# Hybrids do not exist...



## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

...outside of my mind, where I'm constantly figuring out the next combination of fluorescent feathers, flash & fur that will tempt them into biting. 

Temperatures are dropping, bait fish are making their way up the tributaries en masse... the fish are on one day, off the next with the huge swings of hot & cold from day to night... 

Nature tells the fish through sunlight & water temperature when it's time to begin feeding heavily, preparing for the long winter ahead. It's wild to see millions of shad one day, only to return the next and there be absolutely no activity at all. 

Fellow OGF compadre Dustin, aka nitsud decided to join me on a journey through neck deep poison ivy, sewer runoff & whiskey soaked bums to get to one of my favorite runs of water...

His weapon of choice, a cast net, light to medium spinning tackle & a bucket for the handful of enthusiastic gizzard shad, who had no idea the fate they were about to meet... 

I'm the fly guy, nothin' new here... 5 & 9 weight in hand, chartreuse over chartreuse fly, with a little chartreuse mixed in for good measure. 

We both pulled into the parking lot at the same time, remarked on our punctuality & trekked to the riffle to find it abandoned, lonely... bubbling with line sided beasts devouring the small shad as they porpoised out of the water. 

Dustin made his way down to catch bait as I set up the video camera to try & capture a topwater strike so I could watch it in slow motion later. 

Water clarity was a cloudy turquoise, the brown tea stain of marinating leaves gone with the last rain. What little rain we received raised the levels 3-4", just enough to freshen the stagnant pools & cloud the river with sediment for the next week or two. 

My watch gave me a dry 79 degrees, moon phase was new, a slight fall to the barometric reading of 29.55 inHg.

The time was 6:45 when my partner in crime began casting the shad into the current, letting it wash down & swim towards the bottom to seek refuge. I was working the river about 30 yards upstream from him when I heard the tell-tale Fish On! war cry & saw his rod begin to bend up. 

Typically I begin my journey downstream at this point to tend to the photo shoot & assist with landing if necessary, but tonight I wanted to go for the rare double. I could tell Dustin's fish was a good one so I knew the fight would not end quickly. I let out another 10' of the buoyant green fly line, swimming my offering in & out of the churning eddie just in front of where his fish had buried itself in one of its runs... first a small swirl..I eased back on the rod to see if it was a take...


BoOM. The huge toilet bowl flush that engulfed my fly left nothing to the imagination as the large fish realized his error, wasting no time kickin' it into high gear & headin' for the big water... 
I held the rod tight in one hand as I operated the video camera in the other... capturing only about 15 seconds of my reel spinning furiously as line was pulled out... Realizing one hand was not going to land the fish, I turned the camera off & began working the bull down the shoreline to Dustin's position.

I gave him the heads up to keep his fish in the bubbling, oxygenated water as I retrieved my trophy & brought it back to compare... 

We entered the winner's circle with a pair of 8 lb line sides, the only two of the night... caught at the same time with two drastically different techniques & gear. 


Pretty sweet.


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## QueticoMike (Sep 25, 2008)

Good story, nice fish!!!


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

Good lunch time adventure reading material. Picture did not come up though. It may be that pesky school restriction program again. Good going guys!


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

The pic is hot linked from Facebook, which most schools block.


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

A boring evening then 

Smallmouth are my brand for sure but, I can appreciate the sport of any catch in the water. W/Scott & Mike up north reeling in toothed beauties close to home and you fighting white monsters a little farther down south, I can't help but put myself in all of these senarios and wish it were me. 

With such diversity close to home one can't be faulted for wanting to experience some of the varied adventures Ohio's rivers have to offer. 

Life's full of routine but, until time allows me to break free from it, I'll settle for just a sampling of what's out there.

Thanks for taking the time to post a good literary depiction of your catch, a good enough read to put myself in your place for but a moment.

Congrats on a successful night on the water, fish on . . .


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## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

It was a good night. It's pretty amazing how quickly the bite turns on and off.

Great thanks to fallen, the flying wiper ninja


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## Buzzin (Jun 22, 2010)

Awesome double and some nice fish!


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## H.I.McDunnough (Sep 24, 2010)

I hate you both, and those beautiful fish you landed... 



Great catches!


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## longhaulpointer (Mar 12, 2009)

you should write for f&s or some other fishin type mag. You make your words sound real perty i enjoyed the report, nice fish.


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## Topwater Tony (Sep 30, 2009)

i wanna catch one of those!
great catch, story, and pic!


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## weecraw (Mar 24, 2008)

Nice fish guy's. I got one of those big boys on mon morn on my 6wt w/2x tippet and you guessed it chartreuse and white clouser. good luck and tight lines! wee craw


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## flintlock (May 30, 2006)

BOOOOOM!! Way to go!


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## mrfishohio (Apr 5, 2004)

I used to love to fish hybrids in the Ohio River below Meldahl. It's been a few years, and now that's no longer an option. Nice to see someone still can catch a few even if I can't. I was trying to figure your spot from the description. Interesting. I have a few in mind, but probably neither.


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## Fish G3 (Jul 16, 2008)

Nice fish guys!


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## Bronzeback60 (May 20, 2009)

Don't give your spot away but were you on the LMR?

When you find aspot like the 1 you are describing you want to keep it to yourself.

LMR use to be well known for the non existed hybrid.

Would love to know if they are still using LMR to fatten up because I have a few old spots to try.


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## 99tries (Aug 1, 2010)

Damn, those are nice fish! That's pretty much all I've got...


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Thanks. 

