Sam

Wayne SW/MO - Yeah, I didn't mean to write my post in a smart-aleck way. Sorry, no offense intended. I'm just frustrated by the situation in upper Bull Shoals. For years, I felt like I had my own little hidey-hole there. I'd stay away from the crowds on Tablerock, drive 35 miles from home to K Dock, and there'd be maybe three other rigs in the parking lot. I got to know every stump and rock from Beaver Creek to Bear Creek, and I had many GREAT trips for white bass, bass, crappie, and walleyes there. ALL those species have declined dramatically in the past few years, and the white bass have almost disappeared. There's gar, carp, and mud turtles everywhere and few game fish. There's "soapsuds" on the bank, and a slick film on the rocks up by the dam. Now, I can't say exactly what's going on there - but the State has professionals who are supposed to be on top of this stuff. It's frustrating to me that we're several years into this problem and the biologists at MDC haven't even figured it out yet. It doesn't seem to me like they're trying very hard, either - they're still talking about it maybe being caused by water flow and fluctuating water levels in an area that has ALWAYS had great variations in water levels. If it's pollution, it may not even be happening now. People lived around that area for over 100 years before the lake was filled, and back then they were real careless about the environment. This problem could be caused by something as simple as one rusted-out barrel of chemical or service-station waste buried near or under the lake in the 1950's. To get the effects we're seeing, such pollution wouldn't have to be lethal to the fish - just making the water low-quality and an area in which game fish wouldn't want to stay and reproduce would be enough. It would take a real testing program to find something like that and get it removed, but it could be done. To me, it's a HUGE deal when 10 miles of a public lake gets degraded this suddenly and obviously. You'd think the State would be all over it - but they're not. It makes me think they're simply unwilling to confront the situation, and I feel like we've lost a lot and aren't getting any help from the MDC.

So - white bass have declined because they don't have enough to eat, and that's because millions of walleyes ate up the minnows? Presumably, all those walleyes would be pretty hungry now, too. That would be the walleyes that NOBODY CAN FIND in upper Bull Shoals any more, huh? Walleye fishing and black bass fishing there have declined as bad as the white bass. Even crappie fishing has dropped off above Mincy, and lots of (uneaten) shad minnows and gar are what I see in the upper lake. I think it's pollution.

I put in at McCord Bend today about 1 p.m., went downstream to Asher Cane Bottom, then fished up to Blunk Hole and back down to McCord Bend. NO white bass, no crappie. Before the cold spell the water there was 63 degrees, now it's 53. The water is super-clear and a little low. I caught and released three 12" smallmouths and one black perch, total. Now I wonder if the white bass and crappie spawn is going to resume when the water warms again, or if it's over. When conditions are wrong, fish can re-absorb their eggs and the spawn sometimes just never happens. I don't know if they're going to come back this year or not. It's not happening right now, that's for sure.

All the reports I've heard this year have been from upstream - the Pothole, Swan Creek, Barker Hole, and Beaver Creek. Except when the white bass or walleye are running good (which they apparently aren't), that's not my favorite area of upper Bull Shoals. I like to put in at K Dock or Yocum and fish from Snapp Holler down to Bear Creek. Sometimes I'll get past Bear Creek and up into Horseshoe Bend, but not very often. I haven't heard a single report from that whole area this year. It seems to me that there ought to be some crappie, at least, to be had down there right now. The last couple of trips have been crowded at James River and Long Creek, so I'm going to get away from the crowds and try K Dock on Thursday. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Surface water temp is an indication of whether the whole lake is warming or cooling, of course, but I don't think it's too important in day to day fishing. The water the fish are swimming in changes temperature a lot slower than the layer on the surface. That's especially true in the spring when the lake is warming. The water on top gets warm and expands - and that makes it lighter so it tends to stay on top. Before this cold snap, surface water temps were getting 'way up there. Last Monday around Gage's it was 61 degrees in the morning and 65 in the afternoon. But my sensor is on my trolling motor just about a foot below the surface, I know it's a lot cooler down where the fish are. The ones I caught felt pretty cold when I was unhooking them. In the summertime, we sometimes take the grandkids swimming in Tablerock or Bull Shoals. We go out in my fishing boat, and we put on life vests, jump in, and bob around in the water to cool off. At that time, surface temps will be showing well into the 80's and it feels like a warm bath up around your shoulders - but it's downright cool down where your feet are. There's a big difference in temperature just a few feet down. Where there's a current, like up in James River, I'd guess the water temp must be fairly uniform top to bottom. In the lake, though, the temperature even 12 or 15 feet down wouldn't change very quickly with a few days of warm or cold weather. If it's windy the surface temp would have more effect because of the surface layer getting mixed more with the layers below. I've thought about making a PVC extension pipe for my live well intake, so I could snap it on and pump water from 4 or 5 feet down into my live well in the summer. I'd only be able to use it when the boat's sitting still, but in the summertime the cooler water would sure help keep the fish alive. There's that big a temperature difference just a little ways below the surface.

