Well, it's time for me to get off my butt and get this site updated for the last half of 2003.  From the middle of June through the end of the year was a pretty good time for me.  I never did catch any bruisers, and although I did have a few nights where I was skunked, I still managed to have a great time fishing.  I had the pleasure of fishing with a few gofishohio.com members, from their boats, on the Ohio River.  As a matter of fact, of all of the following updates, only one is from the banks of the Great Miami River.  My best nights of fishing for 2003 took place on the Ohio River.  And I had such a great time with everyone, I bought my first boat so I could hit the big river more often.

The Fall months found me fishing on the Mighty Ohio River as often as I could get a seat in someone's boat.  I had the pleasure of fishing with Donnie (Madcatter) and his son, Greg, many times.  The following pictures were taken from his boat during a few of the times we fished together.

The next two pictures were taken from Lee's (Fishyguy's) boat during my one trip with him.  That was a great trip and one I hope gets repeated many times in the future.  Lee is very knowledgeable and just an all-around pleasure to fish with.  We didn't catch many fish that night, but Lee definitely put me onto a couple worth bragging about.

These next pictures were taken aboard the Cat-illac with Craig (UFM82).  I got skunked that night, but Craig demonstrated his prowess as the "Sheepshead Herder," and caught his largest flathead of the season - a 13 pounder.

There were other trips to the Ohio River during the Fall, but these were the only pictures I have on my computer.  I truly enjoyed fishing with everyone I fished with, and hope I get to fish with everyone again.

July and August were bust months for bankfishing on the Great Miami River.  All of the summer rains pretty much kept the river unfishable for me.  However, I was still fishing.  July and August saw us camping at Eagle Creek, in Ripley, Ohio with a great group of members from gofishohio.com.  These trips have been chronicled here.

June 28th found me on the banks of the Great Miami River.  I was at one of my regular spots, under the old, steel bridge at Eggleston Park.  I didn't have a lot of bait that evening, but I had enough to make for a very enjoyable evening.  I caught 6 fish that evening, ranging from around 1.5 pounds to up 12 pounds.  The evening started off slow with the only thing biting being the mosquitoes.

Shortly before Sunset, the channel cats started hitting.  I caught the first fish around 7:20; about a 3 pounder.

The second channel cat came around 8:00, and was a little bit larger, maybe 4-4.5 pounds.

My third fish of the night was a small flathead around 1.5-2 pounds

My fourth fish was my second largest fish, a shovelhead that weighed 7.5 pounds.

My fifth fish was another small flathead (about 3 pounds).

As I'm sure you've noticed, there was someone there to take pictures of these last three fish.  I wasn't fishing with anyone that evening, but there was a softball tournament going on and a couple of guys came down to shoot-the-bull with me and took these three pictures for me.  I thought I took a picture of my last fish (after the softball players left), but alas, I can't find it.  The last fish ended up being not only my largest fish of the evening, but my largest flathead of the season.  It weighed a hair over 12 pounds.  And I truly wish I had a picture of it.  Nothing like having proof of your best fish.  Oh well....

This particular evening was also my last trip to the GMR in 2003.

Today brings us to the middle of June; only a few short weeks from the longest day of the year.  It has rained so much that I sent Noah an email for his plans for building an arc.  Over the past few weeks there haven't been too many opportunities to get onto the river.  The water has pretty much been too high and too fast for my liking.  However, the one night-time trip I made with my neighbor, Mike, was a productive one.

On May 27th, I caught my largest flathead of the season so far - a 6 pounder -  from the Great Miami.  Not a huge fish, but a nice fish that felt much larger in the river's current.  It was caught on a live Bluegill.

On Friday, June 13th, my neighbor, Mike, and I went over to Miami Whitewater Forest to see if we could drum up a little action.  Although Friday the 13th wasn't a great night for me, Mike caught his largest cat to date - an 18.5 lbs. Blue Cat.

The following night, June 14th, found me fishing with Craig ("UFM82") from his "Cat-illac" at East Fork Lake.  This trip was the result of an impromptu suggestion that was made because Tim "Doc" Lange had to reschedule his Hooked On Catfish tournament that was supposed to have happened at the New Richmond ramp last night.  You can read about that trip by clicking here.

It's now May, and the month is starting off a little bit rough for me because of the weather - rain, and too much of it to allow for fishing on the GMR.  However, I did fish in my first catfish tournament over this past weekend (May 3-4).  My neighbor, Mike, and I teamed up for a catfish tourney at Miami Whitewater Forest.  We finished 13th out of 23 teams, with a 5-fish stringer weighing just over 21 pounds.  Not a bad first tournament, but considering the winning stringer weighed over 75 pounds, well....  The ego still suffered a bit.

I recently switched lines again.  I hit Eggleston Park one evening after work while I was still using Spiderwire's Catfish Fusion line, and during the 3 hours I was there I experienced nine break-offs, losing three fish.  The Catfish Fusion line simply cannot stand up to the rigors of the type of fishing its name implies.  I contacted Spiderwire about this and they were willing to replace my rolls of Catfish Fusion at no charge - with more Catfish Fusion.  I told them to keep it, and then went out and bought some of Spiderwire's new "Stealth" super-braid.  I bought two rolls of it, one in 65 pound test (15 pound test monofilament diameter), and the other in 80 pound test (17 pound test monofilament diameter).  So far I am very pleased with it.  It casts like a dream, is super tough, and has given me the confidence to put my baits even closer to the logjams and other assorted snags.

April ended with my first flathead of the season being the only catfish I caught during that month.  But not for a lack of trying: I went out fishing at least 20 times during the month of April.  In all honesty, the lack of fish caught has really had me wondering what I've been doing wrong.  The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking I've just been fishing in places where the fish weren't.  As soon as the weather breaks and the river gets back to a more "normal" condition, I'm going to be heading out with "Sliprig"  in his boat and fishing the GMR just inside the mouth from the Ohio River.  I believe the fun is about to start.

March ended pretty much the way it started, without any productive trips to the Great Miami River.  On March 29th, I journeyed up to Springfield, Ohio for the GoFishOhio.com catfish outing on the C. J. Brown Reservoir.  This trip can be read about here.

I caught my first Flathead Catfish of the season this evening.  Insane_Squad came down and we fished together on the GMR at Dravo Park.  It was a beautiful evening, made even better by hearing my baitclicker running.  My first flatty of the year wasn't a big one, but it's a start.  I hope I get to fish with the Insane One many more times in the future.

First Flathead of 2003

Insane_Squad

The 2003 fishing season is off to a very slow start.  I've been able to get on the GMR just once so far; back in January.  And on that one trip I caught just one fish, and it wasn't even a catfish.  I was fishing some cut shad on the bottom hoping to raise up some channel cats, but all I caught was a lonely 2 lbs. smallmouth bass.  And believe it or not, it was "gut hooked" on a 4/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle hook.  But at least that trip didn't produce a skunk.

February was a total bust.  For me, this month didn't contain a single good fishing day.  I'm thinking that March will be a little bit kinder.  Hopefully, right?

During this month I did invest in some new tackle.  I purchased another Shakespeare Tidewater Freeliner (TWS70FL), and decided to try out Spiderwire's Catfish Fusion line.  And considering I am relegated to bank fishing, I also decided to get a decent tackle bag that has a shoulder strap.

I'm hoping that as this new season picks up I can begin including some catfishing tips for the Great Miami River.  As I stated in my introduction, I'm not a catfishing expert.  But I do consider myself a quick learner and able to present some useful information for others.

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