# My Rant About Catfishing In Dayton, OH



## H2O Mellon

I've been saying that the Dayton, OH has to be the worst part of the state to live in for public fishing areas. Let me run thorugh my day:

Went to work
Got bait (gills and bass) for fishing tonight
Got wifes '07 fishing license
Got new chairs for the wife and kids
Loaded a cooler of shad, water & pop for everyone
Packed down the Cherokee w/ about all it could load
Went out looking for a spot to fish for myself, my wife and two of my kids.
It was about 7pm. (I know that's not a great time to look for a spot)

Anyways..... every single spot on the GMR that offered public fishing and was big enough for us was taken. Every spot I knew. I know that's hard to beleive and I am stunned as I type this, but it's true. I'm sure somewhere there was a spot somewhere, but since I had the little kids with me, I had to be carefull of where I went. I went from Dayton to past Franklin. One spot that I think has obviously from word of mouth must have had 15 cars/truck there. This spot is prob big enough for 10 fishermen to fish comfortly. 

My wife looked at me and said, "Theres always Rainbow lakes". I will admit I thought about it, I really did, but I just couldnt do it. 

We spoke on the way home and our decision has been made to get into a wide/roomy 16-18 foot boat suited for the Ohio River. On a night like this we could have driven to numerous ramps on the Ohio in the time it took us to look for a spot here. I think my Tracker Pro Guide 14 will be up for sale around September/October and I'll start saving for a replacement boat.

Right now I feel so frusterated, I could sell 3/4 of my catfishing equipment and put towards the new one.


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## athensfishin'

10 bucks for the lot of it, cash in hand. don't let it get you down it's the weekend after the 4th people are in outdoor mode for a week or so, then it will be right back to the television.


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## flathunter

The popularity of catfishing has pushed our public places to the breaking point...Oh for the day when nobody catfished!


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## pendog66

the thing that really bothers me is the fact that the people fishing these spots barely have the tackle to catch bluegill let alone catfish. this city sucks for keeping spots secret cause people dont know when to keep quiet


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## missingND

I feel your pain! My boats out of commission for the summer and I've been exploring shore fishing ops myself. I don't think the problem has anything to do with people keeping mouth shut about good locations. The trespass laws of Ohio drive this problem. I can understand landowners rights to keep hunters off thier property for safety reasons. But when it comes to water access for fishing this state needs to adopt water access rights like the western states. There is a lot of water in the dayton area to fish but it seems 90% or more has no public access. 

The fishing industry pumps tons of money into the economy and Ohio is missing the boat on that income. How many more people would fish if there were more places to do it? To not even be able to wade a stream through private property is mind blowing for me. 

The whole situation drive me nuts. Anyway that's my thoughts. Good luck in your search and you new boat.


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## Salmonid

I agree Bryan, there just isnt enough decent spots, sure you could hang out along the levy's in Dayton somewheres but then there is the point that catching some fish is the whole mission so that woud defeat the point.

Just last week, Pendog got to one of his spots at 4:00 pm to stake the claim to the spot until me and Bigcatsteve could get there and even had a guy say he was gonna fish on our spot there until our buddy showed up and he did but when Steve showed up he did leave so that was fine. ( no he didnt catch anything) 

I do agree with Jack that catfishing has gotten so popular in recent years ( Im a recent convert so I am guilty here) that finding places is getting hard to do and then all those newbies catch a nice flathead and then keep them. 
Flatties are not a renewable resource!!!

It does amaze me how many folks out there do have nice equipment and obviously are pretty serious about it while the other half of people are having problems enough just figuring out how to catch bluegills. Dont get me started with the partying crowd....thats a whole nother rant.

Bryon, if it makes you feel better,you didnt miss much last night, the bite was off....

Salmonid


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## flathunter

More access to our "public" rivers is whats needed...But will probably never happen...Back when I started catfishing finding a good spot was easy..One, very few people catfished..Two, landowners were alot more agreable when it came to accesseing the rivers...But the partying crowd and slobs have ruined it for a whole lot of us...Maybe the time has come that us fishermen must do what hunters are doing, lease areas to access the river..Yes I dont like it, after all the rivers are public, but the private landowners hold the key to this property.


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## pendog66

i guess its getting to the point where you have to get to every spot by 4. I did it last like mark said and one of my other spots is the same way. I hate to say it and i hope no one gets angry over it but if it wasnt for paylakes i dont think there would be any fishing spots


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## misfit

> Right now I feel so frusterated, I could sell 3/4 of my catfishing equipment and put towards the new one.


not again.jack,you know you never really mean that ..............................


oops,just realized it wasn't jack who posted that
bryan,i guess it rubs off after hangin' around him eneough


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## athensfishin'

I blame it on the baby boomers too, they are all retiring and now they have nothing to do but fish and they are over flooding the fishing access!


