Mcalpine Sauger

[Tyme2fish]

As everyone knows, the sauger are biting on the Ohio below the McAlpine dam. I was one of 14 boats and 32 bank fishermen in front of the Interprative center.
Soneone in an orange boat tried to follow me up river from the Clarksville ramp but must have thought I didn't know where I was going. When I turned north to cross the river he saw "open" water and went straight up. Guess he didn't know there's a peninsula there.This is as you approach the upper gates, about a half mile or so below. Never saw him up river so I guess he turned around.
Had to have the jig tipped with a minnow.
Don't worry, I left plenty of fish in the river for the rest of you.

[riverrat12]

Was there any size to them? Last week they where small compared to the ones we where getting before the rise. And were they right off the ledge or scattered? good to here they are still on...Bad to here all the boats. Anybody at the lower dam. Chuck

[Tyme2fish]

We caught six that we could've kept. The others were little "cigars."

We were right on the ledge in front of the I-center

[SKIPJACK]

I was down there today and some guys in a boat anchored right in front of several guys on the bank fishing and pretended that they couldn't see the guys on the bank. They finally moved when a barrage of jigs started raining down on them. I had to laugh! Why would you bring a boat to fish the same water as bank fishermen?

[Brutus]

Hey folks, Is Clarksville the best boat access for fishing McAlpine?
A feller at the Interpretive Ctr said there are signs to follow to find the ramp. Is this good info?
What's the river lookin like?

Lotsa questions huh? :-)

Thanks, Brutus

[Ruger 454]

I was down there with Skipjack today and had a blast except for the gomers in the boat.I think I would have had my limit of good size fish if I ever kept any,pink and white seemed to do the trick.

[Tyme2fish]

Hey folks, Is Clarksville the best boat access for fishing McAlpine?
A feller at the Interpretive Ctr said there are signs to follow to find the ramp. Is this good info?
What's the river lookin like?

Lotsa questions huh? :-)

Thanks, Brutus

I'll answer that question with, Well it all depends. Anything more than 6 feet of dam on the lower gates and you have one heck of a time launching and recovering a boat from the Clarksville ramp.

Finding the ramp is one thing. Navigating from the ramp to the I-center is another. You MUST have someone with you that the knows the channel.

[jfw]

Follow the duck pond wall til you get to the third break in the wall then head for the Colgate ditch on the In side go slow watch your depth finder when you are about 20 ft from shore turn up river then do not hug either bank you have to make an S turn .Once your out there you can see then channel on your electronics ,just dont fly

[birdstrike]

Here is a good tip for finding the river channel. Go to terraserver.com, find this section of the Ohio river and then change the date of the satilite picture until you see one that was snapped at a low water period. I don't remember which date worked best and I'm on my laptop right now which is too slow to go look it up again. Doing this, you will see the river at various levels, one of which is very low.

Good luck!

Steve

[birdstrike]

Okay, I looked it up.
terraserver.com
Type in Clarksville, IN
scroll your screen to the South until you see the river
Under "Imagery", select the date of 8/1/2005

There you go!!

Don't you just love modern electronics!

[birdstrike]

Here's a peek.

http://www.fishin.com/forums2/showthread.php?p=308812#post308812

[DavidPT40]

Please do not eat any sauger from the Ohio River. These fish are highly contaminated with various toxins, such as PCBs and mercury. Some fish even have dioxins in them (same chemical that caused all the side effects of Agent Orange).