Ohio River - Catfish & Crappie

Took my boy catfishing this past week at the TVA discharge. The water was high and muddy, water temp was 72. We only caught a couple of catfish, but we had a good time.

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Thought I would give the river crappie another try. The river and creeks were still muddy. But if the fall bite is going to happen now is the time. The water temp in the creeks was 51 degrees Monday. The wind blew up to 25 mph and (during one of the big gust) I stepped on my jig pole :(. But if you fish much - stuff happens! I fished hard and ended up with a nice bunch of fish.

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I told you them fish would be in 2 foot of water when it gets that muddy, any way good fish. I might have spare tip if is a B&M pole.

Thanks for the offer Mr. Krappie, but the rod is a Sam Heaton. I went to the BNM website and ordered a replacement tip, should be here in a few days. Hope your shoulder starts feeling better so you can get back to work soon, and stay off that 3-wheeler old man!

Good ones Huck. U using the real deal or artificial to catch those crappie. I havent been in a while and was thinking about going in the morning. Was the river that muddy recently down ur alls way? Didnt look to bad up here when I crossed it today..Good to see ur boy keepin up the good work too:)

Creeks up here are in good shape. I'll be going Saturday depending on the weather.

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Originally Posted by ekySlabber

Good ones Huck. U using the real deal or artificial to catch those crappie. I havent been in a while and was thinking about going in the morning. Was the river that muddy recently down ur alls way? Didnt look to bad up here when I crossed it today..Good to see ur boy keepin up the good work too:)

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Slabber, the fish have been hitting both jigs and minnows but the minnows are still catching more fish for me right now. The river and creeks are muddy down here but are improving every day. And the weather man is calling for another big rain tommorow - holy smoke!

Me and my friend went to the river and we had good trip today. We started the day off seining our bait on a river sandbar. The bait is getting tougher to get now that the water is cooling off, but we still ended up with 12-15 dozen minnows after 5 drags. We fished for a while then we decided to cook some hot dogs on the bank. Then we went back and fished some more. Final total was 16 keeper crappie and 5 bass. Fall fishing is my favorite!


Here is our first drag this morning
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Time to eat some hotdogs

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Brent with a nice blacknose crappie

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Todays catch

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Now that looks like a good, layed back day of fishing....and a good mess of crappie to boot!;) Cant complain about that! Congrats.:)

Now thas how you do it.:) What are most of those minnows huck, emerald shiners? Im gonna go in the morning so hopefully Ill have something to report back with. Cool pics too. Thx

BTW How did that blacknose get mixed in there, are they stocked or just hybridize

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Originally Posted by ekySlabber

Now thas how you do it.:) What are most of those minnows huck, emerald shiners? Im gonna go in the morning so hopefully Ill have something to report back with. Cool pics too. Thx

BTW How did that blacknose get mixed in there, are they stocked or just hybridize

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I would say we had a 90/10 ratio of emerald shiners/river chub mix. My Grandpa and Dad always called the emerald shiners (long johns). The long johns make a really good bait, but are hard to keep alive in warm water.

I have no idea where the blacknose crappie are coming from. But we have caught 2 or 3 every year for the last few years in smithland pool.

They come out of the TVA lakes which includes Kentucky Lake, which migrates to the Big O. Those are some nice fish. Looks like you had a good time.
Bassky

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Originally Posted by ekySlabber

BTW How did that blacknose get mixed in there, are they stocked or just hybridize

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... they very well could have come out of KY Lake. Then again, they could have come from several different places. :p
I could even imagine them coming from Cedar Creek Lake :eek: .... but, they'd have to go thru the drain at Cedar Creek, make their way down the Dix River, the length of Herrington Lake, pass thru the dam turbines & continue on down the Dix River, into the KY River, then on into the Ohio River. :D (possible, but not likely ... LOL !! )

They're not a Hybrid .... just a Black Crappie with a genetic marker (pigment gene) that causes the black stripe. They could have originated in the White River, in Arkansas (where they occur naturally) ... and have been used for brood stock & stocking studies, in many bodies of water around the Southeast.