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## riverKing

i cant believe nobody has said that the jump in fishing pressure is probably us on this site telling everyone that looks that there are fish in these rivers, its a double edged sword we get to hear reports and learn new areas but so does anyone that looks on the site, have you ever seen how many guests look on ogf. i remember just a few years ago most areas on the local rivers were empty and now its hard to get away from people. its great that people are out enjoying the resource but as long as someone says that they are catching cats on the gmr people are gonna show up in droves to fish it. its why i dont post any of my fishing trips anymore. i know some people disagree but i've seen this site make huge changes in the fishing pressure on certain areas in a matter of days on multiple occasions. anymore if i fish for cats ill make the half mile/mile long walk it takes to deter people from spots, theres still public areas to fish that nobody knows about


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## dinkbuster1

riverKing said:


> its great that people are out enjoying the resource but as long as someone says that they are catching cats on the gmr people are gonna show up in droves to fish it. its why i dont post any of my fishing trips anymore.


BTW, i do all my fishing anymore at Rainbow lakes....AWESOME CATFISHING!


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## pendog66

dinkbuster1 said:


> BTW, i do all my fishing anymore at Rainbow lakes....AWESOME CATFISHING!


yeah thats right i forgot, i kept messing up and putting GMR. man you gotta love Rainbow Lakes


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## Salmonid

yeah thats right, GMR means "Gander Mountain-Reynoldsburg" is where I do all my fishing.... 

I will tell tyou the pressure locally is amazing for the quality and quantity of the cats in our area. Last year alone I only managed 1 flathead in at least a dozen trips specifically for them and yeah, there was many miles of dragging a ton of stuff to get to these spots so I was getting away from the pressured spots.

Pendog makes a good point though, imagine how bad it would be if the 150 folks I saw as I passed rainbow earlier this afternoon ( in the heat of the day no less) were all out on the rivers littering, getting loaded with Mad dog 20/20, and playing there loud country music for everyone a mile in both directions to hear. 

Salmonid


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## bigdogsteve-o

I understand people like to fish,my problem it this.in the last few weeks me and Pendog has seen the spot we fish become so littered with beer cans,liver containers and then ontop of that you have people who have no common courtesy for other people trying to fish around them. That is why so many of the land owners won't let people fish on their land. I agree with Nate and Mark about the paylakes, 100's of people are at paylake on weekends,if those people hit the rivers we would have even less places to fish. AS for the people we see down at the spot me and Nate fish,most of them are channel catters and you can tell the aren't that serious by the way they act while there. I may be in the minority here I am not sure but I believe that sitting as quietly as possible and not shining light all over the river will get more bites than walking all over the place and shining spot lights everywhere you hear a noise. Those are the two things me and Nate get onto people about while we are fishing.


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## H2O Mellon

misfit said:


> not again.jack,you know you never really mean that ..............................
> 
> oops,just realized it wasn't jack who posted that
> bryan,i guess it rubs off after hangin' around him eneough


Rick,

Some stuff rubs off, but not everything. For instance I am NOT going to a paylake this coming Thursday like he is!!!!


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## misfit

LOL.maybe if he pays eneough they'll let him actually catch a fish for a change


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## monsterseeker06

flathunter said:


> More access to our "public" rivers is whats needed...But will probably never happen...Back when I started catfishing finding a good spot was easy..One, very few people catfished..Two, landowners were alot more agreable when it came to accesseing the rivers...But the partying crowd and slobs have ruined it for a whole lot of us...Maybe the time has come that us fishermen must do what hunters are doing, lease areas to access the river..Yes I dont like it, after all the rivers are public, but the private landowners hold the key to this property.


i know the feeling,there is a creek that runs through the town i live in and its open to public but all it holds is bluegill and a couple bass,maybe 12" at the most,but few. but if you travel far enough you can come to an opening in the creek that flows into the scioto,it looks like a big open yard at first but it holds some big cats,mabe 20-30lbs,but the farmer that owns the landaround it is a stiff and only lets hunters in during the fall and spring. he even had the nerve to put up a sign that said "no fishing allowed under penalty of law". but me being a teen(a usual one haha) i snuck back there last weekend around 8:30 am and landed a 16lb flatty,i carried him 60' to the river and dumped him in,he didnt deserve to be kept there. so anyways back to what i was saying...there are rules but there are ways to get the fish so dont give up hope yet


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