# Top Twenty....



## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Today is Tuesday. I always fish on Tuesdays. Yeah I know I fish most of the other days of the week as well but I always fish on Tuesdays. Except for tonight. It's the first Tuesday I can remember that I'm not. It's also the middle of December on a year that I've fished 220+ days and it's 20 something outside. So I actually took a Tuesday off. I'll probably regret it tomorrow. I'm in the middle of backing up the photos I've taken while fishing this year and the little icon that tells me the progress says you have copied such and such amount out of 4285 items. I think that's a good sign it's been a memorable year. And it's been a spectacular year fishing wise. I've had a better year for big smallies than I ever thought it was even possible to have fishing around here. 
But it's really about so much more than just the fish you have been lucky enough to have caught. It's the places fishing takes you. It's the things you would never see if you weren't out there at dawn or late into the night. It's the experiences and memories that will be with you for a lifetime. 
Looking back I remember a deer coming down to drink out of the stream as beams of light danced on the fog swirling all around her. Or when I looked down and realized I'd inadvertently walked right into the middle of a snake orgy of sorts and there must of been at least a dozen squirming around within ten feet of me. 
One of the highlights of the year for me was spending quite a while talking to a personal hero of mine in the fishing world, Dan Gapen. One of the true pioneers of my kind of fishing it was a thrill to get to spend some time with him. The fly he gave me went straight into my box of memorabilia to be kept forever. He looked a bit frail and I count myself lucky to have met him while I still have the chance.
Another was seeing an otter swimming down the river towards me. It spotted me and began bobbing up and down in water trying to get a better look at me and then finally swimming right up within ten feet of me before finally going back the way it came. Then months later having another otter in the boundary waters again swim right up to me again before spooking. 
One of the coolest things I've ever done was this year when my wife and I kayaked out to and around the concrete ships at Kiptopeke. World war two supply ships sunk in a semicircle to create a safe harbor they make for a spooky and spectacular kayak destination. 
I was lucky enough this year to indulge in one of life's great pleasures, staring into a campfire. I camped out quite a bit this year both with my family, some close friends and by myself. 
One of the best campfires I shared deep in the mountains alongside a trout stream with Greg, one of the most complete all around outdoorsmen I've ever met. If you have never sat around a campfire deep in the woods miles from the mess we call civilization you are missing out. Or for that matter alongside a lake deep in the Boundary Waters like I was lucky enough to do this year as well. 
I'm also a bit greedy and hoard for myself every year eight or ten nights when I have the fire, the night sky and the sound of the river or the woods just to myself. On one memorable trip I'll never forget walking back into a towering woods behind my riverside camp and hearing the primal sounds of dozens of great blue heron chicks crying out noisily for their next meal from giant nests high in the trees. I sat down on a moss covered log and watched the parents sail in and out like pterodactyls bringing them dinner. Finally I stood up only to have a doe bound off that had feed up close to me unawares of my presence.
Then there is Rob. You could write a book about just Rob alone. One of the best fisherman there is and certainly the best hybrid striper fisherman around here, Rob is also just about the most enthusiastic and entertaining person you will ever meet. I'll never forget pulling up in the truck and just sitting there watching him chop a path down thru the bushes like a madman with a machete. Or the time we nearly got arrested fishing a new "hotspot". Or the time the big hybrid came up and exploded on his spook on a still morning on the river. Just one of the many times Rob outfished me when fishing for stripey fish. 
Then there is the time I peeked over a huge fallen tree only to find myself face to face with a beaver. I don't know which of us was more startled. 
One of the coolest experiences of the year was watching a drama of deadly seriousness play out right in front of me. I was half fishing half watching a kingfisher fish from a perch a dozen yards downstream of my when suddenly the kingfisher flushed out over the river. A hawk swooped out of the woods like a jet fighter after the kingfisher. Just when it looked like the kingfisher was going to explode in cloud of feathers the kingfisher dove under the water. The hawk banked in a sharp turn and went for the kingfisher again. Which again dived into the water to escape. The hawk tried once more before giving up and flying off as the kingfisher screamed in victory over and over. 
Like I said it's more than just the fishing. But it is after all the fishing that at least for me makes all the other possible and here for whatever it's worth is my top twenty catches of 2017. After all isn't that a time honored tradition this time of year, the top this or that list of the year??


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

1 I guess a personal best should be number one. An Ohio River Hybrid that went several pounds over the ten pound mark


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#2 a shovelnose sturgeon out of the Ohio. An endangered species that I'll probably never catch again


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#3 The longest smallmouth out of thirty plus years of fishing the Little Miami River.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#4 Two fish back to back that totaled right at 40 inches! In December even! One a bit over 20 one a bit under


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#5 Another pair a bit smaller but still














close to the forty inch mark! this time from April


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#6 a huge beastie that actually had a bit of a deformed lip and should have measured even larger than it did







! From August


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#7 Yeah she's as big as she looks


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#8 A paddlefish I actually had a hard time lifting to even take it's photo. Smallmouth guys aren't used to catching human sized fish


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#9 A last hour of the last day striper that saved an otherwise slow trip down south


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#10 a Pb river crappie...


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#11 A november 20


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#12 two 19's from the same wade


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#13 A shovelhead longer than my leg on a swimbait


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#14 A huge hybrid that I didn't get a measurement on that was as big around as it was long


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#15 the first time for this hawg


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#16 Same fish different day!


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#17 Love me some fly rod gills


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#18


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#19 number 19 is a whole bunch of 19's


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#20 I guess we should sneak some trash fish in here somewhere


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

#20a Nah...number twenty is this carp on a lure


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Great year!!!!!!!!


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## SConner (Mar 3, 2007)

Awesome recap OSG, you are without peer in SW forums and always spin a beautiful yarn.


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## kycreek (May 31, 2006)

Great year in pics


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Great pictures! Great stories! Great quality! Great quanity! Great variety! 
Great skill(s)! Great sportsmanship! Great post! 
Thank you for taking the time an sharing. Thats absolutely amazing!


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## garhtr (Jan 12, 2009)

Looks and Sounds like you had a Great year of Fishing ! Thanks for the update and Good luck in the upcoming season.
Good luck and Good Fishing !


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## 3 dog Ed (Apr 25, 2014)

Just amazing! And inspiring!


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