Lilley - I know the age of a lake affects the fishing, too. I've fished two crappie tournaments in eastern Tennessee, at Watts Bar Lake. That's part of the TVA chain, and the lake was filled in 1941. Because that lake is older, it's a lot different from our lakes here. There's no standing timber. None - it's all rotted out and gone. The lures and techniques we use here don't seem to work there at all. Whatever shad minnows they have for forage are tiny, about 3/4 inch long, and bigger lures aren't productive there. They have some big crappie, but the crappie fishing is all under the docks. The docks there aren't floaters, they're on pilings, so I guess the water level doesn't change much. I understand fishing for bass and other species is 'way different there also. As a lake matures it changes, and our lakes in the White River chain are going through some part of that process. Except for the stable water level, I guess they'll get to resemble the conditions at Watts Bar at some point in the future, but I don't know how that works. I sure wish I had got in on the glory days of Bull Shoals when it was about 7 or 8 years old.

Lilley - That's the Conservation version of why fishing has declined. Thanks for posting it, and I don't doubt there's some truth to it. I don't think there is any ONE cause for the overall decline - other than to say the whole area is so much more affected by human activities than it used to be. There's a local "rumor" here in town, and probably similar ones in many other communities. People who used to work at a now-defunct manufacturing company here say a bunch of barrels of toxic waste were buried near the bank of the Finley River about 25-30 years ago. Supposedly, it was acid, used hydraulic oil, liquids like that - and the company got around the environmental regulations by just burying the stuff in drums. You know those drums must have rusted out by now. Of course, the Finley runs into James, the James into Tablerock Lake, etc. I'm not trying to start a big deal here - I don't know the details or exact location, I've only talked to people who worked with the guys who did the (at night) burying. I don't need the EPA knocking on my door, and I couldn't help 'em anyway. My point is that there are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of deals like that in the Ozarks. I can remember 'way back when most garages, gas stations, and used car lots around here had dirt-and-motor-oil "pavement". And boy, if I had a dollar for every gallon of DDT my grandpa sprayed ..... Even rain draining off oily highways with greatly increased traffic goes into the lakes. All that stuff gets into the water, and I don't think it has to be of lethal concentration to do damage. It doesn't have to kill fish to hurt fishing, because fish will probably just leave or not reproduce in an area that has poor water quality. There's lots of areas, Brushy Creek across from Gage's being a prime example, where bass fishing has gone down about 95% in the last ten years. Overfishing and low water in the spring probably have something to do with that, but I wonder if pollutants getting into the water sometimes just make an area low-quality for the fish - so they leave that area and no longer reproduce there. Species with a higher tolerance to bad-tasting chemicals, like mud turtles and gar, thrive where the game fish used to be. And on top of all that - we've got thousands more fishermen still moving into the area and the Zebra Mussel invasion to look forward to. Far from being on top of all this, MDC hasn't even figured it out yet, or doesn't want to. The long term prospects for quality fishing around here don't look very good to me.

I don't know about the hybrid rumor. I hope it's true. The virtual disappearance of white bass in upper Bull Shoals is still a mystery to me. I haven't heard a good explanation yet, and I've asked a couple of Conservation biologists about it. In my experience, white bass fishing in the upper lake was good and generally reliable through 2004. White bass were my "insurance" there - I'd fish for other species, but if I couldn't do any good I'd devote the last couple of hours of a trip to white bass. I could nearly always catch some of those, year round. In 2004, there seemed to be a population explosion of white bass 12 to 14 inches long. In October and November of that year I had a ball with them. They were feeding on the surface all over the lake, and they were chasing the shad so hard you could find white bass by watching the seagulls. Several times I sat on schools of them so thick I was scoping a 10 foot bottom where I knew it was 30 feet deep. I'd throw a roostertail and catch and release white bass until I just got tired and went home with the fish still biting. Then, in 2005 there was no spring white bass run. There was hardly a white bass to be found, and it's been that way ever since. I just don't understand that. All those fish couldn't have died at once in the winter of 2004-05. There were millions of them - if they died they'd have been floating, and I didn't see anything like that and neither has anyone I talked to. In 2005 and early 2006 the crappie fishing got better on upper Bull Shoals. I've wondered if they filled the "niche" the white bass used to occupy. That doesn't make too much sense though, since white bass feed on shad in the main channels and crappie generally stick to the banks and cover. If anything's going to benefit from the white bass being gone and no longer feeding on shad suspended in main channels, I'd think it would be spotted (Kentucky) bass. So, I don't know what's going on with upper Bull Shoals. I haven't had a real good crappie trip there for almost a year, a good bass trip for about two years, and the walleye guys are having a hard time, too. White bass have been scarce for three years now. When I go there, I see a lot more gar and carp than I used to. I'm afraid something has got into the water and changed the balance. I hope not, but that's the way it seems. Whatever happened it doesn't affect the whole lake, because when I drive to Theodosia I still do just fine.

