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Ohio River Fishing

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,739
274
North Carolina
We fish a tournament out of Chester WV which is across the river from East Liverpool..... Usually there are anywhere from 8-12 boats with boat participation waining towards later summer early fall as the days get shorter.... Went down last night and looks like between the weather and diminishing daylight we were the only boat that showed up.....
Well we figured we're here might as well fish it lol.... We headed up River into PA and fished some shoals that we've done pretty good on over the years and hit the first one with one short fish. Second shoal produced nothing and with heavy cloud cover and you could smell the rain coming.... We hit the third shoal and looked down river too see a wall of water heading our way lol.... We threw on the gortex on got ready for it and continued fishing. It was a slow moving front, but before it hit us the fish turned on and started feeding..... We caught a half dozen keepers in about a half hour with the biggest coming in around 2 lbs.... Rain started and we headed too the 4th shoal and caught a keeper there and there's an island just below it and hit the head of the island and caught a good keeper there as well..... Last stop as it was started too getting dark was a bridge and pulled up and caught two keepers there.... There's a feeder creek and it was flowing mud halfway into the river and probably the heaviest flow I've seen after all these year fishing down there lol....
We ended up having close too 8lbs with our best 5 fish, not our best day by a long shot fishing the river, but on a rain soaked evening were we had 4" of water in he bottom of the boat at one time (bilge pump ran for almost ten minutes lol) we had fun, caught fish and made it home in one piece lol....

So yes we were the idiots out fishing the river last night when most looked at the forecast and said "eff that shit" lol
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,739
274
North Carolina
Wasn't a tournament Chuck, no other boats showed up lol....
We just fished it since we were there and had a free evening.....

I'm thinking they're moving it too Saturday mornings after this week so we'll probably be hitting some of those especially since the fall bite can be phenomenal down there when it cools down....
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,739
274
North Carolina
We looked at the forecast and it was a hit and miss with the front moving thru.... Left the ramp heading home and 2 miles north never saw a drop of rain lol.... We probably had a couple of inches in a little over an hour....
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,739
274
North Carolina
Fished a tournament on Pike Island pool near Steubenville Ohio on Saturday and got a 2nd place finish out of it.... There was plenty of current due to flooding up River around Pittsburgh and it never let up throughout the day.... Caught a lot of smaller fish but managed a decent limit out of it all.... Most of the bites came off of a break wall near the locks with a few stray bites off of a shoal not far away.....
One of our buddies had a boat issue at the end of the tournament and we hung out with him getting him to a ramp near Toronto which is above the ramp we were using.... So we ended up driving his truck up to him to get him back on the trailer.... Not a great day but a good one and didn't tear too many things up although I did break the welds on my side board bracket on the trailer which we repaired the next day so no harm no foul lol....
Took the money from the winnings and am redoing the bunk boards the the boat rests on when it's on the trailer, figured I'd do some TLC to the trailer since it's still all original except for a brake system upgrade a while ago....
We ended up with 6lbs with 5 fish which isn't a good limit but for the we had ill take it lol... 7lbs won and the winners boat broke down as well, losing fwd gear on the motor.... If anyone is in the market for a boat/motor and are looking at the Evinrude ETEC motors? Run the hell away.... Those motors are nothing but problems, his motor is a 2015 and has had 14 different issues with it since he got it... Not a motor I'd want that's for sure....
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,739
274
North Carolina
Man, that sounds like a lot of shit to go through. Glad you were able to help a brother out and your trailer fix was an easy one.

That's one thing about the tournament fishing that I've always see/experienced... Lots of competition but when a guy need ps help there's usually plenty of it... When I had my accident a few years back, the outpouring of assistance was phenomenal.... If I'd have had to go directly to the hospital I knew my truck and boat would be sitting in my driveway with the cover installed.... Not to say there's not a few tools out here but the good outnumbers the bad. 100 to 1....
Plus, Mike is a buddy and I'd of never left him...