Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk AL Fishing Talk Cababa River float…

I’ve caught some centreville south, but wasn’t targeting them. Never caught any from there north.

I caught a big crappie a couple of months ago. Only one I've ever caught there.

Okmulgee creek cuts our family land in half. One side is perry, one side is dallas county. I have always wanted to float from our place to Old Cahawba on the Alabama River. Never have though.

I always wanted to put a boat in the creek where 14 crosses it, and then float to the mouth of the creek and down the river to the old iron bridge. I never got the chance to do it, and now never will. The state shut down access to the creek, and I don't think you can access the Cahaba at the old bridge either. It's a shame to have such nice rivers and the public can't even get to them. We never floated Okmulgee, but we wade fished it a lot in the late summer and fall. I was going to try to wade fish it last fall, but they don't allow any access at the bridge.

I killed my first gobbler in 1966 about 300 yards above the mouth of Okmulgee on the Perry side. And I also caught my first walleye about a mile below the 14 bridge. I wonder if there are still any in the creek? I think that might be as far south as they have ever existed.

Me and a buddy did that float 14 to the old bridge if you were talking about the one right above hwy 80. We didn’t catch crap really. Our old club was the border on that side of the cahaba. Man we miss that place.

Yeah, that's the bridge. The last time I drove down to it from the Selma side it was blocked off and you couldn't get to the creek. I don't know if you can still access it from the other side or not. One of my uncles used to have access to land on the west side of the river and had a rough landing on it. We used to take out there and didn't go all the way to the bridge. There used to be some giant deer on that property, but I haven't been on it in decades.

Okmulgee creek cuts our family land in half. One side is perry, one side is dallas county. I have always wanted to float from our place to Old Cahawba on the Alabama River. Never have though.
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I always wanted to put a boat in the creek where 14 crosses it, and then float to the mouth of the creek and down the river to the old iron bridge. I never got the chance to do it, and now never will. The state shut down access to the creek, and I don't think you can access the Cahaba at the old bridge either. It's a shame to have such nice rivers and the public can't even get to them. We never floated Okmulgee, but we wade fished it a lot in the late summer and fall. I was going to try to wade fish it last fall, but they don't allow any access at the bridge.

I killed my first gobbler in 1966 about 300 yards above the mouth of Okmulgee on the Perry side. And I also caught my first walleye about a mile below the 14 bridge. I wonder if there are still any in the creek? I think that might be as far south as they have ever existed. [/quote]
Me and a buddy did that float 14 to the old bridge if you were talking about the one right above hwy 80. We didn’t catch crap really. Our old club was the border on that side of the cahaba. Man we miss that place. [/quote]


Yeah, that's the bridge. The last time I drove down to it from the Selma side it was blocked off and you couldn't get to the creek. I don't know if you can still access it from the other side or not. One of my uncles used to have access to land on the west side of the river and had a rough landing on it. We used to take out there and didn't go all the way to the bridge. There used to be some giant deer on that property, but I haven't been on it in decades. [/quote]

We had almost a mile on the west side all the way to the bridge. We lost it around 02 and yes there were some studs on it. The creek that ran into our property by the bridge was full of spots. I caught 2 that were probably 3.5# on back to back cast there one day. Old black lady on the other side went to Walmart and bought her some of them worms after that. Lol.

PCP/Turkey

for readability's sake I can't quote any more however:

If you have REALLY good balance you can put in at the 219 bridge just before you get to the Pecan orchard and float down to the 14 bridge and hit the Cahaba but it is quite a haul.

I've never caught any walleye in the creek but that would be so cool....mostly little catfish and a couple smallmouths

I think you would be a little unimpressed with the quality of bucks in the area nowdays...not the deer heaven of the old days..I would know

Smallmouth?

Maybe they're called "Spots" I will be honest I do not know the difference. Look like a largemouth but just smaller. If you lined up a largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass in front of me I couldn't tell you the difference. I always thought that smallmouths were the ones found in smaller creeks.

The cahaba has a diverse fish population spots/largemouth/red eye bass. The red eyes are similar to a spot but darker like a small mouth. I have seen one small mouth come out of the river in centreville and it was a toad. Didn’t know they were in there and haven’t seen one since, that was probably 20 years ago.