I catch them at Watts Bar Lake, in E Tenn ... which is one of the chains of lakes on the Tenn River. I've caught some out of Cedar Creek Lake, too. And I've heard that they're stocked in Ky Lake, Dale Hollow, Weiss, & Center Hill. One of the Tenn F&W Officers, that I met at our tournies, said that Center Hill is full of them ... and they're huge (2+lbs). They're just a little hard to catch, there ... but, only because of the very clear/deep water, and not because they're any more elusive than the others. ;)

.. cp :cool:

Good looking mess of fish and looks like lots of fun. I was curious about the black nose also. I've never seen or heard of anyone catching any in the Meldahl pool. You must be catching them all before they can swim upstream. :D We don't have the sandbars anymore either. They have all been dredged out. But I can remember when I was a small child one in particular.
I hope to go soon if it doesn't rain me out.

The crappie werent exactly jerkin the rods outta your hands today. I ended up sauger fishin' for a while and ended up catching some along with a nice walleye thrown in. Thats only the second walleye Ive ener caught out of the river. There is a lot of fry around the stumps and brush but not many fish. Here is a pic of a good eating grand slam.:)

On a side not, I bet there were 50 boat trialers in Maysville parking lot, there were people bass fishing a lot of the creeks (about every good stretch had a boat on it) and apparently this weekend would be a bad weekend to try for some fall fishing solitude, I think a 100+ boat tourney is goin out of maysville this weekend so beware, I may end up below meldahl this weekend

Slabber, nice picture! You caught some of the best eating fish in the river,WTG!! If the rain would let up (don't look good) I would like to catch some sauger! Last year I was able to catch some nice sauger - hopefully this year will be just as good. I have caught 3 walleyes below Smithland Dam over the years, they are a tough catch. So congrats on catching a river walleye!

Some fish from last November

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...1&d=1256263536

What do you usually catch em on down there Huck. Ive seen folks who fish some of the tva tailwaters for em' w/ heavy hair jigs tipped w minnows, I usually just use a jig and twister tail, some times tipped w/ minnow. Drop-shotting works well for sauger when current isnt too bad. I used to always fish for em' below the dams but past couple years ive finally figured out a few ways to always scratch out a few once the water cools down into the 50's and high 40's. I enjoy fishin' for em' a lot tho, theyre neat fish.

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Originally Posted by ekySlabber

What do you usually catch em on down there Huck. Ive seen folks who fish some of the tva tailwaters for em' w/ heavy hair jigs tipped w minnows, I usually just use a jig and twister tail, some times tipped w/ minnow. Drop-shotting works well for sauger when current isnt too bad. I used to always fish for em' below the dams but past couple years ive finally figured out a few ways to always scratch out a few once the water cools down into the 50's and high 40's. I enjoy fishin' for em' a lot tho, theyre neat fish.

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Slabber, we use a 1-1.5 oz hair jig (or plastic jig). Will usually tip that with a minnow or shad. And I always use a stinger hook. My favorite line is 10lb fireline. The braided line is thin which makes it great for fishing in deep water with current and the line has no stretch. No line stretch helps you feel the bottom and get a good hook set on the fish.

I heard last week they were catching some sauger below Barkley dam. I usually fish below Smithland dam but the water needs to be about 75,000 cfs or less. Right now the water is flowing about 125,000 cfs.

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Originally Posted by ekySlabber

What do you usually catch em on down there Huck. Ive seen folks who fish some of the tva tailwaters for em' w/ heavy hair jigs tipped w minnows, I usually just use a jig and twister tail, some times tipped w/ minnow. Drop-shotting works well for sauger when current isnt too bad. I used to always fish for em' below the dams but past couple years ive finally figured out a few ways to always scratch out a few once the water cools down into the 50's and high 40's. I enjoy fishin' for em' a lot tho, theyre neat fish.

