G. Sam Piatt
PDT Outdoors Columnist
Vince Royalton and I motored upstream to the Greenup Dam tailwaters a while back and very quickly caught two nice hybrids by trolling crankbaits. I make this sound as though we caught them, but actually it was he who caught them.
He had the only lure they would hit that day. And after catching those two in quick succession, he hung up on the bottom, his line snapped, and the lure was history.
We tried about every thing else in our tackle boxes, but got not another strike. And that’s just the way fishing is sometimes.
The hybrid is a cross between a white bass and a striped bass. The Ohio River is loaded with them, thanks to stocking efforts by fish and wildlife departments.
With water temperatures now running in the mid-70s, sauger should be moving in to the dam’s tailwaters soon, if they haven’t already.
CREEL LIMITS
There seems to be some confusion about creel limits on hybrids and other species in the Ohio River, where, thanks to an agreement between Ohio and Kentucky, anglers can fish from a boat or from either bank with a fishing license from either state.
From Lawrence County, west of South Point, and all the way down to Cincinnati, Ohio and Kentucky honors the other state’s fishing license along their common borders on the main stem and from the banks of the river, excluding embayments and tributaries.
Unified regulations in this agreement call for a generous daily limit of 30 on hybrids – no more than four of which may be over 15 inches long. Other than that there are no size limits.
On sauger, saugeye and walleye, the unified regulations call for a daily limit of 10, singly or in combination. There is no minimum size limit.
The limit on muskie is two and the minimum size limit is 30 inches. Black and white crappie have a limit of 30 a day with no size limit.
On smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass, both Ohio and Kentucky regulations call for a daily limit of six, singly or in combination. The minimum size limit is 12 inches.
SAFE TO EAT?
Is it safe to eat your catch from the Ohio River? That’s an individual decision. Some anglers do, some don’t. As for me, I will carefully fillet any bass, crappie and sauger I catch, wash the fillets twice in fresh water, dip them in egg batter, roll them in a combination of flour and meal, fry them to a golden brown, and enjoy.
APPLE TIME
Fall has many pleasures to offer us, one of them being fresh, juicy apples.
The Newell family has once again gathered in the harvest on their huge apple orchard straddling the Greenup County-Lewis County line.
The apples annually stock area supermarket produce shelves and bring buyers to the orchid from miles around.
The crop this year, gathered in from about the first of September until mid-October, is a decent one, even though the wet conditions of late summer and the fact that laborers were more difficult to find worked against it, said Douglas Power Newell Jr., owner and manager of the orchard for the past 65 years or more.
“We may be a little short on Golden Delicious, which is the apple most people prefer, over the Red Delicious and the Winesap,” he said.
Apples this year are selling for $1 a pound. There are about 30 pounds in a bushel.
His son, Douglas Power Newell III, helps with the management and is taking over more and more of the operations. Both have their homes amid the orchard, which lies within a 2,600-acre hilltop tract – 2,000 acres in Greenup County and 600 acres in Lewis County.
In the 1940s the orchard would employ as many as 50 people. Pickers were paid 12 1/2 cents a bushel and some could make as much as $9 a day.
Today the hourly minimum wage runs more than that.
The apples are picked and packed with tender loving care and stored in a refrigerated warehouse to keep them crisp and juicy while awaiting buyers.
To reach the Delicious Fruits Orchard, take Ky. 7 south out of South Shore for about eight miles to the AA Highway (Ky. 10). Turn right on the AA and go about five miles. There is an orchard sign on the right side of the highway. Turn right, immediately left, then right again onto the road leading up to the orchard. Follow the blacktop to the top of the hill, make a sharp turn right, and follow that lane on up to the warehouse and sales area.
It can also be reached by taking Ky. 8 west from Grant Bridge for about six miles to St. Paul, turning left on Scaffold Lick Road, and following that road for about four miles to the top of the hill and the orchard.
(606) 932-3619.
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