Sauger at the Falls

How has the fishing been this year? I will be moving back to Louisville for a few months so of course I will have to hit up the falls. I remember that last year wasnt that great of a year, at least for me. Anyone been catching any yet?

[QUOTE=JD7.62;435639]How has the fishing been this year? I will be moving back to Louisville for a few months so of course I will have to hit up the falls. I remember that last year wasnt that great of a year, at least for me. Anyone been catching any yet?[/QUOTE]

Been slow with the high water Jason, last week I hit two cigars in a creek one white bass and a small blue on the main river.Nothing at the warm water discharge, only one stack going. This week got a late start and had to fish from the shore, when I got to the fossil beds the back parking lot was closed and I had to sweet talk Steve at the museum to park back there.Fished the creek with the ussuals and didn't get the first tap.Water is falling but still muddy and the walk back was an accident waitin to happen. On a side note I saw alot of gulls feeding.....a good sign I hope for the future...give me a holler when you get to town we'll wet a line. Mery Christmas Chuck

Thanks Chuck for the report. I hope the river doesnt stay high and muddy all season long.

I will get in touch with you when I get back, I would love to get on the river with you again!

[QUOTE=riverrat12;435665]Been slow with the high water Jason, last week I hit two cigars in a creek one white bass and a small blue on the main river.Nothing at the warm water discharge, only one stack going. This week got a late start and had to fish from the shore, when I got to the fossil beds the back parking lot was closed and I had to sweet talk Steve at the museum to park back there.Fished the creek with the ussuals and didn't get the first tap.Water is falling but still muddy and the walk back was an accident waitin to happen. On a side note I saw alot of gulls feeding.....a good sign I hope for the future...give me a holler when you get to town we'll wet a line. Mery Christmas Chuck[/QUOTE]

Hey Chuck,,,where in the world is the fish this yr,,,should have been a killer yr,,

Boys I'm hearing Sauger numbers are way down all over from Markland to Cannelton. I have no idea why, this horrible weather we are having this year may be playing a roll.

I got the feeling that the sauger number, at least catches were down last year as well. Two years ago we had a killer season at the falls.

Guy's I think the fish are there but with the water levels we've had instead of stacking up below the dams they are going through the dams and staging in creeks and at the mouth of creeks. With the amount of baitfish I've seen here latly in the back of some of these creeks I would probably throw a jig alittle but definetly throw some live bait such as minnows and crawlers out specialy with the muddy to murky water....keepin the channels off your bait might be a problem.I think when the gates start going down and the fish aren't able to go threw we will see an increace in sauger activity below the dams.Just a thought...Chuck

Newburgh was good a couple weeks ago but now it's terrible.

I fish Greenup Dam,this is has been the worst year for sauger in a long time for me.Between the weather and the river being high haven't got much fishing in.What few times that I fished,didn't catch many but the size was larger than in other years.Fall of 2009 was a great year for both sauger and walleye.
Jake

It went from crystal clear to high and muddy overnight ..
My buddies fished the duck pond when the river was at 21ft on the lower and didn't get a bite .

Those jax salmon should have been in the duck pond at that level.The only fish they caught was a buffalo !!

Are the Asian Carp having an impact on the sauger numbers? I dont see how they would affect it other than messing up the nests ....thoughts?

I doubt the asian carp would affect sauger numbers tremendously - yet. Where they may hurt in the long run is undercutting the food chain by limiting the number of baitfish and juvenvile fish as extreme plankton eaters. But when that happens you will know it because there will be so many of them they will be flying everywere. Check out the youtube videos of the Illinois river. They say the asians are 80% of the bio-mass on that river.

I just think the extreme low, clear, no current early fall on the river didn't bring them up and then we had all that rain in a couple of weeks and ended up with too much current. I caught a few wading earlier this fall but didn't even venture out in a boat with the poor setup we had. What a shame too. With such a dry early fall I was looking forward to the late fall and great river conditions but that was many inches of rain ago...

kc