# Deer Creek Spillway 12/21/2006



## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

My dad and I went to Deer Creek today. Water was pretty low. Saw a lot of smaller Saugeye being caught on Minnows Up on the dam. Most people were keeping 12 inchers or so. My dad managed a 16 incher around 2 in the afternoon or so. It was pretty slow and rainy. The highlight of my day though was hooking a paddle fish. Took me about a half hour to get him on 8lb test. He had about 5 jigs stuck in him from where he was hooked before and the line broke. There was actually one jig haning off of him and small saugeye was hooked on it. I let that saugeye go, took all of the hooks and jigs off of him, had my dad snap these pictures and put him back in. Probably weighed 50+ lbs. I was going to see if the ODNR would come over there and net him or shock the water or something to get him out and move him to a bigger impoundment where he wont be getting hooked all day long, not sure if they will do that. 

Anyway here are the pictures.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

I caught him way up top in front of where the water comes out, and you can see where I was finally able to get him. Took me a good ways down stream.


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## Boxingref_rick (Feb 8, 2005)

"Hey, Get your hands off my mother-in-law... you turkey!"

COOL FISH!

Rick.


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## fishingredhawk (Apr 14, 2004)

Awesome man! That is a great fish and some good pics!


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## Pigsticker (Oct 18, 2006)

Looks like the best thing that could've happened to that fish was being caught by you. That's a nice job landing that monster. I never have and probably never will catch one of those things.


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## weaze1 (Nov 16, 2006)

did he have a red hook in the tail?



i hooked him or another one last week 

and snagged 5 other peoples line

couldn't pull him in i was also snagged on the other side of the dam


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Very cool fish. Thank you for taking those jigs out of him!


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## Trucked (Apr 6, 2004)

How did he get in there in the first place? I know nothing about these fish. 

1.) Are they common in this area?
2.) If so, did he swim upstream to get there?
3.) What do they eat? Vegetation/Fish etc...
4.) Where DO they come from?
5.) Are they live bearers or do they lay eggs?

BTW, great job saving him/her.


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## dakotaman (Oct 19, 2005)

I've seem them caught or snagged quite a bit in the spillway They are a protected species here in Ohio. Deer creek is one of the few if not the only water ways in Ohio where they live naturally. They feed on plankton. They are egg layers, which has also one of the reasons they are protected. In some areas they were nearly decimated for their eggs as caviar. 

Nice catch and landing!! Good to see you got a chance to get a picture or two as well!!


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## Trucked (Apr 6, 2004)

questions 2 and 4. Thanks Dakota.


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## beatsworkin (Apr 12, 2004)

Trucked, the paddlefish were once common in the Mississippi and its tribs. They were very heaily overfished, along with sturgeon, for caviar, primarily. They are also an indicator species in that they do not do well in very polluted waters. They started showing up at Deer Creek several years ago at the dam, and came from the Ohio and up the Scioto. Recently, the state did do some netting and transported some of the fish up to the lake in an effort to reintroduce the fish into the rest of the watershed. They are listed as threatened in Ohio and can grow to 5 feet in length and over 150 pounds.

They are filter feeders and according to the ODNR, might use the paddle to help find areas of higher concentrations of plankton. Here are a couple of links:

http://www.dnr.ohio.gov/wildlife/Fishing/aquanotes-fishid/padlfish.htm

http://www.ohioriverfdn.org/conservation/paddlefish.html


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## Bubba bass bigfoot (May 8, 2006)

nice fish, lucky catch, those are rare lol. but someone should contact the DNR, we all no some A$$hole will catch it and keep it. (which is illegal). 
nice catch man, now you can say you got a Paddlefish. looks like to top you i have to go get the loch ness monster.


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## Bubba bass bigfoot (May 8, 2006)

trucked they are uncommon. and eat zooplankton and larva insects. i think they are prehistoric fish, or linked with one. they can get up to 5feet and weigh over 150lbs.


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## Bubba bass bigfoot (May 8, 2006)

http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/aquatic/fish/paddlefish/video_qt320.html

just found that video.


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## Smallmouth Crazy (Apr 4, 2006)

Nice fish, crazy looking things aint they??? at least you can say you caught one..very few people can say that.


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## fishmeister (Jul 29, 2004)

The paddle is used for navigation in murky water. Note how small the eyes are on these fish. The paddle is covered with sensors for electric fields. All living things generate a weak electric field- in water a fish has a 'halo' around it much like a field that surrounds a magnet. Disturbance of the electric field around the fish tells it if there is an object nearby. This adaptation is uncommon in North American fish, but is found in several South American and African species. If you ever go to an aquarium store and see knifefish for sale, they have this adaptation too (although they dont have the long nose thingy). 
Another species of paddlefish is found in the large rivers of China. They are a cartilagenous fish (no bony skeleton). A good indicator of how primitive the fish is, besides the cartilage skeleton, is the shape of the tail. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the upper lobe is larger than the lower lobe (called a hetercercal tail). Other freshwater fish with heterocercal tail and cartilage skeleton- sturgeon.


