# Suprise while drift fishing the Ohio River



## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

Well my partner Dave (GMRcatman) and myself got out for some fishing Saturday morning. We were drifting for blues as usual and had a pretty good day. We landed about 20 fish, lost some others. 2 channels, a flathead, and 17 blues. Most were around 10 pounds. Couple around 12-15 and a couple smaller.

However the big suprise was the "Oxymoron" flathead that I caught. Everyone knows that the norm for flathead fishing is at night, around cover/structure, and using lively bait.

Now I catch a lot of flatheads in the middle of the day fishing structure with cut bait (as that is primarily all I use) however today while drifting in about 40 ft of water I had my baits placed about 15-20 ft off the bottom in a smooth bottom section of river.

For those of you that dont know how the fish usually hit when drifting it is pretty exciting you have the lines hanging straight down and using circle hooks when a blue hits, it slams the rod down usually pulling it in the water and holds it down. Very exciting to say the least. Channels however will sometimes pull it down but they usually just peck on it where the rod tip moves really erraticly up and down but they dont actually commit to it. When they do this you simply wind your reel really fast and hook them.

Well my back corner rod started to do the "channel" bite as I call it so I started to crank down on the reel. Well the rod bent double and the fish started taking off fast. I struggled to get the rod out of the holder as the fish was running taking line as it went. Finally got it out and started to fight the fish. I thought I had a nice blue on as it was rolling and fighting. However to my suprise it was a flattie! A nice healthy 26 pounder to be exact.

I call it the oxymoron fish because it was 10 AM bright and sunny out already almost 80 degrees. The fish hit a piece of cut shad, while drifting between .7 and 1 mph and the bait was suspended 15 ft off the bottom where there was no structure. This is only the 2nd flathead that I have caught drifting and it was a nice treat.


















Dave started the day off with a nice double (it was actually a triple but I let the channel go that I caught to help Dave with the blues)


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

Thats a good day of fishin. congrats.


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

Congrats on the great fish!


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## katfish (Apr 7, 2004)

Congratulations on a great trip!


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## dinkbuster1 (Oct 28, 2005)

seeing how hot and low the rivers are right now it could be the river has "stratified" and theres little to no oxygen below that depth in spots. rivers believe it or not will stratify in slower pools/holes and most of the fish will suspend about halfway down in the water column. have a deep hole i fish in the GMR that stratified one year (think surface water temp was 90 degree's one evening), every 'gill cast onto the bottom would quickly die. we ended up fishing along a steep cut bank with floats where the gills lived and managed a few fish.


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## Catman63 (Aug 25, 2008)

Congrats on what sounds like a great day of fishing and nice flattie btw!


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## bigcatjoe (Sep 6, 2006)

Nice fish! If you don't mind me asking, what kind of rod is behind you in the first two pics with the 7000 on it? I know the last thing I need is another flathead rod, but it looks like a sweet combo from here haha.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

dinkbuster1 said:


> seeing how hot and low the rivers are right now it could be the river has "stratified" and theres little to no oxygen below that depth in spots. rivers believe it or not will stratify in slower pools/holes and most of the fish will suspend about halfway down in the water column. have a deep hole i fish in the GMR that stratified one year (think surface water temp was 90 degree's one evening), every 'gill cast onto the bottom would quickly die. we ended up fishing along a steep cut bank with floats where the gills lived and managed a few fish.


Thats definitley a possibility however we were marking a lot of fish on the bottom as well as catching a some fish only a foot off the bottom in the same areas. But I can definitley see what your saying would hold true in cases.





bigcatjoe said:


> Nice fish! If you don't mind me asking, what kind of rod is behind you in the first two pics with the 7000 on it? I know the last thing I need is another flathead rod, but it looks like a sweet combo from here haha.


That is a St. Croix Classic Cat best cat rod ever made in my mind. However they dont make them anymore which is a shame. You can sometimes find used ones but they will run you $150-$200+ for one. I have been lucky enough to get 4 of them. The 7000 probably weights twice as much as the rod does haha


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## Kurtis (Jul 21, 2010)

dinkbuster1 said:


> seeing how hot and low the rivers are right now it could be the river has "stratified" and theres little to no oxygen below that depth in spots. rivers believe it or not will stratify in slower pools/holes and most of the fish will suspend about halfway down in the water column. have a deep hole i fish in the GMR that stratified one year (think surface water temp was 90 degree's one evening), every 'gill cast onto the bottom would quickly die. we ended up fishing along a steep cut bank with floats where the gills lived and managed a few fish.


I have always wondered if that was possible. When your fishing a whole that is 50 foot and the rest of the river in the area is only 20 to 25 foot. And the current is barely moveing at .3 mph. Thanks for the insight!!!


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## Buzzin (Jun 22, 2010)

Man you should start a charter your always tearing into some nice fish congrats on the flat!


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## bigcatjoe (Sep 6, 2006)

Ahh I see. I've heard of them. Like you said they're hard to find. We use a few customs that I'd put against any rod out there, but there's no way to beat the weight of a St. Croix haha.


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