# Tusc River catfishing



## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

Hit the river again tonight for catfish. Cousin started off the night with a sucker maybe 14-15 inches long on chicken liver.

I went for quite a while with no luck on liver, or with the goldfish I had out. Then my pole bent over in the holder. I fought the fish for a few minutes and about had it to the bank. Then the thing came out of the water into the air. Had no lantern, but thought for sure it was a pike for the size of it. Got it closer to the bank and got some light on it. Sure enough it was a channel cat. Caught him on a 5 inch goldfish. No weight, but I am guessing about 8 lbs. I did measure him.......only 27 inches, but it was plump, I guess partially thanks to the goldfish it just scarfed down  

After that I used shrimp along with another goldfish. Go figure I catch 2 more mudpuppies to add to the list. I at least hoped for a turtle  Ended up having a fish hammer the goldfish and stripped the hook, but it was getting late, and I have a job, so I had to call it quits  Next time I will just suck it up and stay out longer  

I know a whole lot of story for only one fish, but hey, I had fun catching it :B Not big, but was another nice one to add so far. Also beat out my current big fish length wise


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

fished the river past 3 days, for about an hour or two a time first day 3 channels i caught 2 my girlfreind 1. second day i caught 2 . third day mandy caught somethin i never seen in my life at this time of year, it was a female channel with an egg sack hangin out of her. usualy channels dont spawn till late may early june. very weird. 4 on crawler 2 on liver, all in deep holes. it seemed they shut off the bite right when it turns dark. i think the sun turns the temp up a liitle bit in the water and they feed a little better.


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

It was opposite the other night. I caught this channel at about 9:45 Then had the other good hits around midnight.

the holes are where to be. I figured that out after trying 416 acouple times and not getting any hits, so tried deeper water instead of shallower water near riffles. It worked for one nice one, but not much for numbers. Things will keep picking up though with the nice weather. Hopefully we get more rain though. That will really turn things on


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

seined minnows and chubs then fished agin at around 7 till about 8 ended up catching one channel on a hand full of minnows threaded on a hook. hand only 2 hits.


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

went agin today for about 40 min's ended up catchin somethin i never caught before. it was kinda like a baby musky and it had a fin like a bowfin and yellow eyes,spiked back, no teeth dont know what it was but it was neat. i guess there some things in the old tusc that i havent seen yet. i think it was in the minnow family it was about 7 inches long. on crawler. gone to go on the net and look for it.


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## ducky152000 (Jul 20, 2005)

found it on odnr website its a logperch darter it says they are sometimes caught when fishing for othe r fish. record is 7.1 inches so im guessing i caught the state record or dang near it. wish i would of kept it.


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

That's a real bummer Ducky.  

I fished tonight after gathering bait for tomorrow. caught 3 small channels all around 20 inches. All caught on crawlers. I was hoping for suckers, but was surprised with a few channels  small cats, but fun to fight on ultralight


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## tcba1987 (Jun 22, 2004)

i bet i know where you caught them  and where you will be tonight


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

If you guessed Stillwater Creek, you would be right! Way to go! I hope you get a big fish in your spot so you quit complaining about it. and why the obsession on where I will be fishing? Good luck! Be careful there is a bunch of old chicken wire or something in there now. Heck of a snag. Be careful.


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

Get any fish this weekend Ducky?
Got 2 more fish ohio channels......oh boy oh boy....only 26 inchers though. Looked like twins  Also had 5 other channels between 18 and 23 inches. I can't seem to find the big fish at all so far.......8 lb big fish so far  

I did get onto my first Flattie of the year though. It was a small one a little over 29.5 inches, but it was nice to get the first one in  caught him on gill, Live of course


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## H2O Mellon (Apr 5, 2004)

Way to go on the Flattie Rocky. I think too much is made of these 7-8 # Channel Cats that are all over the SW & SE parts of the state. I will take a 3# Flattie over a 7-8 Channel any day, there is just something about catching a Flathead that makes everything worth while.


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

There are lots of them from 6-8 lbs caught around here all the time. The spot on 416 even though it is heavily fished still produces them regularly. I know when I first go into fishing, I thought I had some real skills, until I started catching them a lot and talked to others who catch channels like that all the time too. They are nice fish, but I still love the Flattie bite  I am still trying to find more holes on the river, but also want to learn a couple other creeks that hold huge flatties. I averaged prob. 14-17 lbs per flathead out of the Tusc last year. It was a surprise, but it may happen again. I know I lost several that were most likely over 40 lbs. The strange thing was they were public fishing spots, but spots that are not fished very heavily.


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## tcba1987 (Jun 22, 2004)

rockbass said:


> There are lots of them from 6-8 lbs caught around here all the time. The spot on 416 even though it is heavily fished still produces them regularly. I know when I first go into fishing, I thought I had some real skills, until I started catching them a lot and talked to others who catch channels like that all the time too. The strange thing was they were public fishing spots, but spots that are not fished very heavily.








