Verteran's day on the Ohio River

As a tradition, Vet's day is always a fishing day for me. Usually to Cumberland, but this time I opted for the Ohio. The main reason for the change was that I had a chance to meet Doug Meyer, alias Onemorecast. I flew solo on my pontoon, and Doug brought 2 friends in his center console. We met at the LGE discharge up from Greenwood Ramp.

Here's how the day went.

Fishing:
1. I ran free lines with shiners and downpoles as well as a couple lines on the bottom while tied up to the steel wall at the discharge. Caught a couple small Sauger on live bait, mainly on the free line, and the downpole, but not on the bottom line. Caught one Herring Shad that ate a shiner darn near as big as he was.
2. Ran toward the dam and stopped just south of the PSI plant. There's a set of 12-15 foot high rock walls on the Indiana side. I pulled crank baits at main engine idle up and down there for 3 passes. Crank baits were deep and medium divers (8-12 foot deep) and scored a couple white bass, a small but crazy Blue Catfish, and one small Hybrid.
3. Ran to the dam. Did some sight seeing at the K&I railway bridge. Wanted to see how much damage that loose barge did that hit it last year. A couple scratches of the concrete, and hat was about it. Also noted all the new lock work going on. At the dam, pulled in 30 feet off the bank, behind the 40 foot high concrete tower on the Ky bank, behind Hydro one. Ran the same spread of live bait, but lightened up one sinker line to a 1 ounce, so the current would keep it off the bottom, but the weight would keep the bait off the surface. I was just hand playing out the line when I felt a thump. I waited for a couple seconds, felt no more pulls, and started pulling out more line dropping the bait back so more. One more handful went out, and another thump. Still no line pull, so I let some more out. Thump......Thump.........vibration........then still. So I was just about to set the rod in the holder when the drag start screaming like a Chevy small block at 5000 rpm with a loose fan belt. I grabed the rod, set hard, and was amazed to see a big swirl at the surface immediately. This was followed by a long and very hard crash dive, a long and determined lateral run, then another big swirl at the surface. I was sure I had the Striper I was looking for. Turned out to be a 9 pound Blue Cat. As he came in the net, and as I set the net down to get the camera, I guess Mr Blue decided he was gonna make me pay for this side trip I just gave him. He was PO'd and wanted me to know it, knocking over tackle boxes, and flopping the landing net around until he finally managed to knock my cell phone on the floor, and emptied my coffee cup for me. He calmed down, got weighted, but not before he'd spined me with a fin, scratched up my left hand with another fin, then darn near tore the nail off my thumb while I was lipping him to get a scale hung in him. First lesson learned for the day.......Blue's at the dam suspend, like life bait. Second lesson was if you catch one, do not expect them to thank you for it!
4. Still at the same spot, saw a bunch of baby Herring jumping close to the bank. Figured a Hybrid or Striper was chasing up to the bank to feed on them, so whipped a full sized Redfin on the bank, then drug it into the water slow. Three feet off the bank, this little, polite explosion occurred, and my Redfin started swimming on the surface by itself, and upstream at that. No line pull, the Fin just started swimming backwards up stream. I didn't get much sleep the night before, so I watched, and finally decided to set the hook hard. Seven foot rod bent near in half on the hook set, and the fin with something small attached came out of the water, slammed the side of the boat, and got hung up suspended on my bow anchor line. I looked down and saw a small white bass that was 2 inches shorted than the Redfin, hanging by his tail from the back of the Redfin's rear treble hook. Third lesson learned today, white bass at the dam have no sense of direction, back into what they want to eat, or are just too slow to outrun a Redfin.

Onemorecast and his buddies pulled along side so we could swap stories for a while. They were having a great day catching Sauger, Whites, and Hybrids.
Onemore cast is a great guy, friendly, warm, shares details and experiences, and just a darn fun guy to meet and talk to. I enjoyed it.

