# Ohio River @ Cincinnati 8/9



## hunterm (Apr 22, 2004)

Put in at Schmidt around 7:00 pm Monday, headed down river to catch bait. Took an hour of netting to come up with some shad but I got them. Big ones but spreadout in Mill creek, lots of small ones in Licking river. From down town I started leap frogging up river, action was slow but just enough to keep me from pulling anchor and heading home. A mix of small channel cats and shovelheads, preferred bait was frozen cut shipjack. Sort of ironic I spent an hour throwing a cast net to have most action on the frozen/thawed bait I brought with me. Finally called it a night @ 2:00 am.

Conditions:

River stage 26.6 ft
Current, almost non-existent
Bait - cut and live shad
Frozen cut skipjack


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## Booosh (Jun 2, 2006)

nice report


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

Skipjack has been the way to go for the last couple of months for sure.


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## hoosiertransplant (Apr 20, 2009)

Thanks for the report! Went yesterday evening at the mouth of the Licking using frozen baby skipjack and caught only 1 small channel that hit it hard. Did have a few gar runs. It's tough when there is zero current. There are scattered skippies around. I have heard that guys are catching larger fish on mooneye right now.


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

Right now drifting is the key to the bigger fish just keep the boat right on the edge of the ledges, Blues are using them as a highway right now, took me 5 months to learn how to do the drifting thing but got it down and having a blast, they just rack a rod down hard................Doc


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## hunterm (Apr 22, 2004)

Doc,

I've heard you mention drifting before. When you say Ledge you talking channel or any sharp drop running parallel to the bank? Also, how many rods to you have out? 

I'm usually fishing solo now, is that possible drifting? I'm thinking the logistics might be tough.

Thanks,

Mark


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

Hunterm,
Yea the ledge would be that first drop right as you leave the bank and head towards the center of the river, they use that thing as a highway, I learned to do it last year it can get very frustrating especially if you get all the rods hung up on a piece of structure, so you have to watch your rods and watch your depth finder, I normally willonly use 4 rods when Lynn is with me and two if I'm alone, I'm running heavy weights 8oz. on a carolina rig, drop them straight to the bottom and crank the reel over till the rod starts to bend down the weight is off the bottom, then I crank up three or four turns which is 2 foot a turn on an ABU 7000, so my baits are 6-8 foot off the bottom Lynn does 5-6 turns.

If you can keep them out of the trees and junk on the bottom it is the most exciting fishing you can have as they just try to rip the rods right out of the rod holders, I'm slow to get to a rod so that is why I only run two each person easy to manage.

I run the trolling motor from about .3 mph to as high as 2.0 mph and those Blues will run that bait down.

Right now I'm learning to hover the boat right over top of these fish when I find them in structure, that is a real challange and is going to take me a while to learn how to do that.

Guys like Steve Douglas Jeremy Leach and the master himself Rob Bennigfield have helped me with this learning curve.

I used to hate to do it but now I'm getting better at it and really enjoy drifting.

I'm mainly using Skipjack and Shad Lynn and I run huge baits, others use much smaller, that is the other reason I use the heavy weights the line will hang straight down and I can track the baits better on the depth finder, I can adjust them when I mark fish on the screen up or down, it is very cool to see a fish come up on a bait and you know which rod is going to go down because you are tracking them on the screen..................Doc


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## hunterm (Apr 22, 2004)

Thanks Doc! That is some great info, I've got a couple of places in mind where I think drifting would really be the way to fish it.

I'll let you know how it works out.


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## ClickerCrazy (Feb 4, 2006)

Hey doctor, may I ask what model of depth finder you are running?


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## fishmonster13 (May 4, 2009)

as far a depth finder that you can watch the fish hit the bait on is any of the dual beam will let you do this. i run 6 rods even when I'm by myself but i either know the area I'm drifting or I'm fishing for fish that are suspended up in the water column. other than those things cant give away all the secrets to drifting , just got to go out and try new things and start doing some of the local tournies and talk to some of the guys , that's how i learned to drift...oh and lots of practice helps..


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## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

ClickerCrazy.

Lowrance 111 Hard drive unit, Hummingbird Matrix 67................Doc


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## C J Hughes (Jan 24, 2006)

I to was drifting on the Ohio the past weekend . Caught 2 blues a 25# and a 2#. Fishing was kinda slow .Wipers were hitting good .
I pulled upto two guys running hoop nets and trotlines this weekend . They said they had been fishing the Ohio around Ind. catching around 400 lbs of cats a day( they target channel cats on small hooks cheese for bait ) . They moved their stuff down around me Portsmouth . They ran 4 hoop nets and 1000 trotline hooks 4 channel cats is all they had . They pulled their stuff and were going back to Ind. I was glad they were going back to Ind .


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