Time to get the boat ready

almost time for the sandbass to start up the rivers. i live pretty close the the mouth of the cimarron river. the cimarron and the arkansas both run into keystone lake less than twenty miles away. 11 miles from the house is a nice little creek with a gravel boat ramp that's only 1 1/2 mile from the river there's a nice 30' hole on a bend at the mouth of the creeck that just fills up with sandies

There's hibirds and strippers in there to no telling what you'll get. They started biting good early last year in mid feb last year Conne and i filled a bib crappy basket in around 30 mins

What's a "sandbass" ? haven't heard that one before.
krag35

It's the ok state fish a member of the sunfish clan looks a lot like a stripper. they cross them with strippers to release in to lakes makes mean 30lb+ fist Most of the sandies we catch are around 2-4lbs

OK, I Googled it, and it said it was also called a White Bass. Those I know. Used to catch them with my Pawie on Tanycomo res. when I was a kid. Great scrappers. Never got any bigger than 3-5#. Looks like a cross between a Crappie and a small mouth.
krag35

I have not caught any bass, but caught the biggest rainbow trout when we lived in montana. I also cought the only walleye pike. We caught some northern pike that were over 36 inch. All the kind of fish that i have caught are, rainbow trout, northern pike, yellow perch, walleye pike, blue gill, and some cat fish. I might have got some more, but can not remember.
Krag35,
What kind of fish is that in your avitar?
DANIEL/BS JR.

Daniel;
the fish in my picture is a Sturgeon. keeper one, at 47". There is a slot limit on them from 42" to 60" anything bigger or smaller, we have to throw back. I have cought them up to 13'. Here are some of my fishing pictures
http://www.myfishingpictures.com/sho...r=1866&cat=500
krag35

AS a matter of intrest Toney what size boat do you have ? We live about 30 mile from Port Augusta & Spencer gulf & now it seems I'm going to have more time on my hands I'm thinking of buying a runabout .

Dave

Got a little 14" alum V bottom with a 7.5 outboard on a trailer. It's big enough for open water but not to heavy to drag up a creek bank.

Boats are a lot like guns one is'nt enough need one for creeks and ponds, one for catfish, one for bass { them bass boats are way to heavy to pull down a trot line, and them catfish boats are to light to be stabile enough to stand up and flip jigs} and then boats for play, a ski boat and i have always wanted a little sail boat for them days it's to windy to fish or ski. And a Deck boat or pontoon boat to take the picknick to the fishing hole

Cheers for that Toney I was thinking about some thing about that size to get up the top of the gulf . I don't really like the Sea all that much & as we quite oftern get large sharks a little further down I like the thought of being able to just putt up the top & try for a few Shnapper & Gar !

Dave

Considering a) the tiny number of people who get eaten by sharks, b) the hundreds of thousands of sharks that get eaten by people, and c) how good they taste, I was always happy to encounter the occasional shark while spearfishing in Hawaii. A bang stick might be a sensible precaution when there are bigger ones about. Not that I'd want to try landing anything bigger than five or six feet in a small boat, but a good sized gaff and a wooden baseball bat should do the job nicely! I do know how unnerving it can be swimming when there are a lot of them around, but frankly schools of baracuda scared me a lot more.
As much as I love to be in a canoe on a river or a small pond, I'm not to wild about being out on the ocean in a small boat - my friends used to call me "Chum" - I'd much rather be underwater hunting.

Krag35 what are the small fish with the sturgeon in Astoria 2005? Great pics there. I confess to ice fishing a lot more than summer fishing. Gianni.

MT Gianni They are Starry Flounder, gooooood eating. I'm taking my Daughter up the end of May to fish Astoria again for 5 days. Will be her first real overnight away from home, fishing trip. I haven't ice fished in years. We don't get safe enough Ice here localy to go out on it much.

I was headed to the lake with my boat and Daughter a couple weeks ago, it was <20 F . Some feller at the gas station asked (jokingly) if I was crazy. Seemed kind of a silly question to me, he had snowmobiles on a trailer behind his pickup. :-)

krag35

Thanks and good luck out on the water, Gianni.

Toney, I used to live in the Claremore and Chelsea area(81-87) and enjoyed the lakes and streams in the area. Caught "sandies' below the dam and up the creeks of Lake Oolagah, lived on Winganon road that crossed the middle of the lake several years. The property we had there had a pond of a few acres, with lots of bass, crappie, blegill and catfish. Caught strpers below Keystone and paddle fish on the Neosho. I contracted installation of boat lifts for Hydrohoist in Claremore for several years, working on most of the lakes in Oklahoma as well as coast to coast and from Saugatuk, Michigan to Jacksonville, Fl. Portland, Oregon to Lake Mead, Nevada. How I wound up in a place as dry as the panhandle of Texas is a convoluted story. We do fish some in some farm and ranch ponds, mostly bass and goggeleye, but where water is this scarce, it is generally overfished. My 14' john boat hasn't been in the water since I moved here 15 yrs. ago. My three middle sons live in SW Fl. so we do get down there to fish now and then or go to Texoma and hire a guide. Do miss the days of grabbing a rod and running down to the lake, maybe when I get this last one raised life will slow down, and the wife and I can get back to serious fishing.

Krag 35, I hear those sturgeon can get really big. Saw a picture of a Blue catfish taken from lake Texoma that went 123 lbs. and a alligator gar I believe from south Texas that went 175. My personal best on rod and reel include flathead catfish 45lbs. Largemouth (non-florida) 7lb. 9oz. Crappie 4-4. Paddlefish 63(you snag these, and when hooked in the middle in fast current can stretch your string). Channel cat 9. Garfish 15.Bowfin 6. Striper 27inches (didn't weigh it) Guadalupe bass 2-6oz.(large for this species) Hybrid bluegill 3. Fresh water drum 12. I enjoyed all equally, as well as a host of salt water spiecies thrown in. Gives me the itch to be "gone fishin"