Catfishing on the Ohio River

by gunner

Years ago, when I started fishing the Ohio River in the Wheeling area, we caught almost anything. In the 1970’s the river was not as clean as it is now, although we can keep improving on that. Carp was a big fish, as well as channels, blues and drums. Flatheads were not as prominent as they are now. They were around, but at least in my area they were few and far between. But, in the 1980’s the flathead population began to pick up, and now I believe this is one of best flathead waters in the state of Ohio. There are smaller rivers and lakes that have them, but I still say the next state record will come from the tail waters of one of the dams on the Ohio River.

The clean water act of the 1970’s really helped in the growth of flatheads on the Ohio. I remember when my hometown got their new water treatment plant in the late 1970’s. I took the tour of the opening, as my father was president of the council, and I saw the difference between the finished water from the old plant and the finished water from the new plant. The new plant water looked like you could almost drink it! Efforts like that from all the little towns and cities have made a big difference.

Today, the growth and awareness of conservation has made such an impact on our fishing on the Ohio River, so there is no telling what the biggest flathead will be to come out of there.

So...once again last weekend I got to travel back east and fish the Ohio again, second time in two weeks! This time I went with my normal fishing partner, Dave. I have to say, we had a blast! We caught and released eleven healthy catfish back into the water.

Light from a barge around 4am

Dave and I have been talking about a trip like this for long time. With our working and not working schedules we could never get it planned, but finally the time was right!

We took the site project boat to try out a few things that I have done to it, and to see what else we might need to make the perfect cat boat. One thing we determined that we need to make is a fold down cutting board with a ditch inside and a lip around it to keep from making a mess everywhere else in the boat. I am even going to make it so there will be fresh pump water to clean your hands after you are done using the board. That will, of course, be documented and put on as a step-by-step “how-to” article on the site. I will also be making a portable holder for the Nightstalker light I have in the boat, one that mounts on the top of the sides so that it will light a greater area inside the boat.

We got across the state later than we wanted (3 hour drive), so again we had no bluegill. I tried to call Pete, who is the Reel Fishing Eastern Ohio team member, hoping that he could get some for us, but as luck would have it he was out of town.

We had nightcrawlers, chicken livers, and some fresh pork rind with us for bait. That, along with my Okuma Epixor EF 50 reel and Coronado 65 bait-feeder, I was ready! I had the Coronado on the custom rod from Neil Hall of “Classic Destiny Custom Rods”...this thing will cast a MILE with no effort at all! But, more on the rod in a later article and review.

Dave was using his Okuma EF 50 also, and he swears by that reel. A quote from Dave: “Dollar for dollar, pound for pound you will NOT find a better reel in this price range then what Okuma offers!” Dave and I have used many different types of reels over the years, from the cheaper ones to the very costly models. Some we liked, and some were not worth what they cost.

Okuma equipped and ready to go (note the custom rod on the left)

But, back to the night of catfishing. We had got on the water around 9PM and drove for about 20 minutes downstream to a spot I know. We fished there until around 1:30AM, and then moved up river about five miles, where we fished until almost 8AM.

We caught six at the first spot, and five at the last spot. Dave got the first one, a little five-pound flathead that was a very pretty golden brown color.

Dave first of the night – nice golden color

I got all channels this trip, ranging three to six pounds. The biggest fish of the night went to Dave, and it happened to be the last fish of the trip. It was a 10+pound channel that was caught on chicken liver.

One of the channels that night

With no live bait (such as bluegill) to use, we did not do anything special, just one on the bottom rig and one about eighteen inches up off the bottom. We looked on the depth/fish finders for drop-offs and deep holes, marked the fish, and then we would go up current so the baits would drift into the area we wanted.

This was more of a “Let’s just get out on the water, relax, and see how the boat is coming along” trip. I have to say that the MirroCraft handled the wakes from the barges extremely well and was a pleasure to fish from. Now, with a few more add-ons and adjustments, we will have one heck of a catboat. It is deep inside, with two shelves to work from, side storage on both sides, and movable seats. Dave loved it, as he had room to move around...which might not be a big thing to say, but he is 6’8” tall, over 300 pounds, and takes a size 17 shoe. So if he has room in a boat, that is saying something! Keep that in mind as you compare the big channel of the night to how big Dave is.