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They are starting to catch them at Meldahl inside the wall using jig or minnow all kinds of colors, and the hybrids are still being caught. Both species are being caught early morning and one hour before dark. With this rain I dont think its going to hurt the saugers.

EKYSlabber,
I fish below Meldahl dam. I use a 1/2oz to 3/4 hopkins spoon or a ultravibe, silverbuddy type lure. Drop to the bottom and jig it up and down. When they are in there, you can catch a bunch of em. 1/4oz jighead, 3" chartreuse or white curlytail with a minnow works too if they are slow. Crankbaits and jerkbaits do a job on them too.
Bassky

Have you been down to the dam in the last week or so? I hope to get down one day next week.
bassky

I use the fireline too huck. In-fisherman guys sold me on the fireline for jig fishin. This summer I bought a crapload of hair jigs on sale, intending on using them for sauger and crappie. I have stocked up cuz they were half price all summer, they better work, bet I bought $150 worth. Mister twister makes em. Ill put some pics up. Anyways, I have caught em on spoons and silver buddys too, but I stick with ballhead jigs. How come there is so much water down there Huck, cuz of Tenn riv and Cumberland riv??.
A lot of times I can catch em downcurrent of barge tie-up things, and catch a lot around trib mouths and bridge pilings. Power plant discharges can be good too. You cant beat the tailwaters for numbers of fish though, and usually some stripers and cats mixed in when you below the dams.

Here are those mister twisters, I have a huge box full of these jigs but havent used em much yet, hoping to when it gets colder, I also put up shinee hinee thrown in cuz I remember a post a long time ago where someone was wantint to know what they are, hope those bigger jigs got plenty of weight as long as ur not right below a turbine at the dam, may have to tie heavier ones for sauger, but I hope these still catch some crappie, cuz if not I got wayy too many.... Here are some of the diff colors, I liked the colors they had, the bigger ones are 1/4 oz
Ezgo, I might try meldahl this weekend, when are you goin Bassky?
BTW: I need to start using stinger hooks, what do the ones yall use look like??

Those jigs will definitely catch fish, in fact they are almost to pretty to use :D. The stinger hook I like to use is a (#6-#8) treble. Will tie this off with 15-20 lb line or if I'm feeling froggy will make up some wire leaders (ain't done that in a while).

About the current down here @ Smithland dam. The Cumberland and Tennessee rivers are both just downstream of Smithland dam and upstream of dam 52. In fact the Cumberland empties into the Ohio river at the town of Smithland (about 2 miles below the dam). The Tennessee river empties into the Ohio at Paducah (about 15 miles from Smithland dam). And the reason we have so much extra current, rain rain and more rain :( plus the river runs (I'm guessing) 200-300 miles before it gets down here to Smithland dam.

If you want to learn a lot about sauger fishing on the river, go on line and buy a copy of Jim Duckworth's (Jiggin For Sauger) video. Great video ;), last about 1.5 to 2 hours and cost I'm guessing 15 dollars.

Thanks huck.:) Im gonna try and make some stingers out of heavy flouro, kind of like the new musky leaders. Yeah those jigs were 4 dollars a pack of two, and on sale they were 1.25 for two, so I stocked up, they did look pretty, think thats why I liked em, always like hair jigs, just cant afford many custom ones, will eventually tho if I dont end up tying them myself. I guess it hasnt rained as much up this way huck. Hope it clears up so you can get after em. Make sure yuo put some pics up if you go, I love seeing fish from diff places. Im gonna go below the dam this weekend hopefully. And, as for that video, IM ON IT!!, I love all the critical concepts videos, and have read a lot of stuff by mr. duckworth, the in-fisherman guys think a lot of him so he must be good. Hope I can find it on e-bay or amazon. I still re-read articles from when I first started subscribing to IN-Fisherman when I was 14!!!! I have saved every single fishin mag Ive owned since then, and thats a lot:eek:

Those are some good looking jigs. And when they are on sale, can you really have too much fishing stuff. I think not.