Franklin County
Athens has a higher percentage of the population buying licenses he said.
Franklin County sold just over 41,000 resident fishing licenses in 2007, totalling almost 4 percent of the total population, according to the report. In Athens, nature's untamed beauty and a progressive university merge into one, and a river runs through it.
The Hocking River isn't the only body of water that complements Athens' setting in the Southeastern Ohio wilderness. Several lakes and large ponds are only a short drive away. Beneath the glassy surface is almost every type of fish native to Ohio, and each is waiting to take a hook.
Athens County sold almost 5,000 resident fishing licenses in 2007, according to an annual report from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. That number, about 8 percent of the total population, is high, compared to many other counties in Ohio, Thomas Donnelly, law enforcement supervisor for Ohio Wildlife District 4, said.
If you look at that number compared to say
Franklin County
Athens has a higher percentage of the population buying licenses
he said.
Franklin County sold just over 41,000 resident fishing licenses in 2007, totalling almost 4 percent of the total population, according to the report.
ANGLING IN ATHENS
There is no record of how many licenses are annually sold to Ohio University students, but Donnelly estimates the number to be small. Most students who go fishing while attending OU purchase their licenses in their hometown, he said.
Jordan Bogard, a senior studying education from Marietta, began fishing with his grandfather when he was 3 years old. Upon arriving in Athens as a freshman, he was unsure where to begin fishing, he said.
It definitely took me awhile to find the right places to go. But a buddy and I eventually found a lot of the lakes around here
all of them 10- or 15-minute drives. It's not bad
you just have to know where to go
he said.
Bogard eventually found Fox Lake, a 48-acre body of water located about four miles west of Athens, where he and his fishing partners found success casting from the banks, he said.
It's now one of my favorite spots down here. I've caught a decent amount of largemouth (bass) and a lot of crappie there
he said.
Fishing in Athens isn't always a dry experience. Locals and students alike can be found nearly every weekend, some in chest waders, some in swimming trunks, up to their waists in the Hocking River near White's Mill at the intersection of Ohio routes 56 and 682.
This area of the river provides unusual fishing opportunities for anglers due to a small waterfall, Donnelly said.
High water flows over the drop there and forces sand from the bottom of the river. It makes a very deep hole
maybe 15 or 20 feet. It's deep