BLAH BLAH BLAH, here we go again, i totally disagree with you about the 26-28 inch fish being common, everyday, ordinary, nothing special. BLAH BLAH BLAH channel cats. i hold catfish tournaments very two weeks with over 20 guys at each tournament and we do NOT see that many fish better then 26 inches turned. in two tournaments this year, where we have had a total of 38 anglers who put in 6 hours each of fishing time , we have a total of 3 fish better then 26 inches turned in. GEE lets do the math, 38 anglers at 6 hours of fishing time apiece thats 228 hours of fishing time put in. devide the 3 fish over 26 inches turned in thus far and you get a average fish over 26 inches caught per hour of ............................................. 0.0102 fish per hour over 26 inches turned in. WOW  that is pretty common and nothing special at all 

Ok maybe YOU are blessed with the skills  and all of these great spots to fish but your normal everyday bankfishermen who loves to get out and catch a few cats would be tickled with a 26-28 inch fish. Heck, most of them would be lucky to get 1 that size all summer. now guys like you who put in numerous hours on the water and have all of these great spots may catch 20-25 of them that size per year, in my opinion that comes from years of experience in fishing the tusc river. LUCKY YOU !! i just get really riled whenever this conversation comes up, last summer when this was all brought out on the board 20 different times, i asked the guys at one of my tournaments (there were 34 that night) how many of you have caught a channel cat this summer over 26 inches and lets say 7 lbs, there was about 5 that had caught one that size all summer. alot of them said heck i wish i caught one that big , my biggest was maybe 20-22 inches long and alot of these guys do alot of catfishing. I'd say average size for the tusc river would be between 16-18 inches with a few 19-23 inches thrown in and then ALOT fewer fish 24-26 and that fish over 26 inches isnt a "common fish at all". as far as the hole on 416 being a public spot ...YEP it is and it becomes even more public everytime you make it a point to come on a fishing forum and practically draw a map to the location that i fish. which in the long run is gonna hurt you fishing there too because it will always have someone fishing it and alot of "meathunters" will drag every fish out of there that they catch. as far as the WHOOPIE and YAHOO and all the other stupid comments about FISH OHIO AWARD FISH, get over it, there are ALOT of people who enjoy fishing for their fish ohio award fish and keeping track of how many they catch and so forth.  im gonna post a poll on the catfish site and ask everyone what they think the average size for a channel cat from small rivers is and see what we come up with


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## tcba1987 (Jun 22, 2004)

rockbass said:


> Got 2 more fish ohio channels......oh boy oh boy....only 26 inchers though.



Case in Point, GET REAL !!


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## husky hooker (Apr 6, 2004)

get your lines into a couple of lakes and you ll get bigger fish. 26 in channel f o BIG DEAL!!! stop arguing over bad tasting fish,nothing like a cat from tappen or atwood on the grill.


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

Wow, sorry to ruffle your feathers. I was talking to H2O on my post. I gave what I see. Not what some fishermen see. I know what I see, not what you see and calculated. 


416 is getting no busier now than it has been since I fished it. Everybody knows where it is. If someone in one of your tourney's is having trouble catching fish, tell them to stop on 416 some night. you know it is usually good for at least one decent fish.


Thanks for giving your opinion. :B


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

husky hooker said:


> get your lines into a couple of lakes and you ll get bigger fish. 26 in channel f o BIG DEAL!!! stop arguing over bad tasting fish,nothing like a cat from tappen or atwood on the grill.



I don't know the lakes very well, but will be hitting a couple pretty soon. I do my best on size at the lakes in spring. I am hoping salt Fork cattin is back to normal here soon and I hope we get some rain for the cattin too


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## misfit (Apr 5, 2004)

and you boys were doing so good lately  
you fight worse than my brother and i used to.but we solved that by not speaking to each other  
or we'd just go fishing together and duke it out on the bank "in private"   

btw,husky's right.try some lake fishing to up your average size.fishohio's are not that uncommon on a lot of lakes if you put in a little time.i rarely fish for them now,but manage a few every year,with lots of 20-24's.even most of my small river fish go that big  
if i spent more time chasing them,i'm sure i could boat plenty of fishohio's in a season from one place.


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

Thank you Misfit! I have tried


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## misfit (Apr 5, 2004)

hey,i'm proud of you guys  
keep it up and you' be on the honor roll


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## husky hooker (Apr 6, 2004)

it was a good laugh... i like messin with the river guys on here in a while.....no harm intended though!!!!


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## tcba1987 (Jun 22, 2004)

No harmdone at all Husky !! you and misfit and h2o are all entitled to your opinions !! after all we are one big happy ogf family, right ???


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## rockbass (Apr 16, 2004)

tcba1987 said:


> No harmdone at all Husky !! you and misfit and h2o are all entitled to your opinions !! after all we are one big happy ogf family, right ???


Yeah everybody knows I am the only one who can't share an opinion without you getting all pissy about it


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