Ohio River Fishing Report August 6, 2009

We sure have been pounded by rain here lately on the Ohio River with nearly a foot falling up river from our location in Henderson/Evansville.

With that said here are the latest predictions from NOAA starting today. At Cannelton dam on the lower gauge below the dam 24.45' of water was observed with a projection of 19' by this Sat Aug 9th. At Newburgh dam 26.7' was observed with that higher prediction being influenced heavily by
rainfall in large amounts up the Green River dumping in. A projection of 19.4' for this Sun Aug 9th is forecast but I personally don't think that low of water will be seen. With extremely heavy current, water so muddy it looks like you could walk across... the fishing will be tough at best this
weekend. Don't let it discourage you though because it also turns on big fish with several 50 lb + fish caught here lately by myself and others.

Catfish & Striper's - This has been an unusually impressive year for channel catfish I think mainly due to so much current and cooler water temps. Fresh cut shad and guts along with G & S cheese bait have been the best for me. Large shad have also out fished skipjack on my boat I believe due to the abundance of them. Wait until about Oct when the huge spawn of shad fry get larger and Catfish, Stripers will be feeding heavily on them.

This fall is shaping up to be a good one. We have been mainly anchor fishing ( not my favorite way to fish ) away from the norm of drifting, bumping, trolling this time of yr. Hopefully this rain will slow it's roll a little bit, the river level will fall and we can have a summer before going straight from Spring to Fall. With so much rain heavy current is keeping the Stripers from moving up to the dams due to plenty of oxygenated water. Lack of oxygen due to slack current is what pushes Stripers up river along with chasing bait doing the same. Keep Fishin'

This Ohio River fishing report has been provided by Captain Paul Willett of Camo Fish Guide Service. Check out http://camofishguideservice.com to learn more about chartering an Ohio River guided fishing trip.