# Winter fishing in the Licking River for Smallies...they are there...!



## Bigjaxs (Feb 5, 2011)

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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Nice, any tips on bait?


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## Bigjaxs (Feb 5, 2011)

I caught my Smallie on a Norman crank char & white, slow retrieve parallel with the rocks


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## Bruin50 (Dec 26, 2012)

Nice smallie. Was you wading?


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## Bigjaxs (Feb 5, 2011)

No wading, just fished off the bank, a nice stretch of rocks where I was at.


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## streamstalker (Jul 8, 2005)

Bigjaxs said:


> No wading, just fished off the bank, a nice stretch of rocks where I was at.
> 
> 
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Nice deep water there in BHG. Good place for winter fishing.


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## Bigjaxs (Feb 5, 2011)

BHG ? Not familiar 


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## gerb (Apr 13, 2010)

im assuming blackhand gorge?


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## Bigjaxs (Feb 5, 2011)

Yes your prob right, never thought of that. That's a great stretch of water, from staddens bridge down. We caught a couple 17in Smallies within that stretch last year, I'm still lookn for that fish Ohio out of a river, and I'm sure there is one in the licking river, I have no doubt !


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## yak-on (Jul 4, 2011)

I got a few really nice places on the licking . Anywhere from heath to dillion lake. Largest sm is just hair under 18" so far. Had a few break offs last year. 

sometimes they bite
...sometimes they swallow!


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## yak-on (Jul 4, 2011)

I hit me up sometime ill share with ya. Got kayaks makes traveling easy

sometimes they bite
...sometimes they swallow!


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Bigjaxs said:


> Yes your prob right, never thought of that. That's a great stretch of water, from staddens bridge down. We caught a couple 17in Smallies within that stretch last year, I'm still lookn for that fish Ohio out of a river, and I'm sure there is one in the licking river, I have no doubt !
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


Know that stretch well. About 7-8 years ago I floated it with an aquatic biologist and he asked "Where's the bugs?", suggesting the lack of bugs was indiciative of poor water quality.
The Licking is struggling, still very fishable, but unfortunately in a bit of a decline.
If you're looking for a 20" Licking "watershed" smallie, maybe look a whiff further west at one of her tribs that rhymes with Raccoon.


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Conversely, the fishing for toothy critters on the Licking gets better every year.


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## streamstalker (Jul 8, 2005)

That watershed is a shadow of its former self. Fifteen-twenty years ago, there probably were a considerable number of FO smallies in there. There was one hole I called the bathtub full of fish. One night on another hole I caught at least a dozen smallies in one hour on a jitterbug. I finally quit because it got too dark, and I was missing fish. When I got home, I realized I lost the back treble. 

Ten years ago it was pretty much dead. You could walk a mile without seeing a baitfish. On one trip, I waded from Granville to the golf course and caught one smallie and one pike. I got skunked on one float from the basket to BHG. It's been improving in recent years, maybe partly because they've been managing the egg farm in Croton better.

I talked to one guy a couple of years ago who was wading with his wife and fishing with minnows. He told me he caught a 19 and threw her back because she was full of eggs. That meant he was keeping anything else.

It is a very cool area to watch over the years. It will fill in one hole and carve another over a winter/spring. It's a very fragile system, folks. CPR!


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

streamstalker said:


> It is a very cool area to watch over the years. It will fill in one hole and carve another over a winter/spring. It's a very fragile system, folks. CPR!


Most of the riparian corridor is gone up by the Basket. You see those huge chucks of bank that just crumble in...and then just fill in everything for the next few miles. The first couple miles of that float always makes me sad, bottom substrate all covered up with silt and everything.
And then I cheer up when we start entering the Gorge.


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## Bigjaxs (Feb 5, 2011)

I've been fishin the LR for almost 17 years, and every year the river changes, but I'm here to tell ya I catch a lot of Smallies, but a fish Ohio I have never caught, it just takes that one big moment, that one big hit !you will never forget, I believe there is that FO in the LR. I bought a yak last summer only got it out about 4 to 5 times, started out at 668 to BHG, what a great trip,honey holes every where. Water got shallow when the summer drought hit, hated gettn out and dragging the yak, I like to just free flow gettn out when I want where I want casting what I think are good spots, it's just a great peace of mind for me, I love it! I will have the yak in the water this year more than just 4 or 5 times, it was just bad timing in 2012 when I bought it.


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## Deazl666 (Mar 30, 2012)

I saw a 2 or 3 last year in the Darby that were at least 20. My largest was 19, which is my pic for this board. I only got back into fishing serious four years ago and it's amazing, out of roughly 350 smallies caught at the BD and Scioto, that's the largest I've caught. They are a rare find indeed. That being said, I know a local dude who has caught a handful of 20+ inchers out of the BD, but he uses shiners as bait that he nets first. I'm way too lazy for that.


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## streamstalker (Jul 8, 2005)

Bubba, I was referring more to the **** than the main branch. It's amazing how many shifts in the substrate you see along those and the North Fork. In a few miles, the Racoon shifts from sand, to clay, to shale, gravel and back again a few times.....cement too.  It piles up the logs and carves new holes which might be sweet for a couple of years, and then it blows them out the next year. There is a plaque somewhere along the bike trail which says it is remarkably old compared to other flows.

I walked a lot of miles on those creeks before I got my first yak.


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

I love the Licking. But bugs and shocking reports don't lie. It ranks fairly low on fish density and on average size in the latest reports (smallies is what I'm talking about). And we're all aware of the water quality issues.
Like I said, I love the place. And I've caught plenty of fish there. But it has it's fair share of issues that are adversely affecting the fishing.


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## Love2kayak (Apr 30, 2011)

Every year thanksgiving morning, day after Xmas, and new years day a group of us do a float from 668 to tobosso and it's amazing how much the river bottom has changed over the years. Sadly Ive never fished it on these outing,( hard to with 15 other people paddling with u). I did see a group of 10-15 smallies take off on new years that were all 10-12 inches. It's a beautiful paddle with ice hanging off gorge and some snow on ground


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

> it's amazing how much the river bottom has changed over the years


How so?

We have an annual cleanup below Greenlawn. Often some old-timers come up and say they've been fishing there for 40 years or something. I always ask how the river compares then vs. now, and they always say it's greatly improved. "There used to be grease on the banks..."


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## Love2kayak (Apr 30, 2011)

I'm just referring to spots that was deep and now are not. There is one spot in particular where a deep hole on outside edge of a bend in the river that is now shallow. There's a trib of the muskingum we fish a lot and we used to push our whitewater boats of the rocks 10-15 feet down into the water and last year my buddy did a flip off our launch spot and landed in water to his surprise was only about 4 foot deep now. It used to be 12-15 foot deep


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Alex,
The first couple miles of that float, the riparian corridor is gone. Fields come right directly up to the river bank. So as you could imagine you get big sections of the bank that slide into the river each year. 
So the first couple miles has a silty, sandy type of bottom. The type of bottom that gets pushed around and reworked every year with spring rains, etc...hole today, sand bar tomorrow type of deal.


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## Love2kayak (Apr 30, 2011)

That's what I was trying to say, just not as eloquent as bub put it. Places that got skinny with only one channel to get thru without dragging have moved every year. 


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## StuckAtHome (Apr 29, 2004)

I get to float it a couple times a year, normally only when other rivers aren't fishable. When you don't see minnows, crawdads, shellfish you know not many smallmouth are there. We catch fish,spots are fairly plentiful, just a shame what a great looking river it is. Last time I floated it we were more like ice breakers than kayak's, lol, what a workout

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