# My first Fish Ohio on the fly



## RebelWithACause122 (Mar 29, 2011)

I'll admit, I relatively new to fly fishing and don't do it all that often. I have been getting out occasionally to practice my casting and finally feel myself getting pretty good at it. Yesterday, I went to my uncle's farm pond for an hour and a half in the evening. I was planning on fishing for bass, and had 4 spinning rods and a big tackle bag with me... and I tossed in my fly rod at the last minute to get a little practice. When I got to the pond, I saw quite a bit of commotion in the shallow area, and thought I'd start by seeing if any of those spawning bluegills would take the epoxy minnow fly (my favorite for crappie, but it will catch just about anything that swims). On my first cast, the fly was in the water for 3 seconds before getting slammed... pulled in an 8 and 1/2 inch bluegill, and a nice little fight on the flyrod. Second cast also resulted in a hookup, and I said to myself "this one is smaller"... but it turned out to be a 12" bass. Anyway, I continued throwing that epoxy minnow fly, and kept catching good sized sunfish, bluegills and pumpkinseeds... and an occasional small bass. I got 6 of them over 9 inches, including this pig in the photo... 9.75 inches long and an impressive girth. Didn't quite hit my goal of a 10" sunfish on fly rod, but what a blast. Before I knew it, the sun had set, my time was up... and I had never picked up a spinning reel, never changed to a different fly, and never even moved from that one spot. Being a bass fisherman, I had grown accustomed to hauling lots of gear and changing lures and tactics to find what was working. But this was so simple... one rod, one fly, one retrieve (short, fast strips, little to no pauses)... and so much fun. I almost felt silly for hauling all that bass gear with me.


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## RebelWithACause122 (Mar 29, 2011)

By the way, with the sun setting behind me, and fighting these fish in 6 inches of water, their brilliant coloration appeared luminous. It was just too cool. And I know the photo isn't too good (just taken with my cell phone) but if you look closely at the handle of the fly rod, you can see the epoxy minnow fly I was using, in a rainbow trout color... by this time, almost all of the tail feathers had been pulled out, but it was still catching fish like crazy.


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## fishmerf (Mar 28, 2008)

I think that blue gills and fly rods were made for eachother. Great fish!


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## jhammer (Jun 13, 2011)

Congrats on the Fish Ohio! When the gills get that big, you think you've hooked into a 4lb bass sometimes! Nice catch!


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## toobnoob (Jun 1, 2010)

Congrats! I love evenings like that. The only time I pick up my spinning gear anymore is trolling in my kayak or fishing down past 10-12'. I love being able to just pick up the fly rod, one small fly box and a spool of tippet and go stomp around for a couple hours, so much easier then lugging around a tackle bag and spinning gear.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

fishmerf said:


> I think that blue gills and fly rods were made for eachother. Great fish!


X2.

Nice fish! The first of *many* FO's with the fly gear, right?


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## RebelWithACause122 (Mar 29, 2011)

toobnoob said:


> The only time I pick up my spinning gear anymore is trolling in my kayak or fishing down past 10-12'.


Funny you should mention that, trolling from my kayak takes up a vast majority of my fishing time these days... and accounted for 90% of the fish that I kept for the table in the past year. I just got into kayak fishing a year ago, and found that trolling crankbaits is the most consistent way to catch good size crappie in the warm summer months (and it's great exercise... having an office job made me pretty soft in 5 years... now I'm working on reversing that). However, I have a feeling I'm going to start catching more dinners on the fly!


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## RebelWithACause122 (Mar 29, 2011)

TheCream said:


> Nice fish! The first of *many* FO's with the fly gear, right?


I hope so... I should see how many different species of Fish Ohio sized fish I can catch... although I still don't know what could prepare me for a FO steelhead on the fly rod. So far, I've not gone steelheading with the fly rod, but I will... hopefully this fall. I did catch a stocked trout on my fly rod at a local lake... it was about 12 inches long and cleared the water 5 times... makes me think that I'll REALLY have my hands full if I'm ever lucky enough to hook into a Fish Ohio steelie.


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## wabi (Jun 14, 2008)

Congratulations!!!!

Love those 'gills on the fly rod for an entertaining evening.


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## Bwana J (Sep 12, 2010)

RebelWithACause122 said:


> I hope so... I should see how many different species of Fish Ohio sized fish I can catch... although I still don't know what could prepare me for a FO steelhead on the fly rod. So far, I've not gone steelheading with the fly rod, but I will... hopefully this fall. I did catch a stocked trout on my fly rod at a local lake... it was about 12 inches long and cleared the water 5 times... makes me think that I'll REALLY have my hands full if I'm ever lucky enough to hook into a Fish Ohio steelie.


I don't think theres any way to be prepared for your first FO Steelie on the fly. Its kinda like hooking a freight train, they're a fantastic fish. I've been catching steelies on a flyrod for over 20 years and I won't quit doin it until I'm 6 ft under ground. You might also want to hit the Erie tribs for Lake run Smallies during the spawning run. Hooking into a 6 or 7 lb smallie on the flyrod will be a battle you won't soon forget.....


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## Bass Assasin Slaton (May 22, 2011)

that pumpkin is huge...

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