The Ohio River will Humble you

[lizardsrule]

Well last week, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I fished the Ohio river at Rocky Point, IN. We had a BFL tourney there Saturday, and my Boater and I prefished Thurs, and Fri. The temps were in the mid nineties or higher everyday, with humidity around 90 also. It was a HOT time fishing. Anyway We fished thursday from about 10am-4pm and my boater caught one 13" bass, and I didn't get a bite all day. We started friday at 5:30am, and fished till 1:30pm, and again my boater caught one 14" bass and I didn't get a bite. Now I'm just jumping up and down about the tourney for Saturday I was drawn boat # 111 out of a 118 boats , which meant a late takeoff, and a hotter day Anyway after about 1 hour my boater catches a 13 1/2" bass, but had fouled hooked it. So within five minutes it was already dead I finally got a bite, and landed a 10" bass This was about 12 pm when I caught my dink. My boater landed another bass, but was too small. I got one other bite, but it was your typical back seat thing. I was fishing a c-rig in the channel behind the boat, and dragging the bait along. Anyway just as I was starting to drag it, I got a tug, and at the same time the boater hits the trolling moter So no fish to the boat. I can't ever remeber fishing hard for 3 days straight only to get 2 bites, and only catch one dink Don't get me wrong I know it was tough, for everyone, but it can definately humble a guy Hope everyone else has been having better luck than me. Now I get to go about 30 minutes up the river to fish another tourney this Saturday, at Maysfield, KY YEAH BABY!!!

Lizards

[Rodman_Rob]

nothing gives a bass lockjaw more often than mid day temps in the 90's. Don't feel bad, i've had quite a few trips getting skunked down here this summer.

[IL.bassin36]

Hey lizards. Are you guys still fishing the creeks? I'm a few locks down the river from you but the creek bite isn't on. Those darn fish move to the main river in the summer. They'll go back to the creeks later in the fall to spend the winter. Well the spots do anyway and thats mainly what we catch. Those dang LM are tough on the river, and the smallies are few and far between untill you go 1 lock South.

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by IL.bassin

Hey lizards. Are you guys still fishing the creeks? I'm a few locks down the river from you but the creek bite isn't on. Those darn fish move to the main river in the summer. They'll go back to the creeks later in the fall to spend the winter. Well the spots do anyway and thats mainly what we catch. Those dang LM are tough on the river, and the smallies are few and far between untill you go 1 lock South.

We fished both the creeks and the main river. But I will say the majority was in the creeks. I of course had not been to this place before, so went wherever the guys who had been here before took me. The place we fished mostly was the same place the IBF was one the weekend before so I'm told. My boater drew a local who's boat was in the shop, and had just won the thursday evening tourney.(they caught 0 fish fishing his spots) And then we also fished several locations on the main river, all within 20 miles of Rocky Point. I of course have been trying the channels everywhere we go in the creeks, since everyone else is pounding the shore, and stump fields. The fish just don't seem to be where we are fishing, at least they are few and far in between. I will keep trying to throw something different from what the boater is throwing to try to find what if anything they are looking for. I have thrown everything. Unless you hit them on the head, and find the one lone fish on a laydown, they just aren't where we are fishing. I keep asking why no one fishes the deeper water, and deeper channels, and of course I get the "don't know" response. Anyway it was definately some tough fishing for 2 bites. But the sad thing about it was that I would have gone right back out again Sunday and fished it again, even without the tourney Guess I just love to fish

Lizards

[Fishie]

How were you guys fishing for them. Where you power fishing or were you fishing plastics and Jigs. I heard during though times it can be good to powerfish because you want to cover a lot of water. Don't tell me you guys didn't try a crank?How much weight won the tourney.?

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by Fishie

How were you guys fishing for them. Where you power fishing or were you fishing plastics and Jigs. I heard during though times it can be good to powerfish because you want to cover a lot of water. Don't tell me you guys didn't try a crank?How much weight won the tourney.?

We did both. I fished cranks porbably 1/4 of the time, and the same for both my partners, not one bite was taken on a crankbait for any of us. The fish that were caught were on plastics, t-rigged, and one on a spinnerbait. The winning weight for the boaters was 9lbs something, with I believe only three guys who had limits. I think the non-boaters winning weight was 4lbs something, maybe 5lbs something. Anyway I do know that out of 118 non-boaters, only 36 guys weighed in a fish, and I wans't one of them We either were just not on any fish(that's my opinion) or we couldn't get them to bite for nothing. One thing I keep wondering is after all these tourneys they've had so far this year. And all the fish that have been caught, they all get relaeased away from their haunts where they were caught. Perhaps that turns them into roaming bass? Well I didn't have the answers on tourney day, and obviously neither did my partner.