This is an interesting thread, so many opinions coming out. I gots a few opinions myself. First, Bass Pro junk. I know there's some truth in that - big-box retail stores tend to use their volume to buy the cheapest they can. Often, they put their suppliers in a real bind with their save-a-penny practices. Still, the quality varies and it's hard to make generalizations. I've been running my Tracker "bass boat" for 17 years now, and I've had NO problems with it. None. Maybe they made them better in 1990 than now? I don't know. I DO know that Uncle Buck in-line spinners are better than Roostertails, they have bigger and better-turning blades and larger hooks. I don't buy crappie maribou jigs at WalMart because the hooks break, but the ones from Bass Pro are good. No store is best, or worst, in everything. Second, overfishing. I lived the first part of my life in the Ozarks, then 30+ years in Southern California, then the last 17 years again in the Ozarks. From the 1950's through the 1970's, SoCal was a beautiful place - orange groves, vineyards, and I had dozens of fishing holes there. My Dad and I had many REAL good trips for bass, crappie, big bluegills, catfish, etc. - as well as good ocean fishing. That's all gone now because of overfishing and overcrowding. The few public lakes that remain are miserable places, terribly overcrowded, and fished out. We were out there just a couple of weeks ago visiting our daughter, and we drove by one of my old fishing places. It's a small lake, a pond really, about 1/4 mile long, and you can see it all from the highway. We pulled over and I counted the boats - 87 on the water and 14 more launching, and that was on a weekday morning. You can't even catch much offshore in the ocean there anymore, they just fished it out. I'm sorry to say I see that happening here now. THIS is the way it started in SoCal. So many people have moved into the Ozarks, fishing is nowhere near as good as it was even when we moved back here. As far as I'm concerned, Conservation could put a 12" minimum length on crappie, a limit of 10 on white bass, outlaw trotlines, and make all black bass catch-and-release only. The fish stocks aren't surviving this onslaught, and maybe such measures would prolong decent fishing for a while. After seeing what happened during our time in California, I know once the good fishing's gone it's gone forever. Third, rudeness. It's everywhere in our society now, and sometimes you see it on the lakes. I agree that the bass tournament competitive fish-for-pay mentality has made things worse. As someone here said, we need to slow down and enjoy this beautiful place and be decent to each other. So far as rude drivers, though, I think the jacked-up Ford pickup trucks with big tires take the prize. When you see one of those, it's often driven by the same guy who cuts you off, tries to blow you off the lake with the wake from his bass boat - or spins his jet ski or party boat in circles right by where you're fishing. My $.02 worth.

Just another thought. When crappie fishing during the spring spawn with a bunch of boats around, it's harder than normal NOT to "cut somebody off". The bad examples cited here are obvious, and I'm not sticking up for poor behavior, but sometimes when pulling into a crappie area I've had to really give it some thought about where to place my boat and which way to move without bothering anybody. When a boat is bass fishing, it's pretty obvious what they're doing. They're going down a bank, a treeline, or a point - and you don't get close or pull in front of them. When there's a whole bunch of crappie boats out, it's not so obvious. Some are slow-trolling, some are drifting and casting, some are sitting still and drowning minnows, some are tied up to trees, etc. If it's a big stump field like part of Long and Cricket Creeks, a boat might be moving and fishing in ANY direction. I'm just saying - it's harder for even a good and polite fisherman not to "cut somebody off" in those circumstances. I think the best rule is to keep your speed way down and not pull in too close to anybody. After you stop it becomes more obvious which direction people are moving, and then as you fish you can move out of their way. p.s. - You guys made me feel bad about my boat. I'm gonna take a paint brush and ........ I'll be the guy in the Cracker.