I also took some time and worked the KY side 20 feet off the bank, behind Hydro one, throwing a white Fat Free Shad Guppy, and a Blue Back Fat Free Shad at the banks with a semi quick retrieve. Every 200 down the bank yard drift netted 3 or 4 white bass, or small Stripers, or Saugers. They must have been pushing bait to the bank to feed. Talked with another guy in a bass boat who said he had done the same thing all day, same results, all around the dam area, with a fish hit every 2 to 3 casts.

Last lesson learned. It got dark and I was headed out of the dam area. I was just entering the slot, when I saw the big red bill board with one tiny little red strobe light blinking. The sign said, "No boats passed this point when [B][I][U]lights[/U][/I][/B] are blinking". I figured the little light was to say a sign was there, I never figured that was the "Blinking lights". Anyway, as I approached the right hand corner right at the north end (beginning) of the lock wall, and was turning south to start toward main river, I heard a gush of water, and saw 2 foot waves start rushing at me from what seemed to be all sides. I slowed to a crawl to figure out what was going on. I guess they were dumping water from one of the locks, and I didn't recognize the warning. I added about 1/4 throttle, and started to crawl my way out, with a 20 foot pontoon boat now trying to turn anyway it wanted to, with a bow taking nose dives repeatedly, and waves that seemed to be coming at me from everywhere. Seemed like forever, but got to the end of the slew, and to quieter water. During the ride, the pontoon bow looked like one of those WWII movies, where the destroyer is caught in a typhoon.

All in all, it was a great day on the Ohio. Good fishing, great to meet and make a new friend, and lots of lessons learned. I'll probably go try it again this week, if my hands heel up, and I can find and pump or dry out all the places theOhio River water is still stuffed in the boat from the run down the lock's slew.

Thank's Bob for a great report. Lowerider called today, he fished Markland Sun. Several Blues 30# plus.
I will have him give a report.

I had a good day also ,fished the lower spillway .No big hybrids like last week when I caught 25 hybrids in 25 consecutive casts .
We did get a limit of big sauger and a few whites .Everyone on the bank has been getting limits of sauger at the upper spillway .I just dont like fishing elbow to elbow .So I took the boat out today.I love the river .In a couple of weeks it will be time to fish the warm water discharge at Gallagher Station !!

I'm too lazy to look it up. What's the limit on Sauger on the Ohio?

Great post. Thanks for all the info. I too enjoy fishing at the beartraps and the hydro.

Sounds like a good day on the river!

[quote=PRO V LE;308319].... Lowerider called today, he fished Markland Sun. ....[/quote]

Wondered if that was his skiff out there. I banked fished a little further downstream from where he was. A few sauger, then a few hybrids after the storm passed through.

Andrew

[QUOTE=Tyme2fish;308332]I'm too lazy to look it up. What's the limit on Sauger on the Ohio?[/QUOTE]

10

[QUOTE=apb;308348]Sounds like a good day on the river!



Wondered if that was his skiff out there. I banked fished a little further downstream from where he was. A few sauger, then a few hybrids after the storm passed through.

Andrew[/QUOTE]

Andrew

Wish you would of flagged me down - plenty of room in the barge. We striper fished for a little while until I saw a few boats catching blues hand over fist then I couldn't stand it any longer. We jetted at the first sign of lightning and ended up getting a good soaking while in the lock. I don't mind the rain, but play it safe with the electricity. We ran into some nice jacks before the storm which in turn ran into some nice blues - big fish went 46# which feels like 100 lbs in the hydros. I may head back down Thanksgiving weekend if I can't get a hall pass to head to C-land; either way I'll be fishing that weekend. We need to hook up soon. Take care

Scott

Thought about flagging you down, but I ran into some other guys I know out there and I only had my bank rods with me. Not sure you would want me throwing a 10 foot rod from the boat! Definitely some nice skippies in the area. Had a good one on a 3 oz spoon. Several others on smaller spoons/jigs.

Andrew

[QUOTE=riverrat12;308351]10[/QUOTE]

Thanks from an overworked Lazy FISHERMAN