Well, now that I reside in Ohio, some of my DNR updates will be geographically different than in years past. I’ll still update western hunts from time to time because the West is, well…the West, but Ohio is now home and Alabama is past tense.

With that being said, Ohio’s controlled hunts are open for application now through July 31st. Youth, adult, and handicapped hunts for deer and waterfowl are posted and applications are a dirt cheap $3 apiece. Seriously, $3. Beats mailing in a stack of Benjamins for a mule deer, elk, or bighorn sheep tag. Well, that might not be true either, but bottom line is that for $3 apply for them all every year, why not?

Stumbled onto this great blog about a month ago when trying to dig up research on a local stretch of water that I was thinking of targeting for smallmouths. ESB Fishing stands for “eat, sleep, breathe” and that’s a good description of this group’s attitude towards the pursuit of fish. Maybe I like this blog because it’s a lot like mine – a few tips, a few news bits, a good chunk of personal views on gear and strategies, and most of all dominated by “in the field” experiences. The lead author on the blog is always mentioning work, but considering how often him and his posse hit the water, I think he might be lying about that part of things. Regardless of whether or not he is a liar (joking, of course…), this is the best blog I’ve come across in a while and with their unique style of fishing, I’m sure you’ll be intrigued as well. Lots of content, so dig around and see what you can find. ESBFishing - check it out! Here’s an assortment of pictures to whet your appetite.

Buddy just sent me picture of the nicest smallmouth we caught on yesterday’s float.

Took another trip down the same creek as the one Kara and I fished last week, but a section up…only 3.4 miles long this time. That being said, buddy and I took our time fishing this stretch more thoroughly. We waded around the 3 sets of runs/riffles in the stretch and back-paddled a lot around the 4 different sets of bridge pilings and any other structure or depths that looked especially attractive. Along with a smattering of runt spotted bass, rock bass, and pesky sunfish, we landed 10 smallmouth bass with the largest being 15″. Also, I caught my first ever saugeye – this 15.5″ specimen. Just a gorgeous fish and I was surprised at the spirited fight he gave.

He took a chartreuse 1/8 ounce jighead with white grub while the rest of the fish bit Zoom Baby Brush Hogs, 5″ Zoom flukes, and 4″ bass assassins. Bite was never super hot, but never got terribly stagnant either. Saw a few 17-18″ fish that we couldn’t convince to bite and missed another 3 or 4 in the 12-15″ range on top of what we caught.

Oh yea, also carried the fly rod and broke it out at the last deep run to catch my first smallmouth on a fly rod – used a crawfish imitator tied by Mad River Outfitters here in town. Anyways, good trip and nice to take advantage of the awesome weather we’ve been having.

Took Kara on a 7 mile float a couple days ago. Did the whole shuttle with the bike thing only to get back to the parking lot after a 4 hour float and find my bike disassembled and riding away in the bungee-corded trunk of a stranger’s white 2 door hatchback. Took off after them, but there was 2 cars involved. 1 with the bike in the lead with a trailer that I suppose was keeping watch. The car in back slowed down in the road and kept us from getting close enough to jot down the license plates off the hatchback, but I got the other car’s plate and filed a police report. Sucks, but oh well…kind of glad I wasn’t 5 minutes earlier or there would have a confrontation to put it politely. Maybe we’ll hear back that they caught the scumbags – one can hope!

Anyways, the fishing was great. I’ve caught a precious few smallmouth in my life (when I mean a few, I mean literally a few) all coming from northwest Pennsylvania in my early teenage days. Excited to start the float season here in Ohio and start capitalizing on all the available fisheries around here. We were floating at Mach 5 because Kara’s parents are in town (thanks again!) and we didn’t want to push our luck with the volunteer babysitters. Only stopping to cast at the prime runs, holes, rocks, and logjams, we landed about 8 bass – filleted three 13″-14″ spotted bass, catch and release everything else.

Our only double featured Kara’s first ever and largest smallie of the trip – 18.5″. She threw a weedless weightless 6″ Senko the whole time while I fished a 5″ white Zoom fluke rigged the same way. Tried to weed out most of the little fish and it worked pretty well throwing a bit larger baits than the customary tube or twister tail. No bonus fish other than a couple pesky rock bass attacking lures bigger than they were.

What a great trip though for my first central Ohio float trip! Can’t wait to try that spot again along with a bunch more I’ve got scribbled down a map.