A write up about a local fisherman called Steve Coomer aka OldStinkyGuy by Chris Hampton

All,
 I had the honor of attending a seminar given by Steve Coomer
(OldStinkyGuy) last night. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with
Steve, he is a master angler, photographer, and published author. He has
been fishing the Little Miami and other area streams 3-4 times per week for
the past 40+ years. His presentation was on Fall river fishing for
Smallmouth Bass. 
 Mr. Coomer is a friendly, soft spoken, and modest man. When he
speaks about fishing however, there is no doubt that his words come from a
deep understanding of his quarry. I am sure that most of you know that fish
are on a mission in the fall. That mission is to eat as much as they can
tolerate until the winter sets in and they become essentially dormant until
spring. This "magical time" can last a few days or even a month or so. Steve
explained to us that the smallmouth keys in on the length of day during the
fall to determine when it will begin migrating to the deep, still pockets
and holes where they will spend the winter. This migration will concentrate
upwards of 90% of the larger fish into a very small portion of the available
water. In opening his discussion he placed an emphasis on the slow fishing I
think we are all seeing right now. His assessment of this is based on the
high water temperature and low water conditions of course. During this time
Mr. Coomer says that he spends his time focusing on being prepared when that
"magical time" begins. Starting within a few days before or after the fall
equinox (September 21,22,23 every year) fish will begin to make their move.
As water temps begin to fall into the mid 60s and below (down to around the
low 50s) these feisty beasts become ravenous. Taking in anything that is
thrown at them. 
 Some of the best information presented during the seminar was
Steve's approach to lure selection in different structure. In fast riffles
he chooses minnow imitators in darker colors and smaller sizes. Something in
the 2.5" to 3.5" range was roughly his preference. Using a high sticking
method of up and across stream with little if any retrieve, the minnows will
tumble through the riffle and out much like the forage fish will.
Positioning yourself directly across stream from where you expect the bite
to occur and casting upstream from there was the recommended method. Unlike
the crayfish imitations most of us throw here, the minnow baits should be
kept slightly above the bottom. In order to ensure that the bait is staying
suspended, but flowing naturally, Steve suggested starting with a heavy lure
up to 1/2 oz. or more in some cases. If you find that you are dragging the
bottom, then progressively decreasing weight will allow you to find that
perfect presentation. 
 As you move through the run below a riffle the presenter recommended
shifting your attention higher in the water column to imitate the shiners
that tend to be more present in the slower moving water. Here he selects a
larger, lighter colored minnow bait for the same reason. This is where
things like plugs, and even top water lures are going to come into play. The
approach was a little less specific but, considering the more varied
selection of lure styles, I think trial-and-error may be the only way to key
in on the "best" approach. 
 In either structural environment Steve made it very clear that one
thing is consistent. If the water is in the smallmouth's wheelhouse, they
WILL be feeding constantly. He stressed several times the concept of fish
condensing into smaller areas. Thus if you are throwing the recommended
patterns and you feel your presentation is good, cast 25-30 times covering
an area. If, after doing so, you have not caught anything at all then you
are in the wrong spot. Move to the next riffle upstream or down and begin
again. If you find that you are catching a ton of smaller fish, the choice
is up to you. You can stay and enjoy catching your fill and having a blast
doing it. If, however, you want to find the catch of a lifetime then you
should move again. According to Steve's research and experience the larger
bass won't be feeding with the little guys. They will have taken up
residence among their peers at the best points close to their winter homes.
 After the presentation I had a chance to spend some time talking
with Steve and several other members of the OGF site. I was then invited out
to dinner with these guys and had an incredible time. I must admit, I was a
little out of place in the group, but was made to feel right at home among
them. All-in-all, this was a great experience and one that I will not soon
forget.
 Please understand that I have barely touched the surface of the vast
amount of knowledge presented. More information can be found in Steve's Book
that I believe Rob linked on the website and on Facebook. I will link this
below as well. After the presentation I had a chance to spend some time
talking with Steve and several other members of the OGF site. I was then
invited out to dinner with these guys and had an incredible time. I must
admit, I was a little out of place in the group, but was made to feel right
at home among them. All-in-all, this was a great experience and one that I
will not soon forget.

