Ohio River Fishing - Pics

Here are a few pics showing me and my friends fishing adventures these last 2-weeks. The fishing is starting to show some good signs like cooler temps and baitfish in the creeks. Other signs like the bald eagle I saw flying down the river and all the monark butterflies migrating south are sure signs that fall is here. No doubt about it, this is my favorite time of year!


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Here is my best buddy with 17 nice fish from 10-13". These fish were caught on emerald shiners we seined that morning.

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Here is a picture of my fireman buddy with a couple of nice fish.

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Here are some white bass me and my youngest brother caught below Smithland dam. The fish in the pic are 15-18". We probably caught 40 fish that day, Good time.

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Nice Catch!

I'm on my way out the door in a few minutes to try my luck for the 1st time this fall. I will be in the river tribs. also. I'll post later with a good report, I hope.

KyCreekBoy,
Give us a good report. I am going to try to get out Sat evening for a while.
Let us know the conditions on the river and the creeks in Meldahl pool.
Bassky

As always, nice uns and thanks for really making me feel horrible Huck for the river almost pitched me a shutout yesterday for slabs.Only hit one creek but Second cast a nice fish and that is it for the morning. I was throwing weedless jigs, mainly tubes n some beavertails. The white bass and hybrds werent shy though.:rolleyes: I was wantin to use minners but couldnt find any even remotely close, actually there are some around they just never open before I wanna be on the water. Creekboy said augusta has some from now on tho, so I went the jig route, still didnt think it would be that bad. Hope ccreekboy gets into some today. The temp is good and shad are busy. BTW Huck, down yalls way do u see all the lil' fry right now, is that shad fry from a second spawn, those whites are pestering those lil thangs to death...lol

Slabba

As always, nice uns and thanks for really making me feel horrible Huck for the river almost pitched me a shutout yesterday for slabs.Only hit one creek but Second cast a nice fish and that is it for the morning. I was throwing weedless jigs, mainly tubes n some beavertails. The white bass and hybrds werent shy though.:rolleyes: I was wantin to use minners but couldnt find any even remotely close, actually there are some around they just never open before I wanna be on the water. Creekboy said augusta has some from now on tho, so I went the jig route, still didnt think it would be that bad. Hope ccreekboy gets into some today. The temp is good and shad are busy. BTW Huck, down yalls way do u see all the lil' fry right now, is that shad fry from a second spawn, those whites are pestering those lil thangs to death...lol

Slabber, sorry to hear you had a tough time catching crappie on the river. The bait we are seeing in the seine is mostly emerald shiners, river chub minnows and yellow-tail shad. All three make great bait, but the chubs are my favorite. They are shaped like little footballs and really dance that cork. I will try to take some pictures when we seine bait next time. As far as the numbers of bait on the river sandbars, it is incredible right now. The average seine of say 75 ft down the sandbar is yeilding hundreds of minnows. Thats one reason the fish we are catching are so healthy, tons of bait in the river system.

One other little note, on my trip to the river yesterday, I had 7 or 8 silver carp jump in my clean slim free boat :(. Needless to say it aint slime free today. Was fortunate the fish only went 1-2lbs.

Well hit it hard today, launched at Eagle creek and started fishing in Red Oak in down town Ripley. Water temp 63 to 65 deg and pretty murky, when I left there only had 2 in the livewell. Headed downriver to Lee's creek in Dover, Ky and things started heating up. Water temp there was 55 to 56 and the water clarity was perfect. Hit all my favorte spots and had a blast. Left there and headed up river to 3 mile creek in Aberdeen and then back down to Lawerence creek on the Ky side. Then called it a day Ended up cleaning 22 all between 10 and 12 in. No slabs but all were good eaters. I had to catch 45 crappie. All kinds of dinks in the creeks. Bluegill, small mouth, large mouth and white bass caught today. Everything but a catfish. Which is unusual. Slip bobber and minnows. All the creeks on the Ohio side were very murky & warmer than the Ky side :confused: A really great day.:D

Sounds like a great trip Creekboy! Hope to see some pictures when you catch them again, good luck.