That's interesting! First I have ever heard of a smallmouth in the Cahaba. I know that the state stocked them into Yates long ago, so maybe they put some in the Cahaba too. Or maybe an individual did it

I caught a good many bass from the lower part of the Cahaba and Okmulgee creek when I was a kid, and probably 90% were spots, or technically Alabama bass. We caught a few largemouth from the slow moving areas, but not many. I remember one float on the Cahaba when my dad caught a 4 lb largemouth on a topwater bait, and then caught a 4 lb spot a little further down the river. That was very unusual to catch 2 quality fish like that. There were no redeyes in the river that far south, and I never even caught one until I moved to Coosa county.

We have a large oxbow off the cahaba I have never caught a spot out of it but have caught some really nice largemouth up to 6or so lbs

Cool! I didn't realize there was an oxbow up your way. There are 5 or 6 further down the river that we used to fish. I don't remember us ever catching a 6 pounder, but 4 was common in some of them. Some had really low water in the fall and I think that might have been a limiting factor. The only one I see named on a current map is Vaughn's Lake. It had deep water year round and I remember catching our biggest bass from it. My dad kept a boat in it most of the year and we fished it often. It also had a lot of crappie in it.

I never saw a spot, or actually an Alabama bass, come from any of the oxbow lakes; they were 100% largemouth. The river flooded into them often, so I don't really understand why there were no AL bass in them at all, yet they dominate when they get moved to other places.

AuTrout, if you are reading this thread, got a theory on why they seemingly couldn't survive in those oxbows?

Oxbows are more slack water and just not a preferred habitat for Alabama Bass and certainly not for any riverine specialist like redeye or smallmouth. The largemouth just always reigns supreme in the frogwater when it comes to bass. Since oxbows usually lack the current of say a main river, there can be issues with temp, dissolved oxygen, etc. that make it unsuitable for Alabama Bass. They typically like flow, and lots of woody debris and/or rock.

What’s crazy with you saying that is my neighbor has a 1 acre pond and it is pretty much spot dominant. I haven’t seen but one large head in it and she was probably 6#.

Thanks, I understand that the river is their preferred habitat, but some are bound to get trapped in the oxbow during floods. I guess they just die in there? I guess I don't understand how they can be so picky about where they can exist in their native range, but then just take over when moved to a new area. I read an article a few weeks back about state officials in another state complaining about how they were taking over a lake; I think it was North Carolina. And then I've heard of small ponds like turkey neck just mentioned where they take over, and those don't seem much different than an oxbow.

At any rate, you've convinced me it's a real bad idea to move them around. I wonder if they gave any thought at all to this when they built the TN/Tombigbee waterway? An AL bass can swim to most of the country by using that.

I think surviving vs thriving is a key point. Is the pond clear and mostly oligotrophic? In a river system, fish can always move from less suitable habitat to more suitable habitat. The formation of oxbows don't happen overnight, so they can get out before being trapped and most probably know the cues and do so. There's always exceptions to the rule, and I'm smart enough to know that I don't know everything. So aside from what I've already said, I don't really know.

I doubt they gave much thought to anything back then regarding fish passage. That's why we're in the mess we're in most places. I am working closely with VA and NC agencies on documenting and understanding where all Alabama Bass have been introduced into their systems.

I have ridden in a small (14’) bass boat from the mouth of the Cahaba (where it enters the Alabama at Cahaba) all the way to the Hwy 22 bridge. The RR trestle bridge right above it always seemed to hold a BUNCH of floating debris and we didn’t go any further.

I was up there for an auction last weekend and there was a LARGE tree lodged between the bridges. No idea what it will look like when it goes down. Not a River fisherman myself but would love to start at the AL and go up as far as it’s navigable presuming we can get by the RR bridge mentioned above. I thought it still looks decently deep where Hwy 80 crosses several miles to the N. Anybody been up through there that far from the mouth?

It should be navigable all the way to the bridge in centreville. I know a lot of people growing up who knew the river ran from centreville down, preferably with a outboard with a jet motor. We used to put in at the park in centreville and float south to some private land.