# First time boating the ohio



## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Me and a good friend hit he Ohio for the first time this past Saturday, what a beautiful day on the water!! No monsters but caught some decent "eater" size cats. Drifting cut bait 21-26' fow. Put in at Shawnee, th No next time we are gonna go Farther east. Looking for some big boys.


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## Lewzer (Apr 5, 2004)

Those are some nice, fat, healthy looking cats. was that the Meldahl pool?


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## ItsAlwaysSunnyInNEOhio (Jun 18, 2013)

Looks muddy for this time of year.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Yes sir, meldahl pool. And it was pretty muddy, I think that's why we didn't do better. This was a marathon sun up to sundown trip. I was disappointed, just was hoping for more size. Was a blast tho


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

LOL, believe it or not, that's a banner day nowadays and the only reason you did that well was because it was muddy, that's when the bite is best, youd have won any of the last 6-7 tournaments in the area with those fish, only taking 30 lbs to win ( 5 fish) generally in the last 6 weeks or so with 1 exception where team had two good fish. Nice job. You can thank the paylakes for the reason there are not many bigger fish left in the river.....


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Salmonid said:


> LOL, believe it or not, that's a banner day nowadays and the only reason you did that well was because it was muddy, that's when the bite is best, youd have won any of the last 6-7 tournaments in the area with those fish, only taking 30 lbs to win ( 5 fish) generally in the last 6 weeks or so with 1 exception where team had two good fish. Nice job. You can thank the paylakes for the reason there are not many bigger fish left in the river.....


I know all about the paylakes and hoop nets, well that's kind of disappointing that that's a banner day, almost not worth my 2 hr drive lol. I'm hoping if we go farther east we might increase size. All we did was target the ledges, not a whole lot of science to it really. Was fun but I want some big ones. Anyone have any suggestions for boat ramps in the ripley or Higgins port area


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Mark where can I find the info for tourneys? I think I'd like to give it a shot


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Send me your email and I'll forward you a compiled list of most of the Ohio river tourneys as well as some southern Ohio lakes


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Salmonid said:


> Send me your email and I'll forward you a compiled list of most of the Ohio river tourneys as well as some southern Ohio lakes


Message sent! Thank y sir


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

Fish the Ohio/West Virginia section of the Ohio River...


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

I was


Fisherman 3234 said:


> Fish the Ohio/West Virginia section of the Ohio River...


 told the population of blues was much better towards cinci, is that wrong? I have heard wv section has big flats tho


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

fishintechnician said:


> I was
> 
> told the population of blues was much better towards cinci, is that wrong? I have heard wv section has big flats tho


It used to be but it is starting to change. Ohio and WV don't allow commercial fishing so that is all protected water and WV has been stocking blues.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

fishdealer04 said:


> It used to be but it is starting to change. Ohio and WV don't allow commercial fishing so that is all protected water and WV has been stocking blues.


Oh, very good information. Thank you. Will have to consider heading that way


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## Fisherman 3234 (Sep 8, 2008)

No commercial fishing on the Ohio/West Virginia section of river. Big fish in the 40-50 lb range have been caught in the Greenup, RC Byrd, and Racine pools. Not to mention very good Flathead fishing.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Fisherman 3234 said:


> No commercial fishing on the Ohio/West Virginia section of river. Big fish in the 40-50 lb range have been caught in the Greenup, RC Byrd, and Racine pools. Not to mention very good Flathead fishing.


I've only fished up to greenup dam, never fished above it. May be changing my fall plans a bit now


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## 33highland (Feb 5, 2014)

The Byrd pool is where you want to be. The 60# in my avatar and this 62# I caught a couple weeks ago reside there. I've been very fortunate to catch these two monsters and I have a feeling there is a few bigger just waiting . I'll post this fish in another section later with some details. I have been pretty occupied here lately.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

33highland said:


> View attachment 243656
> The Byrd pool is where you want to be. The 60# in my avatar and this 62# I caught a couple weeks ago reside there. I've been very fortunate to catch these two monsters and I have a feeling there is a few bigger just waiting . I'll post this fish in another section later with some details. I have been pretty occupied here lately.


Nice fish!!! I'm still trying to learn all the pools, anyon have a map (or link to one) showing the pools


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## 33highland (Feb 5, 2014)

The Byrd pool is the water in the Gallipolis area.


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## Daveo76 (Apr 14, 2004)

The pools above the dam are the names of the pool, the water above Meldahl Dam is the Meldahl pool,all the way to Greenup dam , so Greenup Dam, Portsmouth, is the Meldahl Pool. Above Greenup to RC Byrd is the Greenup Pool. Just the water you are fishing is named for the dam above.Strange, but I fish Greenup Dam and it's the Meldahl pool!!


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Ok that always confused me but the way you explained it makes sense, thank you


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## James Baldwin (Oct 13, 2017)

fishintechnician said:


> I've only fished up to greenup dam, never fished above it. May be changing my fall plans a bit now


Planning going to Greenup any live bait shop around like shad ect


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