I haven't met Bill yet, but I sure appreciate his posts here - he shares some good information. Anybody can get frustrated in an overcrowded fishing spot. Phil, I said you started posting about the Long/Cricket Creek crappie in 2006, but now I'm thinking it was about January 2005. Whatever, the reports were good and resulted in a lot of productive trips for me. I do think that's helped cause the area to be overcrowded now - but hey, that keeps 'em off the rest of the lake! That's a great idea about decoying folks to the other end of the lake from where we're catching. I wouldn't actually do it, but it's fun to think about. I was in a crappie tournament in Tenn. last year, and after the first day I was in the lead. We stayed in cabins near the docks, and all evening I noticed other fishermen casually wandering down there - peeping to see what lure I had tied on my rig. I knew that was going to happen, so before coming in I had tied about a 6-oz. pink saltwater albacore jig on my crappie pole and left it in the boat that way. One thing about fishing - you've just got to make your own fun. Bill - you're welcome to jump in my Tracker with me anytime. :>}

Dang, Bill - that first post. Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. Re: Tracker Boats. I'll admit they're not the best quality available, but like anything, if you take care of something and use it right you can get some real good out of it. The only "bass" boat I've ever owned is the one I've got now. It's a 1991 Tracker TX-17, and I bought the whole package new in 1990 - boat, trailer, and motor. I've made well over 1000 fishing trips in that boat, and that was by far the best money I've ever spent. My boat has never spent a night outdoors or got rained on unless I was in it at the time, fishing. Over the years I've put in extra under-deck compartments, an icebox, wired it for a front-end depthfinder, black light, and cell phone charger, and kept it in new condition. I like the lightweight aluminum boat because I fish by myself a lot and it's easy for one person to launch and take out. Also, when I'm towing I can't even feel the weight back there. I've never had any leaks or problems. I had to replace the bilge pump after about 14 years, but everything else is original and works fine. I was going to trade boats this year, but I finally decided I like my boat just the way it is - what I needed was a new motor. I replaced the original 2-stroke 40 hp Johnson with a 4-stroke 50 hp Suzuki. What an improvement! The brand of boat doesn't have anything to do with the few ignorant or inconsiderate people you meet on the water. I don't like being cut off either, and I'd never do it to anyone. There's been quite a few times that I've helped other fishermen out though, and even towed a few back to the dock. I meet a lot more good, friendly people at the lakes than the irritating kind - the ratio's about 100-to-1, I think. So far as overcrowding - yep. I was on the Chamber of Commerce board here for a while, and their whole theme was "How can we get more people to move to the Ozarks?". Well, all the towns are like that, they've succeeded, and the lakes are under more fishing pressure than ever before. It'll never be as good as "the old days" again. Fishermen are like lemmings, though. If people want to crappie fish, they all go to Cricket Creek, James River, or Kings River - by the hundreds. That's fine with me, because the whole lake has crappie - just look for the same conditions elsewhere. I brought over 15 lbs. of crappie home on Monday, but from where I was fishing I could see 1/2 mile of lake in both directions and sometimes there wasn't even one other boat. Incidentally, I blame THIS forum for the Cricket Creek phenomenon. I'd never fished there until about January 2006 when Phil started posting good crappie reports about Cricket/Long Creeks. Based on those reports, I had some great crappie trips there in the spring of last year - and I kept running into other fishermen who'd heard about it here or knew someone who did. Now there's been over a year for a friend to tell a friend, to tell a friend, etc. It's not surprising that there's such a crowd and the fishing is tough.

I went out of Gage's about 11:30 a.m. yesterday - a sunny, high-pressure, south-wind day. I stayed in Missouri and fished crappie holes that have been good for me in previous years. I didn't go up in the creeks on the Arkansas side. It was tough. Beyond tough. I caught one big crappie right away, then went without a bite for six hours! All during the day, I scoped lots of fish suspended 30 to 50 feet down in 70 feet of water off the usual good banks. Those were the crappie, but there's no way to reach them that deep with the wind blowing hard. Then about 6 p.m. the crappie moved into 20-25 ft. deep water off the same banks and started biting. I caught 8 more before dark - the smallest 12 inches and most of them 14 and 14 1/2 inches. The ticket was a 1/16th oz. lead head jig with a 1 1/2" white swimming minnow with chartreuse tail - slow trolled only about 8 ft. deep in 25 ft. of water. They wanted to come UP for it, and if I fished it deeper I'd get no bites. So, every trip and every season is different. I sure had to work for the crappie yesterday, but they're BIG. Can't complain.

