Central Ohio Fishing Tips

Fishing is one of Ohio's favorite pastimes. It has many lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds teaming with fish of all sorts. Some of the preferred catches for an Ohio fisherman include catfish, bass, muskie, walleye, crappie, and saugeye. Below are some of my favorite lures and bait for catching in the central Ohio region. I have had great luck with all of them. Enjoy!

In walleye or saugeye season there a lot of lures you could use but live minnows and many other types of live bait would be the best way to catch a walleye or saugeye. If there's not a bait shop around the place you like to go fishing you should use lures like the Rooster Tail or crankbait or a jerk bait but my favorite one would be the Berkley Sad Crankbait becuase walleye and saugeye like to hang out at the bottom. Some people think that they are bottom feeders but they are not, they feed looking up and the crankbait should go right over the fish. A good tip on looking for walleyes or saugeyes is to look in shallow water that is one to ten feet deep, this is where they feed.

Since the 1950's Worden's original Rooster Tail has been and still is one of the most productive spinners around. Used to catch just about any game fish, the Rooster Tail's pulsating hackle tail and attractive spinning action will make fish strike, many times when nothing else will work. Available in 10 sizes and over 100 different colors, there is a Rooster Tail just right for any fishing situation.

The best commercial catfish bait would be the secret 7 dip bait from Team Catfish. It is good in almost any weather from rainy to sunny to 107 degrees Fahrenheit. This bait will catch channel cats, blue cats, and bullheads and it is very easy bait to use. This bait usually catches catfish in 10 to 30 minutes and the company went out to buckeye lake and did a contest between Secret 7 and liver. Secret 7 won by a long shot. A quick rigging tip would be to use an operator snagless sinker 3/4oz and barrel swivel and ez load dip bait tube. All but the swivel are from Team Catfish.

As soon as we got the first sample we knew this bait was special, super sticky and loaded with catfish attractants. Glen's family and friends had been whacking catfish with this stuff for a very long time...

Premo blood bait from Hog Wild is also a good bait option to use in certain places like a private lake or pond but a pubic lake or pond if you are lucky you might have a few channel cats go by and pick it up. If the fish does, you should catch more then five catfish but those places are rare to find and when you find them be prepared for more then one catfish. It is also MUCH cheaper than Secret 7.

The Magic Bait Premo Super Sticky Blood Bait is a powerful dip bait great for fishing moving water. It attracts catfish from long distance.

In early spring and it's a sunny day the best baits would be a soft plastic bait like a lizard or frog but in spring I've had more success with the chartreuse pepper colored lizard from zoom because bass are spawning during spring and these plastic lizards mimic a salamander. A salamander eats fish eggs and when a Bass sees this bait or a real salamander it will attack.

The Zoom Lizard selection is second to none. Many different sizes are offered for your personal preference. The Lizard 6" is actually 7 in. in length. These baits are a favorite of anglers in the springtime and "pre spawn" seasons. The Carolina rig is what the lizard is fished most on in the spring. However, these baits can be very effective Texas rigged in the summer.

On a bright sunny day and there's warm weather you should use a top water bait and one of the best top water bait that I have used is the Stanley Ribbit. It makes a lot of noise and it leaves bubbles the size of your thumbnail. The fish is attracted to weeds like lily pads so if you rig your bait so it's snagless, cast it over the weeds and let it sit there about five seconds then reel it about four feet, leave it five seconds again and continue the process.

It moves more water, throws more water, and has a thumper buzz bait noise.