For many anglers, fishing is one part relaxation, one part casting and catching and one part adventure.

Our pursuit of adventure pulls us to the water, motivates us to motor up around the next bend, and inspires us to try new and interesting tactics and techniques.

One of my favorite ways to satisfy my yearning for adventure is to hook up the Bass Cat and drive down Route 11 to the Ohio River.

I love the river. I have been there more times than I can count, starting in the early 1980s when racquetball friend Carmen Chicone and I drove to the New Cumberland Lock and Dam to fish for autumn, winter and spring saugers. I fished dozens of bass tournaments on the New Cumberland, Pike Island, Hannibal and Willow Island pools over the years. And I have enjoyed spring, summer and fall expeditions for the smallmouth bass that inhabit the waters that flow past East Liverpool and Wellsville.

I went to the river again Thursday with fishing pal Ted Suffolk, of Canfield. We hit a five-species jackpot that any adventurous angler would value. We boated more than three dozen smallmouth bass up to four pounds, a 7.22-pound walleye, a largemouth bass, a crappie and a half dozen spunky rock bass.

Our trip Thursday was more than a fishing adventure. It illustrated one of the great successes of clean water legislation and enforcement and smart fish management. During research for my article that appears in the summer issue of Outdoors America, the member magazine of the Izaak Walton League of America, I learned about the collaboration of fish management officials in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, with each other and the Ohio River Valley Water sanitation Commission.

Officials of all four agencies agree passage of the federal 1972 Clean Water Act has played a major role in cleaning up the Ohio, which for more than a century had endured dumping of industrial effluent, municipal sewage and agricultural and mining run-off. Clean water, in turn, has enabled game fish like smallmouth bass, walleyes, saugers and catfish to thrive. In addition, clean water has resulted in lush growths of aquatic vegetation, which is great for fish and also for filtering sediment out of the current.

Ryan Argo is the technical programs manager for ORSANCO. He said the Ohio River is in better condition today than it has been at any other time during the lives of most Americans.

“The water is cleaner,” he told me for my Outdoors America article. “The habitat is conducive to supporting a diversity of fish, plants and forage species. Species intolerant of pollution are increasing and even displacing pollution-tolerant species, and the river is a good place for fishing and other recreation.”

“We had a whole host of good legislation in the 1970s, the key being the federal Clean Water Act, which restricted point source pollution for rivers throughout the U.S.,” said Rich Zweifel, the inland fisheries program administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “Now we are seeing greater diversity of species, more species than ever in my lifetime, and contaminant-based consumption advisories are changing.”

He cited the abundance of forage species like emerald shiners and gizzard shad for the burgeoning populations of bass and walleyes in the Ohio River.

The 28-inch walleye I caught Thursday near the Montgomery Dam is not unusual, according to the findings of Pennsylvania biologist Mike DePew. He told me Keystone State surveys show lots of legal-size (longer than 12 inches) saugers and lots of 15- to 18-inch walleyes.

“Plus, it’s not uncommon to see walleyes over 10 pounds when we hit it at the right time,” he said.

If fun for you is catching 40 or 50 smallmouths and hooking up with a walleye topping seven pounds, learn the waters that flow past East Liverpool and Wellville. Adventure may be closer than you think.

Jack Wollitz writes weekly about the fishing opportunities near Warren and Youngstown. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.