# HOUSE/SMITTY REPORT: 1/17/2014 "Monster fish in a blizzard"



## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

I fish with Smitty every Friday, and "Friday happy hour" has taken on an entirely different meaning, as we usually have good luck fishing together. Now Smitty is a rare breed. How many friends do you have that will call you up wanting to go fishing in 20-degree weather with 30+ mph winds and snow, let alone doing all of that out of a kayak?!?! He's pretty hard core.

*Report*:
Weather: 35° when we started and 25° by the time we left. Winds 25-32mph NNW. Snow was heavy at times. Water temps 35°.
-I woke up at 6:30 hoping that Smitty had sent me a text to bail on me so that I could have an excuse to crawl back to bed. No such luck. 7am rolls around and I'm all loaded up, still no cancellation from Smitty. Damn it, this is really happening. I get out to the LZ and Smitty is no where to be seen. He's always there before me. I text him, "What's your ETA?". Smitty: "I'm running late"...which usually what I say to him, but for once I beat him there so I started fishing without him. Daylight was up, but with the heavy cloud cover and snow, it was still a little dark. I got into some gar right away and then I saw this on my fishfinder:







(notice the gar on the far right of the screen and the footballs on the left?)
I kept thinking to myself that there is no way these are all gar...and there's no way they are all carp or drum, so I started to pick them apart with a new Japanese blade bait with a cool willow blade on the back. I had just taken the above picture when my rod almost got ripped out of my grasp. I could tell by the run/pull/shake/run, that this was not a gar. Smiling from ear to ear, I hauled in my first good hybrid of the year, measuring in at a healthy 24 inches:








Now I broke the code and spent way to much time taking pictures and texting friends, when the correct thing to do is to catch as many of them as you can before they move or turn off, and I ended up losing sight of them. Smitty showed up and we dissected the area and got back on top of them and caught 5 more good ones. 

























Smitty caught his first big one of the year and had one heck of a battle with it:









Towards the end of our day (mostly due to the cold), I hooked into a massive fish that I fought for over 10 minutes that I was certain would have stripes. It ended up being a 40-50" gar that was hooked perfectly in the corner of its mouth, so it was able to fight just like a hybrid. Smitty said the look of disappointment on my face was priceless when I saw that it was a dumb gar. It was a respectable fight, so I took a picture and let it go to ruin some other poor fisherman's dreams someday:









The cold finally got to both of us and we had to call it even though the fish were still active. That's a hard decision to make, but neither of us could feel our toes or fingers. It was certainly the best trip out so far in 2014. As I write this report, I can't help thinking to myself that I should have gone back out there today. There's a big difference between 32° and 22° though. Especially when the weather man says it feels like 11°! We all have our limits, right? 

Until the next river adventure...

-House


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Nice fish guys! I will never understand how a 50" gar can be disappointing, but it looks like you got your stripes anyways!


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

kingofamberley said:


> Nice fish guys! I will never understand how a 50" gar can be disappointing, but it looks like you got your stripes anyways!


Those gar are expensive and they always make me bleed!!! We usually hook them in strange spots, which makes it awkward to reel them in. When we get them in the snout, they tend to thrash and roll around which damages my leader, so I spend a lot of time re-tying out in that cold weather when I could be chasing those striped fish. Believe it or not, a solid 25" hybrid puts up a better fight than a 45inch gar.

I'll post a picture of my hands after the next Kayak Wars season starts and I go out specifically after these darn things. It usually looks like I got into a fight with 100 needle-wheeling heroin addicts. Don't even get me started on the slime...


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

Those are some good looking hybrids fellas. Awesome report as well... I hope your cars didn't get completely submerged in snow in that "blizzard" haha.


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## whodeynati (Mar 12, 2012)

Sounds like a good time. I always enjoy seeing some good fish pictures this early into the year. Well done guys.


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## Smittyfisher (Dec 11, 2012)

One of the most intresting things i learned or noticed was when the front came threw and the temp started to drop so did the fish. They drop atleast 3 ft after the front.


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

Great post! That's some awesome hard core fishing right there! 
I'm with you on the gar. Of course any fish that size is fun to catch, but they are the slimiest critter in the water and wreak havoc on leaders. And very nice hybrids btw! I'll bet those piggy's put up one heck of a fight. 
Thanks for posting!


