Dances With Smallies

About 20 years ago, when my wife was a kid, she went with her family to Devil's River. It's an epic story they still talk about sometimes. Apparently, a landowner who owned a huge swath of land on the river approached them with a gun and told them they couldn't camp on the bank. He then followed them down river to make sure they didn't trespass. They cut their trip short after that. She said it was a beautiful river though.

Has anybody used or know anyone who has used a T-Formex canoe in the Ozarks? Just curious to see what people's experiences have been so far.

I've fished in the Keys from Marathon a few times. We didn't have a guide but still managed to get into a bunch of fish. The time of year I was down there we got into a bunch of Spanish mackerel and various kinds of snapper; had a blast. A friend of mine just got done fishing the flats around Sugarloaf Key, I believe, and said they got into some huge tarpon. I think fly fishing for bonefish in the flats would be awesome. From what I've seen, the guide prices seem reasonable. The wife and I did a mangrove kayak tour down there last spring (very cool) and our kayak tour guide gave me a con

Thanks guys. I'm trying not to jump the gun on anything... but pretty excited to get my first canoe. I've canoed basically my whole life but just now in a position to get my own.

On a similar note, what do you guys think about this, good deal? (I was thinking more like $400-450) https://springfield.craigslist.org/boa/6001148607.html

Now that's what I'm talking about. What brand/where did you get it? I looked at my local BPS and they have a Malone Versarail set up for $150, which is more in line with what I hoped something like that would cost. Anyone have any experience with one of these? For the record, I'll be using this set up for my local rivers within an hour and a half from home probably 95% of the time.

Thanks guys. That's kind of what I figured.

I'm looking to buy a canoe sometime this spring if the right opportunity arises. I would be hauling it on a Nissan Rogue that doesn't have factory rails. It looks like a rack system runs around $400. Is this the best option available? I'd like to do something cheaper if possible, say $200. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks! Yeah, it's been dry here in NE OK as well. My spots got a couple nice showers last week which helped. If we can get some more rain in the next week with the warmer weather moving in, it's on!

They're starting to pop!

The other day, I was starting to get cabin fever and wanted to get out to chase some river smallies. I was reflecting about my last trip in the fall and the memorable water moccasin encounters I had. I thought I'd throw the story out on here for fun and get your thoughts. But first, I little backstory... When I was nine, or maybe ten, I got to go on my first Ozark river smallie adventure with my dad and one of his buddies from high school. We fished for three days - two on the Gasconade and one on the Osage Fork. On the Osage Fork, it seemed like there were moccasins on almost every

Last summer, I was creek fishing smallies with a friend who had never tried the Ned before. I had a bag of GP/orange that I had barely tried because the orange gave me the heebie jeebies. I let him use them up. He caught fish like crazy... so I'm definitely a believer. Interesting that you mention that... I definitely recall thinking that the bag had substantially more PB than J. Looks like I will be doing more "research" with PBJ this spring!

Does the PBJ vary from bag to bag like some of the others? When I started testing the Ned I started with a bag each of a few colors recommended on here. At least on the rivers on the OK side of the border, the green pumpkin red flake absolutely dominates (for me at least). I usually buy four bags of those and one bag of a different color at a time to try something new. The one bag of PBJ that I bought probably three years ago seemed not as salty and almost a different texture than the other colors I've used. Did I just get a weird bag? I kind of want to give PBJ another go after this discussi

The one in Tulsa always seems empty as well.

That thing is a monster! Congrats!