Date: July 3, 2020. Conditions: Sunny. Temperature: 85 °F. Summer was here, the virtual worst time of year to fish. I figured I could have gotten up at ass o’clock to hit a wild trout stream, but the shortage of rainfall and recent heatwave would have likely made my outing an exercise in catch and kill. For the trout’s sake, I decided against it.
What was I to do? I wasn’t really sure. I figured it was kind of late in the year for gar (usually June is peak season), but thought it would be worth a shot. After all, I couldn’t think of any other fish that would eat during such conditions. Worst-case scenario was I spend a few hours hiking the creek. Seemed like the risk reward was there.
I arrived at 18 Mile around 11:30 AM. The creek read low flow on USGS, but I noticed the stretch from the bridge down to the mouth was still pretty turbid, not sure why that was. I walked down to the mouth scouting for gar. I saw none.
I walked back up to the bridge and decided to keep walking upstream. I figured there probably wouldn’t be any fish but whatever, not like I had anything better to do. I walked past the bridge and upstream to a guy who yelled to me “dude, I got a catfish, it’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen here!” I thought wow, that’s cool, must be pretty big as I know just how big some of those river monsters can get.
I walk up to find the man fighting a channel cat, probably low 20s, on his 5 wt fly rod (definitely not big by Erie channel cat standards). He told me he was targeting smallmouth and that the catfish came out from under a rock and gulped his woolly bugger.
After fighting the fish for some time and continually refusing my help, he eventually landed it (by beaching it then grabbing it by the mouth, after which it bit him and he dropped it). He let it flop around on shore for an eternity while he tried to get his phone out to take a picture of his “trophy cat.” After getting a pic, he promptly kicked the fish back into the water.
I was kind of pissed at the fact that he refused my help and mishandled the fish so egregiously. Oh well. I continued upstream with a new plan in mind: see if I could catch a cat on the fly.
I walked up to a deeper area with a few rock clusters. I saw a nice sized cat (probably low 20s) hanging out in the middle of the stream, clearly visible in the 2 ft deep water. I approached the fish and made several casts at him but he wouldn’t take. I then got too close and spooked him and he swam under another rock.
After making it to his new refuge, he was promptly chased out by another cat of similar size, who returned to his holding area under the large rock. I didn’t think the other cat had seen me, but I could see where he was holding and had the advantage of being on the side of the rock opposite of where the shelf was.
I crept up to the rock and literally dangled my fly just upstream of the fish. I let my fly drift slowly downstream under the rock shelf, giving it very small twitches. My line then stopped and I pulled up. Fish on.
I fought the fish for probably 5 minutes. I had my 5 wt fly rod so I had to go easy. The fish didn’t really fight much, likely lethargic from the hot weather. I tried numerous times to stick my hand into its mouth but it somehow managed to spit my hand out. Not sure how it managed to do that, it was almost as if it was using its tongue to regurgitate my fingers.
I finally grabbed ahold of its lower jaw, and as expected, he bit me, which really isn’t a big deal if you know it’s coming. I set him on a submerged rock and removed the hook. The hook was in the corner of his mouth, kind of in his gum. I honestly don’t know if he ate it or if I just got really lucky and snagged him in the mouth.
After removing the hook, I snagged a few pics and a short video. I turned him loose and he just kind of hung out. It was my first ever channel cat on the fly and it was overall a pretty cool experience.
I walked upstream for about a half mile without seeing any other fish, then walked back to the parking area to pack up and head out. Overall, I give the day a 10/10 for my first ever channel cat on the fly.