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## Smittyfisher (Dec 11, 2012)

Maybe gar is whats for dinner.
[YOUTUBE] [ame]http://youtu.be/Po2JUlQwE-o[/ame] [/YOUTUBE]


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## IGbullshark (Aug 10, 2012)

Smittyfisher said:


> Maybe gar is whats for dinner.
> [YOUTUBE] http://youtu.be/Po2JUlQwE-o [/YOUTUBE]


is it just me or did you post that 4 times? you must love that video!


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## Smittyfisher (Dec 11, 2012)

I have no idea how i did that but here are a few more recipes so rob can make us some gar.
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/s...d=10051&langId=-1&mode=article&objectID=28945


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Great report and photos! Very hardcore. Today I was out not catching a saugeye and here comes this guy in waders and wades out mid thigh in the river! Couldn't decide if he was hardcore or just plain nuts.


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## BMayhall (Jun 9, 2011)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Great report and photos! Very hardcore. Today I was out not catching a saugeye and here comes this guy in waders and wades out mid thigh in the river! Couldn't decide if he was hardcore or just plain nuts.


Was that out in Hamilton? As I was walking back up the GMR river I saw a guy that looked to be wading mid thigh right by the dam. I was down river only snagged a couple smallmouth buffalo, no saugers or saugeyes.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

BMayhall said:


> Was that out in Hamilton? As I was walking back up the GMR river I saw a guy that looked to be wading mid thigh right by the dam. I was down river only snagged a couple smallmouth buffalo, no saugers or saugeyes.


I think he was hitting several spots on the river. I sent ya a pm


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Awesome report. We were out saturday......dinkfest. 

When did you get a new yak?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

[/QUOTE] I agree with KoA on gar. Musky are considered a worthy adversary, but the gar gets bottom of the ticket?[/QUOTE]

Gar are fun to catch but are in the carp category in my book. Probably because where we used to fish for them in the Musc. River there were literally thousands of them everywhere you looked in all sizes up to 4 ft long. After catching so many the novelty wore off pretty quick with me. They are a real pain due to how bad they shred line and are the slimiest fish I have ever handled. They also are experts at stealing live bait. I would much rather have the fight that stripers, carp, cats, SM, etc put up than gar. It's like reeling in a big snake or eel.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

I bet if you caught that big gar in the summer, the fight would have been double what you had, I love when the tailwalk and always can count on a last second run when they see you reaching for the snout often about bending he rod down and under you about breaking the rod... Not sure where the disrespect comes from...??? These are every bit as fighting as any muskie or pike Ive ever caught. They are a blast to sight fish to with the fly rod and I look forward to gulping gar in the summer months in a big slow pool..... Great catch BTW!! 

Salmonid


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

Nice feesh guys!!
I catch tons of gar in the GMR from Hamilton on down but they&#8217;re never as fat as the ones in the Ohio. I enjoy catching them; sometimes they fight harder than others but you can always count on them going berserk at the end. I can see not wanting to bring one into a kayak though.


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## Nubes (Dec 3, 2012)

Another awesome trip! As soon as my new knee heals up a little better Im going to skip work on a Friday and meet up with you guys hopefully?? House, you should have seen some of the weather we used to ride bikes in! on a couple of occasions the air was almost too cold to breathe! Smitty has no limits!!!!!!!!!!! lol


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## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

Well done fellas, you guys earned those fish for sure. I think I'll pass on the gar recipes but thanks anyway.


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

Nubes said:


> Another awesome trip! As soon as my new knee heals up a little better Im going to skip work on a Friday and meet up with you guys hopefully?? House, you should have seen some of the weather we used to ride bikes in! on a couple of occasions the air was almost too cold to breathe! Smitty has no limits!!!!!!!!!!! lol


Good luck on a speedy recovery, Nubester! I can only imagine what kind of trouble the two of you will get me into once you are back on your feet. Smitty already nearly got me lost 4 hours deep in the woods on that kayaking exploration fiasco. The three of us will probably end up on the Mississippi or something...


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## Nubes (Dec 3, 2012)

HOUSE said:


> Good luck on a speedy recovery, Nubester! I can only imagine what kind of trouble the two of you will get me into once you are back on your feet. Smitty already nearly got me lost 4 hours deep in the woods on that kayaking exploration fiasco. The three of us will probably end up on the Mississippi or something...


LOL No doubt!! I look forward to the upcoming adventures!!


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