I had fished every Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trail event except one and in the process fished more flat water than I normally would. I was ready for a distraction. Usually that distraction is crappie, bluegill, or saugeye, but this time it would be a different species....brown trout! In the past, I always fished for trout when all the other fish shut down and that usually meant temperatures in the 30's. Another words I was always looking to get my kayak fishing fix until other fish heated back up. This year was a little different as we had a cold spell hit a bit earlier in the year than normal and I needed a break from flat water.Fishing for trout in Ohio is something that is a bit off the beaten path for most anglers. Trout streams in Ohio are pretty rare compared to other neighboring states and most anglers probably identify trout fishing as hitting the local pond that the ODNR stocks. I am lucky enough to have a prime trout river within 30 minutes away.
Travis Belcher and Jeff Bennett met up with me and we coordinated the shuttle and hit the river.I had trout fished on this particular river about 10 or so times in the past and one of the things I looked
forward to most is the moving water. There were no flat sections on this stretch and paddling was only required to avoid wood piles and rocks. After a lot of trips this summer that were 8+ hours on flat water I was ready for a nice fall trip on fast moving water with no portages.
At the put-in the first thing everyone noticed was the crystal clear water and the abundance of leaves floating. I had success in the past landing large numbers of smaller trout with small inline spinners on this particular flow, but I wanted to try something else in the hopes of catching a larger brown. I tied on a decent sized swimbait and began casting. On my first cast I noticed that the leaves in the water were going to be an issue all day with them catching on the line and hook. About the first quarter of the trip I had 
no fish and no bites. I wasn't ready to change lures quite yet because only one small 6" brown was caught by Jeff. A bit further into the trip Jeff had caught two more small trout on inline spinners and I had yet to get a bite on my swimbait so I decided to switch to my own inline spinner. I started with a yellow rooster tail with a silver blade but quite a bit larger than the one Jeff was using...I still wanted to find the bigger trout. I immediately started to get hits, but nothing that would take the treble hook all the way in. I could see the smaller trout hitting the lure as I was reeling it in, but they were too small and in the 6" range. Finally, I got a hook up with a brown trout in the 8" range. Every brown trout I catch I am amazed at the color and patterns on the fish. In my opinion, it is the coolest looking fish in Ohio waters and often pictures don't do it justice.
As the trip progressed we all ended up catching about 4 or 5 brown trout with Travis landing the largest one measuring about 12.5". During the trip we ran into a fly fishing guide from Mad River Outfitters in Columbus. In the past we had caught what we thought to be small rainbow trout, but he informed us that they were just really awkward looking brown trout. Some of the brown trout from a hatchery no longer used would have a real silvery sheen to them and were mistaken as rainbows by most anglers. I guess it had something to do with the trout being raised on a white concrete floor as opposed to the dark colored floor now. All in all a great distraction from bass fishing!
-Neil
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