Night fishing on the Ohio river

[Tyme2fish]

I'll be joining Knute (The Heathen) on his pontoon along with two other fishermen Saturday evening.. We will be fishing above Mcalpine dam up river of Cox's Park.

This was something I had mentioned to Knute (The Heathen) at the beginning of summer. I thought it might be fun to fish overnight on his spacious pontoon.

Knute is bringing the food and I'll be in charge of the beverages.(non-alcoholic)

He finally got his navigation and anchor lights working and I have several headlamps and battery light sources available.

We will not be fishing close to any barge traffic.

I don't know about any fish coming on-board, but I do know there will be a lot of bull.

[riverrat12]

Tyme you might want to try up by the water co. or over by the grainery. I had a pretty good day yesterday below the dams...best five were around 150# all blues with one flat(no size). Hit on all live gizzards. Ran out of fresh bait and went to frozen...not a sniff. Be prepared to see a butt load a big heads , a blind bow fisherman could have loaded the boat with them yesterday. Good luck and let us know how you do. Chuck

[Tyme2fish]

Chuck, I've had a hard time keeping bait alive. I've been casting a sabiki rig and can catch 3 to 6 bait on one cast below the hydros. However,they die very quickly in the live well or bait bucket with aerator.

We will have a castnet with us also but still, is there a trick to keeping those critters alive?

I think we're planning on going up river about 10 miles or so. That's were a river or creek comes in on the Kentucky side. Have no idea on the name of it.

But you're right about the grainery. We've had good luck in that area.

[SKIPJACK]

We have been catching Blues on the drift up river, 25'-30'. Up and down humps are producing better than the channel. Good Luck Tyme!

[onemorecast56]

just don`t understand why your not going behind the dam,,,it`s a sure thing there..

[Tyme2fish]

just don`t understand why your not going behind the dam,,,it`s a sure thing there..

The pontoon is now parked up river. It's Knute's call.

[Tyme2fish]

We didn't leave the dock until about 1800 hours. Traveled up river past the Charlestown,IN ramp and stopped on the Indiana side across from those condos up there.

I put on my Sabiki rig and started catching bait. About 2000 hours a live band started up at the condos. Pretty good bad playing old rock and country. We then assembled some ham sandwiches with cheese and fresh sliced tomatoes.

Oh, you wanted a fishing report. Knute (The Heathen) caught the first fish,a drum. Then Raymond caught a Flathead about 4 pounds. I managed to bring in two small blues.

About 0130 Knute's wife called him. She was really mad at him because she didn't know we were staying out so late. She thought it was just a short trip and got really upset when Knute didn't show back up home. By that time,we had gone back down river and were anchored at the Indiana river port at the grainery.

Knowing that Knute had troubles at the home-front we decided to head to the ramp and recover his pontoon. The marina where he now keeps his pontoon had locked the gates on us. It took all three of his with reading glasses and flashlights to punch in the lock combination to get out of there.

I finally made it home at 0330 hours and proceeded to sleep thru most of today.

Great night on the river. Nice breeze, good music from the band, good conversation and good food and we did catch a couple of fish. Not sure Knute will say it was worth it. He might still be on the couch tonight.

[riverrat12]

Chuck, I've had a hard time keeping bait alive. I've been casting a sabiki rig and can catch 3 to 6 bait on one cast below the hydros. However,they die very quickly in the live well or bait bucket with aerator.

We will have a castnet with us also but still, is there a trick to keeping those critters alive?

I think we're planning on going up river about 10 miles or so. That's were a river or creek comes in on the Kentucky side. Have no idea on the name of it.

But you're right about the grainery. We've had good luck in that area.

Tyme it's just been hard keeping any bait alive without a nice tank and water circulator. Got to watch coolin them down fast because it will shock them coming out of 90 degree water. I would catch just a few at a time and use them right away rather than catching a bunch ( which is hard to do right now) and keep them alive. And those little skip we've been catching are dead before they hit the bucket. I've been throwing a little more salt in the tank and it seems to work alittle better, there heads are turning red but they are still somewhat alive instead of stiff.LOL I would definetly try what Skipjack(Dave) said about driftin those humps that area can be a jewel or a lump a coal. Good luck Chuck