# A few more first for 2014



## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Well I'm not wasting much time knocking out my species for 2014. I hit a local hot spot yesterday and caught nearly 30 fish between myself and a buddy. (Russ....aka Rustyfish). We caught 3 channel cats over 20", a 17" blue cat, and a hybrid striped bass just shy of 18". The rest of the fish fell in the 10 to 15" range. Nothing big, but it sure beats crappie fishing. 

Most fish were caught on a secret bait concoction.......i hate to even admit this but....shrimp soaked in chicken liver.  Hey......i wasn't prepared to get skunked again. It's a little pricey but it's nice to have insurance when you make these hour and a half trips. The biggest hybrid actually came off of a white flitterbait. I hooked/snagged something one cast before I caught the hybrid and it felt massive. I was hoping it was a big gar or Spoonbill but it got off. The bite was super sloooooooow on artificials.....The biggest hybrid was the only fish I caught on a lure. The water was still a foot or so high, and visibility was beyond poor....Less than 2".

My kayak is now full of mud, chicken liver, and channel cat slime.....I'll take it.



































































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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

A few more Firsts******* for 2014. I'm too lazy to re do it.

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## whodeynati (Mar 12, 2012)

Nice trip.. that's a long haul to drag that yak.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

see any shad or skippies at that super secret spot, LOL

Salmonid


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Oh yeah, nice job, those cats all look nice and great way to star the season off!

Salmonid


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Salmonid said:


> see any shad or skippies at that super secret spot, LOL
> 
> Salmonid


Haha no secret here. I did everything but give the name and gps coordinates. It's just about the only thing that's safe to fish right now. 

We did see skippies jumping but we couldn't catch them. They were eating tiny minnows in slack water near the banks in the creek. It didn't look like there were a lot of them, just one or two that would jump every half an hour or so.

3 to 4" shad were all over the banks out in the river. The herons had them on lock down.










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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

whodeynati said:


> Nice trip.. that's a long haul to drag that yak.


Going down wasnt so bad.....getting back up was quite the experience though. It was better than paddling over from Maysville and having to dodge ice sheets, floating trees, and barges. 



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## whodeynati (Mar 12, 2012)

True. I carried a cooler filled to the top with skipjack up that hill. It about killed me. I had over 80 pounds of them that trip. I got to my truck then had to walk back to the water get my gear and the wife. Plus more skips.


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## fisherboy (Sep 17, 2012)

Since I live in Tolodo I have no clue where you were but what is a skipjack? Some kind of a baitfish? But your catch looked very nice.


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

fisherboy said:


> Since I live in Tolodo I have no clue where you were but what is a skipjack? Some kind of a baitfish? But your catch looked very nice.


Yea they are baitfish. Probably the best bait for catfish on big rivers. Here's a couple giant skipjack from a couple years ago. They made excellent blue cat bait.

Fun to catch too.

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## fishin sw ohio (Nov 5, 2013)

nice fish, great report. makes me wish I haven't been sick all weekend


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

Nice report Sean. Did you happen to go on up the creek to the other top secret spot? Sometimes the fish get pulled all the way up there.


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

Top secret eh?
That's kinda funny.
Not really.
I'm thinking that were this a summer post, there would be some salty guys replying.
Since I'm a west sider, and this spot is nearly 2 hours away, it doesn't impact me much.
Although it's much closer for some other fellows I know...
Just my 2 cents....


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Mean Morone said:


> Nice report Sean. Did you happen to go on up the creek to the other top secret spot? Sometimes the fish get pulled all the way up there.


We ventured about halfway up the creek.....we hit our usual spots, i fon't know if one is good enough to be considered a secret spot or not. 

Co angler. ...i imagine there are still a few guys that would have wished I didn't post this report. It happens....it's winter and 90 percent of guys are sitting at home reading articles, watching old in fisherman dvds, making lures, etc....i just figured I'd give them some motivation or something to read.

If you want that spot to yourself fish it tomorrow morning, heck I bet it's empty now....

