Hopefully will hook my first ever carp and/or buffalo. How do you tell a largemouth buff from a small?

I think the big mouth have colored eyes and the smalls have black eyes.

Good Luck Adramazetti! Let us know how you do. Biggest difference between the two is the small mouth has a sucker for a mouth and the big mouth does not. Also we do not have very many big mouths in this area (If any).

Kiss them and see which has bigger lips.

If you get (B)HV, don't say I told you so.

SKUNKED!

Saw tons of gar, saw one that must have been 5 feet. Also, there was some kind of fish, not sure what, I had forgot my glasses, that kept coming to the top of the water and gulping and eating leaves. It had a black back and a white stomach.

Gonna target out the gar next time I go. They were everywhere if you kept walking past the beaten path. EVERYWHERE.

you need to get together with some of the guys in your area ,im sure they will put you on fish

I made a dough bait out of CornFlakes cereal, Vanilla Extract, and bayou water. Also tried corn, just as the 'Beginner carp fishing' post suggested. Also tried nightcrawlers and stinkbait. I had chicken livers too, but got to caught up in trying to find a carp, that I didn't realize the gars would have taken to it.

Also, Should I locate carp and set up near them, or set up and let them locate me? do they hold to any specific structure, or do they just free roam?

instead of the water try using a strawberry flavored soda. I have caught many on branflakes, big red and vanilla.

I just noticed the typo in the title.. Yay literacy.

I thought it was a pun (baffled by buffalo bayou)...

Where did you catch your rio grande cichlid? I tried this past weekend in Wimberly, Cypress Creek, but only caught bluegill and redbreast...

I'll let you know when I next go out. I haven't yet been to Buffalo Bayou, but I do fish Mason Creek occassionally and have caught a couple of commons, a couple of buffs, and more...

I caught the rio's in mason creek, just off mason road@i10. also caught a bullhead, and a couple of channels. A guy I met there said there are commons and grass carp, too, and that his son caught a 30 inch bowfin there before or something.

Fantastic. Didn't know they were in there. I've caught bluegill, common carp, grassers, channel cats, largemouth bass, and smallmouth buffalo from Mason Creek down near Fry Road.