Wednesday Russ, Jake, and I decided to hit a stretch of Ohio Brush Creek, particularly we chose to float a 6 mile stretch that is typically too low to float. The water levels were still up nearly a foot from the last big rain event and the water clarity was 2 feet or better in most spots.......which is just about as good as it gets for this stretch of water. We figured with the window of high clear water we would hit this stretch of water and save our other floats for later in the year when water levels stabilize.
We met up at a local gas station around 9am and loaded Russ' gear onto my trailer. From there we drove a few miles down the road and dropped his car off at the take out location. We then drove 10 minutes up the road to our launch location, which happened to be a small feeder creek a quarter of a mile from Ohio Brush Creek. We quickly unloaded our gear and started preparing for the trip. Since we were going to float the small feeder creek for the first half an hour or so I decided to tie on a Rebel Teeny Craw and see if I could find a few smaller fish in the creek.
SIDE NOTE:
A few years ago we discovered the Rebel Craws to be quite productive for nearly every species of fish in Ohio Brush Creek. In fact my all time species record for a single trip stands at 8 (bluegill, channel catfish, longnose gar, smallmouth, largemouth, spotted bass, drum, and crappie), all of which came off of a wee craw while wading a 200 yard section of creek. Now they aren't the most effective at targeting large fish, but when it comes to catching numbers of fish the teeny craw is hard to beat.
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I tied the teeny craw on an ultralight combo spooled with 4lb monofilament and then I tied on a chartreuse spinnerbait on a medium heavy spinning outfit. My game plan was to float the small feeder creek with the teeny craw and then switch to the spinnerbait once we got out into Ohio Brush Creek...but as always things don't quite go as planned. I was quite surprised to see the water level as high as it was with the clarity we had. I floated this feeder creek last year at summer pool and it took me close to an hour to get out into Ohio Brush Creek due to the amount of time I spent dragging my kayak in 1-3" of water. This time around we had timed it just about perfect, in fact we only touched bottom twice as we ran through a few riffles.
Russ and Jake had similar game plans as well for the day, which made fishing in 3rd rather difficult. Russ had tied on a Wee Craw (Larger version of the teeny craw) and a spinnerbait. Jake also had tied on a small spinnerbait and a teeny craw. A few hundred yards downstream Jake landed a small 12" spotted bass on a small 1/4 oz white spinnerbait, which now placed him in the back of the pack. Russ then took the lead, placing me in 2nd, and Jake in 3rd. Russ would take the lead for the next 5 hours as he hunted for trophy smallmouth with his 1/2oz War Eagle Spinnerbait. It was a sound game plan, if he had the patience to wait it out.
We eventually made it out to Ohio Brush Creek an hour later. I immediately noticed that the water was moving much faster than I had anticipated. Any thoughts of working a Texas-rigged chigger craw or a jig and craw went out the window. As the time passed I asked Russ if he wanted to swap kayaks and fish out of the Native Watercraft Slayer for a while, after a few minutes the temptation got the best of him and we made the switch.
A few minutes passed and we approached a 90 degree bend in the creek. The sudden change in direction had scoured out a massive hole and had exposed a rocky beach on the back side of the hole. As I was working my way out of the hole and into the next riffle I felt my teeny craw bounce off of a rock and then the vibration of lure ceased....I set the hook and a nice smallie erupted from the water. He wasn't a giant by any means but on 4lb test he was quite the handful. After a few laps around my yak I landed the 15" smallie.
At 6pm we paddled around the bend where we had parked Russ' car. For some reason unknown to me, it became a race to see who could get to the rock beach the fastest. I was in the lead by a comfortable margin when the race began so I casually paddled up the to rock beach. Russ had gained momentum and was rapidly approaching. I looked over to him and said, "First one to touch the beach wins." He took three hard paddle strokes and touched the rock beach mere inches before I did.....his momentum drove his kayak up the bank where his kayak rested on the keel on the nose of his kayak. No more than he uttered the words, "I win, I win, I win" his kayak began to roll on his keel. Once again over he went. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe....he quickly jumped up and gave me the "It happened again" look. He didn't even have to say it, I knew exactly what he was thinking. After 3 minutes of gut busting laughter I decided pull myself together and start dragging my kayak up the beach. Each time Russ flipped he had been fortunate enough to have been in knee deep water and been able to recover his gear. Some of us would soon discover our luck wasn't quite as good as Russ'.
