# Rayland/Pike Island Report!!



## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

Well it turned out to be a pretty good weekend. We battled through a monsoon type microbusrt on Friday evening and the heat on Saturday. Scott and I started out at Rayland. He got there about 1pm Friday afternoon and I met up with him around 4pm. The fishing started off slow with a run here and there but the carp were making their presence known by jumping and rolling all over our chum areas. As it got closer to dark the action started to come on. Right off the bank is a mud flat that runs for about 50-75 yards and then drops into deep water. After it got dark, carp started to really move up onto this flat. Action was fast for about 3 hrs from midnight til about 3am. Most of the fish were 5-10 lbs with a few smaller and a few a lil bigger but most were about 8lbs. At about 3:30 am we called it a night and tried to get some sleep. We had to pull the poles out of the water because we would of gotten runs all night. We ended up with a total of 33 for the day. 

We woke up about 6:30am and the carp were still in the area. All you saw along the flat was carp jumping and tailing. We decided to try Pike Island in search of some bigger fish. As we got to Pike Island and made 2 trips a piece to unload all of our stuff it started to rain a little but carp were in the area Scott had chummed the day before on his way to Rayland. 15 mins after getting our poles in the water we had our first carp on the bank. Just as it looking like we were going to have a great day, gate #5 opened on the dam and we had a current shift. We mannaged a few fish from about 7:30 am til noon. About this time I was having second thoughts about leaving Rayland. At around noon we heard 4 sharp blasts from a whistle and gate 5 shut down to just a trickle. Within 30 mins the area below Pike Island looked like a lake. After a fresh coat of chum the carp action was on. From noon til about 11pm we landed close to 100 carp. The large majority of the carp were 10-12 lbs with very few under 10lbs. The biggest for the weekend was about 15-17 lbs. Scott landed a very nice Buffalo that weighed in at 15lbs on the dot. We both lost a really, really nice fish a piece. We had many doubles through out the afternoon which made it very tough for landing the fish as we only had 1 net. Ohio River carp have a mind of there own and often we were 20-30 yards from each other when we landed them, and we were only fishing about 20 feet apart. The night ended on a sour note as the same 4 whistle blasts sounded and gate 5 was opened back up again cause an extreme back-current. Then to add insult to injury it started to rain again. All in all it was a great weekend. Caught well over 100 carp again out of these areas, got a little sunburned, and I think I might sleep all day today. I will post a few of the pics I took when I get back to Columbus this afternoon. I have a few pics of the commons and a pick of Scotts buffalo. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Jake


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## BottomBouncer (Jan 20, 2005)

Sounds awesome, wish I coulda made the trip. I didn't catch anything last night......going out again shortly.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

Here a pics of a buffalo caught at Rayland.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

Here are a few commons caught below Pike Island Dam on Saturday.


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## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

Here is a pic of the buffalo caught below Pike Island Dam


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## BottomBouncer (Jan 20, 2005)

Do you guys plan on going back down there any time soon?


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## crappielooker (Apr 5, 2004)

nice looking colored carp guys!!.. i dunno, but the mouth on those buffs looks big compared to what we caught last weekend..  weird..


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## BuckeyeFishinNut (Feb 8, 2005)

BB, I don't know when I will be back down that way. Probably not for atleast a few weeks and once the Buckeyes start games I will only make weekend trips on weekends they play away games. I know we are planning another trip down there in October for sure. Ak, the buffalo are wierd down there. You will catch some that are really light colored and they have those really small mouths on them and then you will catch the ones like we caught that have bigger mouths and are a darker color. I don't know if they are a cross-breed or just an offshoot of the buffalo carp. Those ones with the bigger mouths hit alot different too, they hit like a common. They take the bait and are off to the races. The ones with the smaller mouths will tap your bait all day long. The bite down there is actually better when the water is a little higher than it was and there is a little bit of current. In the fall it will be much better for size down there.

Jake


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## RiverRat (Apr 5, 2004)

Yea im late on this one...lol...another AWSOME time on the river!!
Loads of fish and we had them all to ourselfs...lol.


I say another trip in Oct. , what do ya say Jake?

I know i will be hitting it a lot in Sept. during the weekdays since i work weekends that month...anyones welcome to come if they want.

Scott


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