Hope to see you all on the water soon,
Chris

Orvis Knots

Generally you use simple knots when spin-fishing or bait casting

When you get into Fly fishing sometimes you need special knots to tie on fly line,backing,leaders,tippet and flies

To help with this Orvis has come up with this animated tying tool

Check out this link to help with your knots

Orvis Knots

It's a Game Fish......

Disparagingly dismissed by many anglers as a "trash" fish, the longnose gar is, in fact, a hard fighter that is more than willing to take a fly.  And they are actually quite pretty fish, with leopard spots, opalescent scales and pinkish tails. If these fish don't get your adrenaline pumping, you're probably better off just grabbing your laptop and playing a game or two at www.Partypoker.com

Gar Flies

The problem with gar is that their mouth is mainly bone and teeth and even the sharpest hook will seldom penetrate. The solution is the rope fly, tied with nothing but some slightly unbraided nylon rope and maybe a little flash. The gar mouths the fly and the nylon becomes tangled in its fine teeth.  Resist the temptation to set the hook - give the fish slack immediately and let him shake his head several times before you tighten up.

The bottom fly of the first photo is a veteran of several fish; the others are new.  I use 1/4" nylon rope, pull out the center core and unbraid the individual strands.  The fly is tied on a small stainless ring (available from FeatherCraft) with one section of rope (doubled) per fly.  Insert the nylon strands (twice the length of the finished fly), and flash if desired, through the ring with a bobbin threader.  Wrap head with heavy tying thread - this is easier to do with your hands instead of using a vise. I usually make the thread wraps about 3/4" long.  After a quick whip-finish, I usually wrap the head with some lead tape for a little weight, then paint and epoxy.  The nylon will take color from permanent markers if you want to get fancy.

I prefer my flies 7-9" long.  This makes them a bit hard to throw using lighter rods, but the longer length "hooks" better.  Rods in the 7-weight to 9-weight range make these flies much easier to throw.  I sometimes cut-down flies to carry when fishing lighter rods, but my hook-up ratio is lower.

Though some people use them, I've never found wire leaders necessary for gar.  In fact, with the rope flies, I often catch them without any kind of "bite" or "shock" tippet. My standard rig is usually a 7-9' leader with 12-16lb tippet, and about a 6" bite tippet of 30-lb mono. I use the non-slip mono loop to attach the fly.

"Hooking" The Fish

Gar fishing is often "sight-fishing".  The fish spend a lot of time on or near the surface and the angler can often spot the fish before the cast.  Gar are often seen "porpoising" slowly on the surface - when acting this way, they may or may not be feeding.  At times, they will be aggressively slapping at bait near the surface - this is typically feeding activity.  Especially in warm weather, you may see the fish just hanging motionless on or near the surface - this is sometimes a resting pose, but it can also be a camouflaging maneuver.  The gar will hold, looking like a floating stick, and then flash into action when an unsuspecting baitfish nears. In most cases, the gar will actually ease up with his snout parallel to the prey fish. The, with a sudden sideways twist of the head, he'll nail the bait. They seem to prefer striking with the center section of their jaws rather than taking frontally - this is probably because the incapacitate the prey before trying to swallow it.

Tactics for getting the gar to eat the fly will vary. My most-used technique is a slow, erratic movement of the fly.  I try to throw as you normally would when sight-fishing, leading the fish in a direction so that my retrieve intersects his path without swimming toward him.  Sometimes when the gar are actively feeding,  a fast retrieve will trigger a strike. Generally, the slow technique brings

the most hits for me.

