# a little urban fishing



## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

I was bored this morning while I waited for my fishing buddy to get off work so I went to check out an urban creek near me. This particular creek had the unfortunate fate of being channeled in to a concrete ditch for the last mile or so until it feeds in to its parent river; this area doesn't hold water and has the effect of cutting it off from any larger flows, so I was just curious if any fish still remained in the upper areas. I got out my old Daiwa Minispin, a collapsible ultralight that I used to bring on boyscout trips in my youth but I now bring along on business trips. I put on a splitshot and a small hook, on which i stuck a piece of Gulp! floating trout worm. Within moments I was rewarded with a pretty little male creek chub, complete with rainbow spawning colors and head tubercles. 








I was only there for about 20 minutes before I had to go, during which time I caught another, a female with the normal black horizontal stripe coloration. My crazy hypothesis is that there are smallies surviving in isolated areas of this creek, that maybe I could find given more time... I know it is kind of a lame report but I was happy at the thought of catching a fish in the urban wasteland that I call home. I know I'm not the only one, as I saw a couple bobbers stuck in a tree. Anyone else ever do anything crazy like this?
(I also did go to the LMR later with my fishing buddy but the rain and lack of waders ruined my trip so nothing to report there haha)


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## backlashed (Mar 19, 2011)

I drive past the Millcreek in Lockland everyday and wonder the same thing.


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## LilSiman/Medina (Nov 30, 2010)

How big is the creek? The EF Black is ditched pretty much though Lodi then it opens us again right outside of the area where there re some giant smallies.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

My last fish of 2011 was a creek chub; it was on my fly rod on a bead head prince nymph. It caused me to have a fly rod light bulb moment. Hard to say whether there are smallmouth or sauger in that creek or not (I have an idea where you were), you might have to do some exploring.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Dandrews said:


> My last fish of 2011 was a creek chub; it was on my fly rod on a bead head prince nymph. It caused me to have a fly rod light bulb moment. Hard to say whether there are smallmouth or sauger in that creek or not (I have an idea where you were), you might have to do some exploring.


Haha Dandrews I would be really surprised if you knew this creek, and even more surprised if there were sauger in it.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

It is possible but this channeled area is home to several CSO's (combined sewer overflows), so when it floods, it FLOODS. Insane amounts of water and pollution. I'm not sure if any fish could make it through there; there is no structure for them to hold in, and when the water goes back down, there is just the smallest trickle at the bottom of the channel. I was fishing an upper reach in the creek, upstream from the CSO/channeled area, and its not huge but certainly not small. It is kind of mind blowing, and scary, what humans can do to an environment.


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## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

If you were in the west fork of the creek, I would think there might be some remnant bluegills or bullheads, but chubs are what I would most expect. But the sewer overflows, not to mention the industrial pollution in the main branch, are really, really bad. You actually shouldn't touch the water, it's that bad. There are over 30 CSOs, so the sewage problem is serious. Every time it rains they overflow. I've studied that creek with my classes and visited lots of times. I've seen really big carp in there up around Sharonville.


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## Dizzy (Oct 1, 2012)

I have been meaning to hit the Mill Creek near the new preserve in Sharonville. The upper parts don't have any CSOs to worry about. 

Hey Zuel, where are you taking classes? I know a couple of people at NKU environmental ed.


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## ARReflections (Jan 7, 2011)

I think I know where you are at Amberly and if it is the same place then you will catch a lot of chubs. A fun place with a 3 or lower wt fly rod. Those creek chubs are pretty fierce for the size.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Dizzy said:


> I have been meaning to hit the Mill Creek near the new preserve in Sharonville. The upper parts don't have any CSOs to worry about.


I heard a rumor that they re-introduced smallies up there, and they took. If you go let me know how it is.

