# Little Miami River 10/24/10: You never know what you'll catch



## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

... throwing live shad on the LMR. Live bait fishing gets kind of a bad rap among "respectable" fishermen, but it's fun, and I'm not a purist. I suspect a number of the people who turn their noses up at it have never hucked many pounds of lead and a bucket around, much less learned to throw a cast net. It's not easy, and it's not mindless either. For that matter, live lining as an angling technique seems pretty pure. The rig is a circle hook, and the freshest local forage fish (gizzard shad in this case) you can catch. Throw it at moving water. Hold on.

Today started out at about 10:00 AM on a riffle with a moderately deep channel. I'd been skunked a couple times on this one recently, so I did not expect much, especially in the middle of the day. It was windy all day today, but a warm mid-fall day other than that. The shad were thick, schooling up in the flats, hanging out in low current spots. Bait was easily caught, and I hooked and threw a shad into the current. After an hour and a half and a few shad, I was just about to give it up there, thinking the linesiders must have gone. I got a good strike, followed by the sight of a smallie heading skyward with a now dead shad hanging off of him. A nice fish, and the first smallmouth I've caught on live shad. I continued to think the linesiders I was looking for had gone, and after a short while, decided to move to another spot.

The second spot is a region of the river where there is a channel within a mostly flat, shallow bottom, kind of a slough. This is where I had caught my first hybrid, so I had high hopes for a replay. The shad at the second spot were slightly harder to find, but also slightly larger. The wind mostly opposed the current, which made live lining somewhat easier as it was possible to play the force of the wind on the line versus the current in the channel to maintain some contact with the bait as it drifted downriver. By watching the line in the wind, it was possible to see strikes with relative ease, but with minimal interference on the action of the bait. On the second shad, I caught what I was looking for, a small hybrid, the first of the linesiders today. About 3-4 baits after that, I hooked a decent channel cat. Within a couple of hours, I felt a deep pull on the line, and knew it was on. Excessive drag had broken my line on a big fish recently, so I had kept the drag fairly loose, and it was clear that he would spool me if I didn't tighten. With the tightened drag, the fish performed three or four long runs, but did not take too much line. As the fish approached me, it performed a number of shorter runs. I got him to the shallows, lipped him and snapped a picture, moss garland on the tail and all. Later, I caught another small hybrid, and another cat, and that was my day. All fish are home (including the shad), hopefully recovering well from the minor damage that a circle hook does to them (except the shad, who are home forever).

"Cheater" bait fishing may be easier than some types, but it turns out that a variety of fish eat other fish, and I mostly like to catch fish when I go fishing. One of the great benefits of fishing a river is the variety of sporting species that are present, and live bait, fished with care, can be an effective way to catch a variety of good sized fish. Today, it netted me 3 hybrids, 2 catfish, and a near personal best smallie. Cast netting is really fun too, once you figure out a technique that works.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

Nice work Dustin.


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## TPfisher (Aug 31, 2009)

very nice smallie indeed. and a pretty solid hybrid as well. I haven't had much luck with the hybrids this year, although I havent put much effort into fishing either of the Miami Rivers. I have caught the trout bug over the past year and half and my time and effort has been going to those finicky creatures. If you don't mind, what area of the river did you get your hybrids? Feel free to send me a private message, if you don't want to share it here. Or not at all is cool too.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

Good day on the river!! I wouldn't worry about what anybody thinks about live bait fishing; the only reason I don't do it much is that it's too much for me to carry when I wade.


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## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

Don't mean to be too secret with the spots, but it sucks when you go to what was a hotspot, and there are no fish and shad rap boxes and empty worm containers on the ground. What I'd say is that a good portion of the hybrids are related to and traveling up from the Ohio river, so the southern portions of the river are best for hybrids, although there have been big catches further upriver. I wish I could tell you a spot that would guarantee success, but I don't know of one. Fast moving water seems to be one consistent feature of good hybrid spots.

At some point I think I graduated from being a lucky hybrid fisherman to a dedicated one . To consistently catch the things requires some dedication, and likely getting skunked sometimes. Or a lot of times. Fishing live shad clearly bumps the probability of catching up a bit, but that's no guarantee either.


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## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

Dandrews said:


> Good day on the river!! I wouldn't worry about what anybody thinks about live bait fishing; the only reason I don't do it much is that it's too much for me to carry when I wade.


I'm not too concerned about the perception of live bait fishing, but I had some thoughts on it. I enjoy it, and it's not without its challenges. Wading with all that stuff is part of the challenge. I do like the highly physical aspect of throwing a cast net. I'm not much for the gym, so this is about the only strength training I get!!


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## fishingcop (Sep 22, 2010)

Nice fish!!


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## bsmith (Mar 26, 2010)

I haven't heard any argument against live bait that was compelling enough to take seriously. In my opinion there's nothing wrong with using live bait if the necessary precautions are taken. Most artificials are simply imitating live bait anyway, it's what the fish eat. Reaction lures or noisy/annoying lures that trigger aggression/defensive strikes are the only real exception. Even then, they're still imitating something that's alive, just not an authentic aquatic creature.

The most cogent argument I've heard in the live bait debate is that live bait leads to higher fish mortality rates because the fish tend to swallow the hook. This is certainly feasible but there are two very simple mitigations:

1. If the hook is swallowed and you can't get it out without risking the fish's life simply cut the line as far down the fish's mouth as possible and the hook will dissolve and the fish will most likely survive. Practically everyone knows this.

2. Use circle hooks so it's next to impossible to hook it anywhere besides the corner of the mouth where it's easily removed.


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## treytd32 (Jun 12, 2009)

sounds like a great day out, those are some quality fish. I don't usually use live bait but I don't see a problem with it at all. Depending on the size of the cast net that in itself can be hard enough with wind and other factors coming into play.

When I fished in myrtle beach during the mullet run (these guys were all over the beach with their flowing hair lol jk) I used a cast net to catch them to fish with. Besides the crazy surf making things difficult sometimes as I would be completely submerged with a large net, rope, and lead weights..probably not the safest idea..My uncle showed me that taking a wingspans length of rope several times until you get to the draw then reaching down and getting a weight in hand and repeating one more time works great..just keeping your weak hand close to your chest as you throw with your good hand makes for a perfect throw every time. I saw several other people on the beach attempting to throw their nets helplessly lol I felt inclined to offer them some pointers because I myself would have been lost if I hadn't been shown.


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## nitsud (May 22, 2010)

A good part of the reason that I bought a cast net (aside from wanting to catch more hybrids), was that I am planning on heading to south Florida for Thanksgiving. I think I'll be late for the biggest part of the mullet run (hehehe, mullet...), but I'm hoping to catch some pilchards and use those for bait. There is an intercoastal inlet near where I'll be staying, and I'm hoping to catch some stuff in the tidal flow using basically the same technique described above. Again a situation where you could catch any of a variety of fish.

On the live bait debate, I think that a good part of the criticism is that it's too easy or lazy or something along those lines. I think those people should try to hand fish for hybrids if they want a real challenge . There are a lot of ways to catch fish, and trying new methods is part of the game. The fish mortality argument is certainly something to be considered, especially with hybrids, because of their scarcity and the way they inhale baits, but I've yet to deep hook one using a circle hook.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Nice pics, nice post, thanks


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