Grand River (Island Nation of Ohio)

[Joe Valencic]

One of the hens I picked up. My buddy was too far away to take a picture with me holding the fish.



By buddy, Laszlo (aka Noodlebagger), fighting one of the dozens of fish he got into yesterday.



One of Laszlo's fish so his wife knew we were fishing and not in the joint sucking down beers (not that we would ever do anything like that. )



Need I say more? The Grand is fishing very well. My friend & I spanked them yesterday in the fast water using pink & oregon cheese egg patterns, with some split shot to get them on the bottom. Used classic nymphing techniques, as well as the Czech nymphing techniques that I read about several years ago...short line...bounce the bottom...move teh bait slightly faster than the water flow...BANG! Start fighting the fish that is sitting at the bottom of the run right in front of your feet. I almost S_ _T my pants at how many times that worked yesterday.

FYI, every landed fish had the fly in the corner of the mouth. We were not lining or flossing or whatever the blue bloods call it. We were using techniques that make the fish actually chase the fly and eat it. We worked large pods of fish where there was an active spawning pair and subordinate males laying behind them, gorging on eggs. Most fish caught were males, but we did bring in a few hens from the deep slots where we could not see the fish. At all costs we left the spawning pair to their business at hand, and we were rewarded with many fish.