edmashburn

Good afternoon to all- I live and fish now on the Gulf coast, but I spent a lot of time fishing and teaching school in the Ozarks. White river, Little Red river, Crooked Creek, Big Piney, and all of the lakes. I do love me some brown bass and trout. I have found that many of the lures and techniques I used up there work just fine down here in the salt water. Just about everything up there eats crawdads, and just about everything down here eats shrimp. Also, soft plastics on 1/4 oz jigheads are deadly for redfish, speck trout, flounder, and lots of other stuff. If you can catch smallmouth bass, you can catch all of the inshore hard-pullers down here. Freshwater anglers worry about corrosion from the salt water, but unless you fully baptize your reels, there's really no problems from fishing the salt. And when fishing the bayous and creeks down here, fish the water just as you would for bass and trout up there. Lot for potholes, dropoffs, deeper structure- that's where the fish are. But I warn you, once you hook a big redfish, you will be ruined. those things pull, and they just keep on pulling. Heck, it's only 12 hours or so from most places in the Ozarks to the coast- you ought to think about coming down and catching some fish and eating some good, good food. you all keep warm- I'm sliding the kayak in a creek in a day or so and looking for reds, specks, and who knows, maybe some baby tarpon. Ed

Good afternoon to all- I lived in the Ozarks and fished many of the creeks, streams, rivers and lakes up there. I do miss the smallmouth bass in the creeks, and I do miss the trout that I sometimes could fool- not often. These days I live on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Florida. My best fly fishing success lately came last fall when I hooked and caught a mid to upper 20 pound redfish on my old 12 weight rig- had quite a little tussle there for a while. I'm headed over to Panama City Beach, Florida the end of February to fish for inshore and offshore stuff- I hope to get into some amberjack on the fly rod- yep, I'm looking for punishment. I hope you all get into some good fish- I hope it's not too cold for you. I planted tomatoes yesterday in the garden, and I caught a whole potfull of fat crappie this morning. Hope to hear from some of you if you ever think about coming down this way to go fishing- it's pretty good. good night to all- Ed

Good evening- that kayak is Old Cob- I've been fishing from that old boat since I built it eight or ten years ago. The only special maintenance it requires is an occasional re-application of epoxy and then varnish. Oyster shells and concrete bridge pilings are rough on a boat's finish- sport of like limestone boulders in Ozark creeks, I expect. I will try to find the out of region section and post to it. Good fishing to all- Ed

Good morning to all- I hope no one minds another out of the Ozarks posting. I finally got official permission from Management ( Momma) to take my old kayak down to the Bon Secour River and go fishing. I've been stove up for a month, and I was ready to get on the water. Stopped and bought a bucket of live shrimp and went to my favorite fishing hole of the river. It was a lovely morning- porpoises rolling and splashing, pelicans dive-bombing bait, and a few fish were caught. I didn't get anything big, and I didn't find the redfish I was after, but I did catch a few speck trout. These things, if you've never caught one- Look lvaguely like a freshwater trout, except they are silver with ink-black spots, and their mouths are bright yellow inside, and they have teeth like a rattlesnake- seriously- they have two long fangs that they use to kill shrimp with. They also use these teeth to educate anglers that grabbing a saltwater fish by the jaw like a bass is a bad idea. It was a good morning, and I am glad I can get back on the water again. I hope all up there in the hills get to go fishing soon- thanks to all who served and protected us- Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Good evening- I've SEEN Little River Canyon, and as far as kayaking it- there is NO way I would ever do that. Some big drops and lots of rocks and lots of falls and other stuff that I think would hurt to run into. Beautiful water, but not for me to float on- Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Good afternoon to all. I hope some of you Ozark anglers are able to be on the water fishing today- beautiful day down here on the Coast. I'm at home nursing a hurt leg, so no fishing for me. I wanted to post a picture of one of my favorite north Alabama creeks. If you've never been in north Alabama- especially northeast Alabam-, it is country very similar to the roughest, nicest parts of the Ozarks. There are even smallmouth bass in some north Alabama creeks, and they respond to the same lures and techniques of Ozark brownies. The more we look, the more we find things that are the same even in different places. By the way, about ten miles below this little run of water, there is a thirty foot high no-kidding serious waterfall- gorgeous place, but not a place I'd care to take a kayak. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Your article is very comprehensive- in fact, if I were reading this article for magazine publication, I'd suggest it be divided into two separate articles. For a personal blog, it is very good. Your stuff is easy to read and understand, and that's not simple when it comes to discussing fishing techniques and rigging- much easier to show "how it' s done" rather than tell how it's done. I look forward to your photos- that's the real key if you're thinking about magazine publication. Hope to read more of your work- I sent you a personal message, too- Ed Mashburn

JoeD- I am sorry if my posts offend you. Do us both a favor and when you see my name on a post, just skip over it. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Here's a photo of a sheepshead. This one went about six pounds, I think. they eat shellfish and have teeth like a girl from Arkansas- big and stuck out, if you know what I mean. Lots of fun to catch on properly sized tackle. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Well,, it feels like fall down here on the Gulf Coast- at least,as close to fall as it gets. Today was cool and clear and windy- good day for sailing, not so good for fishing. I enjoy reading the posts on this site from Mr. Berry about the White River and Crooked Creek fishing- I do miss those two places very much. I haven't been able to fish too much lately- went last weekend- we caught a bunch of small speckled trout and a nice sheepshead- I'll try to post a photo of one of these fish. They look funny, but they pull hard and taste very good. I may not be fishing much for a while- got surgery on my leg next week- ruptured an achilles tendon. Uncomfortable. I hope you all have a great fall season up there. If the cold gets too intense in the Ozarks, load up and head to the Gulf- the fishing and the weather stay hot- well, warm- all winter long. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Good morning to all- Hope all of you Ozark buddies are OK. It's starting to cool off some down here on the coast- hmmingbirds that were with you a week ago are starting to come through getting ready to rest for a couple of months before crossing the Gulf to Mexico. This weekend is supposed to be very nice, so I'm taking the old boat to my favorite fishing hole down here and trying to catch some redfish. I do love me some reds! these fish are very strong, and they are not shy about biting. A live shrimp ona hook and that's about all that is required. I hope all of you up there get to go fishing and get some yourself. Good luck to all- Ed Mashburn