Saturday 5/10
Saturday Jake and I drove up to Dayton where we met Neil. Most of southern Ohio was under a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms all day, however, the areas north of Dayton were predicted to stay dry all day. With that in mind we met Neil at 10am and made a 30 minute drive to a small river whose watershed hadn't been affected by the early morning thunderstorms. We unloaded the yaks around 11am and started working the river. This time around I was more concerned with catching quality fish instead of numbers of fish, so tied on some larger baits in order to target larger fish. On one rod I tied on a Texas rigged 4" chigger craw weighted with a 5/8oz bullet weight and on the other I had tied on a 1/2oz chartreuse spinnerbait. I started working open water with the spinnerbait and pitching the chigger craw to laydowns and bridge pillions. I landed my first fish, a 15" largemouth, off of a fallen tree in 3 feet of water. I was surprised to see a largemouth in a river but Neil did tell us that we had the possibility of catching a few in the slower moving sections. A few minutes later I paddled upstream and rounded the bend to find Neil working the right side of an island with a small jointed crankbait. He told me that he was going to head upstream to the first riffle and then we could head down the river. I followed him and worked areas of slack water near the bank. A few minutes later I hear him yelling upstream about something, which I later had found out was him yelling over losing a 20+" largemouth. It was becoming apparent that this river held some very nice fish.
After a few minutes Neil and I decided to head down stream and began working the area below the put in. At this point Jake had ventured off, which had made me rather nervous because we had several small rapids to run and Jake wasn't the most experienced at kayaking moving water. Neil and I made our way to the first rapid and decided that we could probably make our way down it. I went first. I paddled up the the top of the rapid and aimed my nose straight into the white water. The drop was somewhere in the range of 3 to 5 feet so my nose quickly dove under water and collected a few gallons of water. My scuppers where out so the water just drained out and I continued paddling. Once I got through the worst of the riffle I decided to turn around and watch Neil run the rapid. The nose of my kayak entered the slack water and then my back end shot around and spun me in a 180 degree turn........which ended up putting me and all of my gear into the water. The first thing I remember is seeing Plano boxes, Gatorade bottles, etc. floating everywhere. I then quickly discovered that my feet where not touching bottom, and that's when I decided that I would try and swim and collect my boxes. I don't know if you've ever tried to swim in a life jacket or not, but its not at all easy. I quickly abandoned that idea and began grabbing the items that were close and throwing them into my kayak. I noticed my milk crate floating upside down with several Plano boxes still in it keeping it afloat. I went to grab it and felt two rods touch my legs. That's when I had realized that my rods where in pvc tubes attached to my milk crate. Before I could react the rods where gone and I couldn't feel them any longer. I searched for a minute before I realized I had drifted into water that I could stand in. I quickly stood up and shoved my kayak onto a small rock island and went back in after my rods. Ten minutes later I felt something go in between my legs in 4 feet of water.....it was one of my rods. I held it in one hand and tried to swim across current to my kayak that was parked on a small rock island. At this point I realized one major issue....my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) was in my life jacket which had now been under water for the better part of 10 minutes. I quickly pulled it out of my life jacket, took off my otter box (not waterproof), and removed the battery. Now it hit me that this was going to be an expensive lesson. My cell phone was a warranty phone which meant I no longer had insurance.....which also meant that I had to pay full price for my next phone. ($499.99 to replace the S4) On top of the cell phone I was still missing a rod and reel, $199.99 Shimano Chronarch and a $80 Abu Garcia Vendetta.
