The past few trips......

[ppalko]

Saturday was a strange day. We saw you at the Refinery Dredge in the morning. We caught some decent bass and walleye early but had little action as the day went along. Things in that pool have really changed. Does anyone know when the Ramp at the Dam opens back up? We made a change in plans Saturday and launched downstream which resulted in fishing a completely different area. Would also explain the weekend water releases as they are working on the ramp on weekdays.

By the way, walleye action on the lower Allegheny has been pretty good lately. Anyone else noticing that?

[Red Childress]

I agree. The refinery stuff has really changed over the years for sure but I think one of the reasons is that you guys on the lower river still have some of "our" winter fish down there as they have yet to move up this year. With the river temperature hardly dropping over the past 3 weeks, I think there is a ton of fish hung up somewhere South of Warren. Just my .02.

The ramp should be completed this week, I hope. Getting tired of the up and down outflows!

[Red Childress]

Launch is open now but big outflows coming as we speak.

[ppalko]

I do agree that the water temps have been higher than normal but don't think the fish are hung up other than on stringers on buggeys. The fall migration of bass begins when water temps reach the lower 50's. In the past, that would correspond to early October. Typically when the temperatures were hitting the 40's as now, one could expect catches of larger bass in concentrated low current areas (wintering holes which the Warren dredge is a classic). I think the fish species distribution in the river around Warren has been changed significantly and as a result, so has the fishing. I'm catching more walleyes now (not long ago, I'd catch very few in the Warren Dredge) and I'll bet musky location has changed as those species move in to replace the missing bass. Just a theory but I do know that what I catch around Warren in both numbers and species is not what is was five years ago.

I'm hoping to have a few shots at floating the area for trout before winter actually arrives for good.

[Red Childress]

I understand all the migration stuff and actually have logs that help me remember these things over the years. After talking to a very good local bass hunter this year, he had to travel a significant distance to find the larger bass that had "hung up" in 2 areas South of Warren when they should have (based on the calendar) already made their way to Warren. IF the bait is not moving up due to slowly falling water temps, neither will the predators whether it be muskies, pike or walleye. The reason you may be catching more walleye is because the numbers of bass are not there competing for your offerings. As far as the straw hat fishermen, there has not been an increase in that pressure either this year.....there are actually fewer of them because the big bass (and tons of smaller bass) have not shown up yet. The only difference from this year and all the other years is a 6 degree temperature difference this year as compared to most years dating back to 1997. Water temps below the dam are usually 39-41 during Christmas holiday.....they were 46.7 last weekend with 60 degree temps and rain coming this weekend. 3 weeks ago, we actually gained 1.5 degrees in temperature which has not happened in 11 years or so.

The number of bass hunting boats in the 2 dredges has really dropped off this year too as the word has spread that the bass fishing has just not fired up yet in the "normal" areas.

The number of transient muskies certainly are not here (Warren County) yet this year either and that is a fact, unfortunately.


Good Luck with the trout and bring spare battery with you as you will be fighting some serious current for quite awhile according to the Corps of Engineer guy I spoke with this morning.

[ppalko]

Thanks Red for the engaging conversation....I'm giving quizzes at school today. I have never really run around enough on the river in the fall (October-December) to find those spots where the bass hang up although I can guess where they are. I've been stuck around the Warren Dredge since up until recently I fished from a canoe. It would be a fascinating study to actually tag a few and track them. I'm really curious to see if the bigger bass actually ever show up in numbers this year. I totally agree about the walleye and I've had increasing success catching them as they have somewhat replaced the bass in that particular area. Many years ago, that area had a much greater population of walleyes (at least based on what I caught), for what ever reason. I really do think though that the straw hat guys have really impacted things. The number of fish I saw on stringers in the last few years has really skewed my opinion. The same issue comes up on a few local lakes in my area so it really is a sore spot with me. It does look like I'll have to wait awhile to have lower flows which means more time on the Lower River. It was interesting to see the USGS gage at Warren have a lower value than the dam output at one point today. Enjoy the heat wave.