 "Photo: Photo courtesy of Aaron Gibbons")
Most days in July, I grab a tin of cigarettes and a packed lunch and head for the Maumee River. With my rod and reel in hand, I patiently wade my way through the water, usually only knee-high in the depth of summer, and hope to find a hole stocked with smallmouth bass. I then cast my four-pound test line in the water while the sun bakes my face tan. Cast, recast, cast, recast, waiting for the big bite.
I would be lying if I said I was good at fishing. Actually, I am probably the last person anyone would want to go out with to catch something worth bragging about. Like many fishermen, I thrive on exaggeration, but like all hobbies in life, it’s a steady and enjoyable journey mastering the art form.
Aaron Gibbons, a counseling education graduate student at the University of Toledo, has been fishing for as long as he can remember. Gibbons has also written for ProCats, a Catfish fishing publication.
“About as early on as I could physically hold a pole, I was in the water,” he said.
On top of fishing the Maumee River Valley and Lake Erie, he has also fished extensively on the Great Miami, The Ohio and the Mississippi rivers.
Gibbons said the joy of fishing comes from both the environment and the excitement of a catch.
“It’s definitely a combo of both. For me, fishing is like an adventure,” Gibbons said. “I can get away from the city and enjoy the wild life and a flowing river.”
According to Gibbons, next week marks the beginning of channel cat season.
“The cats hit hard during pre-spawn, where they are also the largest.” The catfish have holed up for most of the winter and as the ice breaks up, they begin looking for food again.
He called cat fishing one of the more interesting freshwater fish to catch because of their size. “A big bass or walleye may be somewhere between six to 10 pounds, where as a big catfish will be somewhere around 40 plus pounds.”
Gibbons recalled a flathead catfish he once caught that he believed to be well over 50 pounds. “The scale I had actually broke because the fish weighed too much.”
For basic equipment, Gibbons recommended an open face reel or a spin caster with eight to 12 pound test for the line and using freshly cut gizzard shad or chicken liver for bait. Shad can be caught with a net in the shallows of the water where as chicken liver can be bought at most any grocery store.
“The Maumee River is a great fishery for channel catfish. The Providence dam south of Toledo in Grand Rapids provides a number of holes where fish like to feed,” he said.
At the dam, fish congregate and collect underneath. A fisherman should keep their eyes open for a shallow run in the water that suddenly drops into deeper water.
“That’s where the catfish will be,” Gibbons said.
Along the shore of Lake Erie, Maumee Bay State Park offers a mix of quality spots for fishing. Further inland, the Maumee River, stretching from Toledo to Fort Wayne, Indiana, is prime for fishing, especially during the walleye run, which Northwest Ohio is best known for in the fishing community. Areas such as Bluegrass Island in Maumee, Fort Meigs in Perrysburg and the many parks along the river, such as Sidecut and Farnsworth metroparks provide a fisherman with ample fishing spots and scenery.
Walleye run up the river from Lake Erie in early March until about May, but some lucky anglers have reported catching these fish late into the summer. The Maumee takes on a new face when the run begins, thousands of fishermen flock to the area to cast into the cold river for a chance to bring a few of these fish to shore.
They do so by utilizing a “clock casting” technique of casting the line at three o’clock into the river while reeling the line in slowly and letting your bait drift to nine o’clock. A simple floating jig head is the most common bait used for walleye, although there is a multitude of different strategies depending on the angler.
Fishing during the height of Walleye season proves to be crowded with other anglers, especially at Bluegrass Island. One may do best to migrate south into the town of Waterville to avoid the hoards of anglers fighting for the hot spots.
Late May, the white bass are usually littering the river. It’s hard not to catch one. As the river’s temperatures begin to rise, the small mouth bass become more active and begin to bite. Smallmouth will often bite hard and dance across the water, giving one of the best pound for pound fights a fish can offer.
Top water, spinner baits and small live bait as well as light tackle Line weight and rod size will be sufficient for such an excursion. Fishing in holes, just under small rapids, or in shady areas may prove most successful when fishing for bass.
Ultimately, fishing is a game of patience, trial and error. What may work one day in one body of water, may not work the following day in another lake or river. Talk to the locals, visit fishing shops like Maumee Bait and Tackle to hear stories and find the most lucrative spots, but remember that no true angler is going to give away their secret spots. It’s the true solitude of fishing that can be the most enjoyable aspect to the sport.
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