 

The slow strip method offers another considerable advantage.  Ironically, considering its vicious-looking mouth full of teeth, the gar's strike is often quite subtle.   Perhaps with all those sharp teeth, he only needs to bite lightly on his normal prey.  His bite is not

to kill, injure or incapacitate the bait, but rather just to catch.  With a fast strip, it is quite easy to pull the fly right out of the gar's mouth (before the nylon tangles).  In fact, if you don't see the take, it may feel like nothing more than a very light tap or bump.  It is critically important that you give the fish slack immediately.  With no tension, the fly has a much better chance of tangling in the teeth.  I like to let the fish run for 20-30', hopefully feeling several head shakes in the process. Only then will I tighten up on the line. And make sure you just tighten up, no set hard.

At times you will see the fish on top and then they will submerge and you lose sight.  A sinking or sink-tip line can be useful in times like this. Cast in the general direction and fish very slowly, with regular hesitations.  The big fly has good visibility, and you'll often draw a hit from an unseen fish.  Here especially you must be alert for the slightest bump and immediately "dead-stick" the fly.

Landing & Releasing The Gar

Once the gar eats and the fly is tangled in his teeth, the fight begins. This is a strong fish capable of fast, hard runs, sometimes mixed with tail-walking jumps.  Some fish seem to give up after one good run, though they may explode again right at the boat.  Others will test your fish-fighting skills, first making long runs and then slugging it out close quarters with under-the-boat spurts.  When they get close to the boat, exercise considerable caution - as they can jump right in - and an angry 4' fish with a mouth full of teeth won't do you legs or the rods in you rod rack any good (don't ask how I know this!).

Removing the fly from the fish may be the hardest part of the whole proposition.  You'll need something to hold his mouth open and a stiff brush to pull the fibers from his teeth.   A glove or a towel will help you hold the fish - the scales can cut and the fish is very slick and very strong.  Note the teeth - hundreds of them & very sharp - I suggest a sturdy glove.  I like a big screw-driver and a jaw-jack designed for pike and musky.  Some anglers use a home-made wooden jig to hold the mouth open.  Regardless, maintain a firm hold on the fish throughout - they'll "play possum" and then explode when you least expect.

The fly will be a tangled mess - no problem, just comb it out a little and it'll still work just fine.

Eating Gar

There are those who claim gar is quite good to eat ("tastes like chicken," right).  I am in no position to debate the point as I've never tried. The instructions for cleaning given on a website somewhere suggest a big axe and a bandsaw for prepping the fish - I don't have a bandsaw.

2014 Season is upon us

Just letting everyone know that we have been out hitting some of our local waters.

Jim Deski and I hit Lake George and did pretty well catching some nice Bluegill

Hope to hit The Mad River and catch some trout in the upcoming weeks

Will let everyone know when we plan this trip as it should be an exciting day of fishing

If you have ideas of places to go pass them along us we are always looking for new and exciting places to get our lines wet

Most Wanted Poster for Asian Carp

Asian Carp

Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1844)

Common name: silver carp

Identification: Distinguishing characteristics were given in Berg (1949). Keys that include this species and photographs or illustrations are provided in several of the more recently published state and regional fish books (e.g., Robison and Buchanan 1988; Etnier and Starnes 1993; Pflieger 1997).

Size: 1 m and 27 kg.

Native Range: Several major Pacific drainages in eastern Asia from the Amur River of far eastern Russia south through much of eastern half of China to Pearl River, possibly including northern Vietnam (Berg 1949; Li and Fang 1990).

