Saugeye hitting at Buckeye

The fall saugeye bite seems to be under way at Buckeye. Bob Mathie at Bob's Outdoor Supply in Newark told me a customer named Kevin Zachariah reported catching a 5-pounder and a 7-pounder while fishing near the north shore ramp at Buckeye. He said same were hitting during the daytime, but the best action was coming in the evening.
He reported using 3-inch grubs, but anglers are also catching fish on other lures, especially Husky Jerks, Rogues and shallow Shad Raps.
Some saugeye are reported being caught below Dillon as well, but I haven't heard any details.
As for bass fishing, the best report I've heard was that Jim Foster and Dana Moran braved the wind Wednesday at Knox and boated 10 bass on crankbaits. Dana caught a couple in the 2- or 2 1/2-pound range and one that might have been about 3 pounds.
He was using a No. 5 Shad Rap, while Jim was using a No. 7 and didn't fare as well.
I'm hoping to get to Knox Sunday. So far, the weather report sounds favorable: Cloudy, warmer and some rain possible. As long as the wind doesn't blow too much, I'm happy.

S.O.B. championship: Day 2

Going into day 2 of the Southern Ohio Bassmasters championship, you had to like Alan Fulks' chances of going home with a victory. He had a one and a half pound lead over second place and at least 2 1/2 pounds over everyone else after day 1 at Rush Creek.
When he weighed in four bass weighing 4 pounds, 15 ounces at Piedmont Sunday, I figured he had enough to win. But then Chris Lighthizer weighed in four bass, including a 4-pounder. a total of 8 pounds, 11.8 ounces to go with his 1-pound, 14-ounce fish from the first day. The final result: Chris finished first with 10 pounds, 9.8 ounces and Alan was second with 10 pounds, 8.4 ounces.
The rest of us were left bobbing in their wake. Mike Baughman finished third with 5 pounds, 6.7 ounces, Eric Woodrow was fourth with 5 pounds, 2.8 ounces, Terry Ryan finished fifth with 4 pounds, 2.4 ounces, I was sixth with 4 pounds, 0.7 ounces, Tom Sprankel was seventh with 2 pounds 13.5 ounces, Bruce Reavley took eighth with 1 pounds, 4 ounces, Bob Fulks was ninth with 1 pound, 14.4 ounces and Kenny Fulks came in tenth with 1 pound, 9.8 ounces.
No limits were weighed at Piedmont and only 23 keepers were caught by 10 anglers. Four failed to get a keeper either day.
Although it had been tough to get g a 15-inch keeper Saturday, I headed for Piedmont Sunday in a good mood. After all, we would only have to catch 12-inch fish and the weather reports I had heard were for a cloudy day with a chance of rain, so I figured the bass would be hitting at least as well as they had been at Rush Creek.
. Well, it was cloudy for about an hour and it did rain -- for about 30 seconds. Then the clouds cleared away and the wind picked up. Classic post-frontal conditions. I caught one keeper about 10 a.m. and never put another bass in the boat.
I have often had good luck on surface lures at Piedmont, but after I had no hits on them early, I pretty much put them aside after the sun came out.
The guys that caught fish reported catching them on a variety of baits all over the lake, but Chris said he caught all of his on buzzbaits. He had to work hard for them, but it was obviously worth it. I think he was fishing in the far upper end of the lake, where American lotus are taking over. The pads are dying and turning brown, which can sometimes be a real bass magnet. I fished a few pads, but aside from the one keeper, which hit a worm, I didn't have a hit around them.
Whatever he figured out, Chris made a great comeback under tough conditions. Congratulations to him.

