Ohio River Spey

[ghostdncr]

Early this morning I headed across the river from Louisville into southern Indiana to try out a new line setup. I was fishing below the McAlpine Dam at the Falls of the Ohio. No telling what will take your fly here:

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Fishing%20pics/100MEDIA_IMAG0065.jpg

This entire section of the river is a Devonian Era fossil bed and is home to great numbers of waterfowl. Herons and mergansers are all over the place and it's worth going just to watch them. I chose this point to start swinging from:

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Fishing%20pics/100MEDIA_IMAG0066.jpg

The line setup performed surprisingly well for me. You serious Spey guys will probably hurt yourself laughing when you hear this setup, but I am in Kentucky and have the only Spey rod I've ever seen in this part of the country. I don't have to worry about embarrassing myself because nobody knows what I'm doing! :chuckle:

I've got an Echo 13' 7/8 wt. Classic with a Sage 1680 reel. Using an extra 8wt WF line I had lying around, I cut 14' off the heavy end, then fitted braided loops to the ends. In the middle, I added a 27' 600gr Skagit line and squeezed the whole mess onto my reel with about 150' of 30# backing. With careful attention to my casting technique, I was getting 50-60' reach in spite of the 15-20mph crosswind I fought most of the morning, with the occasional shot pushing 70 feet. I wonder how I could do with a properly setup outfit? :rolleyes: Please feel free to critique this arrangement and/or make recommendations because there doesn't appear to be anyone local that can help. Then again, I'm reminded of Poppy's signature. I'm getting distance and catching fish and having a blast doing it!

The morning's take consisted of two large-ish shad:

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/ghostdncr/Fishing%20pics/100MEDIA_IMAG0067.jpg

Not sure what's up with the shad. I've never caught one before and it seems I've ended up landing several almost every time I've gone out this year. The largest I caught today was 14" and went aerial five times while trying to shake the hook. They look kinda like baby tarpon and put up a substantial fight.

Sorry for the crappy pics. My phone's camera is a real hit-or-miss affair. :mad:

[speyday]

That, my friend, is WIPER food! Crazy, non-stop shad eating hybrid stripers. As you may know, the Ohio and its tribs get some pretty amazing runs. However, they are much like steelhead in that they move quick, are sensitive to flows. Ive gone a-chasing them but suffered 3 consecutive blow-outs in a row when down there for business in Miamisburg/Kettering.

BUT, they love to slash and crash stuff on the surface when they are in! There are some areas South of Dayton that get some good visitors each May thru July. Big huge white minnow streamers and ocassionally poppers with a trailing streamer will do it. Use 16 lb tippet at a minimum.

[ghostdncr]

I've seen some monstrous stripers (never heard anyone around here differentiate between a striper and a wiper) working the area around the Falls, but have never connected with one of them. I'm planning to start tying some big deceivers and focus my efforts on hooking one. Unfortunately, I've never managed to identify a pattern to their seemingly random appearance.

Regarding sink tips, should I go with T11 or T14 for this outfit? The river channel in this area runs from 4-5 feet at the head where I was catching the shad, gradually deepening to ~15-20 feet where the fossil beds end.