The Ohio River: banking on bass

The Ohio River has been a special fascination of mine for more than 20 years. It is a place where I’ve experienced the best of times and the worst of times, but it always is interesting.

While it’s never going to make the list of America’s top 10 (or even 100) fishing locations, the Ohio is populated by game species that exhibit an amazing resiliency.

For many years, the river showed signs of abuse that resulted from unfettered discharges from municipal sewers and industrial discharges, as well as the seasonal flooding that altered its bottom and blew out entire generations of clean-water fish like bass, walleyes, saugers and others.

The water is much cleaner now, and the gamefish have at least a fighting chance of establishing themselves in the rough-and-tumble Ohio River environment. Catching them is a challenge, the likes of which make for “interesting” fishing on the Ohio.

I visited the river last Saturday. It was a most interesting day.

It had been nearly two years since I’d fished the Ohio, so I decided to check out a few of the early morning topwater spots that historically had yielded smallmouth bass. The first stop, a rocky shoal, produced a keeper smallie on a popper, so the day began with promise.

High water and strong ice flows apparently wiped out two other old favorite gravel and sand bars that used to produce chunky bronzebacks. But my fourth spot, a solidly entrenched pile of boulders that top off at 3 feet with a break down to 15 feet just a half cast away, was loaded with willing bass.

The problem was keeping them attached to my lure. I boated a nice 14-inch smallmouth along with several nonkeepers, then endured the frustration of watching five consecutive cartwheeling acrobats shake free from my crankbait’s treble hooks.

The day progressed under periods of clouds and sun, and the fish apparently felt no need to relate specifically to certain underwater structure. I picked off “roamers” who loosely associated themselves with the cover and structure more as current breaks than feeding locales.

Conditions like that are perfect for what many bass anglers refer to as “junk fishing.” That is, a crankbait here, a Texas-rigged tube there, a spinnerbait where appropriate and perhaps a topwater toss or two just to check the action. When no particular pattern of behavior is observed, anglers can just work what they see with what they feel is the best presentation.

I moved upriver to a pile of concrete blocks and tires built by nearby cottage owners seeking to protect their bank area from erosion. It produced one keeper smallie and five little ones before it was time to move further upstream to a row of barge tie-off coffers inhabited by undersized smallies and spotted bass, and one hungry keeper largemouth.

A bluff near East Liverpool yielded another 13-inch smallmouth, and a small patch of river grass was home to a similar-sized largemouth that couldn’t resist the tube I flipped into the greenery.

Next stop was good for a 17-inch largemouth that ate the tube as it drifted down along a steel pole. Thirty minutes later, a fat 14-inch spotted bass slurped in the same lure as the current washed it under a low-hanging boat dock.

My day was done by midafternoon, and the count was decidedly in my favor. Ten keepers and somewhere around 20 short bass, as well as one dandy sauger.

Interesting? I’d say so. And definitely a good sign that our Ohio River is on the upswing after a couple of decidedly down years.

jwwollitz@aol.com