# Pre-spawn at The Wilds - WOW!!!



## rweis (Dec 20, 2005)

This past weekend I was lucky enough to fly fish at The Wilds here in Ohio. (http://www.madriveroutfitters.com/TheWilds.htm) We got in six 4-hour fishing sessions from Friday noon to Sunday noon. The gill were on beds and the Bass were in pre-spawn. The gills were hitting stuff twice the size of their mouths. Next to the dock at the lodge was a set of over 20 beds. I watched a guy catch between 40 & 45 inches of Bluegill in 5 casts. I once again set my PB for gills  I swear it was 9+ long x 6 deep x 2.5 thick! I got it on my 3-wt.

Over the weekend I am guessing that I caught close to 170 Bass and over 80 gill. The majority of Bass were in the 12 to 15 inch range with not a lot of fish under 12. Sunday morning I hooked and lost a 4+ and other than Saturday afternoon, I landed 10-12 fish in the 2 to 2.5 range. Then came Saturday afternoon. 

I have been waiting all of my fishing life to hit a body of water right at the peak of Largemouth pre-spawn and it finally happened. The body of water was a large pond, and 3 of us were fishing it, 2 guys in tubes and George the guide paddling me in a canoe. I had my 5-wt. with a tippet of 2x fluro and tied on one of my Wilds Hammers. Thats a sub-surface fly with a strip of Rabbit Zonker as a tail (chartreuse) and another strip wrapped around the shank (white). It undulated beautifully and was very easy to see in the gin clear water. As we started around the first shore I caught a couple of 14-15 Bass and was having a great time with my 5-wt. Around the edge was a collection of floating leaves and weeds forming an overhang of shade about a foot wide. I dropped the fly 2 from this edging at one spot and made 3 strips  the submarine left the dock at that point. This big shadow came screaming from under the mat and the white fly just disappeared into darkness. I set the hook and it was on! It bulldogged me for awhile and made one jump. I was able to get it on the reel and had an incredible fight. George estimated it between 5.5 and 6, making it the biggest Largemouth I have ever caught. George stopped counting at 20 Bass and we hadnt made it around the lake once. I estimate that I landed between 40 and 50 Bass. I saw every strike and even started pulling the fly away from smaller fish. Sometimes there would be 5+ fish following the fly. I hooked 7 and landed 6 fish over 3.5 lbs. On some of the big fish I literally stopped the fly in front of their noses and watched as they opened their maws and the fly just disappeared. 

The weather was great, the company was great, and the fishing was superb. What else is there?


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## Row v. Wade (Apr 27, 2004)

I feel like Bill Murray is Groundhog Day.


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## squid_1 (Jun 2, 2005)

Fishing an aquarium!


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Its amazing what type of fishing you can have when its managed as a private pay to fish place. Nice job, glad you got into some nice fish, I know of a few other private pay to fish places that offer simillar types of fishing. George is quite a character isnt he....We go way back!

Salmonid


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## Mojohook (Apr 13, 2006)

Aw, come on, no pics!?!
(I don't doubt your story, I just wanna SEE!...kinda like telling us about a hot mama in a bikini but no picture!)


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## peple of the perch (Sep 13, 2004)

wow. that would make my fishing year very happy .


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## brhoff (Sep 28, 2006)

Did you try casting lessons from MRO as well? 

Jim has helped me out tremendously there and would like to take some lessons.

The trip you took, awesome! I saw that about a year ago on their site and would LOVE to go sometime.


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## rweis (Dec 20, 2005)

Sorry guys, I don't carry a camera and I haven't entered the electronic era with a cam-phone. 

I took lessons from Brian - he is a very good instructor. 

It has made my summer. I've had a great Crappie day and I've had a few incredble Smallie days in Canada, but never even close to a LM day like that one.


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