Columbus OH Trip

[jsalkas]

Made a trip down to Columbus to visit the In-laws and do a little fishing (actually, a lot of fishing). Hit the Big Darby twice, first from a kayak rented from Trapper John's, and then wading with a friend from the Ohio Game Fishing board (wish you could have made it, Mike). Controlling the kayak and casting in moving water was much more difficult than I thought, combined with some high, colored water downstream of the confluence meant I got skunked. The wade trip went much better, I got a nice 2+ lber on a chartreuse woolly-twister pattern (don't know the official name), and kept getting bumps, and finally cut the tail off and started hooking/landing some dinks. Beautiful water. Ran across some biologists doing some seining, and they were picking up a nice variety of nymphs in the riffles and water willows (the willows were nice and thick, great looking habitat for the smaller critters). Was told there was a good stonefly hatch in June I'll have to check out next year. Once again, I didn't make it very far upstream, I always get stuck fishing the same water (it just looks so good, and I always get my fill).

The Olentangy just upstream of 161 was pretty dead until sunset, and then a very nice mayfly hatch came off (the number of bugs in that water always amazes me, I think the silt we're not too fond of provides some good habitat for some species), and I proceeded to get a few 6-8" on a black woolly bugger. Also got the crap scared out of me again by those darn carp that go ballistic when you get within 5 feet of them (they weren't shallow enough for me to fish for this trip).

I then hit Alum Lake for some panfish, promised the family a fish dinner. Big mistake, promising dinner from a body of water you haven't fished before. The spots I fished looked like they got pounded pretty good, and the gills were very picky and not too numerous. They ignored several nymphs (even tried a copper jon because they were hitting so lightly), and only took PH and Hare's Ears reluctantly. I had one nice 14" or so bass on for a while (put a nice bend in the 2 wt), but he came off. So I need to find some still water that has a decent population of panfish next time.

Anyway, all in all, some good time on some nice water, and then a little too much time on a marginal lake.

[ohiotuber]

Jeff,
The move takes place tomorrow (finally!). The kids have almost all boxes moved in already, so it will go pretty smoothly.
Things look a lot better for us to fish when you get back. Maybe you can get up this way for a day & I'll take you to a pond that we have dubbed "The Bass Factory".
Sounds like you did fairly well. Funny you mention Alum Creek. In 1970, prior to impoundment, I fished Alum Creek north of Westerville with a friend & we caught some HUGE gills by an old steel bridge which I understand may still be there. Wish I had that puppy on a GPS!
Keep in touch...we'll get out soon.
Mike

[jsalkas]

Glad to hear things are finally moving; I'm sure there won't be any handshaking with the previous owner.

Thanks for the invite, I'll take you up on that.

Yeah, Alum was nice and big, so I'm sure there are a lot of unharassed fish but I didn't get to explore it. If I wasn't meat fishing, I might have checked it out below the dam. I need to start looking into some of these other waterways (Deer Creek, Scioto, Big Walnut, etc.)