# House Report: 3/1/2014: "21 Frigid Trips..."



## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

I don't even know where to begin a report like this...I'm actually just getting home from an amazing fishing trip and I'm at a loss for words for where to begin so I guess I'll just start with a picture to grab your attention:

Meet "Fatty McFatsacks", a huge 10.2 pound, 27+ inch pig:
















...and she had friends.

*REPORT*
*21 frigid trips...*
That's how many it's been. I have a dry-erase board in my office and every time I've gone out this winter and struggled, I've increased that number on the board to remind myself just how hard fishing has been this winter. 
Fishing this weekend started out looking to bring a gloomy "22" for the board. I had gone fishing with Smitty on Friday and we couldn't find anywhere to launch our kayaks due to this latest round of lame snow and frozen water. We finally found a place to fish and spent 7 hours getting skunked. We made vague plans to meet up the following day, but I wasn't sure it was a definite thing so I sent him a text late Friday night asking him if we were still on for Saturday. -No answer. I sent him another text around 7am...no answer. By 7:30am I just said screw it, and went back to bed. I couldn't sleep though, knowing that Saturday was going to be the last nice warm day for a while, so I begrudgingly packed up my gear, planning to head out on a lonely solo trip chasing fish that have eluded me all winter long.
I drove out to the spot Smitty and I had talked about fishing together, and to my surprise, Smitty was already there packing up his kayak after fishing for 4 hours without me! I believe my words were an unedited version of: "You son of a gun! How long have you been here?!?" To which Smitty replied that he had been here since daybreak like we had planned and that he had not received any of my messages. Apparently his cell phone is crap, but his word is gold, and if Smitty says he's going to be somewhere, he'll be there. I'm not used to this, as most of the time I have to twist my friends' arms multiple times to go out in the cold, so I must apologize to Smitty for missing trip. Point noted, now onto the fish...

Smitty's fishing forecast was less than optimistic. He had reported marking mostly gar and garbage fish, and said that he landed quite a few of them but caught no stripes. That always makes me sad, but I rigged up my kayak anyways and went straight to where I thought the fish "should" be... and they were there. Sometimes the fishing gods smile and align a lot of conditions in our favor. On this particular trip, the river levels and wind were stacking fish up in a small 20yard stretch of water, exposed to sunlight due to some construction and fallen trees, and further congested by the most perfectly placed fallen tree that was blocking the current in this tiny stretch of river. I must have done something nice that week, because I couldn't have asked for anything more. First drift:








...and suddenly the cold and quiet didn't matter any more.

I was using two different techniques that day, and it was interesting to note that the fish really didn't want a slow/dead-sticked bait like on most previous winter trips. They also didn't want a blade bait which is my usual winter standard. They wanted big lures at a precise depth, and they wanted them moving...so I gave them just that. 3inch lures? 4 inch lures? Why not 6 inch lures? I threw the biggest lures I had in my tackle boxes at them and the bigger the lure, the bigger the fish. At first, I was landing fish in the 18-20 inch slot:








I'd ask every one of them where the heck they have been hiding all winter, but most of them just splashed water at me on their way down to their friends. Some of them just gave me a blank stare, probably thinking I'm insane for being out on the water in such conditions:









I didn't waste much time after I got the hybrids dialed in, and they got bigger very quickly with three nice fish landed in short succession:








As the day progressed, I started refining my technique a bit and started getting into 20+ inch fish pretty consistently:









For a while, I lost sight that it was March and water temperatures were still in the low-30's until it started to get dark, and then the cold set in. I was running out of daylight, so I fished as hard and as fast as I could, hoping to land as many big fish as possible before dark, and in the process, I started losing some really big fish. The fish had moved closer to some submerged trees, so I was trying to horse a few of them in that I probably should have worn out first, and two of them straightened my hooks out and another actually broke off a 20pound fluoro leader. I ended up losing about 5 good fish, but I was able to land a few more big ones before I decided to paddle home. 

I hooked into Fatty McFatsacks around 5:30pm drifting a large lure over what appeared to be a pile of gar. My rod slowly started bending in half and I gave it a hard pull thinking I had snagged a gar. The line didn't budge. I paddled over the top of it and gave it a few more pulls and was convinced I was snagged. I actually grabbed my line with my hand and gave it a huge tug and that's when the "snag" got mad. It ran off downstream and started thrashing about unlike any other fish I've fought this year. It pulled me around for 10 minutes and had me convinced it was a foul-hooked gar until I finally got a glimpse of it near the surface. "HOLY #%@#%" ...no one around to hear me, so I said it again...and then things got serious. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about, when you are casually fighting a fish and then realize that it is a monster, and suddenly your mind starts racing..."is my drag too tight?"..."do I have strong enough line?"..."did I check my leader?"..."did I just soil my pants?" With my mind racing and my kayak spinning in circles, the battle raged on until finally I wore the fish out and scooped it up in my net. BOOM!!! It was big and healthy and #3 on my list now of double-digit hybrids. I took a few pictures of the river monster and let it swim free, carrying with it my respect for the wonderful battle it fought. It was one of my top-5 favorite kayak catches of all time.

