Originally Posted by Ben2
Originally Posted by poorcountrypreacher
Originally Posted by Olbowhunter18
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?

All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.