# lower LMR report 4/10/11



## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

I went down to the Lunken Airport on my mountain bike last night to see how the river looked. Here are some photos of the LMR north of the Ohio River near the airport: 

















It was 85 degrees out, so I'm sure most of you hit the lakes. Any good fishing reports or was the water too dirty to fish? I brought a telescopic spinning real and a white rooster tail with me, but I didn't throw it much. A guy I met down there said he had one crappie from shore on a twister tail jig. Not much else going on...


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

oh one more thing...there was a flooded field that I've played football on before that couldn't have held more than 2 feet of water. I saw 2 carp (I think) flopping around as well as a decent sized catfish right by the shore. I'm guessing the LMR flooded over at one point and they got stuck here. I felt silly fishing in a flooded puddle...but I'm sure that would have changed had I hooked one!

pic:


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

This has been the worst flooding we've had in the last 30 years. Makes for some great fishing though, that's for sure.


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## CCRiley2 (Sep 18, 2006)

fallen513 said:


> This has been the worst flooding we've had in the last 30 years. Makes for some great fishing though, that's for sure.


Are you exaggerating?
It's bad, but doesn't seem that bad to me.
The flooding we had 5 or 6 years ago seemed way worse.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

CCRiley2 said:


> Are you exaggerating?
> It's bad, but doesn't seem that bad to me.
> The flooding we had 5 or 6 years ago seemed way worse.


I will concede, '96 & '97 were worse. Take a look... 


1964: 66.2 feet -- Thousands of refugees fled flooded lowlands. At least 775 people spent the night in local shelters, and 110,000 were homeless in a five-state area. A house on Second Avenue in Dayton, Ky., caught fire and burned to the water line.

Jan. 24, 1996: 57.3 feet -- Hundreds were left homeless as parts of the region were thrown into a state of emergency. Hardest hit were Clermont County, Anderson Township and Cincinnati's east side. In Hamilton County, floodwater damaged at least 300 homes. In Clermont County, 84 homes were damaged.

March 5, 1997: *64.7 feet *




1937 was far worse, at 79.9 feet!




It crested @ 56.85' on March 13, 2011. Take it as you will.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Speaking specifically about the lower LMR, it was definitely higher this year than it has been in 10 years. I know because I drive it twice daily and they had my route shut down for the first time I'd seen.


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## CCRiley2 (Sep 18, 2006)

Interesting, I wasn't trying to be a d$%#. I was just curious if it was a 30 year flood. I tried getting levels from USGS but can't weed through all the data they give. I was looking at the Milford recording point.
A 13 year flood is pretty big. It's not nearly that bad up in the South Lebanon area.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

It's alllll good. The lower LMR was mind boggling high. The truth of the matter is, the flood of 37 will never happen again. There are too many safety measures put in place, for example, the creation of East Fork lake. Prior to its construction, the flooding in Newtown, Pleasantville & the entire LMR delta was much, much worse. That being said, I use a few different land points to discern max depth vs. years past. One that I had never seen surpassed was St. Rt. 32 outside of Newtown. I had watched it rise each day on my way to work & when it came over the road at a high point, I knew it was up there! 


If you are familiar with st. rt. 32, take it out of Newtown sometime. This March, not only were the entire (1 mile+) sod fields under water, but st. rt. 32 was also under water @ the first bend... an approximate depth of 10', over a mile from the river channel. There were white caps coming across it as if it were its own lake. The Ohio river reaches flood stage, i.e. tributaries backing up on themselves aka flooding... at which time all drainage ceases in them & their feeder streams..left to their own devices, unable to empty themselves. East Fork & Caesar's Creek are also forced to let out water, contributing to the overall CFS..... The debris is still along the road on 32. Lots of big thick trees and other items floating from miles away.. Whether you actually call it a "flood" is more opinion, I believe. Probably not much damage these days unless you are right down on Kellogg, but the water stretched miles from the actual river. A sight to be had.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

CCRiley2 said:


> I was looking at the Milford recording point.
> A 13 year flood is pretty big. It's not nearly that bad up in the South Lebanon area.


If you fish the lower, you also need to factor in the CFS of the East Fork of the Little Miami... 

For example, today it is dumping an additional 3,400 CFS into the LMR... which again, is a mind boggling high number. That number ALONE flowing through the Milford gauge renders all fishing below it impossible (or unfeasible) 

Add in the 4,900 CFS flowing through Milford right now & you have almost 8,500 CFS of water trying to make an escape down the river valley. 

All of the spots I fish from the bank, the highest you can access them is around 700 CFS.  

Such is the nature of a tailwater fishery.


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## Perch (Apr 5, 2004)

Being April, now is the time that the spawing White Bass head up into the creeks...........when the water is this high, you'll find them all the way up into the creeks off the East Fork of the LMR..........I know of a small creek near Perintown loaded with Whites right now..............


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

I may or may not know what creek you're talking about.  High water events, especially one right after the other...are AWESOME, not just now but for the entire fishing season. 

I'm impatient, but I know what it yields.


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## Perch (Apr 5, 2004)

All of the Clermont county small creeks holding emerald green water right now is a direct result of the photos mr House posted at the start of this thread. Just keep heading further north-northeast and the fishing can be HOT.


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## lovelandfly (Mar 11, 2010)

Although it intentionally cryptic, I think I'm following this discusion a little. I went out into the LMR in the Milf/Love area Saturday with 99tries. The river was a wash, but I tossed some different things for a couple of hours. Spent a couple of hours in a crick too, but I was near the mouth of it. Apparently I should have made my way farther up. . .