Josh - White bass feeding on top isn't just during the spawn, it happens in the lakes through the summer and fall. No matter if I'm fishing for bass or crappie, I've learned to keep one spinning rig in the boat with a small roostertail tied on. I've also learned to listen for a "waterfall" sound in the distance when I'm fishing - 'cause that's white bass boiling on top. When you hear and see that, drop everything, gun the motor in that direction, and grab the roostertail rig. Cut the motor before you get too close, and coast to where you can cast into the "boil". It sure is a lot of fun. Sometimes you'll catch one or two white bass that way, then the surface action will stop. Just wait - it'll probably break out again nearby. I've "chased the boils" that way for as much as an hour sometimes. Another tip, especially on Bull Shoals - watch for seagulls in the distance. If you see a bunch of them diving and catching shad on top of the water, head that way. Chances are, the shad are being driven to the top by a school of white bass feeding on them from below.

Josh - The week after Easter ought to be prime time for white bass and crappie in lots of river locations on and around Tablerock and Bull Shoals. Every year and every trip is different - but I've had good white bass trips at James River, Beaver Creek, and other places all through April and into the first week of May. Crappie fishing stays good even longer - with the pre-spawn, spawn, and post-spawn bite lasting well into May. And even after the spawning is over, white bass and crappie limits can often be caught in the lakes all through the summer and fall.

About line - I've got everything strung up with 8 lb. Berkley Fireline this year because they finally came out with a clear "Crystal" color. I've loved the way the stuff behaves for several years, but it was a charcoal gray color that I can't see against the water - and I've GOT to be able to watch my line when fishing. I can see the new Crystal color with no problem. Fireline has NO stretch - you can feel everything. 8 lb. test is the diameter of 3 lb. monofilament, so it casts real well. I don't know what the real breaking strength of their "8 lb." is - but I think it must be well over 20 lbs. I've made 5 trips this year since putting Fireline on my reels, and I haven't broke off even once yet - it straightens out hooks or breaks off tree limbs first! Fireline is a little different to fish with - you have to use Palomar knots or it'll cut itself off. When spooling up, you have to put a drop of superglue where the line is tied to the spool - the line is so slick it'll go around on the spool without the reel turning otherwise. And - carry a heavy garden glove in the boat, you can't wrap Fireline around your hand to pull loose from a snag, it'll cut you. Monofilament or fluorocarbon feels like fishing with a rubber band to me now - I'd never switch back, except in a special situation where I need to see flourescent line under a black light at night.

Iowegian, I'm sure you passed me going upstream - a couple of boats did with wives aboard. I was the extremely wet guy in the blue rainsuit. The next launch ramp above McCord Bend is at Galena Park. I wouldn't recommend using that one, it's pretty poor. Blunk Hole is two river bends above the Park, and it's a walk-in deal with no roads or ramps. I've been wishing I'd gone upstream from McCord instead of down, but from your report it doesn't sound like fishing was much better up there. A five-and-a-half-foot paddlefish on Monday, wow! I've never even seen one that big.

I struggled again today out of McCord Bend. I fished all the way down to Bridgeport and back, and tried all the crappie banks and white bass places I know, with no luck. I caught one 11" crappie and one 14" white bass. The crappie was in 2' of water under a bush, and it looked like a male white crappie. I threw it back. I got rained on for about an hour and a half, and the river is stained - about 2' visibility. Surface water temp was 61 early, 66 later. Every year I do the same thing. I get anxious, especially if the weather turns warm - and I'll have several tough trips in March. Come April, I start catching fish. Seems like I'd learn that and wait 'til later, but it's nice to get out after a long winter. Oh, if there are any spoonbillers here, they're catching the tar out of them at that bend on the south end of Asher's. I saw about 5 big ones caught.

We went crappie fishing out of Gage's yesterday (Monday), and it was slow, slow, SLOW. My partner and I fished hard all day for 6 keeper crappies, a couple of short bass, and one maybe-5 lb. bass that I wish I could have got in with a crappie pole. We worked all the crappie spots we know, hard, all the way down to Long Creek above Yocum and back. We scoped lots of crappie, but the bite just wasn't on that day. Lilley, I think you're right in saying that fishermen think it's springtime since the temperature is in the 70's, but it's still early. We scoped lots and lots of crappie staging in the right places, and they're going to bust loose soon.