Btw we were the only ones out there Saturday. It was in the high 30s....

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## Streamhawk (Apr 25, 2008)

Thanks for the "secret spot". LMAO!!!!
Nice catches by the way.


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## cincinnati (May 24, 2004)

Believe I recognize that "landmark" in a couple of your pics. 

Spent a bunch of time electro-shocking there many moons ago. Amazing what we'd find, especially in the winter!


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Nice fish dude! Great start to the year!


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## suresnagsalot (Dec 15, 2013)

hey nice start with them kittys! are you anchoring or drifting? 

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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Thanks everyone.



suresnagsalot said:


> hey nice start with them kittys! are you anchoring or drifting?
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I800 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


We were anchored. I set one rod in a rod holder with a circle hook and let them load it up. The other rod I was casting and holding it in my hand...letting the current carry it down into snags. 




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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

I caught way more on the rod I held in my hand....but it had a smaller piece of bait too though.

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## suresnagsalot (Dec 15, 2013)

I love snags,espeicaly in a yak over freezing current!


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## Baba Ganoush (Oct 17, 2013)

Hey cincinnati, when you shocked, just curious what you found in general.Thanks


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## cincinnati (May 24, 2004)

Worked for a crew studying the effects of the plants thermal effluent on species diversity & distribution. Shocked the discharge canal & several areas downstream from the plant as well as a couple areas uninfluenced by the warm water discharge.

The discharge canal was so warm in the summer, that wed get only shad & longnose gar. In the dead of winter, other less-tolerant river fish would move closer or actually into the discharge. Cats, carp, carp suckers, buffalo, etc.. As the water cooled downriver, wed begin finding drum, sauger & some smallies. On one really ugly February day, (high water) we loaded the boat w/channels out of a clump of bushes in someones yard.

Bluegill & crappie came almost exclusively out of the unheated backwaters as did most of the LMs. Whites seemed more tolerant of the warm water & river current, so we got a lot of them where the discharge canal meets the river. Never saw him myself, but the crew captured a small musky, from the same location, on several occasions.

Occasionally picked up goldfish or goldfish x carp hybrids. The crew shocking around Cincinnati got quite a few.

Saw the biggest tail Ive ever seen, disappear in a huge boil, when the electric hit something that it couldnt stun, up river from the plant. Big blue?? 

We had a standing reservation @ a local motel & stored the shocking boat there. On one trip, there was a bass tournament on the river & we had several participants come to the room, wanting to know what we were seeing & where!

It was interesting work.


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

cincinnati said:


> Worked for a crew studying the effects of the plants thermal effluent on species diversity & distribution. Shocked the discharge canal & several areas downstream from the plant as well as a couple areas uninfluenced by the warm water discharge.
> 
> The discharge canal was so warm in the summer, that wed get only shad & longnose gar. In the dead of winter, other less-tolerant river fish would move closer or actually into the discharge. Cats, carp, carp suckers, buffalo, etc.. As the water cooled downriver, wed begin finding drum, sauger & some smallies. On one really ugly February day, (high water) we loaded the boat w/channels out of a clump of bushes in someones yard.
> 
> ...


We have caught smallies, laremouth, hybrid stripers, stripers, white bass, buffalo, carp, channel cats, blue cats, flathead, crappie, sauger, drum, gar, skipjack, and mud puppies from the discharge. It's a very diverse place.

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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

cincinnati said:


> Worked for a crew studying the effects of the plants thermal effluent on species diversity & distribution. Shocked the discharge canal & several areas downstream from the plant as well as a couple areas uninfluenced by the warm water discharge.
> 
> The discharge canal was so warm in the summer, that wed get only shad & longnose gar. In the dead of winter, other less-tolerant river fish would move closer or actually into the discharge. Cats, carp, carp suckers, buffalo, etc.. As the water cooled downriver, wed begin finding drum, sauger & some smallies. On one really ugly February day, (high water) we loaded the boat w/channels out of a clump of bushes in someones yard.
> 
> ...


Very interesting! Thanks for the read!


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