Tips for Ohio River Fishing this Weekend

[jpm537]

First I would like to say thanks to everyone for the tips. I unfortunately did not do well. I had bites but did not land a fish. My boater only landed one but at least his was a good 3+lber. He got it on a blue/black beaver style bait from behind a log in very shallow water. I tried fishing each of the tips given to me but had problems with any of the weightless baits as my boater preferred to stay at least 20-30 yards from the bank almost the entire time. I could only pitch that far if I had some weight on my line. I did get three good short strikes that tore the pinchers off of my baits and I turned one very small bass into a bird when I propelled him a good ten yards through the air when I set the hook. Didn't land him as he only had the tip of the bait in his mouth. I only blame myself as I need to practice more and get a little better equipment. I did take some solace in the fact that only two people in the tourney had limits and they were in the same boat. I am now trying to decide if I want to try and fish the Ohio out of Paducah in late June. Again I really appreciate all of the advice and as always look at this as a learning experience. Oh and on a more comical note I now know what it feels like to have a spinnerbait upside of the head! Boy, I was sure glad we were on a river with downsized baits and not on a lake with a big 1/2 ounce spinnerbait, I would have been knocked unconscious

[artcarney_agr]

You're not alone then. It was tough for me this weekend too - the higher water had the fish very much scattered. I found lots of little ones, but never could locate the larger ones.

My experience with the river has been that the hotter the weather, the hotter the fishing...I love the river in late June and pretty much all of July. This spring time stuff is very hit or miss.