Been back a few times, both morning & night & have caught nothing. The wily hybrid strikes again.


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## bsmith (Mar 26, 2010)

I had one on lastnight. About 20 minutes before dusk, it hit a 4" chartreuse and white clouser. I had cast it upstream, the fly must have landed on his head because my line didn't move hardly at all when it hit the water. I set the hook and the fish immediately realized what happened and took off like a bullet downstream. It was so fast that I couldn't even come close to stripping line fast enough to keep up with it. I did catch a glimpse of it though as it screamed past. The line eventually came tight through a combination of it's massive run and my futile attempts to strip line in. I finally felt its weight again letting the fly line slip through my fingers a little to reduce the risk of it breaking off with a sudden shock to the line. After a few seconds I felt it go slack. The surgeons knot holding my leader to my tippet failed and he was gone.

It was only about 10" long, I was pretty disappointed though, I hate losing fish because I've tied a bad knot. When I introduce people to fishing I always make sure that they realize that knots are often the most neglected and most important variable in the equation. You can do everything else right and lose every fish you hook if you tie bad knots. Case and point.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Struck out last night & again this morning.


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## 99tries (Aug 1, 2010)

I read your post the other day and later on it occurred to me: isn't a 5-weight kind of wimpy and a 9-weight a little heavy for these dudes? Which do you favor? I could see the 5-weight being a heck of a challenge to fight a decent wiper, to say nothing of casting a big-ass weighted Clouser. I use a 6-weight (cheap Bass Pro) rod for streamer fishing and I've laughed as my right wrist is shot from exhaustion after the tug-of-war when I'm fortunate enough to hook a good one! I enjoy reading your posts and love (and hate) your pictures. I was just a little curious if your choice of gear is by design or, like me, just what you've got.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

99tries said:


> I read your post the other day and later on it occurred to me: isn't a 5-weight kind of wimpy and a 9-weight a little heavy for these dudes? Which do you favor? I could see the 5-weight being a heck of a challenge to fight a decent wiper, to say nothing of casting a big-ass weighted Clouser. I use a 6-weight (cheap Bass Pro) rod for streamer fishing and I've laughed as my right wrist is shot from exhaustion after the tug-of-war when I'm fortunate enough to hook a good one! I enjoy reading your posts and love (and hate) your pictures. I was just a little curious if your choice of gear is by design or, like me, just what you've got.



My Thomas & Thomas 9 weight is a saltwater model & is 9' 6"... and absolutely doubles over on 5+ lb fish. I'm smiling just writing about it. I use an Abel Super 8 on it & adjust the cork drag so the fish puts a lot of pressure into the rod right away. With the 5 weight, I use less drag pressure & more rod to stop the fish. 

On the 8-10 lbrs, I may need to hoist the fish out of the depths instead of fight him to death. I've had one fish that I just could not turn around with my 10' 7 weight. 

The T&T is tits..fast action but also bends to the cork....so a 3 or 4 lb smallie that's in the "mood" will also work it out. 


If I get into a wolf pack of 2 & 3 lb fish, I'll be throwing the 5 weight Winston using a 7' mono furled leader courtesy of RonT & a 3' section of extra thin diameter 25 lb. tippet. I may put some 2x on the tippet for fun but prefer having the ability to stop the hard charging bulls if I so choose.  

The smaller tippet also helps smaller flies sink faster. On the 5 weight I only throw smaller, lighter clousers & deceivers...maybe size 2?

On the 9 I can throw 10" 4/0 deceivers...

9 lb fish on the 5 weight, second time it was caught, first time it was 7 lbs a couple months prior.  










So in closing, basically I'm just nuts & carry around a bunch of gear.


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## 99tries (Aug 1, 2010)

That's quite the arsenal you've got. It's nice to know that some of the people with top-dollar gear are using it for what it's designed for. I appreciate the details. Thanks - and I'd say 'good luck' but methinks you are the type who makes their own luck!! See you on the water sometime, maybe.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

99tries said:


> That's quite the arsenal you've got. It's nice to know that some of the people with top-dollar gear are using it for what it's designed for. I appreciate the details. Thanks - and I'd say 'good luck' but methinks you are the type who makes their own luck!! See you on the water sometime, maybe.


I'd hate to fill the stereotype that flyfishing is only for rich people. Trust me when I say, I ain't rich! And while my gear is definitely high dollar, I didn't pay high dollar for it!!!! Ebay baby!!! Literally all of it has been bought @ 30-40% of retail or less. 

Thanks for the good luck wishes, I need it right now. I've spent an unimaginable amount of time on the water in the last couple weeks with nothing to show for it.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Ill also agree with Fallen that just because my equipment is also top dollar, Thomas and Thomas, Sage, Orvis, etc. that I also have never paid full pop for any of my nicest stuff, through bartering, ebay/Craigs List, Guide programs and pro staff deals I have aquired a dozen top notch outfits for a lifetimes worth of use! Deals are everywhere if your at the right place at the right time....Now someone get some nice hybrids and show them off so we can move onto more important things..LOL

Salmonid


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

3.5 lb bronze bruiser this morning. Still no hybrids. Smallies were on fire though.


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## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

Nice fat belly on that one! I hope the hybrids start hitting again soon.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

One had his war paint on...



















Real pig...


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## Buzzin (Jun 22, 2010)

Nice smallies! Last picture is awesome!


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

fallen513,

I know your target is the stripped beasts so, just send those big bronzers my way please! 

Really though, good looking fish. *Cool pix too! * I've been meaning to take some macro photos like that. It really does show off the war paint indeed.


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