Ham- Please give me information- Zig jigs? I'm curious about these- never heard of them down here. Thanks- Ed Mashburn

Good evening to all- Hope everything is well up in the Ozarks. I do miss fishing the creek for brownies when the leaves start floating downstream.. I am able to fish for smallmouth here in Alabama if I want to drive four hours north to the Tennessee River Lakes- below Lake Wheeler Dam is my favorite place. Brothers, there are some fine smallmouth here. It''s pretty much tailwater fishing- drift with the fast water and bump jigs tipped with minnows along the bottom- it takes a six pound brownie to get any attention at all- seven or eight pounds to brag on- seriously. A former world record smallmouth came from these waters. My biggest here so far is only about four pounds- heck, I did better than that on Crooked Creek in Arkansas- but I've got hopes for this fall and winter. I will try to attach a photo of an Alabama smallmouth so you can see they do exist. I really do miss the fall smallmouth fishing up in the hills- good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Good evening to all- it is a pleasure to be able to talk to people in a civilized manner about this topic. down here on the coast, this is a very hot topic- especially with the recreational anglers and the charter boats who cater to the recreational anglers. If I had the power, every fourth year would be closed to any and all Gulf fishing- recreational AND especially commercial- this would apply to the foreign fishing fleet, also. The problems that we have here are seeing that NOAA is using data collected from other fisheries- down south in the Keys, on the east coast of fFlorida and so on to help determine the status of reef fish in the northern Gulf- that's not always a valid use of statitics. As far as releasing caught snapper- that is a very dubious conservation measure. I really don't expect many of the vented fish that are released make it back down to the reef. venting and releasing is better than nothing, I guess, but not much better. I will say this though, in this year's snapper season, we didn't have to fish the really deep strcuture to catch snapper. We were catching 15-20 pound snapper less than 30 feet deep-sometimes they would hit baits on the surface. i will reports that a 15 pound red snapper chasing down a live bait on the surface is a great deal of fun to see and catch. When snapper are caught in shallow water, they don't blow up at all and can be released in very good shape with a good chance of survival. I wish that you folks could come down and go fishing some time- it's a different ballgame, but the skills are much the same- just don't grab anything by the lower lip like you would a smallmouth! Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

So it is- come on down- the water is fine, the fish are startin to bite. Crowds should be much less in October than during the summer season. Get you some live shrimp and GULPS to put on a jig head and get you some- Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

In my occasionally humble opinion, the great increase in both the size and number of red snapper in the northern Gulf- Alabama water in particular- comes from last season's total closure because of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. No one fished, no snapper were caught. This year, all of the snapper are much bigger and much more aggressive- they are eating everything in the Gulf. Also, the gulf bottom is classically much like a pool table- flat, featureless with nothing to attract and hold fish. The Gulf states have both privately and publically put a great deal of fish attracting and habitat improving stuff- like old bridge rubble, storm damage stuff and even old army tanks. To cut my tirade short, for a lot of reasons, there are more and bigger red snapper in the Gulf right now than ever before. A short fall season would have been very nice. Whether the statistics used to determine fishing seasons are good or not is very much open for discussion- I do know for an observed fact, there are more big snapper around than ever before. Sorry, friends, didn't mean to go off-really. Ed Mashburn

Mitch- red snapper are good,and I would like to have a mess of snapper throats right now. I like mangrove snapper better, and they don't have a closed season. I probably like flounder best for eating, though. May have to make a gumbo this weekend- got myself thinking about food now- good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Good morning- I fish everywhere from Lousiana to the Keys. I concentrate around my home- south alabama. Hope I get to go after redfish this weekend- need some pull back. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Good evening to all- I hope no one minds this non-Ozark photo. I just joined this forum, and I thought i'd send picture of the fish we catch down here in the Gulf- it's been a very good season for red snapper- very short, but lots of big fish. I miss the smallmouth and trout fishing since I left the Ozarks, but I've found some sonsolation down here. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Mark- Yep, I have fished the pier a great deal down here- it is fun. I've been fishing more from my little old center console boat and especailly from kayaks. I will try to send some photos if I can figure out how to do it. I would like to take all of the Midwest anglers fishing down here for redfish sometime- these reds are a great deal of fun- ge big, too. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn

Good afternoon to all- I'm Ed Mashburn, a former Ozark resident now living on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. I lived near the Piney River in Missouri and the White River and Crooked Creek in Arkansas before that. I miss the smallmouth bass fishing and the trout fishing, but I don't miss the ice storms and the tornadoes. I'm an outdoor writer for several magazines- Florida Sportsman, Great Days Outdoors and TIDE magazines are the most common places that I write for. I have come to really like the salt water fishing down here. I enjoy reading about the fishing back up there, and I look forward to posting some stuff on my own. Good fishing to all- Ed Mashburn