KyCreekBoy,
How is the KDNR ramp in Dover? Safe? Never been down that way, just curious. Sounds like you had a great day. How deep were the crappie?
Minnow under a float how deep?
Great report!!
Bassky

Good work creekboy. Huck, I got a good seine and a cast net but I always go solo and its a lot easier w/ someone to help w/ the seine. Would save me a lot of money, and be good bait. Hope this rain doesnt muddy things back up, I wanna get out again soon.Creekboy, did u find any stacked up or they all hunt n' peck. Gonna try this weekend if river is in ok shape.

BTW... Huck, we dont have as many sandbars as yall do further down but a lot of inside bends out on the river come way out and taper down real slowly, is that where I need to hop out and catch some bait. Say u like chubs the best..

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Originally Posted by ekySlabber

Good work creekboy. Huck, I got a good seine and a cast net but I always go solo and its a lot easier w/ someone to help w/ the seine. Would save me a lot of money, and be good bait. Hope this rain doesnt muddy things back up, I wanna get out again soon.Creekboy, did u find any stacked up or they all hunt n' peck. Gonna try this weekend if river is in ok shape.

BTW... Huck, we dont have as many sandbars as yall do further down but a lot of inside bends out on the river come way out and taper down real slowly, is that where I need to hop out and catch some bait. Say u like chubs the best..

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Slabber, if you are going to use a cast net, one that has 1/4" mesh works better for minnows. A 3/8" will let most of the minnows escape or get stuck half way in the net. I have a small sandbar on an outside bend that I catch a lot of minnows on with my cast net. Most of these are emerald shiners, the chubs are easier to get with a seine. I believe the river chubs lay right on the bottom. Both my cast net and seine have paid for themselves many times over, with all bait I have caught with them. Indigenous bait, in my opinion, is superior to store bought bait.

Found two trees where they were stacked but mostly hunt and peck. And for the ramp in Dover, it is alright but no where to tie up so launching by myself is hard. I just go to Ripley (Eagle Creek) or put in where I work when I'm able to if I'm fishing close to home.

Just too windy for my boat on the river. I am going to try tomorrow. KyCreekboy, thanks for the heads up on the ramp near Dover. I will give a report if I go. Good Fishin!
Bassky

Went for a short time yesterday evening. The fish were extremely shallow. I didn't venture real far into the tribs either. Almost all fish were chunky black crappie, only two white which is usually opposite. Didn't keep any cuz I didnt take ma cooler. Let us know how ya do, I cant get em to touch a jig.

ekyslabber,
I went too, and I too found the fish extremely shallow and only caught 2. What kind of boat do you need to get back up into the creeks and does it get any deeper than 3-5' deep? I really struggled yesterday.
Bassky

Bassky,

Which creeks did ya go in. For the most part the major feeder creeks have channels 10 or more ft deep, but some of the smaller ones usully stay around the 4-5 ft range w/ a deep hole here and there. I have a friend that knows the river very well and he fishes out a 21 ft ranger w 250, so if ya know where youre goin about any shallow draft boat will work. I use a 14 ft flat bottom and can go waaay back, usually can idle to the 1st riffle in a lot of em. Just gotta follow the creek channel, lots of shallow mud flats and plenty of huge stumps, logs, and rocks just under the surface. A lot of times the creeks are very shallow and silted in at the mouth and then open up further back up. U gotta be careful tryin to get in them. Use the trollin motor sometimes and trim up the big motor to get where ya need. I have fished the river for the past 10 yrs off and on and still manage to whack stumps and logs all over the place(busted my transducer last week on a log) , just wear a life vest and go slow when you arent positive about what is ahead. Things change almost weekly in the riv. And remember that its usually shallow mud flats on each side of the channel w/ lots of junk stuck in that mud.

