East Fork

[redhawk fisherman]

Did anyone else struggle at East Fork catching hybrids this past year? It was my worst year in a long time.

[dwwv4]

redhawk, i also found eastfork not as productive as years ago. the fishing there use to be great.. one year, right around memorial week end we hit it just right. the top water bite was on big time.... tennesee chug bugs, couldn't beat the wipers off your line... fish use to break on the surface all the time.. i can't remember the last time i seen em break on the surface???? there was a time when they first started stocking them, that there was no limit on these fish. size or numbers..

early on there where a couple of guides on the lake, but now their gone. do to the fact there's not to much happening in the lake these days. i'am going to try and find out their stocking program or their lack of one. to see if this will shed some light on the big slow down on the hybrids on this lake. dave

[riverKing]

seemed to me like the shad had a bad spawn this year. i didnt see near as many as usual anywhere the ohio, east fork, even cc had low numbers. i think that played a big role in why the fishing was tough this year. I also think the amount of people fishing was a problem too. i watched a guy in the spring walk out of the creek above the first riffle with a stringer full of 20 or so small (12-18in) hybrids. when i told him the limit was 4 he looked at me and said it stops at the first riffle. we need to release these fish its too easy to kill huge numbers of fish when they school up and many of the larger fish i catch have scars from being hooked, the more we release the more get big

[redhawk fisherman]

early on there where a couple of guides on the lake, but now their gone. do to the fact there's not to much happening in the lake these days. i'am going to try and find out their stocking program or their lack of one. to see if this will shed some light on the big slow down on the hybrids on this lake. dave[/QUOTE]

I look forward to the info you find out. I also only caught a few in the jumps this past summer.

[dwwv4]

i also seen a guy walking down from the first head riffle with a stringer of smaller hybrids. i told him that there was a size & posession limit on hybrids, he said what he had was white bass, and he didn't act as though he cared.. to the best of my recollection they haven't stocked any white bass in the lake. i think a lot of small hybrids went home as white bass.....

[boonecreek]

thats right river king. i like to think of myself as a fish educator. every one i throw on back with a sore jaw and one lesson on eat,in

[dwwv4]

talked to a biologist , debbie walters this morning. the good news was they stock eastfork every year with 1.1 million hybrid fry and last year they also added 126,044 fingerlings. they been doing this since 99 at least. now having said that ,here's the flip side.... in august of 2006 there was a large die off... the fish that it singled out where hybrids in the 11-14 inch. size range. none bigger or smaller. the cove near the dam and boat ramp, as she put it. " looked like a sea of white" back in the early nineties, there was a die off of larger hybrids, but not as bad as 2006.

they collected the fish and sent samples to a federal lab in wisconsin . the fish there some how decomeposed before they got answers. [ go figuire ] well they contribute it to bacteria or virus. natures way of making corrections on certain species... they are having trouble in the hatcheries here in ohio, are hybrids are being sent to us from arkansaw. which she was very costly. they are sending a group to arkansaw hatcheries to learn more about the making of hybrids. they are having problems with the white bass eggs, they tend to clump up instead of seperating when mixed with the striper sperm. which causes a fungus, that kills the eggs. they have only a couple of week window for good results.

they are trying hard to stock as many fish as they can. when they get the hatcheries here straighted out they will do more. they are having great results with saugeye.. dave

[dwwv4]

i also checked there's no white bass stockings in east fork lake. so if ya got a stringer full of white bass.... better think again... some of the people from "other countries" might even think their crappie... dave:confused:

[Bassnpro1]

that is bad news. I was just getting ready to ask about info on how and where to catch the hybrids in EF. I have never tried, but now that I got a boat I was going to. Even though white bass have not been stocked, they almost certainly would be in a lake such as EF and probably in decent numbers. I'm sure someone with firsthand info can confirm this. Depending on how severe the fish kill was and if it was lakewide or only down by the dam, it could take the lake a few years to come back. But if it only took out one year class, things should be alright

[riverKing]

it amazes me but i have never seen a white bass in EF, though im sure there are some. i heard aboput the dieoff but i didnt think it killed that many fish, i just heard they found some dead ones in a cove musta been more than some