Crooked Creek Fishing Report

[gotmuddy]

Don, who will from henceforth referred to as spiderman, and I took the canoe out to crooked creek today to do some fishing. Water was 81 degrees and clear....for crooked creek. Fishing was EXCELLENT, we caught 40+ brownies along with some different perches, one largemouth, and one goggleye. All fish of good size were caught on crawfish pattern crankbaits and minnow pattern jerkbaits, with the exception of one good sized fish caught on a PB&J jig and craw. Enough bs, on to the pics:

I will post them in order of smallest to biggest, all taken with Spiderman's camera. Smallest fish of the day goes to me for catching this perch with a crankbait. I caught a BUNCH of perch not much bigger than that on this crankbait today:

here is the one I caught on the jig and craw:

going up the list here are some more fish, one being spiderman's largest of the day:

Here is the largemouth, I caught it below the slab a ways.

I caught this fish in the exact same spot that I caught another keeper last time I floated this stretch of the river

and last but not least was this monster:

To date this is the biggest brownie I have caught and it put up a heck of a fight. We estimated the weight between 3-4lb. I need to get a tape measure in the boat. I bought a scale but it is a cheapie and horrifically inaccurate.

[old papa]

Looks like you had a Great day on Crooked Creek. That creek is a very special place. I plan to stop by Kell'y Slab on the way from North

Louisiana to Branson on Sunday. It may be the last time I get to fish from the Slab if it is even still there now. I reaaly think removing it may

help the fish though, as I think most of the fish caught and kept come from the Slab.

Old Papa

[joeD]

How long did it take you to float that section? And how many miles? I'll be down there this weekend, fishing both Crooked Creek and the Buffalo.

[flytyer57]

Looks like you had a Great day on Crooked Creek. That creek is a very special place. I plan to stop by Kell'y Slab on the way from North

Louisiana to Branson on Sunday. It may be the last time I get to fish from the Slab if it is even still there now. I reaaly think removing it may

help the fish though, as I think most of the fish caught and kept come from the Slab.

Old Papa

The slab is still there.

As for removing it, that would have it's pros and cons. Pro: it would make passage a lot easier. Con: I didn't see 1 carp above the slab, nor any largemouth. Removing that slab may allow undesirable species to make passage upstream.

Of course those species may already be there and I just didn't notice. All the fish we caught above the slab were smallmouth or sunfish.

[flytyer57]

How long did it take you to float that section? And how many miles? I'll be down there this weekend, fishing both Crooked Creek and the Buffalo.

We started the float around 7;30 AM and finished around 5:30 PM.

From Georges creek to the slab was about 7 hours.

We didn't have an odometer on the canoe, and gotmuddy ran his battery down on his cell phone running the GPS. The books I have about the creeks and rivers here put the float from Georges Creek to Hwy. 14 in Yellville at about 11 miles.

[joeD]

Thanks for the info FT57. 11 miles in 10 hours is a pretty good clip. I imagine the river was moving you along pretty good. Don't know what we'll do yet. Harmon to Pyatt, Snow to Kelly or Georges to Kelly. We might do'em all if the Buffalo sucks. Thanks again.

[gotmuddy]

I for one hope they NEVER get rid of the slab. As spiderman said,we did not see any largemouth, carp, or goggleye for that matter above the slab. To be honest, we could have taken the canoe directly over the slab, after we carried it across we noticed that it was not as rough as some of the rapids upstream were. Give me a shout if you have any questions about anything.

If it were me and I was doing a all day float I would go snow to the slab.

[flytyer57]

Thanks for the info FT57. 11 miles in 10 hours is a pretty good clip. I imagine the river was moving you along pretty good. Don't know what we'll do yet. Harmon to Pyatt, Snow to Kelly or Georges to Kelly. We might do'em all if the Buffalo sucks. Thanks again.

The water was flowing at around 450 cfs. We did not stop and fish every hole. Most of the fsih caught were caught while we were floating by, stuggling to keep the canoe in position for a cast with a pretty good breeze out there.

There were several spots that the water was low enough that today with flows around 350 cfs, would require some dragging.

[gotmuddy]

The water was flowing at around 450 cfs. We did not stop and fish every hole. Mostof the fsih caught were caught while we were floating by, stuggling to keep the canoe in position for a cast with a pretty good breeze out there.

There were several spots that the water was low enough that today with flows around 350 cfs, would require some dragging.

below the slab there would definitely be some dragging involved.

[joeD]

I just might do that muddy. The gauge at Kelly is at 13 right now. For some reason, I have it in my head that 12 ft is a real good level for CC, especially in the summer. I don't mind dragging here and there, it's to be expected in the Ozarks, in the summer, but I shore don't like dragging all day long. It gets wearisome after awhile. Anyway, good pics. (Though, when I look at FT57's hat, I get an urge to eat rice. Wonder why?)