Alaska	Hawaii	Puerto Rico &Virgin Islands

Interactive maps: Point Distribution Maps

Nonindigenous Occurrences: This species has been recorded from the Black Warrior and Tallapoosa river drainages of the Mobile Basin, including Yates Reservoir and throughout the central part of Alabama (Mettee et al. 1996; J. Hornsby and M. Pierson, personal communication; Rasmussen 1998); and from the Arkansas and White River systems (including the the lower Cache River), the Ouachita River, Bayou Meto Drainage, and the Mississippi River mainstem in Arkansas (Freeze and Henderson 1982; Carter and Beadles 1983; Courtenay et al. 1984; Robison and Buchanan 1988). It has been stocked in water treatment ponds on the East Slope of Colorado (D. Horak, personal communication).  A specimen was collected in power plant reservoir in Larimer Co.; plant is on Rawhide Creek; a trib of the Cache la Poudre River (Walker, unpublished).  It has been intentionally released in Hawaii (Davidson et al. 1992). It has also been collected or reported from several water bodies in, or bordering, Illinois, including the Mississippi, Spoon, Illinois, and Ohio rivers and several of their tributaries, the Muddy River, Muscooten Bay, Horseshoe Lake and vicinity in the Cache River drainage (Burr 1991; Burr et al. 1996; Laird and Page 1996; Illinois Natural History Survey2004; Hoff, pers. comm.; Etnier, pers. comm.; Thomas, pers. comm.; Irons, pers. comm.; Southern Illinois University, unpublished) and the Embarras River below Lake Charleston (K. Cummings, personal communication). There are also records of this species from the southeastern part of Indiana (presumably the Ohio River) (Courtenay et al. 1991; Simon et al. 1992) and west fork of the White River in Greene County (Anonymous 2003); the Des Moines and Chariton Rivers, Iowa (Iowa DNR 2003), White River at Hazelton (Caskey, pers. comm.) and the Wabash River (Thomas, pers. comm.); eastern rivers in Kansas and some unspecified location(s) in Kansas (Rasmussen 1998; Courtenay et al. 1991) (possibly the Missouri River); from the Ohio River, Clarks River, and non-specific locations in Kentucky (Pearson and Krumholz 1984; Burr and Warren 1986; Rasmussen 1998; Thomas, pers. comm.; Henley, pers. comm.; Southern Illinois University; Baxter, pers. comm.); from the lower Mississippi River and many tributary sites in Louisiana including the Atchafalaya, Red, Boeuf, Old, Ouachita, and Little river drainages, LaFourche Canal, Miller Lake, and Loggy Bayou (Freeze and Henderson 1982; Carp Task Force 1989; Douglas et al. 1996; Rasmussen 1998; F. Bryan and J. Hughes Little, pers. comm.); the Mississippi River, Yazoo River, and Chotard Lake in Mississippi (Mississippi Museum of Natural Science 2004; Schramm et al. 2004);  from the Mississippi and Missouri river mainstems and the Lamine and Castor Rivers, Missouri (Courtenay et al. 1991; Robinson 1995; Pflieger 1997; Rasmussen 1998; Lien 2003), the Little River Ditches, Upper Mississippi-Cape Girardeau, and The Sny drainages (Southern Illinois University), the Lower Missouri-Moreau, Lower Grand, Lamine, Lower Osage drainages (Chapman, pers. comm.); the Missouri River drainage and Elkhorn River Nebraska (Nebraska Game and Parks 2000) and established in Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS 2005); the Missouri River up to Gavins Point Dam (W. Stancill, pers. comm.), the Big Sioux River near Canton (T. St. Sauver, pers. comm.), and the mouth of the James River (R. Klumb, pers. comm.) in South Dakota. They also have been collected from a Mississippi River outflow in Tennessee (C. Saylor, personal communication; Etnier, pers. comm.) and McKellar Lake in Memphis (Baxter, pers. comm.).

This species has also been collected at golf course ponds at Dorado Beach Hotel in Puerto Rico (Erdman 1984).

