3/22/12 Middle Creek State Fishing Lake..."In Search of.....Well , Anything."

After 3 straight days of persistent rain around here it finally broke for a few hours yesterday on what just happened to be my day off. I could tell Joe was tired of being couped up and was anxious to get outside , it's amazing how much we think alike.

With a few hours to kill in the morning we decided to take off and go hit a small public fishing lake just South of home. I didn't expect to find much of anything except a soggy trail leading to an off-colored lake still on the rise from the recent deluge of rain. My intuition wasn't too far off base. No matter , the sun was trying to peek out from behind the thick clouds and Joe and I were both happy just to get out. We walked along the dam of the small lake , mostly because it was one of the only areas we could hike without slopping through six inches of mud.

This lakes inhabitants include saugeye , walleye , white bass and a few hybrids along with the usual mix of warmwater species for this area. I threw a chartreuse and white clouser haphazardly as we walked along , not really expecting to catch anything but still hoping I might get lucky and pull the ol blind squirrel trick. Despite my best efforts (well not really) the fish eluded us.


It was a nice little hike from one side of the lake to the other and we got to see a flock of wild turkeys strutting out in a field as well as several geese chasing each other around along the dam. A nice little nature walk if nothing else.
I still had one other spot that I wanted to give a look before we headed back North towards home , this particular lake has an overflow that I'd had some success fishing back in my pre-flyfishing days. The one issue with this spot is that the only parking is on the shoulder of a 4-lane highway and you have to climb a 60 inch barbwire security fence to get to it. I suppose you could say that I had to tresspass to fish it , but that seems like pretty harsh terminology to me . The water in the lake is public so it only seems right that it still belongs to the taxpayers on the other side as well , elementary thinking at it's finest. A short drive and we arrived at the spot.

Joe had to stay in the truck to his dismay ,I just didn't feel comfortable getting him out on a busy highway and besides that he could explain the situation to any highway patrol officer that happened to stop and check out my vehicle. This spot's really nothing more than a pothole and isn't even fisheable unless we've had a good amount of rain and the lake is topping the overflow level like it was on this day.

Still not much to look at , even when full , but I just had a feeling there was a fish or two in there somewhere. Still using the same clouser , I worked my way around the small pool , basically pitching my fly into likely looking current seams. On about the third cast I felt a tug that turned out to be a decent sized white.

At least the skunk was gone I thought to myself as I released the fish and made another short cast. I didn't linger too long , working my way around the small pool quickly, glancing back up towards the highway occasionally to make sure I didn't see any flashing red lights. It ended up being worth the effort , landing two chunky white bass and one dink crappie before calling it quits.

Definitely nothing to write home about but at least I didn't have to ride home with that skunk on my back...I'm easy I guess.