican River. The park is open for year-round recreation including camping, hiking, boating, mountain biking, fishing, and picnicking. " Main reason being is that this place was a 2hour drive for both of us. Unsure of for what we might get to fish, I stopped off at a local shop and picked up a few more items. I left about 11:00am (Because Manchester United was playing and my brother was going to come, but got a call from a friend of his and decided to visit him instead) and got to the parking area of Mohican around 1:30pm. I grabbed my gear and put it in my buddy's car as he'd arrived about an hour before me and did some recon. First, we drove over to the covered bridge area as he'd read it's a good spot for fishing. When we got there, a guy was in the river wading with his fly rod. Unfortunately, the river was very high and very fast. This would be a common theme throughout the trip. So, I tied on one of the inline spinners I just bought and cast a few times - only to get it stuck in a tree branch and lost it. So, I figured this was the perfect time to pull off the Trilene and give the Nanofil I just bought a try. Unspooled the Trilene and respooled the Nanofil 8lb. First cast, casting like I always do, the d**n thing rockets off and into the trees on the OTHER side of the river. HOLY COW does that Nanofil cast far!!! I'm seriously impressed! Unfortunately, to make a long story short, I managed to lose 5 lures because I either didn't tie the knots correctly and they broke off or they just got stuck and I had to cut them loose. I lost this shad bait from this month's LTB, I lost my rattle trap, I lost at least two of those inline spinners and I lost one or two plastic worms on a swimbait hook. The park is gorgeous. According to the ODNR minimum size signage, you can catch both trout and salmon in the river. As mentioned before, the water was just too fast and we couldn't find any slow spots or pools. We walked a couple miles I'd say. At the end we drove over to the Pleasant Hill Dam to check the reservoir, but it was iced over. So we went down the spillway and checked that trail out. Worst part of that aspect of the trip was the stairs to get down there. Let me rephrase - I'm VERY happy there are stairs there, but there are 184 of them and after you've been lugging around your gear and walking for miles and not catching a thing, that's a lot of stairs to have to go up. lol So in the end, we didn't catch a thing or get hardly a bite and I lost quite a few lures. Good news is that we really liked it and will be returning in the spring, hopefully when it hasn't been raining/melting and the river levels are lower and slower.

Ended up skipping out on Akron and went to Mohican State Park to fish the Clear Fork. Reservoir was frozen over but with all the rain and melt in the area, the river was waaaaaay too fast and couldn't fish a thing.

I'm looking to try and take advantage of the unseasonably warm temps tomorrow by heading up around the Cuyahoga river in Ohio and do some fishing at their parks. Specifically Cascade Valley Metro Park - it has LMB and Rainbows (though we doubt any Trout left this time of year). http://www.summitmetroparks.org/cascade-valley-metro-park.aspx We'd also like to try our hand at some Smallmouth. What I'm hoping to get from you folks is some information on the ice levels up there - is everything iced over or are there still some spots left open to fish? And if there are, are there any SMB spots you'd suggest? Thank you and sorry for the short notice!

Can only confirm upon request for tree-fiddy.

Ran into the same problem here in Ohio. We started fishing in early August and it was just brutal all summer/fall.

Along with frost quakes you get to see these kinds of phenomena. Talk about creepy as hell to watch! Allegedly frozen ground thaws and before it can re-compact, wind blowing the tree makes it move (liquefied ground) like it's breathing.