Taking the Jon boat on Saturday for the 1st time.
Any tips , we were told that Painted rock is a good spot. Will be the 1st time taking my 12 ft. Lone Star out on a river.

I'm assuming that you have a motor on said jon boat.

With this rain, the river will be up, muddy, and carrying debris. Be careful.

Yes, upstream to painted rock is a good community hole. It's a little early for the sandbass run, but you never know. Hamm Creek is actually at a spot where the river turns into the lake. Meaning that the water at the ramp is as much a lake as it is a flowing river. With that said, there are fish there. There might be some sandbass and stripers staging in that area waiting for the spawn to kick off. You will have to search them out. But, being a "lake", there are Largemouth, Crappie, Catfish, and all the rest, in that piece of water.

I would try throwing a crappie jig around any rocks that you find. For bass, concentrate on areas where the bank changes from mud to rocks. When you get tired, go down river to the railroad trestle and troll for stripers.

My experience.

Yes I have a motor, we are looking for crappie[img]http://[/img]

If you have electronics look for logs, brush, standing timber at the mouth of the Nolan or Hamm Creek in 10-20 ft. of water. Same at painted rock. If you use an anchor at the rock be very careful, lots of stuff down there!

Yep. I've donated my share of anchors there.

Thanks, my old Humminbird I put on yesterday.
And a friend also told me about the anchor at Painted rock also.
If we are looking at the boat ramp we go left to get to painted rock correct ?

Good lookin rig.

Yes, you have the direction correct. If I'm standing on the Hamm Creek ramp eyeballing the river, I go right, upstream to find painted rock.

Don't forget to look around you as you go. There is some of the most beautiful scenery of anywhere in North Texas up there. And lots of wildlife. I've seen beaver, turkey, deer, eagles, and other stuff along the shore while making the trip. I've forgotten exactly, but I think it's a mile or so upstream of the ramp to get to Painted Rock. You can usually go about 5 miles upstream until you get to what used to be Sand Beach, then another mile to The Island. From there you're really in the river and it get's shallow.

Watch out for deadfalls, and sandbars. They change every year.

Thanks

Too bad someone hasn't snagged an anchor and left the rope with a float on it to tie up to, lost an anchor there some twenty years ago.

We camp between Hamm Creek and Painted rock. It looks like the rains brought the lake up 6 inches over the last month. I don't believe there will be much flow or debris. Muddy water-yes. We need some water flow to have a good run. We need PK or Granbury to catch a lot of rain.