Adventures in a Storm Drain!!

[stl_geoff]

Adventures in a Storm Drain!! - 4 time update on 5-14!!!

Im making this thread to chronical my foolish and scatter brained adventures in my home waters. This is about as home as home can get for me. Its 3 minutes from my driveway to fishing via pickup. I have bluegill, green sunfish, largemouth, chubs, carp and used to have bullhead in this creek. its not pretty or romantic AT ALL! There are signs up saying not to fish, swim or play because of possible sewer overflow and because of that there are culverts from the industrial park and roads draining into it. Never the less, fishes are in here and damn it Im gonna fish it. Since this is so close to home and in less then 2 months I'll have a newborn, expect this thread to have lots of updates.

SOOO Lets start it off right!

BAM!!!! First fish of the year on my 1 week old Sage vantage 8wt. Sweet! Then a few casts later, BAM!! Carp number 2!! I got foolish though and put too much pressure on it at the shore when trying to land him and he pulled the hook shank straight and fishing barbless flies, it was a goner, but I dove in trying to grab it but im no match for the slippery carp and their power. BUT! i touched it so that counts as two. Then a small stupid 4" chub which wouldnt be a trip to the creek if I didnt catch one. Water wasnt cold, but surely wasnt normal temps as my hands and feet can attest but the carp we feeding and I got 2!!! So until next week or so, stay tuned for more Adventures in a Storm Drain!!!!

 

[bucktail]

Good work that carp is a pig. It finally warmed up here in Illinois and I managed my first carp of the year as well what a blast. BTW is it safe to say that when it came to sewage overflow you didn't give a ****?

 

[stl_geoff]

BTW is it safe to say that when it came to sewage overflow you didn't give a ****?

YUP!! haha. let me tell you something, i have been fishing in this creek for 12 years now and the signs went up a couple years ago, it has always been a possiblilty but now they have to post that it can happen. The way i see it is give it a couple days after a rain and flood, dont eat the fish and your golden.

 

[gatortransplant]

Nice pun there, Bucktail, and quite the hefty carp, Geoff! Will definitely be keeping track of the adventures!

 

[mcnerney]

stl_geoff: Awesome Carp, congrats! If there is raw sewage in that water I'd definitely think twice about jumping in after a Carp that straightened a hook, just be safe out there.

 

[littledavid123]

I wouldn't worry about the raw sewage, the radiation leak causing the warm water will kill any bacteria present.

So how do you like the new rod???

Dave

 

[ted4887]

That cork won't be nearly as shiny and new looking after a few carp outings in the local poo stream. Love it though!

 

[chuck s]

Sewage drain and Catch and Release, a match made in heaven!:frogdance Nice fish and a great first outing with a new rod.

 

[caseywise]

stl,
nice carp you got there, and on a new rig. i'll bet by the end of the summer that cork is gonna be a bit darker
sounds like a fun day

casey

 

[jhammer]

That's a good looking carp! I can't wait to get into some!

Speaking of storm drain creeks, we used to have one a couple blocks from my old house. It was a pretty fun place to fish and explore. It was really small too. If you had a 9 foot rod, you could touch the other side of the pool. I spent many afternoons there harassing teeny, tiny sunfish, chubs, baby carp, and bullheads.

 

[wabi]

Sometimes I'm amazed at the ability of fish to adapt to pollution. We have a creek that gets some major spills of raw sewage when we have heavy rain (the wastewater treatment plant gets flooded to overflowing) but the fish survive. I sure wouldn't keep any to eat, but they're fun to catch (& release).

 

[xxdanielt3]

Very interesting, keep up the good fishing!

 

[stl_geoff]

Thanks all. The new Sage is AWESOME!!! The rod casts wonderfully, its light and SUPER responsive. The Sage line i got on clearance also shoots really well and floats high. I had no issues presenting my fly quietly and right where i wanted it with 35' casts. I hate to say it because i love my other St Croix dearly but my ST Croix 8wt couldnt come close to touching this Vantage. Im sure the cork will be MUCH darker and have that fish goo funk by fall when I put it away. I plan to hit this water pretty much every week if I can, I have plenty of water to explore, this section is just a .75 mile section by me.

Let me clarify siomething right quick...there is NO ( direct ) RAW sewage in this watershed. There is polutants though. Many of the storm drains in the area neighborhoods and in the industrial park flow into this creek. So anything in the streets is sweep into it. So common things to see are tires, plastic bags, bottles, cans, grocery carts, lawn mowers etc etc. The actual water shed/creek has very little of this actual junk in it, it mostly ends up in the gravel bars and on the sides. We are kinda starting a mini stream team on it to help keep it clean. So please, DO NOT be concerned about me getting a nasty bactieral infection via poo from this creek. All I have caught so far is carp-aloism.


I have also been taking video, so hopefully by the fall I can throw a nice 10-15min video together of my escopades in the poop-chute.

 

[drlaser]

Geoff next time I hit my drainage creek I'm going to take a video just for you.

 

[tyler185]

Very jealous. I have been wanting to hook into a carp for a long time now. Maybe this is the year.

I just got a Sage Flight and I also agree the cork is way to shiny. It just doesnt look or feel right. I will have to change that. Haha

 

[stl_geoff]

Very jealous. I have been wanting to hook into a carp for a long time now. Maybe this is the year.

I just got a Sage Flight and I also agree the cork is way to shiny. It just doesnt look or feel right. I will have to change that. Haha

They are awesome fish, you'll be addicted after a couple of them. The cork on my old 3wt is pretty dark and discolored, guess that just means lots of fishes.

 

[mcnerney]

Thanks all. The new Sage is AWESOME!!! The rod casts wonderfully, its light and SUPER responsive. The Sage line i got on clearance also shoots really well and floats high. I had no issues presenting my fly quietly and right where i wanted it with 35' casts. I hate to say it because i love my other St Croix dearly but my ST Croix 8wt couldnt come close to touching this Vantage. Im sure the cork will be MUCH darker and have that fish goo funk by fall when I put it away. I plan to hit this water pretty much every week if I can, I have plenty of water to explore, this section is just a .75 mile section by me.

Let me clarify siomething right quick...there is NO ( direct ) RAW sewage in this watershed. There is polutants though. Many of the storm drains in the area neighborhoods and in the industrial park flow into this creek. So anything in the streets is sweep into it. So common things to see are tires, plastic bags, bottles, cans, grocery carts, lawn mowers etc etc. The actual water shed/creek has very little of this actual junk in it, it mostly ends up in the gravel bars and on the sides. We are kinda starting a mini stream team on it to help keep it clean. So please, DO NOT be concerned about me getting a nasty bactieral infection via poo from this creek. All I have caught so far is carp-aloism.


I have also been taking video, so hopefully by the fall I can throw a nice 10-15min video together of my escopades in the poop-chute.

Geoff: Good to hear that you are enjoying the new Sage rod! I can't wait to see your video!

 

[jpbfly]

Nice fish to christen the new rod:thmbup:congrats!

 

[pab1]

Congrats! Thats a great way to start the year!

 

[theboz]

Brings back memories. Grew up fishing storm drains. Except ours drained into a large sand pit called a sump. Most had goldfish and carp in them but one had largemouth bass. A local tournament fisherman had self stocked it for his personal honey hole. My buddy made the front page of the paper when he hooked a body in the sump. Turned out to be the victim of a car crash that was never recovered from the scene. Only thing I didn't like about fishing the dumps were the water rats. See you hook a goldfish and swim right over to investigate. Creepy!