A cold morning brought out the river fog. Trees are filled in and catching the early morning sun.
Up to now May has been unseasonably cool in northeast Ohio. Temperatures have averaged about 6° below normal. That seemed to have slowed down the lake-run smallmouth bite. There have been some reports of catches, but the river temps haven’t been able to rise to a level that would make them extremely active. If you’re an early morning fisherman it’s even tougher. I know that first hand.
The other day I hit the water after a two week layoff. The morning temperatures were forecasted to be around 50°. Boy, did that local meteorologist get it wrong. I was greeted to temps in the upper 30’s. Not going to get many, if any, smallmouth to chase a woolly bugger at those temps. The good news is the temperatures are going to spike into the upper 80’s for a few days. That should help to increase the smallies metabolism, if the forecast is right.
The last couple of times out I’ve noticed a drop off in the number of fishermen hitting the rivers. The end of steelhead season will do that. I hit a popular spot, looked upstream and downstream, and did not see another fisherman. I had the entire stretch to myself all morning.
What I also noticed was the greening and growth of the trees and bushes. Almost all the trees are full of leaves. This is the time of year when the trails along the rivers start to narrow due to the growth. Paths that only a month ago looked like a two lane highway are starting to shrink. In another month you'll need your elbows to push aside the growth.
Ground cover is starting to fill in, making the paths narrower.
Hats off to Cleveland Metroparks. This path at the North Chagrin Reservation was widened in the fall.
You gotta love summer!
Go out and fool a fish!
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