My friend, George, and I decided to try our luck fishing on the Ohio River. I wanted to modify a technique that my father used successfully back in the 1960's, so we tried our luck at jug fishing.
First, we set up a tent at Fort Massac State Park in the campground. We used George's boat and set out about 100 32-ounce bottles (jugs) with lines and hooks attached to them. On the hooks we used cut calve's liver as bait. We would toss these jugs into the river in a random manner and wait for a fish to strike. In fact, we set the jugs out at about 3:00 in the afternoon and returned to camp. At 6:00, we went out in the boat, again, to check our jugs and our bait. It took about one hour to check each of the jugs, but we had already caught 8 fish (ranging in size from one pound to five pounds). Night was nearing, so we decided to call it quits and wait until the following morning. We arose about 5:30 and prepared to go back out on the river. This time, we were bringing in our lines and our catch. We had an additional 23 fish on the lines. Not bad for one night's work.
We returned to camp, cleaned the fish, and packed our gear. Then we divided our catch and headed home. Those fish certainly made a great meal for our family and friends later in the week. Just as I remembered, the Ohio has an abundance of great fish.