fishing on the river seems to be very stale as of late. Im only catching 4-6 smallies with only two being keepers. Water temp is 86 degrees, fishing in the afternoon till dusk, fishing in rocky points, weeds and deep points. There is access to the downstream side of a dam. Catching the fish mostly on zoom worms only. topwater bite is no existant for me. I need more bites so i can have more keepers. Any suggestions, bait help, experiance is greatly appriciated.

Thanks, Jeff

Im also in ohio, and fish creeks/rivers.

I was having the same problem. My solution wasnt so much my bait but how I use it. I found by slowing down I was getting alot more bites.

And by slowing down I mean waaaay down. reel in a few feet and let it sit, sometimes up to 20-30 seconds then reel a few more feet. Seems like the bass are getting lazy in this heat. anything even barely moving at a steady pace they just let it go by.

Also Ive had alot more luck with keepers by sticking with my soft baits, Mainly worms. they havent been interested much in my lures.

the ohio river is a very tough place to fish. they say if you can catchfish on the ohio you can catch them anywhere. But try downsizing your bait some, throw a crankbait and topwater. you have to just keep chuggin, one day youll catch them and the next you want get a bite. look for some rip rap cast your crank parallel to the rip rap if nothing move off the bank some, do the same thing with wood, the fish are there they are just hard to catch

Not sure about the Ohio but I had the same battle here. I combatted it by finding moving shallow water. Find a place where the water is moving through the rocks, the current through the rocks will create oxygen, that is where they will be. Use spinner baits, square billed cranks, top water. If you happen to find deeper pocket bounce of the bottom