Yeah the Mill itself is an interesting river. The creek I was in is a tributary to the Mill. There is a lowhead dam right by northside, which would be the first dam up from the Ohio, and I have seen several things that lead me to believe that there is a hybrid striper run up to this point. Problem is, the water of the creek can make you extremely sick, and there is no good way to get down there. You can see it from the bike path at Salway Park though, through a fence. There are always a ton of huge carp congregated there, as well as huge schools of shad in the fall.


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

kingofamberley said:


> I heard a rumor that they re-introduced smallies up there, and they took. If you go let me know how it is.
> 
> Yeah the Mill itself is an interesting river. The creek I was in is a tributary to the Mill. There is a lowhead dam right by northside, which would be the first dam up from the Ohio, and I have seen several things that lead me to believe that there is a hybrid striper run up to this point. Problem is, the water of the creek can make you extremely sick, and there is no good way to get down there. You can see it from the bike path at Salway Park though, through a fence. There are always a ton of huge carp congregated there, as well as huge schools of shad in the fall.


There are hybrid striper up to the first low head at least I know someone that caught one and another person who was fish shocking in that area. There is no way with all the pollution I would fish that stretch though. I have tried the upper ends a couple times above sharonville and havent had any luck yet.


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## Dizzy (Oct 1, 2012)

ARReflections said:


> I think I know where you are at Amberly and if it is the same place then you will catch a lot of chubs. A fun place with a 3 or lower wt fly rod. Those creek chubs are pretty fierce for the size.


I talked to a guy at Avoca Park that said he mostly fishes the Mill Creek with a fly rod. It looked like the set-up he had that day was similar to what you described.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

If you wanted to learn to fly fish for carp, the Mill would probably be the best place to do it haha


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

ARReflections said:


> I think I know where you are at Amberly and if it is the same place then you will catch a lot of chubs. A fun place with a 3 or lower wt fly rod. Those creek chubs are pretty fierce for the size.


Its actually not the obvious choice that you probably think, though that is also a Mill tribute that I used to fish a lot as a kid


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## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

Dizzy, I'm actually teaching at one of our smaller local Catholic colleges. I run my freshman English classes with an environmental focus and have them learn about Mill Creek and write about it. I've taken them on field trips there 7 or 8 times. It's always a big eye opener.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

zuelkek said:


> Dizzy, I'm actually teaching at one of our smaller local Catholic colleges. I run my freshman English classes with an environmental focus and have them learn about Mill Creek and write about it. I've taken them on field trips there 7 or 8 times. It's always a big eye opener.


That's really great man, I commend you for making people aware. I struck up a correspondence with one of the people at the Mill Creek Watershed Council, and she assured me that people have and still do fish the Mill. She also pointed out that the EPA, believe it or not, recommends 1 meal a month from the creek (same as most other Ohio rivers). I think it would take a post-apocalyptic, desperate, verge of death type of hunger to make me consider that as a viable option though.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Unless way in the upper watershed, just from studying it and where the watershed is located, I don't think smallies are feasible right now. Take away a lot of CSOs and a lot of the stormwater flow and you might start seeing them survive. Then you come to the issue of navigation. How are they going to get past the lowhead dams to repopulate the rest of the creek? Coming from upstream isn't very likely.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

montagc said:


> And KoA, I am with you on the damage humans can do to a waterway.


Sometimes its a wonder that our waterways can support fish at all anymore.
It would be cool to go back a few hundred years in a time machine just to see what it all looked like back then...


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## Dizzy (Oct 1, 2012)

Zuel, that is really cool to teach a subject using an outdoor resource. Everything is connected in one way or another. Glad to hear that you are teaching some of them to describe it better than I ever could. 




Mushijobah said:


> Unless way in the upper watershed, just from studying it and where the watershed is located, I don't think smallies are feasible right now. Take away a lot of CSOs and a lot of the stormwater flow and you might start seeing them survive. Then you come to the issue of navigation. How are they going to get past the lowhead dams to repopulate the rest of the creek? Coming from upstream isn't very likely.


