Nice catch Psycho. Sorry we missed you. We launched at 2517 and went down river to Murvaul. Fishing wasn't very good in the creek or at the mouth. We found our fish in another spot and managed 48 for the day. Sunday was a different story, water was up another foot and a half and we couldn't seem to find them bunched up. Did you say you cought most of your fish in the side creek? We have fished that creek many times in the past, but the last time we went down there it was flowing too fast and muddy. Sounds like it has cleared up a little. Did you stay in the creek channel or at the mouth? Thanks for any tips.

We caught about ten fish on a sandbar downriver from the "sidecreek". Then we decided to give the creek a try. We started at the mouth, and were suspicious since no-one was fishing there already. So we moved back into the creek (where we saw Jane), and found a good spot where they were stacking up. That's where we caught the rest.

It wasn't much of a creek Sat though. It was more of an oxbow. The creek was plumb out of it's banks all the way to the mouth.


Jay

Just got back from river ridge from the weekend, froze to death tent camping, between 6 of us we caught around 40 sandies on sat. upstream from RR. about half of the we caught just down stream from murvaul creek bank fishing on the first sand bar, we headed upstream again on sunday and only caught 1 fish, the river was way up, flowing fast, and dirty, talked to some guys back at RR and they limited out downstream somewhere where they found some clear water. Yall are right about trolling motors not holding on the river, the river was pushing my boat around 5 mph by GPS.

Thanks Jay. I figured that's where most of the limits were coming from. We may try it this weekend if the river starts coming back down some.

Hey bigrusty, I think we saw you guys on Saturday. Were all six of you standing on that little sand bar at the end of the day Saturday? We were fishing just upstream from you on the same side along that straight bank. We tried the mouth of Murvaul and only caught a couple.

I'm curious how your trip went, Roadtrip. Please post when you get a chance.

I'm probably the only one who went down there and didn't catch much!
The river was at about 17 feet when I got there and kept rising. Ideal level for a canoe is 12' or lower. Real muddy and the side creeks were muddy. Most sandbars are submerged, the one by the big boat ramp is still there. The big boat ramp was closed and they were using the small one that leads out into a slough. In a day and a half of fishing I caught 12 fish averaging about 2 lbs. If I'd have been in a boat with an outboard I think I could have done a lot better.
Jane and her clients limited out. One caught a huge yellowbass, at least 2 lbs.
You can get crawdads at the store pschyco was talking about called Garrets in Carthage. On hwy 79 about 3 blocks east of the square, on the left just past the RR tracks. Jane's husband was picking some up same time I was.
Even with the high water, I think if you use the tips off the previous posts such as fish creek mouths like Murvaul and Socogee or up into the creeks you should do all right. Look at a topo map and find that oxbow downstream. Take your mud boots.

Hey Jay, thanks for the tip about the oxbow. We went Saturday morning, but there were too many boats there. So we tried Socogee instead with limited results. After about 1pm we went back to the oxbow and found only one boat there. We waited our turn for the hot spot and once we got in there we caught around 60 fish in two hours. We thought we would get there real early on Sunday and get the spot, but when we arrived at 6am, Jane was already there. So we waited our turn again and after she left at noon we moved in and finished off our limit by 2:30. Most of the fish caught were males. Most of the females we caught had already dropped there eggs but ther were still a few that didn't. It looks like the run is winding down.


Here is a pick from Sunday.