Catfish: Ohio River

[HURRICANEBOB]

I don't know how to answer your question but I would love to learn how to catfish from boat on the Ohio. Anyone have any good links or sites related to this. Im primarily a bass fisher but cant keep my fiance very interested and think she would have a ball catching big cats. Just don't know how to get into something Ive never done.

Compared to the others that have provided good advice, I'm a hacker and an amateur for sure. But here's how I first started, and frankly do this stuff today alot.

1. Anchor up, easier than managing lines drifiting til you get more used to it.
2. Look for flats near a channel. Then on that flats look for deep holes or humps. Anchor above that terrain and cast back to the base of a hump or the lip of a drop.
3. Shad and skipjack are great bait. Pepper tackle normally has skipjack and sometimes shad frozen to make it simple. To make it even simpler, I used big hooks and put about 6 nightcrawlers on if I can make them fit. Next rod gets a piece of fresh chicken that had been soaking in a plastic tub of chicken livers.
4. Normally put 6 rods out, 2 with heavy sinkers to be sure they went to the bottom (3 oz). 2 more rods with just 1 oz lead on them. And the last 2 with just 1/2 oz of weight. When a rod with a type bait, and a size weight got hit, I start migrating rods to that bait and weight.

This is just some thoughts. Frankly, I still do most of this stuff cause I don't fish the river enough to know where to go exactly, and what to use exactly, or atleast don't have enough confidence to have such a refined plan.

For the wife, she gets her tablet computer, her cell phone, plenty of cold drinks and snacks, a warm blanket to wrap up in, binos to watch for eagles, and I keep talking about river stuff to keep her from boredom until someting happens and a rod rips out some line. As well as I fish the river, some times all the electronics batteries are dead, the Cokes are gone, and my voice is hoarse, and she's been asleep for an hour before something happens. Then I getting chewed out for waking her up while she giggles with a rod doubled over.

And yep, on occassion the anchor goes down, the first 2 rods go in the holders, and ya don't get any further than that cause lines are ripping all over the place, and the wife is laughing, and the sun is shining.......then a loud thump.....and I realize I fell out of bed again. :-)

[Tyme2fish]

then a loud thump.....and I realize I fell out of bed again. :-)

Bob, I thought your keepers at the asylum kept you strapped in at night?

[onemorecast56]

tell you what if you want i can take you down and show you around,,,where to take your boat and where not too...i know FEW PLACES TO GET YOU STARTED...

[peter]

tell you what if you want i can take you down and show you around,,,where to take your boat and where not too...i know FEW PLACES TO GET YOU STARTED...

Yeah..Onemore can show you where all his old lower units are. Bring a metal detector if you want the exact locations. Haha couldn't help myself.

I went through a lot of aluminum props down there learning some of it and it wasn't even the hard part. Bought a stainless and never had that problem again.

[onemorecast56]

you know come to think of it,,,i`ve never busted a prop down there....and ask anybody that has gone with me i`m not scared to get into places with boats i shoulod be in there with,,,lol

[Tyme2fish]

I dinged up my stainless prop pretty good at the New Albany ramp several years ago with low water levels.

TUCKER'S LANDING to the rescue. Not a free rescue but he does good work.

[cpsniper05]

Yeah..Onemore can show you where all his old lower units are. Bring a metal detector if you want the exact locations. Haha couldn't help myself.

I went through a lot of aluminum props down there learning some of it and it wasn't even the hard part. Bought a stainless and never had that problem again.

Man, I would love to start fishing the river but this really makes me worried about taking my boat there. Is it pretty easy to tear a prop up out there? I turned one into a paper weight last year and don't want to do that again.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Man, I would love to start fishing the river but this really makes me worried about taking my boat there. Is it pretty easy to tear a prop up out there? I turned one into a paper weight last year and don't want to do that again.

On and off I've fished the river since 1994 and have never torn up a prop. Yes, you can, up close to the dam, or working up into the fossil beds. But if your are fishing the river as a whole you will be fine. Yep...there are in high water periods logs floating but that's no different than in most lakes after heavy rains.

The river deserves respect because of the current, but not fear. To get started and get used to the river, wait till Jul-October cause the current is way down. In September and October, the river can be darn calm, glassey, with pretty clear blue water. Practice on the river in the calm conditions, and slowly graduate to the more high current days. It's awlays fun, for one reason or another.

[HURRICANEBOB]

then a loud thump.....and I realize I fell out of bed again. :-)

Bob, I thought your keepers at the asylum kept you strapped in at night?

Naw....that let me loose to service the nurses....it's an employment benefit from them and the reason your health care expenses are going up. D cell batteries are not cheap any more :-)