Lizards

[Fishie]

This time of the year I do really well fishing Boat ramps. I always find fish on them. I would fish maybe this time of year where a lot of tournaments release bass. Those can be pretty good places to fish. That tournament looks like it sucked.

[WTL]

Well lizards if it makes you feel better the tennessee river has humbled me the past month or so. I think I've been trying too hard for the big fish bite and its like a batter who changes his swing, I'm outta sink now. Yesterday after work I hit the decatur flats area, threw a rat at matted milfoil and had a few small blowups but no bass. Caught 1 all day on a pink floating worm in the back of a creek, my old type of deal - but I've been trying to get away from that to get bigger fish. I will tell you how to get around these tough times though, and its foolproof - keep fishing. Sometimes everyone has to work out the kinks.

[Justin Case]

Lizards, A fish has a brain the size of a pea.They are not outsmarting you, they are just not biting anything.It happens, The boater should have known that and stayed on his spots until they did bite or you ran out of time. I know you don't have any control over the boaters decisions, but he should have known to slow the hell down and fish more thoroughly knowing the bite was off.Tournament fishing sucks unless your catching alot of fish or your catching big fish. P N J

[flachristopherkeene9]

Hey im fishing a small local fishing derby this weekend and they said that there are up to 8lb. bass in the pond. How do I get the big ones to bite?

[Fishie]

Fish the conditions and make the best presentations you can.

[Rebbasser]

Don't feel bad, Lizards. I think '83 Classic was held on the Ohio River and Larry Nixon won it with just over 18 lbs and it was held this time of year if I remember correctly. If one of the best in the world can only catch 18 lbs after several days of hard fishing, you know it is a tough place to fish.

[Rodman_Rob]

Originally Posted by lizardsrule

I keep asking why no one fishes the deeper water, and deeper channels, and of course I get the "don't know" response.
Lizards

your gut instinct was telling you they escaped the heat by going deep. Shoulda listened to it instead of the "don't know" guy. That's one think I don't like about the format of tourneys, having another boater/fisherman with you. I know everytime I'd get on the water the other boater would be wanting to fish somewhere else.

[lizardsrule]

Once again, I haved been humbled for the second straight weekend on the Ohio River. The toureny started at 6:30am, and we were #86 out of 98 boats. I drew a local for the tourney, who has lived in Maysville, KY for 14 years. He took me to several different spots, both on the river, and the creeks. We even fished deep in the river. I threw everything except a spinnerbait, and PNJ, because my partner was using those. I got what I think was a bite about 2:30pm(needed to check in at 3:15pm) on a crank, but he didn't take it, just bumped it. My boater caught 0 fish also. The temos were 65 in the am, and 88 on my drive home, with sunny skies. They had dropped the pool we were fishing about 2 feet in the last week. We were one of the last ones to load our boat, but they were still weighing some fish when I left. But at that time the big fish was 3lbs 3ozs, and the biggest bag was 7lbs 7ozs. Man I miss the coal pit Anyway the river is very tough for me anyway. I will have to learn a few more tricks. I thought it rather humerous at the end of the day the boater said, well we should've of just stayed on the point of the creeks all day I'm still learning, and haved fished with some really decent fisherman, but boy do they all seem to want to fly around a lot. I have become much more of a power fisherman due to having no choice in these tourneys. Just another weapon in the arsenal, but none of the weapons have been working lately

Lizards

[zooker]

well lizard you are learning. learning to adjust to fishing conditions on differant water is the key to fishing well. more so on rivers then lakes as the pattern changes hourly.

one of the biggest problems i see guys doing is trying to cover a lot of ground to fast.they just don't want to let off the trolling moter pedal while using plastic baits. plastic baits -imo- are best worked slowly and meticulously. covering water at a snails pace.

if they want to power fish-aka troller on high all the time-use a ratltrap or a spinner bait.

i belive you are refuring to run and gun style fishing you pull up fish 10-12 mintues and take off again, all day long.

power fishing like run and gun fishing work but only at certain times were a describable pattern is found.

say you catch 2 bass 3 feet off the weed line. this type pattern is were power fishing comes into play. your cast should land at the weed line and worked no more than 5 feet out. then crank it in and cast again. this type pattern i would go with 1/4 oz bullet sinker on a curl tail type worm perfure smaller in summer -4"dead ringer-troller on about 2 , 3-4 if windy.



zooker