I went back and looked for my second rod for another ten minutes, dragging my feet on the bottom where I could touch. The rod was no where to be found. I quickly gave up and told Neil that I would meet up with him downstream. I wasn't going to get in the water anymore so he didn't have to worry.
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SIDE NOTE
As the trip progressed I began to question what would have happened if that had been Jake by himself who had tipped. I had been on moving water at least 5 times more than he had so I was much more experienced. If Neil hadn't been behind me I would have for sure lost my paddle and probably half of my gear. Jake would surely had not of made out as well as I did.
For safety reasons you should always travel together in unknown areas or areas with rapids and swift moving water. Your most experienced paddlers should inspect the rapids before anyone attempts to take/run the rapid. If in doubt, pull out and drag your kayaks around the rapid. If possible its also nice to have an experienced paddler to run the rapid last in case someone does need rescued. The water was running so hard through this riffle that I'm not sure that Neil would have heard me if I screamed for help. Since he ran the rapid last he saw what had happened and was right there to help.
And always.....wear a life jacket. I was smart enough to have mine on for this trip and It could have saved my life.
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I quickly got everything back into the kayak and back to where it belonged. I paddled around the corner and started fishing once again. A couple hundred yards downstream we met up with Jake who was surprisingly dry. He told me later that he had ran the riffle on the edge where the water was moving slower.....this time around he was fortunate enough to have stayed dry. We continued to fish down the river, taking small rapids every couple hundred yards. Neil eventually told me that I should probably take paddling class with Whitewater Warehouse in the future. For now though he told me to first, get a dry box for my phone....and secondly paddle through swift moving water. In short he told me to maintain control of my kayak, IE don't float along and let the current dictate where your boat goes, and to try and stay straight through the fast water.
Soon we got to a section of river that would have most catfisherman drooling. It was an island with a massive log jam that extended for nearly 100 yards.
While everyone else was fishing for bass, all I could do is ponder where I would place a live bluegill for the trophy flathead that called this log jam his home. My daydreaming was ended quickly by the sound of a fighting fish and slipping drag as Jake brought a fish out of the wood.
For the next few hours battled with a dozen or rockbass in the 8-9" range, a handful of smallmouth in the 12-14" range, and an occasional largemouth. At 7:00pm we came up to our greatest obstacle of the day, a fairly nice sized dam. As we inspect the dam we discovered that we faced a 10-12 foot drop to the water below. In order to carry the kayaks around the dam we had to walk a long way through some pretty thick woods and carry them over a few 5 foot drops. With this in mind we decided to find an alternative route.....over the dam. If we had a rope we could drop the kayaks over the dam and then walk our gear around the dam. To do this we needed to things.....rope and a brave soul to climb down the wall of the dam and grab the kayaks as we lowered them. The only rope we had was the rope we used for our anchor trolleys, in order to avoid the hassle of carrying our kayaks around the dam I offered mine. I then looked over to Jake and asked him if he wanted to go down, he was hesitant at first. I told him that I could use the anchor trolley rope to ease him down the dam or he could use the anchor trolley rope to ease me down the dam. I'm 270lbs and he's 170lbs, the decision was easy to make at that point. He wrapped the cord around his waist and began to work his way down the dam.
At this point I should mention that the section he was going down was dry, there was no water going over at that point. The dam was at an approximate 70 degree angle so he did most of the work heading down on his feet, the rope was just there to keep him upright and to give him a little support as he worked his way down.
He eventually inched his way down the dam step by step until he got to the bottom where he could stand on a small ledge just above the water. He unwrapped the cord from his waist and Neil and I tied the rope off to the back of a kayak and began to lower it down to Jake very slowly. Eventually we got all three kayaks down and Neil and I carried the gear around the dam where we met Jake with the kayaks.
All in all we had a pretty adventurous week. We tipped the kayaks 3 times, lost a rod, nearly lost a cell phone to water damage (Luckily it came on that night), repelled kayaks down a dam, caught a ton of fish, and learned a few valuable lessons.
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