Licking River 8-19

Fished the Licking River in Campbell County. My son and I caught around 60 sauger and whitebass fishing a riffle area Saturday evening. They were all small 4-8". Caught 2 bass around 10" they were Kentuckies. Caught all of our fish on small shad color cb and rebel teeny craws. Just no bigger fish to be caught. Lots of shad poppin everywhere. The water temps had dropped some. River is still about 2' low. Cooler temps and some rain will add current and the bigger fish will move up into the shallow areas. Figures fishing for smallies and catch sauger! Still had fun. Must have had a good spawn this spring.
Bassky

[QUOTE=Bassky;302351]Fished the Licking River in Campbell County. My son and I caught around 60 sauger and whitebass fishing a riffle area Saturday evening. They were all small 4-8". Caught 2 bass around 10" they were Kentuckies. Caught all of our fish on small shad color cb and rebel teeny craws. Just no bigger fish to be caught. Lots of shad poppin everywhere. The water temps had dropped some. River is still about 2' low. Cooler temps and some rain will add current and the bigger fish will move up into the shallow areas. Figures fishing for smallies and catch sauger! Still had fun. Must have had a good spawn this spring.
Bassky[/QUOTE]

We did a 5.5 mile float/paddle in the CWMA in Nicholas County on Sun. Was the first time on that river for me. Water was low and slow. Very warm water and shallow. We caught several small fish. I see some good things with about 1-2 ft of water in the fall or Spring.
Lots and lots of submerged wood on rocky flats. I thought we might raise a musky, but noty a sniff.

I may venture on downstream later on this fall. I've been doing some extensive map studying on that watershed.

Billy

Went again last nite, caught 15. One Kentucky around 10", 8 sauger 1-14", 1-12" and 6 small white bass. Good current and the river came up some and a little dirtier water than Saturday. No smallies. I can usually catch em but they have moved out back into deeper holes for now because of the heat. I live right on the river and have easy access. The shad weren't poppin like they were Saturday either. There were some pods of shad here and there. There is some good laydowns and rocky shoals from my place downstream to the next riffle. I haven't had a chance to fish it yet, maybe this weekend.
Bassky

I know there are Musky in the Licking, but has anyone really gotten into any up there? Is it more of a accidental thing getting into them in the river or is there a semi- decent population? I'm always trying to hook into one of those bad boys.

The riffle area I am fishing, there was a muskie caught there by my cousin, it was about 28". Right behind my house I saw one suspending in a laydown that would go 50". This is only about 15 miles south of Cincinnati! I threw a big buzzbait by it but he wouldn't touch it. I have heard of others that have caught muskies in my area before too. I believe the numbers are low in this area. One area sort of close to you is the Red River Gorge area. I was smallmouth fishing down there and caught a couple of smaller muskies, 28" on rebel crawfish a few years back and you can fish the Licking River area by Blue Lick State park too. They catch em in there year round along with some sauger, walleyes and smallmouth.
Bassky

sounds real nice, thanks a lot. i hope to make it out to some of those areas some time. i love the flows, and catching those fish is a lot of fun.

I caught a 36" muskie on accident from the Kenton county side at the riffles just south of Morningview about 4 years ago.
I've been fishing the Licking River since I was big enough to walk,mostly the white bass run in the spring and summertime catfishin',but you can find about anything in there if you fish enough.I know the river from Visalia to Falmouth pretty good.
Anybody ever hook a Mussel before?My daughter must have got into a bed of them a few weeks ago ,because she hooked two on separate casts.Had to land in them while they were open because the hook was inside.

Glenn P.

Glenn,
I fish from Visalia bridge to Locust Pike ramp areas mostly. I have fished some around Morningview and DeMossville areas, like the narrows, mouth of Grassy Creek and up around Sandy Island area up to Butler. There is some good fishing in the areas you mentioned. It is a good fishery that doesn't get much pressure. Behind my house the depth runs around 12-15' between the riffles and it has a lot of laydowns. I have caught lm up to 4lbs but they are hard to come by and smallmouth 3lbs, channel cat 10lbs and drum 6lbs, tons of whitebass, few crappie and sauger.
Bassky

Pretty tough boating beyond the Visalia bridge, especially this year.There is a ramp at Falmouth too (wasn't sure if you were aware?)
I've caught quite a few Smallmouth and seem to catch them more in areas where creek mouths are. My best from the Licking/ tributaries was a 5 lb 4 oz one that actually came out of Grassy Creek near where the old twin bridges was. Used to wade fish Cruises Creek when I was younger and caught some good ones there also,I'm one of those "hated" live bait fisherman so probably not nmuch help to you,I love my helgramites though.

I have put my bassboat in the ramp at Falmouth. The water is only 3-5' deep there. Lots of laydowns in this pool area. I have fished the area on Grassy Creek where you are talking about and have caught some nice fish out of there but that was over 10 years ago. Was the 5lber a smallie or LM? You have the better smallmouth areas up there than I do below Visalia bridge areas. I have used hellgramites and crawfish live bait in the areas around Butler and Sandy Island. Good fish in there too, including some big drum.
Going tomorrow nite below Meldahl dam, trying for smallmouth and sauger.
Will post a report on Monday.
Bassky

Report 8-26:
Went Sat evening again. Not as many fish, but the bigger fish are starting to bite a little better now. My son caught around 25 and I caught around 10. He caught 4 smallies, biggest around 12", 4 nice sauger 10-12", a nice drum, and the rest were small white bass and cigar size saugers. All of my fish were small, white bass and cigars too. Still had fun. The Licking was up about 2' from last Tuesday. Little current and the water had cooled some.
Bassky