Means of Introduction: This species was imported and stocked for phytoplankton control in eutrophic water bodies and also apparently as a food fish. It was first brought into the United States in 1973 when a private fish farmer imported silver carp into Arkansas (Freeze and Henderson 1982). By the mid 1970s the silver carp was being raised at six state, federal, and private facilities, and by the late 1970s it had been stocked in several municipal sewage lagoons (Robison and Buchanan 1988). By 1980 the species was discovered in natural waters, probably a result of escapes from fish hatcheries and other types of aquaculture facilities (Freeze and Henderson 1982). The occurrence of silver carp in the Ouachita River of the Red River system in Louisiana was likely the result of an escape from an aquaculture facility upstream in Arkansas (Freeze and Henderson 1982). The Florida introduction was probably a result of stock contamination, a silver carp having been inadvertently released with a stock of grass carp being used for aquatic plant control (Middlemas 1994). In a similar case, the species was apparently introduced accidentally to an Arizona lake as part of an intentional, albeit illegal, stock of diploid grass carp (W. Silvey, personal communication). Pearson and Krumholz (1984) suggested that individuals taken from the Ohio River may have come from plantings in local ponds or entered the Ohio River from populations originally introduced in Arkansas.

Status: Records are available for 12 states. It is apparently established in Louisiana (Douglas et al. 1996) and is possibly established in Illinois; silver carp have been reported in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee. Douglas et al. (1996) collected more than 1600 larvae of this genus from a backwater outlet of the Black River in Louisiana in 1994. Burr et al. (1996) found young-of-the-year in a ditch near Horseshoe Lake and reported this as the first evidence of successful spawning of silver carp in Illinois waters and the United States. They felt that the species would be `established' in the state within the next ten years. Based on the occurrence of juvenile fish in Illinois waters, Pflieger (1997) felt that successful spawning of silver carp in Missouri seems inevitable. In the early 1980s commercial fishermen in Arkansas had caught 166 silver carp from seven different sites; however, during an intensive 1980-1981 survey to determine the distribution and status of bighead and silver carp in state open waters, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission personnel were unsuccessful in procuring any additional specimens (Freeze and Henderson 1982). Although Arkansas state personnel did not find young-of-the-year fish, several specimens taken by the commercial fishermen were sexually mature and exhibited secondary sexual characteristics (Freeze and Henderson 1982). Nevertheless, Robison and Buchanan (1988) reported that there was still no evidence of natural reproduction in Arkansas waters. Rinne (1995) listed silver carp as introduced to Arizona in 1972 and denoted it as established. Apparently in reference to the same record, William Silvey of the Arizona Game and Fish Department recently informed us that the only silver carp documented in Arizona open waters was a population inhabiting an urban lake in Chandler during the early 1970s. However, further investigation has shown that it was most likely a bighead x grass carp hybrid population (P. Marsh, pers.comm.). That population, along with a large population of diploid grass carp, was exterminated in 1975 or 1976 by personnel from the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Arizona State University (W. Silvey, personal communication). Pearson and Krumholz (1984) documented records from the Ohio River, but they did not include it as one of the species that exist in well-established, reproducing populations. Etnier and Starnes (1993) provided information on silver carp, but by publication they were unaware of any records of the species in the state of Tennessee.

Impact of Introduction: Pflieger (1997) considered the impact of this species difficult to predict because of its place in the food web. In numbers, the silver carp has the potential to cause enormous damage to native species because it feeds on plankton required by larval fish and native mussels (Laird and Page 1996). This species would also be a potential competitor with adults of some native fishes, for instance, gizzard shad, that also rely on plankton for food (Pflieger 1997).  A study by Sampson et al. (2009) found that Asian carp (silver and bighead carps) had dietary overlap with gizzard shad and bigmouth buffalo, but not much of one with paddlefish.

Remarks: Jenkins and Burkhead (1994) reported on the use of silver carp in a wastewater treatment pond in the upper James River drainage of Virginia. However, there is as yet no record of the species in Virginia open waters. One of the so-called Chinese carps, the silver carp is a filter-feeder capable of taking large amounts of phytoplankton. Its diet also includes zooplankton, bacteria, and detritus (Leventer 1987). This species has been intensively cultured in many parts of the world, often raised in combination with other fishes.
The report in Fuller et al. (1999) from Bay County, Florida was actually a bighead carp (UF 98162).