When You're Given Lemons...

...make the best lemonade you can make.  Late last week, one of my fishing buddies called and wanted to run across Ohio to the Mad River on Saturday.  It was an impromptu sort of trip, but the water levels and weather looked pretty good, so we made the trip.  I had several sculpin patterns I had tied specifically for the Mad that I wanted to test, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do just that.  We met at 5AM and managed to be parked by the river as the sun came up.

The fishing started off, and remained, pretty slow for most of the day.  Air temperatures were about on par with what they were the last time we were there in late December, the water clarity was good, the flow was good, the fish were simply not cooperating.  Late into the first stretch of river we fished, I finally stuck a fish on an articulated sculpin, but it turned out to be a large chub.

As we walked back to the truck to head into town and grab lunch, we both remarked about how chilly the water felt that morning.  That would become a critical factor that was overlooked on this trip that I will touch on later.  We stowed our gear, and headed for our standard lunch time joint in the area: Hot Heads Burritos.

Hunger satisfied, we took off for another stretch of water I had never fished before and my buddy had not fished in years.  This section of river was a little bigger, had more cover, and just looked great.  However, the fishing remained very slow.  All I managed to catch were more chubs.  Normally I would look at these catches like a nuisance, but when the fishing is slow, any bend in the rod from a fish is a good bend.  

By the end of the afternoon, between the two of us we managed just one trout (an 8-9" brown my friend caught) and nearly double figures in these chubs.  Apparently they like to eat sculpins, too!  On the ride home, I got an interesting tidbit of information that explained why the trout were not so active.  Remember I mentioned the water was a bit chillier than expected?  Well, the day before we arrived, between 2-3" of snow in the area had melted.  This influx of cold, melted snow water was likely the culprit that made the trout so inactive.  We fished a lot of water that we know held trout, with only one caught and practically no short strikes or bumps like we typically get from smaller fish harassing streamers.  Most don't think of Ohio as a large state, but the weather can differ greatly from one side to the other.  In southeast Ohio, we haven't had snow on the ground in quite a while.  They had snow on the ground the day before we arrived, and we had very little chance of knowing.  It was still a good day on the water, exploring a new stretch and having enough bends from the chubs to keep the focus on the water.  We'll head back next time with better knowledge of a great stretch of water and hopefully it will pay off.