gotmuddy

thats amazing. where did they catch it

I am planning a two day float for July 4 weekend and crooked creek is the only place I know that wont be slam packed with people. The goal is to float from Bruno to the slab taking our time. We will stop and camp on a gravel bar along the way, preferably one next to a deep hole. How low would be acceptable for floating? I don't mind a little dragging but don't want to carry the canoe a lot.

likely it is in the sun. I know the gauge at the slab is in the sun. What surprises me is the wild swings from day to night. I bet night fishing on the river is awesome.

We probably should when we canoe but we don't. I would definitely suggest wearing one if your not a strong swimmer.

There are a few places that are 18" minimum length on crooked creek. I personaly wouldn't eat a smallmouth under 12". There just isn't enough meat to justify killing it. I am the same way with trout. I want at least a 12" rainbow if I am going to filet it.

Lets use some logic. First, forage for smallmouth is a finite resource unless there is constant precipitation keeping the water high. When the river gets low the smallmouth have less food to eat and in a pure catch and release area there will be more fish. It seems easy to understand that if there are more fish in the same area that the fish will have less food and therefore be smaller. The thing to remember is smallmouth are not like trout, being that they do not travel miles up or downstream to find food. They usuall stay within 100yds of where they are born(this is according to a book I read over 10 years ago so whether or not it can be trusted is up to you). As to the "muddy hole in the ground" I will say that when it comes to forage entering the pond it works much like the river. We have a 2.5 acre pond purpose built for bass fishing. 15ft max depth, trees, moss, and a wet weather creek that feeds it. We stocked 400 crappie, then the next year stocked 100 florida strain largemouth bass. Other than minnows nothing else has been put in. Within 4 years of stocking the pond we have caught numerous 6-8lb largemouths. Why? Because there are more predators(largemouth) than prey(crappie). The same principle applies to the river. 500 years ago I was not alive to know how big smallmouth bass in the buffalo river were, but I would bet they are the same or smaller than now due to overpopulation.

If you release every fish caught no fish will get big.

When the rig blew up and news of the spill starting airing on tv my wife and I were talking about it and I told her not to worry, because I remembered that in the past in TX they had used microbes developed by Texas A&M to "eat" the oil. Then a month goes by and I hear absolutely nothing about it. Fishy if you ask me.

Those farmers must have been poor business people. Every chicken farmer I know uses dead chickens in compost piles.

the redfish slot limit in Texas coastal waters has been a fabulous success. The slot is 20-28" and one over 28" per year. I would love to see a slot limit on brownies on the buffalo. Maybe 12-14"

Use silver hill. I would stay away from gilbert store. We had a bad experience with the owner and decided no one in our group would EVER give her another penny.

around the ackerman access there is a large grass bed, and just above the boat docks under the bridge there is a nice grass bed.

That $#@%$#^@# slime is annoying as heck. I wish we could find a way to take care of it. Grass on the other hand is a good thing. Ham, I have started using my 9.9 as a trolling motor on norfork. With a little practice you can get it to keep you in one spot pretty easily. Another thing I like to do on the lower section is use the trolling motor on the front of the boat to slow the boat down(like a anchor or chain). My big boat has a 24v trolling motor however.

definetly possible. The weird part is it was flipped over in the calmest part of the river.

I would post it in the for sale section.

Anyone see the upside down boat just below the resorts on the norfork tuesday? It still had the motor on it, I was curious if the owner/renter was ok.

only a complete idiot would try using a drag chain or anchor on that river while generating. It moves way too fast.

I will weigh in on this with my purely uneducated opinion....well sort of. The BOP failed because the BP company man on the rig didn't listen to the transocean(who actually owned the rig) rep who was told by the Schulemberger guys that something was seriously wrong with the well. The BP guy told them to keep drilling, the Schulemberger guys left and 6 hours later the rig blew up. IMO BP is ultimately to blame. I dont understand why nObama "forced" BP to pay the 20 billion. Within a week of the explosion I read reports from BP saying they would pay for everything. I imagine it is pure posturing to make nObama look like he has a clue what he is doing. One thing I actually agree on is a moratorium on drilling but only so all the deep water rigs can be checked out thoroughly by someone qualified. As to our dependence on oil, alternative fuels are a pipe dream right now. Ethanol is hard on engines and unsustainable for the US economy. We could NEVER produce enough ethanol to kick the fossil fuel habit and feed the country. Saying oil is evil and we should just quit it cold turkey is a incredibly stupid thing to say. It is involved in every aspect of our lives.

Any creek with deep holes will have smallmouth around here. If you want to catch smallies stick to the bottom end of the lake

I feel the same way. Except that we own all land, the state is just a steward. We had thousands of acred of forest to ride in but a few idiots ruined it for everyone

That depends a lot on water level. Most boats go up from the bottom so once the level drops below a certain point you do not see as many boats upstream.

I will give you $90 shipped to 72576.

I hope your joking. If not then your a complete idiot.

for a two day float I suggest rush to the white river. Its the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen.

Thursday the river crested at 15ft at harriet bridge...it is gonna need a few days to calm down.