I live outside of Hawkins TX. How do you know if you are fishing a good river. I mean a river that has good fish? And what to throw? Never fished rivers just lakes and gulf.

First thing that comes to mind is finding out what the other anglers are saying and doing. If bait fishermen are doing well then there's a pretty good chance you could as well.

What river or rivers were you looking at fishing?

Growing up in Mineola myself I can tell you that is some muddy water there. I would fish alot of top water. Frog patterns are probably great, but I would also assume a chartreuse clouser would get the job done. I don't think these fish are going to be line shy, I would use a furled leader and some 20lb fluro tippet to avoid breaking off on all the submerged "junk" in the river.

The Sabine river is really the only close one. I live between Tyler and Longview. Any suggestions on any good rivers would be great (east/north east tx).

try some crawfish patterns in the sabine, I've had decent success with em around all the rivers over here, but like Juke said frogs work great, just toss em over the snags off the banks and get ready

East Texas rivers (Sabine, Neches, & Red River drainage are mud-holes, go find a lake

Find some of the oxbows where the water is more settled. You could find buffalo, bowfin, gar in those.

I believe clouserminner on this forum has actually caught a paddle fish in the Sabine???

The Sabine is closest to you. But it is usually muddy where I have been on it. There are some questionable people who hang out there too, so be on guard for that. I have seen some huge carp and buffalo come out of the Neches.

He snagged one on the Red River... cool lookin fish.