Steelhead!

Today, Coach Miller and I headed north to the Rocky River. We were up early and on the road before 6am. After a stop at McDonalds, we were soon suited up and headed for the running waters of the Rocky.
I have to say that the Cleveland Metro Parks are incredible. As a Steeler fan, it is hard for me to find anything nice to say about Cleveland, but the parks are the best I have ever seen.
Coach and I fished the Cedar Point area of the park and I hooked up on a large white sucker that fought like a champ. Sorry, I do not take pictures of suckers! After hammering a section of riffles, we decided to head up-stream and above the crowds of fisherman. We soon found solitude and a fish.
We fished hard for several hours and found a few more suckers and sevral chubs, but a cold front seemed to shut the fish down. I would like to explore more of the upper reaches of this system during a weekday.
It was a good day spent with a good fishing buddy.

The Mad River

My buddy Mike and I needed to cure a little cabin fever. We decided to head to one of our favorite places here in Ohio, the Mad River. It was the first weekend in over a month that the temperatures were above freezing. We decided to brave the possibilities of rain and head for the river.
We arrived at the river at 11am and quickly suited up for some cold weather wading. We could have never even parked without a 4x4 vehicle. The water in winter looks very different than it does in the summer and spring.
We started off throwing nymphs and buggers. After an hour of nothing, I spotted some fish sipping midges. There were midges all over the snow and they were hatching and slow to come off of the water. The fish were very active and steadily sipping. I gave mike a size 24 Griffith's gnat and he was soon into position and casting to rising fish.
On Mike's third cast, a fish slurped up his midge and the fight was soon over. The feisty little brown was soon posing for a picture and back for another swim. It was my turn.
I tied on a 24 parachute midge and was in position for my turn at some winter dry fly fishing. After missing several takes, I soon found a Mad River brown on the end of my line. It was a great way to start the year and a great way to spend a warmer winter's day. I look forward to a return trip soon.

Hunting

It has been a long couple of weeks. Grades closed and kept me busy. I have had some highs and lows in the woods as well. Halloween night found me in a stand on one of my favorite farms. I saw 12 deer that evening and managed to shoot over the back of a very nice 10 point.Since then the deer movement on that farm has shut down. It seems that if you have hot does on your farm you are seeing bucks. My farms feel like ghost towns.
I did have a chance to finally hunt a favortie farm last night. It was great to visit with the farmer and catch up. Most farmers are good , hardworking folks and George is no exception. I will make a better effort to get back there. I saw one small buck chasing a doe, but had a great time hunting and visiting with old friends.

Class Time

I am here in my masters class completing the assignment for creating a blog. I can think of a million other things I would rather be doing, but this will all pay off in the end. I plan to actually use this thing to communicate with my friends, family and students. I hope they enjoy this more than I am right now.