I didn't fish too seriously after that fish as it was getting dark and I was honestly shaking and laughing too much to concentrate on fishing. I did catch 2 more interesting fish during the late hours that I wanted to share. One being this hybrid that looked to have some sort of lamprey marking on its scales:









And this large gar, which if you look to the right side of the picture, you'll see the greatest invention ever for landing these toothy critters:









It took me 21 frigid trips since December to finally get into a mess of fish like this. There were a few days in there that were respectable trips, but nothing like what I experienced on Saturday, March 1st, 2014. I can only hope that everyone here can experience a fishing trip like this in the near future. The water temps are slowly but surely climbing and the fish are certainly out there waiting for us. Good luck and be safe...

Until the next river adventure!

-House


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Awesome report man, WTG!! BTW we always just use a TSC style Leather glove to hold them by the snout, no probs even with big uns like that one! I heard at least 1 of the Catfish boats went looking for Tubbs but couldn't find any of him or his relatives and resorted to other stretches during the tourney so Tubbs is still there! LOL

Way to keep persisting until the fish showed up.. The last 3-4 days things have changed drastically with our Ice fishing patterns so it appears the fish know spring is within several months now, LOL

Salmonid


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

Awesome report house..great catches !


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## look111 (May 3, 2012)

wow, that was an awesome day and narrative. totally enjoyed reading it, can't wait to get into a mess like that. i'm still trying for my 1st double digit hybrid. thanks for sharing.


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## Bazzin05 (Feb 2, 2011)

Dang!!! Nice trip! I knew I should have taken the boat out Saturday instead of ice fishing.


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## sammerguy (Jun 7, 2011)

Holy moly!


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## GMR_Guy (Apr 10, 2004)

That big hybrid is a beauty. You are putting in the time on the water and it is paying off.


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## greghal (Aug 22, 2013)

Great report HOUSE, If the stripes are out there you sure find them. That post gives us other OGF'ers someting to look forward to. Delta Oscar and I were probably down river from you, but only caught 1 stripe maybe 20'' and, 1 drum. We also met Garrett, and his friend Matt. Did you and Smitty push all the trash down the river, it got so bad you couldn't find a clear spot to cast.


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## Nubes (Dec 3, 2012)

You had more fun than me on Saturday! I promise! A lot of nice fish in those pics but that first one(fatty McFatsacks) looks really fat, almost bloated! Hes got a secret stash of shad hes not sharing! LOL I think I confused a couple of his broken stripes for stretch marks??


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

Wow, that thing is fat. Good show.


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## Riverbum (Jan 27, 2013)

Really enjoyed reading this post.
Looks like a fun day full of big jumbo fish  Good work man !!!!


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## SMBHooker (Jan 3, 2008)

Paying your dues House, those fish were hard earned. Way to go!!!


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## Smittyfisher (Dec 11, 2012)

What can i say but damit, i fushed that spot too in the morning and all i got were drum. House you are the man for finding them big girls. I must say sometimes i hate you!  all in all my phone being a piece of junk worked out for the best.


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## BornWithGills (Feb 26, 2006)

Congrats you certainly deserve it....love the oven mitt.


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Congrats Rob. I thought we did well saturday.......until I saw that text. Haha. 

When can I sign up for the seminar? Hahahah

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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

A combo of this terrible weather and looking at your fish pics makes me jealous and slightly angry. Those are some badass hybrids...... jerk. Seriously though, great work.


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## brettsky225 (Aug 10, 2012)

Nice fish HOUSE!!!! Wish I could fish right now >.< let alone catch fish haha and huge ones at that


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## DLarrick (May 31, 2011)

hell of a day for sure. congrats man


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## timjr (Jul 23, 2009)

Looks like we left to early. Good job!

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## gibson330usa (May 15, 2012)

Well done, you earned it. Fatty McFatsacks sounds like the name of the new fish sandwich at McD's.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Awesome report... I first scrolled down to look at the photos and thought that first one was G man with his shirt off again. What a great fish.


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## claytonhaske (Apr 16, 2010)

Its fishing reports like this, that get me pumped about hybrid fishing the griggs spillway on from the scioto river in Columbus!!!!!! Caught a few 20"ERS last year, and can't wait to get back on the river!!!!! Great report!!!!!


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## Cat Mangler (Mar 25, 2012)

You definitely seized that rare opportunity to the fullest House! Not to knock ya in any way at all but, I gotta say that the reports you give only add torture to my fishing addiction. Imagining the day I can actually afford a yak, and in turn be towed around by an Ohio river whale is made stronger by the in-depth reports you make regularly. 

Superb job on what is probably one of the best winter fishing bonanzas any one could ask for and here is to your next great fishing adventure!

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## Streamhawk (Apr 25, 2008)

Awesome report. That's a day to remember.


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## greatmiami (Feb 4, 2014)

Way to persevere, great pic's, starting to think I need to catch one of those , but I don't honestly know the first thing about it. Any how way to go!!

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