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!

Man, that's the truth. One of my favorite fishing holes on the Upper Illinois River in eastern Oklahoma got all jacked up with the floods last year (I think it was last year). It basically channelized the spot. Sorry for the abysmal drawing.

Excellent! Nice smallie!

Perfect. Thanks!

The company I work for has a mentor program. I didn't have a preference on a mentor this year so I was randomly paired with a guy from an entirely different area of the business that I would not have likely met otherwise. The first couple times we met we discovered that we had a mutual obsession for all things hunting and fishing. About a month ago, we met for lunch and he was showing me pictures from his trip flyfishing for bonefish. I said that was awesome and proceeded to show him pictures from my stream smallie adventures this summer. His eyes got big and he said, "Whoa, I love stream fishing for smallies! Where did you go for that? I just moved back here a few years ago and have been looking for places like that!" Now, I am usually highly secretive of the creek data I've accumulated and keep it pretty close to the chest, but after getting to know this guy, I've discovered he's a great person and an ethical outdoorsman. I also learned he is as secretive as me and I learned later that he has some good creeks I didn't know about . Therefore, I told him that I have a couple places we could wade fish, but I wished I had a canoe to travel down stream to some accesses I've found. He smiled like a kid in a candy store and said he had a canoe that he could load up and we needed to go! Well, Sunday was the big day. I met him at 5 a.m. to drive a few hours to our take-out to drop off my car. He said that at one point his truck said 49 degrees F. I'd believe it because when we got to our put-in it was pretty chilly. The creek was running perfect and clear. We got on the water at sunrise and it was still chilly for this time of year. The bite was pretty slow for the first hour or so. Then it started warming up and fishing got red hot. I'd have a hard fighting smallie on, then he would, or we both would. This continued on the rest of the morning and we were having so much fun we lost track of time. We made it down river to where another creek joins in, about a mile or so from our put-in. At this point we had caught 40+ fish. The other stream was pretty stained from rain a day or two earlier. It was sad to see the crystal clear stream we started out on turn brown. It was probably all for the best though because we had another six miles to go and it was already well after 1:00. We laughed at how much time we spent on the first mile and then hurried our way downstream. We didn't fish much on the rest of the trip, but did manage to catch another 15-20 by trolling and stopping a couple times at spots we just couldn't pass up. We both agreed that next time we need to spend more time on this lower stretch because we had to pass on some really good looking water. Luckily, my estimate of how many miles we had to go was right (for awhile I was thinking I greatly underestimated the mileage) and we were off the water by 6:00. Although we ran out of fishing time, we had a great day. We achieved the stream bass grand-slam by catching smallmouth, largemouth, spotted bass, and rock bass. I caught one rock bass the size of my hand. We also caught various sunfish and I had a huge gar hit a Ned rig right at the boat. We didn't catch anything real big but plenty of 12-13 inch smallies and my friend caught a nice 14+ incher. I also caught my first ever mean mouth bass. Thanks to you OAF guys I could identify it. Otherwise, I would have just thought it was a really weird looking smallie (sorry, no pic). All fish were released. We also saw a lot of other wildlife including a big soft shell turtle, three water moccasins, and three northern water snakes. It was a fantastic day that will forever be imprinted in my memory.

If I put in at Rockhouse when the Berryville gauge is showing less than 100 cfs (or around 3 ft height), would I merely have to drag through most shoals with the occasional portage or would it be more like constant portaging from one stagnant pool to the next? A friend and I would like to fish this stretch soon. We don't mind having to work by dragging through shoals and a little portaging, but don't want to be carrying gear over a dry stream bed for 100s of yards. We fish very slow and spend most of the time wading anyway. The kayaks are just a method of conveyance to get gear downstream.

Thanks for the report. I need to get over there sometime to try out some flies I've tied.

Great info guys. Much appreciated. I love the Current. I've floated it many times from Cedar Grove down to Powder Mill. I will definitely keep it in mind. When I was a kid my goal was to someday canoe from Baptist clear down to Pocahontas, AR... Now that I'm older and fatter (and hopefully wiser), I think that would be a little too much paddling. Yeah, trout fishing on the Eleven Point has been on my bucket list for some time now. It would be awesome to get into some smallmouth and trout.

Hey everyone, just looking for a little input. My wife and I want to take a weekend float sometime in late Sept. or early Oct. I would like to float either the Eleven Point, Jack's Fork or lower Buffalo. She doesn't have a preference either way at this point. I have floated various parts of the Buffalo (it's one of my favorite destinations), but never the EP or JF. I've heard JF is usually pretty low that time of year, so I'm leaning towards the EP. I know the status of Ozark rivers can quickly change at any time so I probably won't set anything up until a couple weeks before. So, with that in mind, I just have a couple questions to help get started. Have any of these rivers been messed up by flooding this year? What stretch of the EP would you suggest for that time of year (or JF if floatable)? For this trip, the focus in more on scenery, solitude and quality gravel bars than fishing (we will be doing some fishing though). Since I will be with my wife, I can't go into my full-on fishing trance and lose all concept of time and space . I'll also check back in the archives. Thanks in advance, DWS

Definitely. I've acquired some good info on creeks and rivers to fish through my explorations this summer. Now I just need to convince the missus that we need to invest in a couple of kayaks...

After a month of all work and no play, I had the opportunity to take a day off and explore a creek that I've wanted to fish for a long time. I made it to the access around 7 a.m. and there were a couple of people fishing. I headed downstream and around a bend, and suddenly found myself in complete seclusion which lasted the rest of the day. As far as beauty, this little creek was up there with any Ozark stream I've seen. It was one of those places that was so awe-inspiring that catching a fish or two would have just been icing on the cake... Fortunately, the fish wanted to maximize my experience. I caught a lot of fish and had consistent action all day. I was primarily finding success fishing structure in holes at the end of riffles. However, the smallies were also hunting in packs in the middle of runs and it was awesome because the creek was so clear I could watch four or five of them chasing after my lure. They reminded me of my German Shorthairs when they find a possum in the backyard. It was one of those days where I would see a rock, log, or shady spot and say to myself "I will catch a fish there", and most of the time, I would. Most of the smallies were 8-12" range, but I did catch a hard-fighting 14" (didn't get a pic). I also lost a monster - I thought I was snagged on a log but then the log started fighting back and immediately got free. Species caught: smallmouth bass, Kentucky bass, goggle-eye (caught some really nice ones), and bluegill. All fish were released.