That would be correct. From page 102 of the newest study I could find: "Smallmouth bass, which should be present in all of the 
wadeable sized streams, were only found in the Ohio River backwater reach of Mill Creek."

2011 Mill Creek water quality study


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Here is a really good article about the Mill Creek Watershed, including the restoration effort of previously destroyed waterways, and the re-introduction of smallies at the Twin Creek Preserve area in Sharonville. I'm telling you, its possible.
http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/features/story.aspx?ID=1764543


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## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

montagc said:


> Zuelkek, I've known who you were for a while but didn't want to out you without your permission. Know who I might be? Not too hard if you look at my username lol!
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Hah! Never made the connection. Good to know there's more than one fisherman out there!


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## zuelkek (Jun 8, 2011)

King, yeah, don't be eating fish out of the Mill Creek anytime soon! On our field trips, we generally make 5 stops. By the covered bridge way up the west fork, and we get down into the water and play for a bit. In the spring you find lots of mayflies and water pennies under the rocks, which are indicators of decent water quality. Then we go to the Pristine Superfund site just behind the big GE plant--really hard to find if you don't know exactly where it is. This was where a company recycled 50 gallon steel drums for about 30 years or so and dumped most or all of its waste into the soil underneath. Now the groundwater plume carries it all about 100 yards down the hill and you can see the leachate zone on the bank of the creek, a rusty red where the normal color of the bank just up and down stream is a muddy brown. The poisons dripping into the creek at that site alone make me refuse to touch the water anywhere downstream. The EPA has a facility set up where they excavate the polluted ground and incinerate it to get the bad stuff out. Then we stop at a small steel dam near the closed landfill, which is always nice because there is usually a mound of detergent suds building up around the spillway, sometimes a 10 foot mound of it. Then the Spring Grove Ave. bridge near Ivorydale, where the stream is channeled through a concrete trough. That is quite a sight, chemical industry on a massive scale. 
We talk about the ramps P&G uses to get bulldozers down to the creek bed twice a year to remove the sandbars that build up naturally. They need to keep the trough open to get the rainwater out and away as fast as possible. Finally we stop at the main CSO right under the Western Hills Viaduct. It's a giant pipe coming out of the hillside--10 or 12 feet in diameter--and you can see anything floating down the stinking stream that has gone down about half of Western Hills's toilets: turds, maxi pads, condoms, quite a sight. Normally it it's not too much flow and goes down though a grate to the pipe under the stream bed that leads to the treatment plant, but everytime it rains 1/10th of an inch, the pipe fills up. There is a big tank right at the end of it, with these big hanging steel doors, that let the overflow out and right down into the creek. Yikes! Everytime it rains. Interestingly enough, very few people know about this--my students never do--but the EPA has mandated something be done since 1992. Just the other day I heard on the news that sewage rates are going up in Cincy to pay for EPA-mandated upgrades to the sewer system. I knew exactly what that was about, but it has never been part of public debate. Anyway, the city is moving now to rectify this. It didn't need to be all that public, I think, only because the overflow situation is a result of turn-of-the-century engineering that was very difficulat and expensive to fix once it got established. Unlike the toxics problem, it wasn't really anybody's fault. The city just got stuck with it.
But now that I know what's in that stream, I can't make myself touch it. One student of mine is obssessed with the stream, and takes kayak trips down its whole length occasionally, which includes right through the heart of P&G, but you can do that legally as long as you never touch the bottom. It's an interesting stream in its way. Cincinnati's toilet, and that's not exagerating!


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Wow Zuel, thanks for typing that reply. Not even 7 AM and I am already learning stuff today. That giant sewer under Western Hills was at one time a creek, which is just crazy. There is a plan on the Watershed Council page about restoring that creek and opening it to the daylight again. Have you heard of the Mill Creek Yacht Club? The name is a bit of a joke, but they do canoe trips in the creek and clean ups and such, maybe your student would find them interesting.


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