Weekend trip to Ohio or Always avoid the third plate at the buffet

I got a call from Tim last week. Tim was one of the first people to check this little site out when I first started. We’d talked about fishing before but schedules for me are almost always crappy. He let me know he had some health stuff going on and wanted to get on the water. I told him I’d see what I could do to get away. I made some calls to some friends in Ohio and luckily my friends Dan and Young were planning on fishing the Mad River. We made plans, hooked it up, and it was gonna be on.

I drove to Columbus on Friday night. Hit up Mad River Outfitters Friday night. I liked that place and the dude I talked to there. That definitely started it off right. All I knew of Ohio was that it was a state next to mine I had no reason to visit, I’d been there once for work, and I avoid people with Ohio plates when driving on the highway. My perspectives were changing.

We hit up a German restaurant down the block from Dan’s place. Hearing Mario Bros on an accordion was killer. Back at Dan’s I tied some crappy trout flies. I haven’t tied a fly for trout in a long time. Size 14 and 16 are ridiculously small when you’ve been tying on 2/0 and 5/0 hooks. How do the fish even see these things?

A few hours of sleep and we were on the road to meet Tim for breakfast and a race to the Mad River for some troots. We fished hard all day. The river was full of leaves and the trout weren’t playing nice. Dan caught two browns, Young caught a sucker, I caught the biggest sucker I’ve ever caught, and Tim was skunked unless you count leaves. If we count leaves we were cleaning hooks every other cast. It’s a nice little river, more of a creek, much like the Wildcat back home. You can’t win them all and the next time I hit that river it’ll be retribution.

I wanted to thank Tim for getting me off my ass and letting me experience a little bit of Ohio. Tim you were seriously an awesome dude to spend the day on the water with. Once you’re 100% we gotta do it again. I’ll be pulling for you buddy.

I still avoid Ohio drivers on the highway but I kinda dig Ohio now.