Stretch Your Budget - Fish Locally!

ECONOMICAL, CONVENIENT, AND PRODUCTIVE LOCAL FISHING TRIPS

Sometimes we just don't feel like going to the trouble of hitching up the big boat-providing we even have one. Sometimes we're a little short of cash, precluding any longer excursions.At still other times time itself severely limits our options to scratch that fishing itch. Fortunately, we live in an area of the country where our angling options are far greater, handier, and more economical than we sometimes realize. The most important variable, however, is that so many of these options can be extremely productive to boot. In these cases, you'll only need one outfit per attendee.Let's say a good choice might be a 5 1/2-6ft. light-action spinning rod matched to a reel loaded with 4-8 lb. test line. Light enough to offer some fun for panfish, and just stout enough to provide at least a fighting chance if a biggun' passes by, and the places I'm listing all offer that chance. So whether with live bait or not, with a little challenge funds-wise, and little time to get out for some fun after a summer dinner, here are some often overlooked choices for truly good fishing, all within minutes of the greater Akron/Kent/Ravenna area, and all accessible to the non-boater:

Fred Fuller Park(Kent)- take the winding road back to where the bridge spans the Cuyahoga to the adjacent softball fields. Not too deep or wide. Species: crappie, northern pike smallmouth bass.Favorite Bait:in-line spinners.

St.Peter's of the Field Church(Rootstown/Brimfield)- creek (Little Cuyahoga) runs by here on it's way to nearby Mogadore Reservoir. Species: panfish.bass,very occasional pike.Favorite Bait: minnows.

Cuyahoga River(Streetsboro)-leg that brushes along Rt.#303 contains some quality smallies.Species:smallmouth,pike. Favorite Bait: tubes.

Virginia Kendall(Peninsula)- down Kendall Rd. off old 8 north of Cuyahoga Falls.Pleasant setting features dock with ample room for the kids to pursue the pond's ample but individually smallish bluegill population. Dad can while away the time fishing amongst the weed pockets for largemouth, and there are some good ones.Species: bluegill, crappie, catfish, largemouth.Favorite Bait: redworms.

Cuyahoga River(Cascade Valley)- loaded with smallmouth, but be prepared to get wet and a bit mussed.Waders an option, though beware of some sudden drop-offs along this stretch's always-changing topograhpy. Species:smallmouth, warmouth, occasional pike and steelhead.Favorite Bait: tubes.

Mogadore Dock (Suffield)- clearly visible just east of Rt.43. Gets popular when the fall crappie bite beckons. Species: redear,largemouth, catfish,crappie. Favorite Bait: minnows.


Mud Brook (Cuyahoga Falls)-crosses Bath Rd. between Graham and State Rds. Rustic little time-killer.Species: bluegill, carp.Favorite Bait: dugworms.

Riverfront Park (Cuyahoga Falls)- widening stretch of the Cuyahoga just off the Front St. X-way exit.Very nice, with picnic facilities, restrooms, and drinking fountains. Species: bass, pike, crappie, panfish, carp, catfish,yellow perch,white perch, white bass. Favorite Bait: minnows. Curiously, city Parks & Rec. Dept. info still lists a non-existent canoe launch here.

Lake Rockwell Bridge(Mantua)- only legal means of sampling the Cuyahoga's least-pressured and most storied reservoir.Species: crappie,pike,largemouth, panfish.Favorite Bait: try topwaters.Careful maintaining legal status hereabouts, could get costly. Good Idea:call nearby Mark's Bait & Tackle (330-221-5213) for reliable info. Always worth stopping in there anyway.

Gorge Park Pier (Cuyahoga Falls)-best in fall for crappie and perch.Most visitors in the dark that SE corner is 25 ft. deep and SW corner is 35ft.So many visitors fishing down a foot or two wondering why no action.Sits on Falls side of legendary Edison Reservoir.Species: bluegill, warmouth, redear, yellow perch, white bass, largemouth, smallmouth, northern pike, crappie, bullhead, channel cats, carp, white perch. Wheelchair accessable. Little shade during day.

Well, there they are. All local, public, potentially productive, and near at least some numbers of everybody reading this.You may well find out that spending less time, money, preparation, and worry is a worthy pastime in itself. -Jack

ERIE SMALLMOUTH BITE TRENDS EASTWARD
by Jack Kiser

There is no longer any doubt among Lake Erie's smallmouth bass fishing fraternity that the days of the Western Basin being the big pond's preeminent bass fishery have gone the way of the hula hoop.

The islands of the area may well still be named after these glorious battlers, and an inordinate number of bass tournaments may still originate from that same old Sandusky-to-Lorain stretch, but the days of 100 fish days at Ruggles Reef or off Kelley's Island are now as much the stuff of past history as the Oldsmobile.

It is clear the residual effects of decades of tournaments that regularly displaced huge numbers og big spawning fish, and charter captains making at least a partial transition from walleye to bass (often without their boats even featuring any livewells at all) brought a largely uninformed and woefully insensitive tableau to their bass fishing that revealed the worst habits carried over from their walleye fishing that eventuated in either the outright keeping and eating of these valuable sportfish or smallmouth actually kept on stringers or in coolers like they were indeed mere walleye for end of the day photo ops, after which their carcasses were more than a few times witnessed thrown dead and dying into the waters in and around shipping lanes, harbors, and boat slips.

To be sure, other not so clear cut or easily understood variables may also be at work in Erie's ecosystem that may also contribute to or better explain the now obvious transition of smallmouth prominence from the west end-which, to be sure, still boasts more truly productive smallmouth days than any inland lake-to the east 's far superior bass waters that seem to improve exponentially as one heads eastward, promptly noticeable in the central basin's breakwall area's and drop-offs around Geneva, Ashtabula, and Ohio's current bass champ, Conneaut.The improvements continue seasonally heading eastward, towards the smallmouth nirvana to be experienced at Pennsylvania's Presque Isle and New York's Dunkirk shorelines. Savvy anglers have learned to remember that much as with walleyes and even yellow perch migrations that roam easterly as the open water season goes on, the bass fishing in the Western Basin peaks in April, the Central Basin most often in May, and the Eastern most often in June. Key variables hear include greater depths and consequently slower-to-warm waters the further eastward we move. Sadly, for many of us older Erie bassers, much spoiled by years of 100fish days of yore in the Western Basin, even at that end's current April peak it falls far short of even average days at the lake's other end.this is evidenced to at least some degree by the increasing number of the more prestigious tournaments that have in recent memory abandoned the general Sandusky area for venues closer to New York.

Here's hoping that a more enlightened and motivated generation of bass anglers can instill a new ethic that, combined with Ohio's long overdue closed season on smallmouth bass, will usher in not only safe maintenance of the eastern basin's bass bounties, but the eventual comeback of Erie's once predominant western locales.

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Jack Kiser is the host of TV'S "Buckeye Angler", seen every Thursday evening at 7:30 and every Saturday morning at 6 on "The Cat", TV-35 in Cleveland and TV-29 in Akron (cable 14). You may reach him at his www.buckeyeangler.com Web site.