River Fishing

They've been in thick for a while now. I rarely target them (this year 3-4x, most in the past ten years) but the usual spots are packed with shore fishermen. At times HPD looks like lower Walnut.

From what I have seen several are taken to be eaten.

python73
Wonder if people are eating those walleye.  I guess it isn't much different at this point than eating Erie walleye... the 1 meal/month advisory for PCBs is the same.  In fact the only fish from Erie that doesn't have that warning is yellow perch, which is a bit sketchy.  Swimming in the same water eating the same food chain and all.  

It isn't really based on the water way, more on where the fish sits on the top predator list. Larger predators such as walleye consume a lot of small fish, this is where the collect the PCB from, yellow perch are collecting it from just minnows. Now the walleye eat perch which already have some concentrated PCB in them and they also eat minnows with very little so they are going to have larger concentrations of PCB. With that said it is a little strange since you can harvest a lot of perch if I am not mistaken. This is more towards predatory fish, not herbivorous fish.

Speaking of River Fishing, anyone doing good on 'lunges? I hit some creek mouths last weekend and all i saw all weekend was two little bass in shallow water. Not a sign of a single musky or walleye. Fishing live bait (Stonerollers) plus casting lures (custom Jerkbaits, floating rapalas, shadow raps, daredevles, and everything else I had on me).

My two boys and I have been on the river every weekend since before Thanksgiving, and we've popped at least 150 walleyes, but no real size. Off the mouth of the barge cove across the river from the Cowanshaneck Creek launch, from 15' out to about 22' is good, and at Freeport off the mouth of the River Forest cove in anywhere from 15' to 30'. But it does get frustrating to catch so many undersize fish. Didn't do much good on pool 6 from Crooked Creek up to #7 at Kittanning, and we've not hit Pool 5 up to Clinton Lock 6 as there is no public launch on that pool. We did manage a couple of limits of just legal fish for a fry, but we've not gotten any monsters yet. You let them run with that 6-8" sucker 'til you figure they have to have it good, and WHIFF !!, you bring in a chewed up sucker. My plan was to get out Thursday as I have the long weekend, bought $23 worth of bait, but it thunder stormed Wed. night and the river's up at least 2 feet, so I'll get back out Sat. & Sunday.

TheBlueLagoon

crawlerman2
I fished mid afternoon on the Ohio River on Saturday.  I caught three walleye all right around 30".  The three biggest I have ever caught.  They would only hit big suckers, wouldn't touch a fathead or small suckers.  I lost another one the same size, those were the only 4 hits i had. 

wow congrats! , those are some hogs! any pictures would love to see

No doubt me too nice catch!...hey emitch, try stinger hooks. yep, looks ugly and not natural but they do work...walleyes are just like rock bass....ive had em in an aquarium setting...they lay on the bottom all day chillin...once in a while they get active and eat...they eat like they hate it....creek chubs are pigs and eat anything and everything instantly...walleyes chomp and sit...like a spider...its mine now, ill gulp it when I want. With a stinger you feel the thump or slight tug and nail em...no more pulled out of mouth minnow or sucker

These are the walleye I caught 2 weeks ago.  I was wading out pretty far on a shallow point.  Went back yesterday and there was no way to wade out to where the walleye were.  Water was backed up into the creek that was normally shallow.  Figured I'd try in the creek and caught 4 hybrids, 2 smaller and two nice ones.





 

 Super............

Meatball when I see your Avatar and you mention fishing from a boat, that's just more than I want to see. (LMAO)

ever since the pipe got filled up things haven't been the same...there were days when I would catch 100+ white bass down there before the hurricane

Dam that sounds like a blast, i never hit that spot before it got all screwed up from the hurricane. Wish i would have. Pretty slow down there now, at least the times I've fished there

I used to beach my boat to fish that place, it was that good

Dont know about standing on any drop meatball but i usually wade out to the rock island that sticks up and fish the main channel, never really had too much luck fishing near the pipe, theres a big ol stump/pile of wood in the middle of the creek mouth that im sure has claimed plenty of hooks/lures as well, overall i think its a cool spot even though it gets hammered with pressure cuz its so easy to access

crawlerman2
I went back Saturday and the fish were gone.  The creek temp dropped and the bait/fish were no longer in the creek.  River was still to high for wading.  I did catch the biggest sheep head I've ever caught, that was the only hit of the day.  I might hit Freeport or Harmarville next weekend.

How big was the Drum?

Nice fish! We do pretty good targeting them below lock 3 in the summer, but I've never heard of any being caught during the winter before.