S.O.B. championship: Day 1

Rush Creek performed as expected on Day 1 of the Southern Ohio Bassmasters championship Saturday. Members reported catching a lot of bass, but keepers (15 inches) were in short supply.
Out of 14 members fishing, seven weighed in a total of nine bass.
Alan Fulks is leading after the first day with two bass weighing 5 pounds, 9 ounces. His 3-pound, 11-ounce bass as the big fish of the day.
Mike Baughman is in second with two bass weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces; I'm in third with 3-pound fish, Terry Ryan is in fourth with a 2-pound, 1.8-ounce fish and Ton Sprankel is third with a 1-pound, 14.2-ounce bass.
Also weighing in fish were Chris Lighthizer (1 pound, 14 ounces) and Eric Woodrow (1 pound, 11.8 ounces.
Alan clearly has an advantage going into day 2 at Piedmont Sunday, but it is close enough that the rest of us still have some hope of catching him.
Saturday was frustrating. I couldn't start where I wanted to because some duck hunters were set up right were I wanted to start fishing. So I fished some other areas while I waited for them to call it a day (there were almost no ducks around anyway).
When they finally gathered their decoys and got ready to leave, I worked my way into the coves. Ironically, as I did so a duck flew in behind the hunters and landed in the bak of the cove. I don't think they saw it.
My first hit was the 3-pounder, about 10 or 10:30 a.m., so naturally I expected more. It was caught on one of Bob Mathie's hand-poured Senkos in black/blue flake. I pent the next hour or two hitting every stump and laydown in the cove with that lure, other colors of hand-poured Senkos, a black/blue tail hand-poured beaver, spinnerbaits, Flukes, swimbaits and buzzbaits. The result was two misses (one took me under a log) and one 13 1/2-incher on the beaver.
I finally headed for other spots and wound up catching seven more bass -- one on a Senko, two on the beaver and four on a white spinnerbait. At least five of them were in the 13- to 14-inch range.
That would have been great if we had been on a lake with a 12-inch limit.
All my fish came on shallow, visible cover. I never had a hit on a crankbait; other reported catching most of their fish on cranks, often in deeper water.
Piedmont should be interesting. I haven't been there since our spring tournament and the few reports I've heard recently have not been good.
We'll see.

Cooksey wins Cranberry championship

As I mentioned before, Bub Cooksey of Newark won the Cranberry Marsh Bass Club championship tournament Oct. 9 and 10 at Delaware and Alum Creek lakes. He did it with a cath of four bass weighing 6.78 pounds on Saturday at Delaware and four bass weighing 7.82 pounds Sunday at Alum Creek, for a ttal of 14.6 pounds. He also took big bass honors with a 3.27-pound fish caught at Alum.
Shaun Magers came in second with 10.09 pounds, which included five fish at Delaware weighing 7.16 pounds and three at Alum weighing 2.93 pounds.
Finishing third was Rick McDonald II with 9.61 pounds. He had five bass weighing 6.53 pounds Saturday and three weighing 3.08 pounds Sunday.
Jerry Mossman placed fourth with eight bass weighing 9.59 pounds. He had five bass weighing 6.67 pounds Saturday and three bass weighing 2.92 pounds Sunday.
Fifth place went to Otis McCloud with six bass weighing 8.07 pounds. he had five bass weighing 6.16 pounds Saturday and one weighing 1.91 pounds Sunday.
In all, 63 keeper bas were weighed in by the 13 members fishing, 49 of them at Delaware and 14 at Alum Creek. Six five-fish limits were weighed in, all of them at Delaware.

Fall fishing

The weather lately has been enough to drive you crazy. The temperatures have been good for October, but the skies most days are cloudless and from about 10 or 11 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., the wind has been steady and strong enough to make boat control, let alone casting accuracy, difficult.
I was out Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Thursday and Saturday at Rush Creek, Sunday at Salt Fork. I picked up three bass Thursday, all less than 15 inches and all after 5 p.m. Saturday was a little better, again with three bass (and one crappie), one of the bass a 15-inch keeper. I also missed five bass on various lures, but I couldn't tell if any were keepers. Whether that told me anything about here to fish Saturday in the club championship will remain to be seen.
I didn't try to go to Piedmont, site of the second day of the championship, before Sunday's cutoff date for practice, because I have a good idea of where I'll fish in any case and, frankly, I didn't want to spend the money to drive over.
Sunday, Lindsey and I went to Salt Fork. We hadn't been there this year but we've usually had a good time there in the past, even if the fishing was slow. There's always a good chance to see eagles and osprey as well as other wildlife such as Turkeys and foxes.
Unfortunately, the wind was even stronger than previous days, no eagles were around and the only other wildlife we saw were squirrels and chipmunks.
Lindsey did catch two bass, one on a Super Fluke and one on a crappie jig, but I was skunked.
In hindsight, Salt Fork was probably a bad choice because of the wind and sun, but I don't know if Knox would have been any better.
If I have a day to get out this week, Knox will probably be the target. I have some ideas about what to try there if the wind would just died down.
I apologize for not having the results of the Cranberry championship yet. I know Bub Cooksey won the tournament, but I don't have any details yet.

