My introduction to the Great Miami River occurred on July 13, 2002, after an 18 year hiatus from fishing.  My wife was out of town that weekend and one of my neighbors invited me to go fishing with him.  I said yes and went up to the local K-Mart where I purchased a $19.99 Shakespeare combo outfit.  My neighbor took me out to a spot he was familiar with on the GMR and we fished for about 3 hours.  I out-fished him something like 7-4 catching mostly sheephead (freshwater drum) and my first channel catfish in nearly 20 years: all on nightcrawlers.

I stayed away from fishing for such an extended period of time because I had allowed other interests to push this all-time favorite activity almost completely out of my life.  I joined the Navy in 1983 and left all of my fishing equipment with my parents (my father was also in the Navy at the time).  And because I was only 20 years old at the time, fishing was not an activity I pursued after leaving the influences of my parents.

From that day back in July until this past Labor Day weekend, I fished this spot on the GMR for anything that would bite.  I used nightcrawlers almost exclusively, and caught an abundance of sheephead and small channel cats.  But my appetite for more was growing at a rapid pace.

During this same period I discovered a website called gofishohio.com.  This site opened up my eyes, revealing a passion that I had subdued (and pretty much beat into submission) for nearly 20 years.  When I was growing up in San Diego, Ca., my father took me fishing on almost all of the good lakes and reservoirs in San Diego County.  And on those trips I always dropped a big, juicy nightcrawler to the bottom to see what sort of whiskered fish I could raise.  Even back then I wanted to catch catfish - and the bigger they were, the happier I was.

This past Labor Day weekend I journeyed down to my parent's house in Mississippi.  While I was there I regained possession of all of my old fishing tackle, and was given a number of things my father would no longer use.  The biggest thing I regained was a 10' Mitchell/Garcia surf rod with a Southbend spinning reel  that my mother had given to me my Freshman year of high school for bringing home a good report card.  And this was my prized catfish outfit until very recently.  A pair of items that my father gave me from his stash of fishing tackle will come into use when I finally get a boat, or when I get invited to fish with someone in their boat on the Ohio River, is a 6 1/2' Striker heavy action deep sea spinning rod and a Daiwa ST-50dx level-wind trolling reel (I bet that combination will pull out some big fish in the future).

Since my Labor Day journey to Mississippi, until around the first weekend of November, I fished the GMR at least twice a week, sometimes 4-5 times in a week.  With the reacquisition of my surf rod/reel combo I began using live bait fish almost exclusively and began in earnest my hunting for the whiskered giants that I am convinced reside in the GMR (and boy is live bait fish hard to catch on this river).  But as I mentioned earlier, my "prized catfish" rig had been my 25 year old Mitchell/Garcia/Southbend surf spinning combo.  On November 9, 2002 I was at my usual spot on the GMR when tragedy struck.  I caught one bluegill that day and promptly used it for bait.  About 20 minutes after casting out that bluegill with my 10' surf rod, something took the bait I was offering and snapped my rod.  I wasn't about to attempt to fight a fish using only my reel for leverage, so I cut the line.  I'm pretty convinced that my rod failed because the largest eye, the one closest to the reel seat popped off (the main ring came unsoldered from the mounts), with the resulting stress causing the rod to crack under pressure.  The next day I purchased an 8' Berkley Catmandu.

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend (2002) added a new weapon into my arsenal for catfishing; a 12' Silstar "Meat Stick" (medium-heavy action surf rod).  My father had this rod in storage at his home in Mississippi, still in its original wrapper, and I don't know if he ever actually used it.  It looked brand-new when he gave it to me and I'm looking forward to using this rod, especially with the new Shakespeare Tidewater "Freeliner" (TWS70FL) reel I recently purchased.  My father also gave me a Silver Star Omega 580 spinning reel which I put on my Berkley Catmandu rod - retiring my 25 year old Southbend reel.  Come Spring 2003, I'll be ready to begin hunting in earnest the "whiskered giants" in the Great Miami River, with an occasional trip to the Ohio River.

In October of 2003 I bought my first boat - a 1979 Galaxy 700BR, a 17' Bowrider with a 120hp Mercruiser I.O.  This boat is equipped with 6 Atwood 2-in-1 rod holders arranged across the stern of the boat, an Eagle 320 fishfinder, and a Uniden VHF Marine radio.  When I purchased this boat I had dreams of spending the summer on the Ohio River fishing, but things just didn't work out the way I'd planned.

Also in 2003, I changed jobs.  And with the job change came a schedule change.  My new schedule at work precluded me being able to spend as much time fishing as I used to.  Also, in June of 2004, while one of the few trips I was able to make onto the Ohio River, my boat began taking on water.  I was able to, however, get my boat onto its trailer without it sinking.  My bilge pump had quit working so I wasn't able to pump the water out.  I finally discovered in July why my boat began taking on water - the driveshaft bellows had a 2 inch split in it.  My boat hasn't seen the water since because finances have kept me from being able to get it fixed.  And truth be told, the loss of being able to use my boat really took the wind out of my sails for fishing.  I hope to get the boat fixed over the winter and be able to "hit it hard" in 2005.

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