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 contact for a guy he says is a great fishing guide and great guy: K. Johnson (305) 481-0589. Anyway, since you're going with your wife, one thing my wife and I thought was really neat was visiting the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. They are a nonprofit that rescues sea turtles who have been injured by boats, eating trash, etc. Really fascinating and a great cause. You even get to meet some of the temporary and permanent reptilian residents. Marathon is a great place so I hope you go and enjoy it. I'm jealous!

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 log (admittedly, my memory is probably inflating the numbers, but my dad and I still seem to remember it the same way). These were fat, dark, big headed, things with glands and my dad and his friend were positive they were moccasins (they both grew up floating Ozark rivers routinely). My dad and I still talk about it to this day because neither of us has seen anything like that since. It was late summer and very hot, and the snakes never bothered us. They just hung out and we left each other alone. After that, I was a little scared of snakes and at the same time very fascinated. I grew up in Iowa so obviously never saw moccasins up there. Over the next 20 years, I fished probably a dozen Ozark rivers in MO, AR, and OK (and many trips on just the Current, alone) and don't recall seeing a confirmed moccasin. That isn't to say there wasn't any, I just figured if I had a doubt the odds were water snake (however, I left them alone as if they were moccasins). Last summer, I had the opportunity to fish like crazy and went on most weekends from early June through the end of September. I saw three or four confirmed moccasins in OK while fishing root balls. Usually, I would see them as they sneaked out the back end to get away from me. In late September, a buddy and I did a weekend float on Kings River. It was upper 90s-100 degrees all weekend. We would get up and on the water as soon as we could see (well before official sunrise). On both mornings we saw several moccasins. We counted seven that we confirmed (if we had a reasonable doubt we assumed water snake). This is the part that spooked us (both Iowa boys): On four occasions, we were paddling through an eddy when a snake would swim across probably 20-50 yards out in front of us. The snake seemed to then feel threatened by our presence so it would stop, stand up in the water, and "gape" at us revealing the cotton mouth. On all four occasions, we immediately started quietly back paddling to give the snake plently of space. Each time, the snake just stayed there frozen and gaping at us for what seemed like 30-60 seconds and then would go on about its business and slither up into the woods. Once the sun came up and it got hot, we wouldn't see many snakes the rest of the day. When we got to the take out on Sunday, our shuttle driver was a little surprised that we saw that many because he did the same float earlier in the week and saw none. However, he said a guy who had taken out the day before us had seen 12 and supposedly had to beat some of them back with a paddle because they were coming after him. From our experience, it almost seems that maybe he was floating toward them and they were frozen but it looked like they were coming at him - heck if I know, I wasn't there. I know the last one I saw was in current and if I hadn't been alert I would have floated right into him. Anyway, it was pretty crazy but definitely interesting to see. My friend and I wondered if we were seeing them because: - they hunt at night and we caught them as they were finishing up before going inactive for the day - they were gorging for winter - it's just a snaky river - it's just a coincidence - some or all of the above Just thought I'd share. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your views), no snakes were harmed during these events, except maybe for the ones that apparently got clubbed by the other guy.

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 discussion.

The one in Tulsa always seems empty as well.

That thing is a monster! Congrats!