Urban fishing. It’s always interesting what you see on the water. Fly-chucker and I got out. We decided to hit some new water in the city and chase some smallmouth and maybe musky.
We motored up as far as the river would allow. Stopping at a ledge that looked damned fishy. Nothing. It was chilly and rainy. Not what you’d hope for in August.

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Along the banks you’d see old rusty bikes, refrigerators, power line ceramic insulators, and all kinds of other garbage. Other than that the water looked prime. We fished for a while in the wind and rain and it was starting to feel like one of those long slow days on the water.
Then things got weird. We were holding position on the river under a bridge of one of the busy city streets. It was still cold and it was still raining. I think I was in the process of tying on a fly when I hear fly-chucker say to me “is that a naked man?”
I look up and sure enough, on the side of the river just below the busy city street, there is a man, totally naked, gingerly stepping across a riffle, cupping his junk with both hands as he went.
“Holy shit he sure is man.”
I think we were already both laughing at that point but also thinking what the fuck?
The man then ran into the woods and the weeds. He reappeared about five minutes later wearing a plaid shirt and still no pants or shoes. He walked along the rivers edge until he reached the riffle, gingerly walked across to the other side and disappeared up into the woods towards the busy city street.
Just a normal day on the water I guess.
Fly-chucker and I went back to fishing for a while and then decided to pull over riverside for lunch. I hopped out and walked about a block to get us some hot deli sandwiches. On my way back to the boat I passed the naked man. No longer naked… wearing that same plaid shirt and thankfully now some pants and shoes as well. I’m not sure he recognized me… it’s probably better that way.
Fly-chucker and I then sat in the boat and enjoyed our hot italiano sandwiches with grilled salami, capicola, pepperoni, ham, and melted provolone. Damn they were good.
We had noticed some fish busting the surface out in the deep water. We headed over to see what they were. For the next hour or so we proceeded to hammer what turned out to be some kind of shad. It took us a bit to figure them out but once we did it was a blast. Small nymphs swung just under the surface in 15 feet of water. Doubling up a couple times. Laughing the entire time. Later in the day the sun came out and the smallies started to wake up a bit and the shad bite continued.
It was an interesting day of urban fishing for sure. Cheers.

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