Fishing the Ohio River on the Fly

Nearly my entire life, I have lived near the Ohio River.  For reasons I can't explain, I never fished it with fly gear until late last year.  Once again this year, I neglected the Ohio until fall, making my first trip of 2016 just this past Sunday with a friend.  The water was a bit off color, and the Racine Dam was generating a lot of water, but the fish were in there and on the feed.  Massive schools of minnows and shad were all over the rocks below the tailrace.  I went with two rods rigged: a 5wt for smaller streamers and a 7wt for the bigger meals.  Skipjack were blasting bait with reckless abandon but were very inaccurate when it came to getting the hook on my flies.  Some casts would result in 3-5 strikes by flashing skippies, but I only managed to hook and land two smaller ones.  Skipjack, for those who fish for catfish on the Ohio, are pure gold.  Every skipjack we landed went into a bucket and then to my buddy's freezer for next spring.

Also feeding heavily below the dam were white bass and hybrid stripers.  While skipjack wanted the streamers fast and furious near the surface, the same streamer slowed down and allowed to "die" beneath the schools of bait was getting picked up by white bass or smaller hybrids.  The average size of the smaller whites were about like this fish below.  Not large fish, but good fun on a 5wt.

Having never caught a hybrid striper on the fly, that was my primary goal for the trip.  It was a tough scene for me to watch, because large hybrids were absolutely crushing schools of shad along the hydro platform...out of reach for me.  Directly behind where I had to stand in the rip rap was a large, steep rocky bank, which severely limited my back casts.  Casting a weighted streamer, coupled with all the violent current near the hydro, made it impossible (for me) to get any sort of roll cast out that far.  I could get my fly within 8-10' of the platform, which was 8-10' too far away.  I did manage one smaller hybrid before we left, but the bigger fish eluded me.

The one thing I have never enjoyed about fishing the tailrace is walking the rocks.  I have never been considered sure-footed, and walking on sometimes shifting, sometimes slippery rocks looks like a broken ankle waiting to happen.  Carrying some pricey fly rods only added to my panic.  Stumbling on a grenade didn't help matters, either.

All in all, it was a great afternoon spent on the water.  There was certainly no shortage of action or tugs on the line.  To top it off, it was a perfect fall afternoon with comfortable temperatures and plenty of sunshine.  Hopefully I can make it back down there before the colder weather hits to try for a big hybrid one more time.