# Smokehouse Lake/Choctawhatchee River



## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

Friend and I launced at Smokehouse about 8:45 this morning. Fished the canal run to the river. Went a ways up into Inside Lake, then down to Gardners Canal. One nice redbreast in Gardners. Then down to Big Sister. Found some decent color water and fished a still water area. 3 bream in the box and that was it. Bait....crickets. 
Plugged a while using spinner baits.......no bites. 
Good to see water running out of the swamps from the recent high water. River should go back up with incoming storm predicted. This should help spring fishing in April / May.
Saw only two boats all day long.


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## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

Maybe the choctawhatchee will keep some water in it through the spring and summer. I have high hopes on fishing it a lot this year. I remember last year having to get out and push my kayak it was so low in some places. Smokehouse is debatably the best bream fishing on the choctawhatchee. Fishing should get better soon.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

Hi Skiff89Jr: The river was "full" yesterday and running swiftly. We didn't try the main river. Water color pretty well messed up but not really muddy. A fair amount of swamp trash. Was not that bad back up in the lakes if you went far enough. 
Specks and reds have slowed down, at least for me, and with the warmer weather I'm starting to drown a few crickets on bream which is my #1 vise. 
Gas prices are starting to hurt (again) so with Juniper close to town it looks like a good alternative for a quick fix.


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## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

Yeah gas is gonna be a killer this year. Thankfully, hwy 2 ramp and curry ferry are only about 5 miles from my house; however, if the river doesn't stay full it is really hard to launch at those ramps.


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## LRDD (May 23, 2011)

We fished the Big Sister and live oak cut off last Tuesday and killed the bass on rubber worms. We caught 18 that were all keeper size,7 of them were over 2 lbs. Went back to Black Creek on Thursday and caught 9. I think the bass fishing is gonna be pretty good this year.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

That's a good report LRDD. I guess I need to start learning more about bass fishing. My main focus has been bream for year and years, but switched to specks and reds a few months back because the river was in such bad shape up where I usually fish. If the water will stay up for a few weeks in will be a big difference later in the spring.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

I got a report late this afternoon a couple of guys from Freeport have been doing really well on hybrids using pink shrimp bits in 15 to 25 ft water with sand bottom. They are getting the shrimp from Bruce McCullough in Portland. I think pink shrimp are gulf shrimp
I assume they are fishing the bottom but not sure.


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## LRDD (May 23, 2011)

Also correct, we have been going to the south mouth with shirmp under a popping cork and killing the Hybrids. They are not as thick as they were in December but you can still go out and catch 20-40 with no problem. In December they were schooled up so hard on mullet it did not matter what you threw at them, I caught them on mirro lures top water frogs, everything we threw. Still catching nice number of them but not as big as they were. Hope all this rain does not hurt the bite. Like you Fishwalton I am getting real excited as time gets closer to break out the old flyrod for some bream action.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

I crossed the river at Caryville about 2 hours ago. It's way up there and really muddy. It's going to be a mess for a while


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## kevin32435 (Apr 17, 2008)

I was wondering if it would be worth going to Black Creek Wednesday to try my luck but the river is apparently running through the swamps, but this is a good thing for the spring and summer for the bream, shellcracker and cats


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## skiff89_jr (Apr 1, 2011)

Yeah river is gonna be muddy for awhile. I crossed over my wade fishing spot this a.m. and the water was almost up to the bridge. That's pretty high since we wade fish there in knee deep water. This was at wrights creek about 15-20 miles before it hits the choctawhatchee.


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## FishWalton (Jul 22, 2010)

I bet you can get into Wrights Creek now from the river. Last time I was there it was blocked by a large sandbar.


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