# Ohio River Paducah, Ky



## Doctor (Apr 5, 2004)

Larry and I made the journey to Paducah to fish in a US Cats pro tournament, we came in 18th out of 28 teams, didn't do well but Father and Son had a great time, it has been 9 years since Larry and I have fished together in a tournament so we were pretty excited about it.

We left here on Friday morning and headed to Tanners to see if we could get any Skips, no skips and no Shad, bummer so we headed to Markland dam after about an hour and half we managed just a dozen about 6 inches in length, so decided to head for Paducah as it was starting to rain.

We traveled all day in the rain, wasn't till we got on I-24 then the sun came out it was looking good, had gotten a call from my good friend Harold Dodd and he told me they were killing skips at Barkley dam so we headed there, we arrived and yes they were in there,










we loaded up not real big ones other than Larry did catch a 18" one, man what a facility, steps leading down to the water with a concrete walkway about 20 foot above the rocks, and talk about clean, no trash, very impressed with it, everybody was catching skips, we spent a couple of hours there then went over to Kentucky dam









and it too is a fine facility again no trash. the Hydros were cranked up.

On Saturday the weather was misty type of rain, but cleared up about noon and then it got hot, we fished up in the Tennesee river, Larry caught a small Flathead 5 min. after we anchored up after marking him, thought we were going to kill them up in there, but just couldn't get the fish to bite, the water is crystal clear, I could see the prop in the water, looked like it was clear to almost 8 foot or better with great current,here's what we were marking but just couldn't get them to bite.










after a couple of hours and no more fish we decided to head to the Smithland Dam 26 miles away, we were coming out of the Tennesee running wide open looked down at the depthfinder 33.2 foot when out of the corner of my eye I see Larry stand up and then hollers " *BAR* " I slammed the throttle back and the boat stopped dead, looked over the side and we were in a foot of water, Larry hops over the side of the boat and grabs the back and manhandles the boat out away from the bar, I think I would have had a heartattack if I would have had to do what he did, but he got us off of it and we rode back out onto the Ohio, this whole river is like this bars everywhere just laying below the surface of the water, if you venture off the bouys your in dangerous water, never knew the Ohio was like that, as you can guess I was on pins and needles the rest of the day, we only managed 8 fish all day and we ended the tournament with 26.4# winning weight was 167.4# but Father and son had such a great time, thanks again Larry, the old man had a great time fishing with you, we saw wild turkeys, Bison and a whole lot more this is a trip we will always remember........Doc


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## dip (Apr 5, 2004)

that's a good'un doc!


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Great story, glad to hear you two had a good time


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## DavidWS10 (Apr 5, 2004)

Thanks for sharing, Doc. I really enjoy your photo stories. After talking with Madcatter last night, I was really wondering how you guys did.


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## lark101_1999 (Apr 12, 2004)

sounds like a hard day of work and fishing good luck with the next one


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## hunterm (Apr 22, 2004)

Running up on that bar would've been the end for me.  

Sounds like a great father/son adventure.


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## Carpn (Apr 5, 2004)

Those dams down there are pretty awesome. Plus they let you fish right up to the face of the dam.
Those fish you were marking very well could have been Asian carp (silvers and bigheads) They are very thick now below both the dams. Ya don't see em during the day(too often) but if you look around after dark with a spotlight they are everywhere...Sometimes when you spook em after dark the water seems to blow up.


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## mrfishohio (Apr 5, 2004)

Sounds great, I hope I can take my son on an outing like that soon.


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## truck (Apr 12, 2004)

Nice pics!Sounds like so guys had a good time.Daryl


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## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

That's a great area, with great people and great fishing. We have a plant on the Tenessee River in Calvert City. I always wanted to fish the rivers but "we're here for work not for play".
They never seems to understand that fishing is hard work too.


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## crappiebub (Apr 5, 2004)

Great story Doc. Glad you and Larry had a good trip!


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## TritonBill (Apr 9, 2004)

Better luck next time! Keep us posted. The river sometimes can be tricky to run depending on where you are at.


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