Phil - There's no ramp at Blunk Hole, you have to walk in there. Blunk Road dead-ends into the river at Galena Park where there's a ramp that's just awful. If you used that ramp, that accounts for your broken taillight. The next ramp downstream at McCord Bend is a lot better, that's probably the one you used before. To get there from Galena, don't turn on Blunk Road - just keep going on the highway. A couple of miles further there's a big left curve and a left-turn sign for McCord Bend - turn there. That dead-ends into the little community of McCord Bend by the river, and "Charlie" operates a private park and ramp there. Just put $2 for each vehicle in the mailbox when you enter. From there, that whole stretch of river up and down can be good fishing for white bass, crappie, and bass. I'm going out of there tomorrow. I'm no expert on fishing laws, but a couple of years ago I unexpectedly got into BIG goggleyes around Kimberling City the first week of May. Not being used to that situation, I used my cell phone to call MDC in Springfield (from my boat) and asked about the season and limit on goggleyes. They said the season on the rivers opens May 15, but it was OK to keep a limit since I was on the lake. The limit is 15, and there's no minimum length. Since all the James River in the Galena area is considered Tablerock Lake up to the highway bridge above the town - the goggleye and bass season doesn't apply there. It's OK to keep them. Goggleyes are some of my favorite fish, and I look on them as kind of a rarity now. I remember how we used to catch 12-inchers all the time out of James, Finley, and Beaver when I was a kid, and that doesn't happen anymore. So, I have a 10-inch "personal" minimum on keeping them. About the first week of May I'll sometimes get a limit or two of 10"+ goggleyes out of Tablerock Lake, but I never catch any that big around Galena.

Lilley - If it were me, I'd put in at McCord Bend instead. I think the whites are still a little scattered upstream around Blunk. I just talked with three guys from Ozark who bank-fished McCord this afternoon (Sunday). From the launch ramp, they walked about 1/4 mile upstream and fished that corner hole. They really slammed 'em - they caught and released about 40 fish each, then caught and kept their limits. I'm going out of Gage's for crappie in the morning, but I'm planning to go out of McCord Bend for white bass on Wednesday. I bet I'll find some crappie on that trip, too.

I went just above Blunk Hole Friday afternoon and caught 10 white bass, 2 small males and 8 big sows. It's a funny thing - we had some of those fish for supper tonight and they were GOOD. I'd thought about not even keeping the sows because of the strong fishy taste, but these didn't have it. I didn't trim the red meat off or soak them in anything, either. Maybe that fishy taste only gets strong later in the spawn? If the water came up since Friday, I didn't know about it. We got real wet in a heavy thunderstorm while we were there, though.

From this discussion, I'm starting to think Asher Cane Bottom and Walnut Springs are one and the same? I put my boat in there a couple of times a few years ago, when there was no concrete ramp and it was just a gravel beach. I quit doing that when a fellow came down and told me it was a private access for the owners of houses in that neighborhood only. To get to that launch point you go though a neighborhood of nice houses, a "development". Since the name "Walnut Springs" keeps popping up, I'm wondering if that's the name of that residential neighborhood? I never noticed, but the name may be on a sign at the entrance. And since the ramp is now concrete, it may very well be a Corps ramp and public now because of that. If it is, I didn't know it. But it'll always be Asher Cane Bottom to me. The next hole downstream, the L-shaped one - we still call that Carr Bottom.

Bill - with a telephoto lens I think you could get some great eagle pictures there. You won't bother the eagles, fishermen are buzzing up and down in boats right by their tree and they're not paying a bit of attention. The nest is pretty high up. I think you'd get the best pictures from the opposite bank where we were. From a boat, you'd be too close and the bottom of the nest would be in the way. We went in at the access the old timers call "Gentry Cave Hole", about 1/2 mile by road above Galena Park. That's the one that has a wooded stile across the fence for fishermen and you hike down a steep ridge to the water just above Blunk Hole. With a strong telephoto lens, you could probably take some shots from that ridge clear across the river - and then you'd be at the same height, or above, the nest. Take yer fishing pole.

Tightline, I think you're right. The long straight north-to-south stretch with all the stumps in it is what we call Ashercane Bottom. It has a dock and a ramp about midway on the west side, but those are for the residents of the big new houses in that development. It's just as easy to launch at "Charlie's" private ramp at McCord Bend for $2, or for free at Bridgeport a few miles downstream. Going upstream from Ashercane, where the river takes a sharp turn to the east and there's a long straight stretch going toward McCord Bend - that's what we call Long Camp. I never have figured out where Walnut Springs is, though. I wish someone would tell me.