Thread: Ohio River Creeks are HOT!

The crappie are up in the creeks around docks, laydowns in 6-10' of water. Fish with a float and minnow around 4' and if you find them you will catchem! Big crappie, 12-15". Keep movin until you catchem. Markland and Meldahl pools.
Good Luck and save some for others.
Bassky

Thanks for the update. I always wanted to try the river.
Tim

I went out yesterday for 2 hours, caught around 40 crappie, from 3:15-5:15pm. Most were small but I kept 21 nice ones. Fishing laydowns in 9' of water, around 4' deep using minnows and a float. Also caught 6 bass, biggest around 13" and a couple of bluegills. Not bad for 2 hours fishing.
Bassky

You EAT fish out of the Ohio River? Sounds like fun fishing, but they would all go back. - Roberta

Roberta,
You can eat crappie from the Ohio River and its tributaries. In Kentucky there is a statewide Mercury advisory, one meal per week for all bodies of water. In Ohio, there is also a statewide advisory for one meal per week for all bodies of water. Here is a link:
http://www.epa.state.oh.us/2006_fish_advisory.html

This includes lakes like where you and I fish, Acton, Caesar's, Paint Creek, East Fork, etc. Same true in Ky like, Cave Run, Herrington, Cumberland, all of them too.
This is a good website for fishermen knowledge.
Thanks,
Bassky

Where's the advisor for Caesars Creek or Acton?

There is a statewide advisory, which means every lake and river system, in Ohio to eat only 1 fish meal per week. Check out the above link, it is a good website and very informative. It is unfortunate, but like in KY, there are high mercury levels in all of our waters, this is why there is a statewide advisory.
Bassky

Bassky:

Isn't it a shame we have to ask if we can eat the fish? I'm from NC, but stationed in DE. First time I went fishing here I ran across a sign on the boat ramp that said not to eat more than 2 eight ounce servings per year!

It is a shame. I can remember fishing Lake Erie as a boy. The only fish you could catch back in the 60's was whitebass or drum. The lake was so polluted, as we crossed over to Kelly's Island on the ferry, we would see dead fish everywhere. The lake is cleaner now than it has been since before the 1950's. You can catch walleye, crappie, smallmouth, perch, etc. However there are still contiminants and advisories there too. Maybe we were just ignorant. There probably was a need back then, they just didn't investigate all of our waters.
Bassky