Ham

Lots and lots of downed trees. I wish I could have seen it before the hurricane

Thinking about it. This is not a fishing trip so I am having to sneak stuff in

I caught one on Texas side of Toledo Bend this year, but nothing like yesterday.

Put in

As @Johnsfolly would say, If you want to catch new species, you have to fish new water. We are spending the week in Destin and a River I have been wanting to fish was within reach. my wife and I floated the Econfina today. It is heavily spring fed and is an easy float. Unfortunately, Hurricane Michael changed the heavily shaded nature of the creek. All the old pics online look like the upper Buffalo. You could see lots of damage to the surrounding forest. We used Econfina Canoe Livery. $5 per boat to launch and $20 shuttle which isn’t bad. They were supposed to open at 8:30.they rolled up at 8:40 sooooo not Great. I got out of the truck and walked to office. I hear a low growl and look to my right and a Big Pitbull mix is barreling down on me. I thought I was going to get mauled, but I held my ground and shouted at him and he ran past me and whipped back around and rushed me again. Owners called him off. “Chaos” is not my favorite dog ever. after that, my day got lots better. First fish of the day came quickly : a nice Red Breast Sunfish on a Zig Jig. shortly thereafter, I spotted a micro I knew I had never caught. Pulled over and quickly hooked and lost one. No worries, I doubled up a minute later. enjoyed exploring the Springs. Caught fish consistently. Quit fishing when I got to 50. We Floated the 8 miles in 5 hours. Krista was a little freaked out by the potential for Gators and would not get in and cool off as often as she should have, but I cooled off when I got the chance. saw some Large Bass, but I did not pack the gear for it. I would float it again.

Big Ones for sure!

Nope

Mission accomplished

Spacious place with a Nice Lakeview.

Hey John, The Batmobile caught a flat.

Turtles and crawfish gotta eat

Happy Birthday Champ!

Stein, Buddy, I can help. I’ll attempt to PM Phone # For details

Did you lose your gear ? What creek ?

Dang Marty !

It definitely doesn't hurt. I think it helps at times, but often it is not necessary. As an aside, I WILL NOT ever use Kick N Bass again. That stuff smells so BAD that I don't care if it helps me catch additional fish ; its NOT worth it to have to smell that stuff.

I have ZERO information about fishing around the STL

If you’ll drive a little bit further south, it could not be any easier to catch Longear Sunfish. I’m desperate to catch a lot of fish that are much the same. Easy to catch once you fish where they actually exist in any thing close to actual numbers of them. i don't know anything about that creek, but it probably is worth checking out. Just have a second and third location nearby in case it sucks.

They float you did is an EASY shuttle and is getting crushed by fishing pressure. I'm not wild about the last mile of that float, but I guess a nice fish can come from almost anywhere.

100 % Serious

Love Them! Do you have any leads on American Eels?

I’m not Sure when the off season is for the Current River, but pre deer season in the Fall is very Nice. Just sayin. I’ll have to try your drop shot idea. I have not played with that in the rivers

Al, there has been tremendous amounts of siltation that I assume came from farm field run off.Almost No rocks visible below the ramp. We did start seeing gravel runs not too far above the ramp and another 2 of water opens a lot up. Google Earth shows pretty clear blue water with plenty of depth. I wonder when that happens? still seem to have a fair amount of gradient but the water really warms up with out the gravel runs to clean it and cool it. I’d bet that water was > 85 degrees. very few places have been cut right to the edge of the river though which is Good, but the damage is done. so many tons of silt would have to come out to see what the river used to be. i was surprised by the low number of LMB too. I think I caught 2 very small ones. Lack of spawning habitat maybe. Not really very many backwater areas. Once I saw the river first hand, I was not expecting any SMB. I’m shocked that I bumped into that many Bowfin though. Pleasantly Surprised !