I fished Lee and Lawrence in Kentucky. It looks like I need to look into the bigger creeks. I normally hit Locust or Bracken on the Kentucky side. I have caught crappie in Locust, but not Bracken. Both are alot deeper than Lee and Lawrence. I have bass fished Eagle, Straight and White Oak, but never for crappie. I am thinking maybe these would be better. I have a 16' Hydrasport BB with a Merc 115 hp, older boat. So getting back into the shallows in the shallower creeks isn't going to work. I couldn't get a hit on a jig either. Of course I didn't very many hits to begin with using minnows.
Probably won't get out again for another week or so. Keep us posted how you do.
Bassky

Bassky,

Don't give up on those smaller creeks yet. Just cuz Creekboy has got um' treed ya cant let that get ya down, they r his pet fish. I think they got more fish in em'(lil' creeks) early then the bigger ones cuz they cool faster and sometimes clear quicker. I think once you start seeing the temps drop more the deeper ones will be the good too. Im gonna go fairly soon. Dont remember what the temps were when it happened last fall, but you could walk on the water cuz the bait was so thick. Last year you could catch channel and flathead catfish along w/ whites and stripers on a big ol' 1/2 oz spinnerbait or cb every other cast back in the creeks when the fish are workin those shad over. Crappie wont be far away either when that goes on.

I haven't had any luck in Lawrence creek either yet this fall. But it's coming. As for Lee's creek, my brother-in-law and myself have been hitting it hard. He told me he didn't do any good his last trip either. Locust is a good one. But I haven't been all the way up in it before. I never have a lot of luck in Bracken creek for some reason, but it has some great looking spots in it. Bracken, White Oak, Straight, Turtle, Bull Skin and Locust all always seem to just give up a few apiece when I go. That's why I stay on the move. I will usually fish several creeks in a day's time. A few here and a few there will make a good mess. I rarely spend the entire day in one creek, let alone one spot. Slabber I'm heading upriver to Cabin and Crooked creek some day soon and catch some of your pets.

What's up with this rain? Went to Smithland pool today to catch some crappie. And I like to fish on a rainy fall day but what I experienced was a little more than I bargained for. It must have rained 2-3 inches in the 6 hours I fished. The river had good color ( for now) but the creeks were muddy. Just a little break in the rain and the fishing should be really good, but this last rain may do in the fall bite - that's very disappointing :(.
Ended up with 7 keepers from 10-11". I had a good 13" crappie to the top of the water but he decided that was far enough and threw the hook. The fish I caught were flat slamming minnows today, just don't believe there are very many fish in the creeks right now. The way the fish hit today made for a fun trip and (yes) I still like fishing in the rain.

I know what you're sayin' Huck. I have gone a few times and there are some fish in the creeks, but I havent found em' far back in the creeks and the havent been real consistent yet. I agree with you on the rainy days. I usually get out of work if it rains and that usually means I spend the day fishin' if its not a monsoon. Dont mind the rain but I have heard from a few old timers and long time crappie folks on the river that a big rain in the fall will "wash out" the creeks. This happened a year or two ago. Probably the best fisherman I know who is a bonafide river rat for bass/crappie/sauger said last fall he was up in a creek here pitchin jigs for crappie when he said an old lady in a lawn chair on the bank said "youre wasting your time fishing here for crappie," being since the previous fall he and a friend had put about 55 really nice keepers off one tree that september, he said, "why do you say that." She said shes lived on the creek all her life and any fall there is a big rain and it floods the creeks and washes them out, she says the baitfish and crappie leave (get washed out in the swift water) and dont come back till well after fall fishing is over. He said he was gonna give her a free lesson, and well, she was the one teaching that day, cuz he nor anyone else she said she saw fishin prior to that rain hadnt caught squat. He honestly didnt catch a single crappie that fall after that. Ended up targeting sauger/striper all fall cuz the creeks he likes were tuff. Take it for what its worth, but hope that doesnt happen this fall. It was supposed to rain a bunch yesterday but I dont think we got as much as predicted. Certainly not enuf too put the water on the rise much.

You guys are scaring me. No fall fishing would be a heartbreaker.