# A hot-spotless report



## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

I don't post as much in the SE forum, most of my fish pics end up in the fly fishing forum but I thought this deserved a location-free report. A friend and I hit a stretch of small water we had not fished in at least two years last weekend. This type of fishing isn't for the faint of heart. You're going to hike through brush and saplings, sink in the mud sometimes, and probably slip and fall on slick banks more than once. It takes a lot of effort to reach the best fishing, and fortunately most people don't put forth that effort. On the day, we caught a total of 8 different species: largemouth and spotted bass, rock bass, crappie, bluegill, longear and green sunfish, and warmouth. We also saw, but did not catch, drum, carp, and channel catfish. A double-digit species day is possible there, which is pretty cool. 

I fished more than 80% of the day with one fly, a size 6 purple HD Craw that I tie. The rod I fished was the 9' 4wt that I custom built (first one) earlier this summer. I built it specifically for crappie and small stream bass, so this day was a good test for it. 










The day started off slow, with some average spots and plenty of bluegill and sunfish. The larger bass didn't want to play ball with us early on.




























My buddy busted through with a really solid fish closer to noon. I watched him cast into a small, deep hole under a log a half dozen times and was shocked that nothing took his white bugger. I barely walked 10' away and I hear "BIG FISH!" I netted this beast for him, probably the biggest bass I have seen come from this trickle.










We barely moved downstream after that pig, and I spotted a big fish slowly swimming across the stream towards us. My buddy was standing in the only casting lane, so he put his fly in front of it. The bass turned hard on it, but a bluegill swiped the fly from the bass. That bass was all jazzed up after that, swimming around all aggressively. I was told to get in there and get him. The fish dropped below the log behind me below, I tossed the craw in to him, thought he took but set the hook and missed. Then, it swam back under the log right to us. I put the craw 5' in front and just let it sink, boom.










Later on, I picked up the crappie and warmouth. The black-nose crappie (racing stripe up the back) and warmouth were both firsts for me in 2020.



















The last real deep run we found produced a solid 15 1/2" Fish Ohio spot. It was sight fished on the craw. I love watching those fish suck in that craw on the drop. He was a gorgeous spot, too.



















There's a reason we always wear some sort of long pants, even in the dead of summer, for wading a stream like this. It's amazing how they save your legs from all the crap we're walking through. Maybe long sleeves would be a good idea, too. We both got out of there looking like we wrangled 2 dozen barn cats by hand.










Don't be afraid to get out there and explore. This stretch of water we found by researching with Google Earth years ago. Find places where you can get away from roads and easy access and you could find a gem. And when you do, the last thing you should do is name the place online.


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## Shad Rap (Nov 10, 2010)

2 real nice stream largemouths...won't do much better than that.


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## Hatchetman (Apr 13, 2004)

OK, what county were you in, what are the GPS coordinates, where did you park and is there room enough for four people, our coolers and a camp fire??  You better keep that place to yourself, beautiful fish and a nice looking stream....


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## Specwar (Sep 22, 2014)

Water is awfully clear for an Ohio stream.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Hatchetman said:


> OK, what county were you in, what are the GPS coordinates, where did you park and is there room enough for four people, our coolers and a camp fire??  You better keep that place to yourself, beautiful fish and a nice looking stream....


Lake Erie Crick.


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## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

I have had similar days on the Rocky but never a largemouth that big. Though I have spotted them in the river, they are there on many of the rivers to LE I bet.
Rickerd


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## Karl Wolf (Apr 26, 2020)

What a wonderful haven you have! I definitely wouldn't share that location. 
Those fish have some amazing colors, especially the longear. I've never caught one of those and its simply a gorgeous specimen. Thanks for sharing this post.


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## 40xmax (Jun 10, 2018)

beautiful!!!outstanding!!! and that's how ya do it..


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## RiverWader (Apr 1, 2006)

Congratulations


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