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Spavinaw Creek, OK 5/6

Met up with several other local kayakers to do a float down Spavinaw Creek in OK. Our plan was to put in just below the Eucha Dam, and float the creek until it dumped into Spavinaw Lake, then paddle the length of the lake to the boat ramp. Total distance, the way I had it marked on Google Earth, was about 8.5 miles.

This creek is a typical Ozark stream, medium-gradient, rocky bottom, clear. Perfect smallmouth water. If it were a little colder it would probably be good trout water. Further up into the Ozarks, you do find lots of trout water.

My transducer for my sonar was acting funny. Water temps would swing 20 degrees or more in less than a second. The lowest reading I saw was 50 degrees F, and the highest was in the 70’s. I also got a depth reading of 41’, when I could clearly see the bottom about 8’ down. I’m thinking the GOOP might be coming off. I’ll have to check that soon.

Here’s the put in. I was already in the water, these gents were almost ready to launch, and two other gents had already taken off.

[IMG]http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5500/2012spavinawputin.jpg[/IMG]

Here’s a couple of the guys after they got a couple hundred yards downstream.

[IMG]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4901/2012spavinawkayakers1.jpg[/IMG]

Here’s two more. The gent with the drum is the one that organized the whole thing. This was the biggest fish caught.

[IMG]http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/2651/2012spavinawkayakers2.jpg[/IMG]

I caught quite a few fish, but they were mostly sunfish. Here’s the bulk of what I caught, scrappy little aggressive Longear Sunnies. This one took a Rebel 7700 series crankbait. I also caught a few on a small Rebel minnowbait.

[IMG]http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1973/20120506longearedsunfis.jpg[/IMG]

I caught a Crappie on the same crank! Small, but it bent the pole.

[IMG]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9441/20120506crappie.jpg[/IMG]

My only bass. It’s a little LMB. I was hoping to catch a smallie, but never did.

[IMG]http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/5936/20120506lmb.jpg[/IMG]

I did stop and fish a small slough the joined into the creek. I made a few casts, and had the obligatory follows and pecks by the ubiquitous sunfish. I made one cast further down the slough, where it joins the creek, near the current seam. BOOM! Big tug on the pole. Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with it.

I talked to one gent at about the halfway point. He had a stringer with a few LMB’s on it, one of which was at least 5 lbs. He said the bigger fish were all in the sloughs, but if you went in there, the skeeters would eat you alive.

Once we hit the lake, the real challenge began. We had three miles to go, and a quartering headwind to fight. The wind wasn’t that bad, maybe 10 mph, but we did have some chop to deal with. By the time I got to the take out, my arms felt like spaghetti, my butt and legs were SORE, and I was pretty darn sunburned on my legs.

I’ve never had my boat out in chop like that before. It’s nice to know my yak handles it well.