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

Perch said:


> All of the Clermont county small creeks holding emerald green water right now is a direct result of the photos mr House posted at the start of this thread.


Don't blame me! I took a shower before I went out so the green stuff didn't come from me! :S

Here are 2 pictures from 4/15 in a feeder creek off of the LMR that is usually 2-3 feet deep and maybe 8 feet across. I saw one fish jump out that looked like a smallie or a small carp, but other than that I didn't see any signs of life. I was tossing a beetlespin and also had a jig head floating along with a redworm dangling from it 12 inches deep. I was only there from 12-3 before the storms rolled back in. As expected...the water was moving in the WRONG direction, lol. crazy rain...


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## ss1963 (Apr 19, 2011)

hi im greg i liked your photos. do you have others to share? with all this
rain there is only two types of water to fish right now...also only two
types of lures thats all...guess what those are? if you guessed right
you should already know where to go, i know im jerking them in good
right now. good fishing from the crankbait guy


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

ss1963 said:


> hi im greg i liked your photos. do you have others to share? with all this
> rain there is only two types of water to fish right now...also only two
> types of lures thats all...guess what those are? if you guessed right
> you should already know where to go, i know im jerking them in good
> right now. good fishing from the crankbait guy



I have a lot of pictures on my actual camera, but sadly, none of them have any fish in them yet! Great nature shots though,  I'll add more when I get home if you really want to see them. I found some cool poison ivy that I was standing in, so I took a quick snapshot just in case I needed to go back there and kick it's butt.

As to your word games... I like riddles  I'm guessing ponds are the way to go right now, or creeks that are far upstream from the muddy waters. Water temperatures are getting up there, so I'm guessing bass should be staging off of secondary lake points and flats. I can't prove that until the water clears up though! As to the two types of lures, hmmm...live bait & live bait? lol. You hinted at jerkbaits and crankbaits in your cryptic reply, is that your secret answer?


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Lower LMR is flowing over _35,000_ cfs right now. 

27,200 @ Milford









Plus 11,600 comin' down the EFLMR












Yikes.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

I don't know how accurate the gauges are, but the LMR in Milford was higher than has ever been recorded in 85 years today:












04/19/2011 16:00 EDT	17.87	*28,700*


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Source:


http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00060=on&format=html&period=7&site_no=03245500


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## ss1963 (Apr 19, 2011)

hi its greg ..well we live close to one another so we probably fish the same places 
like farm ponds and gravel pits . i dont keep secrets so one is a dark football jig with a big
trailer and a good size spinnerbait thats also dark with gold blades....respond


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## Big James (Mar 30, 2011)

fallen513 said:


> I may or may not know what creek you're talking about.  High water events, especially one right after the other...are AWESOME, not just now but for the entire fishing season.
> 
> I'm impatient, but I know what it yields.


I am curious what your take is on why high water events lead to better fishing?


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

They bring more fish up from the big river & down from the impoundments upstream. 

They also flood feeder streams which then become holding water for fish as the river recedes. 

This time of year it's especially good because there are fish spawning & preparing to spawn that use the high water to move higher/farther up the system looking for riffles that don't exist until the water drops.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

I see now that the "record" that was broken was only for that day, the record high @ that location for today, for instance... is over 50,000 cfs. That's quite a bit higher than I've seen. 


Here is 32 heading out of Newtown... it's a few thousand feet out of its banks.

[YOUTUBE]tTDeCG1vN7U[/YOUTUBE]


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

'house, the water @ that feeder creek in post #14 is probably 10-15' over your head where you were standing.


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## Big James (Mar 30, 2011)

fallen513 said:


> They bring more fish up from the big river & down from the impoundments upstream.
> 
> They also flood feeder streams which then become holding water for fish as the river recedes.
> 
> This time of year it's especially good because there are fish spawning & preparing to spawn that use the high water to move higher/farther up the system looking for riffles that don't exist until the water drops.


I never really gave it that much thought. I mostly fish gravel pits and farm ponds, I do fish below the dam in Hamilton because it's convenient and I fish the Ohio when catfishing. I am planning on trying the upper GMR and lower LMR when the river finally goes down. Sounds like it should be a good summer to invest the time.


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

Hey, random question: I noticed that the Ohio DNR reports lake temps @ EF finally breaking into the 50-52* range. Does anyone know how or where they measure these temperatures? It says it is at the dam, but is that the surface temperature or the temperature of the water flowing out of the spillway? 

I tried to measure the water temps in the creek I was fishing but couldn't get a consistent reading. It was saying 48-54 degrees on different readings. Probably because I was mostly measuring the warm rain.

ss1963: I'm with you on the big spinnerbaits. I lost my 3 favorites out on my last EF outing a few weekends ago. Double gold Colorado blades in a white or chartreuse pattern  I fall asleep this time of year fishing jigs, hehe...it's one of my goals to overcome this season. Thanks for the tips though!


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

I believe temps given @ dams are on the out flow. Surface temps in EF are in the mid to high 50s right now.


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## ss1963 (Apr 19, 2011)

hi its greg...i just came back from a gravel pit,i caught around 18 one
was about 5 lbs and they all came off a jigs again. i didnt throw a 
spinnerbait but the water level came up about 6 inches. i checked the water 
temp and it was 62 degrees. yeh you need to stop thinking about all those
creeks and east fork until about first week of may ,thats when you start
catching them good there...well im hungry so its time to eat,ill go back 
out later


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