Well, this is my first post on this board. And I wanted to share a little about my first trip to fish the Ohio River.

On my way to meet my fishing buddy, I ran over a 8 point buck. Almost no damage to the truck, which is already beat up in the front, so I just slowed down awhile, made sure the tires stayed up and the motor didn't get hot and kept on trucking. Numerous deer hunters were heading into my neck of the woods this a.m. so I figure he didn't go to waste.

We were on the water @ Ghent at about 8:45 a.m. It was about 25 degrees. We trolled crankbaits up the river, then ran awhile until our faces started to freeze and trolled up to the dam. Just two other boats were there. We pulled up near the wall and I quickly caught a nice 17" sauger and a little one. We then went over the dam on the current break line next to the last hydro unit. We were fishing probably 200 feet from the dam gates (restricted area begins 150' from the dam), when another boat came up and pulled directly in front of us (where we were casting) and started to fish. We jigged behind them for awhile then fished slowly across the face of the dam toward the lock wall. Incredibly, when we were within casting distance to the wall, the same guys left the break line and got between us and the wall, took up position right on the 150' line and had the gall to ask us "how we were doing"!

I have never fished below Markland or any other dam on the Ohio, for that matter. It was an eye-opening experience. Other boats seemed to remain pretty stationary on the wall and they seemed to respect each other, but there were only about eight boats. I can imaginge how intense it is when there is a hot bite, the weather decent and every tom, **** and harry is on the water trying catch fish out from under everybody else.

We ended up catching three nice sauger, a 5 pound channel cat, a few white bass and had a few nice fish get off at the boat. Not a bad day for a first try at jigging a spoon. However, I fish for fun and relaxation. But because of being cut off from where I was fishing TWICE by the same guys, I found myself being pissed off, not having fun.

By the way, it was a white Stratos from Indiana with two younger guys and an older guy. If you guys are reading this, kiss my A$$!

JWP