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## jholbrook (Sep 26, 2006)

That is one hell of a catch, for central ohio no less.

Ad Deer Creek, I've seen people hook fish on a few occassions that they couldn't budge. I had always assumed they were big buffalo or catfish.... hmmmm.

Anyhow, looks like we have a new angler of the month.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

The Spoonbill isnt as rare as most folks think as I have seen them caught (snagged) below Ceasers Creek, Meldahl and Aberdeen.Heard of em below East Fork and on the lower GMR as well. Just know that if you dont snag them, youll never know they are there. Yes endangered in Ohio but KY and Indiana actually have a short snagging season for them on the Ohio River.

Others reported the Deer Creek spillway is a hotspot for them and probably would be the best shot at hitting one, but for heavens sake, please protect them as they are very migratory and that fish may very well have started its journey in the Mississippi. 

It is indeed a great catch and really nice pics.

and the body jewlry reminded me of catching salmon in NY and Michigan loaded with pierced body art  

The one i saw snagged at Ceasers creek was about 6-7 lbs and on a stringer and when I asked the guy what it hit, he told me it "hammered his twistertail" of course when I looked at it it had a big hole in its side and I tried to tell the guy it was a plankton eater , and had obviously he snagged it and they were endangered and the guy quickly pulled up his stuff and left, I reported him/car tags to the DNR office by the dam and got a weird look from them as they had no idea what i was talking about. So I doubt anything happened and the fish was already dead, I really hated to see that.

Salmonid


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## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

Paddlefish are almost prehistoric, very old species and native to Ohio. You see every now and again that they will snag one on the Ohio River. They do feed on plankton and are protected. Can't really answer how they got below Deer Creek but all water gets to the Ohio River somehow, it could be that way or they just could be naturally in that area. Seems from some of the articles that I picked up off of Google some states such as Ohio and WV are starting to stock them back into the Ohio River.

Here is something from the ODNR on them.
http://www.ohiodnr.com/Wildlife/Fishing/aquanotes-fishid/padlfish.htm


Jake


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## boaterfisherdude (Feb 16, 2005)

very cool catch indeed. i think i may have the answer as to why they are in their tho. i have some software of all ohio lakes and what is stocked in them and for deer creek it says back in '92 the odnr planted 81 paddle fish fingerling in deer creek. 81 isnt very much tho but maybe it was a decendent of one of those??


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## Walter Adkins (May 20, 2004)

You just never know what you will catch down there. That is a good sign to see those moving around in the water ways.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

Thanks for the complements guys. No red jig in his tail. He had one hanging off the side which is what the saugeye ate. When I first hooked it, I thought I might have gotten snagged, but then it moved a bit, so I knew I had a fish. I have snagged catfish by accident as well as carp so I figured I had one of those, then he just started swimming. I use pretty light gear so I did not have much leverage on him with my 5 ft 6 inch rod. That and 8 lb test I didnt want to man handle him to much. Took about 25 minutes before I even saw him. It was cool and definitley a fish of a lifetime.

I could tell he had been hooked a lot, he had a ton of scars all over his body plus the jigs I took out. I think he was up right where the water comes out feeding, and I just hooked him then.


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## BassBlaster (Jun 8, 2006)

There are signs at the spillway or used to be for that matter. I would assume they are still there. But it has a picture of these fish and says that if you catch one that you must release it back unharmed. I have never seen the signs anywhere else. I just assumed that they were stocked there for some reason. Great catch none the less. Congrats on doctoring him up and getting him back home safely.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

They migrate from the Scioto into deer creek for a reason that is not understood yet. It is some sort of preferable habbitat that they see in it. They stop at the dam.


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

Salmonid said:


> It is indeed a great catch and really nice pics.
> 
> and the body jewlry reminded me of catching salmon in NY and Michigan loaded with pierced body art
> 
> ...


Nothing like good ol' boys huh? Suprised he didn't mention that they were good eatin' too..."Nothin like dippin these guys in the Crisco"....What a fool.


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## Brian.Smith (May 18, 2006)

Congrats on the Paddlefish, very cool


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## Smallmouth Crazy (Apr 4, 2006)

acklac7 said:


> Nothing like good ol' boys huh? Suprised he didn't mention that they were good eatin' too..."Nothin like dippin these guys in the Crisco"....What a fool.


It isnt as if these fish would look good on the wall or be good at the table either, the real trouble starts when you try to figure out what these people are thinking when they do stuff like this, if caught they should be thrown under the jail just because of sheer ignorance.


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## weaze1 (Nov 16, 2006)

actually if you read up on them

in other states they are a game fish

and there are even some fishing guides for them

and i read and heard they are a very good tasting fish

just google them it's gets pretty different


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## Smallmouth Crazy (Apr 4, 2006)

I would have never guessed by looking at them that they are good eating fish.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

Yeah I know is some southern states they are considered Rough fish and you are allowed to bowfish for them. I guess they would taste good because they were fished a lot for their roe.


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