Y-City championship

Drew Allen won the Y-City Bass Club championship held at Alum Creek Oct. 3, boating three fish that weighed 6.88 pounds. He also took big bass honors with a 2.8-pound fish.
Dave Blackstone finished second with five bass that weighed 6.41 pounds, Tommy Hoffer placed third with four bass that weighed 4.41 pounds, Dave Allen came in third with three fish that weighed 4.15 pounds and Ryan Boyer was fifth with three bass that weighed 4.05 pounds.
As I remember, that was a chilly, windy day; not one I would want to spend on Alum Creek.
I don't know how the rest of the contestants did. Only the top five finishers were posted on the Y-City website on Ohiobassclubs.com.

Rush Creek frustration

Wind and cloudless skies make a bad combination.
I had a decent evening at Rush Creek Friday, boating five bass in the last hour or so before dark. Only one was over 15 inches, but I was happy, as I only had a couple hours to fish by the time I got there. chalk that up to a late start and a slow=moving combine blocking the road.
Anyway, the weather forecast was stable for the weekend -- mostly sunny and highs in the low 80s. I figured Sunday would be a good day to go back and check out some more areas. Since the forecast included some clouds, I was pleased with the prospects for a good day.
While I was on my way there, it was fine day, with some clouds and negligible wind. But by the time I was on the water, the clouds were gone and the wind was picking up out of the west. That's not good on Rush Creek because it lays east to west and most of the coves open to the west.
In the next four hours caught one green sunfish and had one other hit that may or may not have been a bass.
Even the one great blue heron I saw had given up his fishing efforts and was standing in a tree several feet above the lake.
I finally gave up and went home to continue a painting project I need to get done.
I'd like to get back there at least once before Sunday, but the forecast is for a cooling trend (down to about 60) by the end of the week and possibly some rain.
If I don't make it there, I'll have gto rely on my "usual spots," but it would be nice to check out a few others.
We'll see.

Fall fishing

It’s hard to believe its already October. It seems like only yesterday we were atching the weather and the water temperatures, hoping to catch the bass as they moved into the shallows ready to feed before spawning. Of course, the heat came too fast and before we knew it, it seemed we were into summer patterns instead of spring.
Still, there were good days on the water. My best came in mid-June at Rush Creek, when it seemed like a good bass was laying next to every log and stump. In a period of about five hours I boated 13 bass, the largest about 4 pounds, and lost six more. Within the next week, I had good days at Knox and Hoover.
But then it started getting tough. I had some decent times at Rush Creek, Knox and Dillon, but not in tournaments at Hoover, Seneca, Dillon and Delaware.
But now, after a couple weeks of cold (or at least cool) weather and wind, we seem to be entering one of those perfect fall period that cry out for fishing.
Some people have hung up their rods and are planning duck or deer hunting days, but I’m not one of them. I’m looking forward to finding bass in the shallows again and catching them on buzzbaits, spinnerbaits and Senkos.
I don’t mean to ignore the possibility of catching saugeye, muskies or even crappie and bluegill -- and this is a good time to fish for all of those -- but I want to catch largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been out yet this week, but my first trip will probably be to Rush Creek for largemouth. After that, who knows?
I will be fishing Rush Creek and Piedmont later this month for our club championship, and Lindsey wants to get to Salt Fork, so I’ll add that to the list as well.
And if there’s time and enough good weather, Knox Lake and the Muskingum beckon as well.
Wherever you’re fishing this month, good luck. And maybe we’ll have another nice, warm fall and keep fishing well into November.