The Mighty Red River

[dee]

My 3yr old daughter had been bugging me to take her to the beach for a while and being our lakes here are scary low I decided to take her to the river. We loaded up and went to a friends thats property borders the river only downfall is the 1/4 mile walk in that she had to be carried. My wife managed to get a few pics and I thought some of you guys might enjoy.

Walking in and about to walk of into the river.

A few of us walking around. The water was very clear considering all the rain they had up stream from us.



About the deepest spot we found, which was only knee deep for me.

This was pretty much our only encounter with any wildlife. I was really suprised the picture turned out. About a 2-3lb spotted Gar after getting a closer look at it.

On the walk out she was pretty wore out and fell asleep while I was carrying her.

She ended up having a blast and already wants to go back. Some of the pics aren't the best quality but still pretty good for just a phone.

[ELVIS]

Cute little girl bro.

God bless.

[Taylor]

Looks like a lot of fun.

Your legs look completely burned in the fourth pic.

[redrocket5.0]

I was gonna say watch out for gar, looks like you found one. Looks fun though. I had a bad experience with a huge gar, no more red river for me.

[shumpertdavid]

Nice pics and river outing it looks like. What area are you from, I was thinking east of me.

[JC316]

I was gonna say watch out for gar, looks like you found one. Looks fun though. I had a bad experience with a huge gar, no more red river for me.

What kind of bad experience? They're usually not aggressive.

[YALE]

I was gonna say watch out for gar, looks like you found one. Looks fun though. I had a bad experience with a huge gar, no more red river for me.

Lawton is more dangerous in several places than the Red.

[KBScobravert]

Looks like y'all had a good time. I can not wait till my little girl is big enough to do outdoors stuff like this.

[dee]

Thanks guys.

Looks like a lot of fun.

Your legs look completely burned in the fourth pic.

Burned is an understatement, I can't even put socks on this morning.

I was gonna say watch out for gar, looks like you found one. Looks fun though. I had a bad experience with a huge gar, no more red river for me.

We actually saw several Gar most were spotted but we did see one Alligator Gar. This was really close swam within a foot of my legs.

Nice pics and river outing it looks like. What area are you from, I was thinking east of me.

I'm a good was west of you this was about 20 miles east of Wichita Falls.

Lawton is more dangerous in several places than the Red.

Yea, their on like the 10th homicide of the year. Pretty dang high for a town that is not overly huge.

Looks like y'all had a good time. I can not wait till my little girl is big enough to do outdoors stuff like this.

Mine loves going to do stuff with me. She loves going hunting with me and just being outdoors in general. She has been every bit as more fun than expected.

[BradM]

What kind of bad experience? They're usually not aggressive.

Rape.

[ceyko]

Lake Texoma has some nice "beaches" on it that I found yesterday messing around on the boat. There are plenty that don't require a boat, but to get away from other folks it is nice to have one.

Was not having much luck fishing (seemed everyone else was though - but my first time fishing that lake), so I found a few beaches for my 3 year olds to play on. They were WORE OUT by the time I got them home. (so was I)

Just an FYI on that though. Nice soft sand. Some litter to watch out for, but nothing abnormal (glass...etc) and good training for the kids to watch where they are walking. Think I found 3 things of concern the whole time.

[redrocket5.0]

What kind of bad experience? They're usually not aggressive.

I was walking the Red river a few years ago and got into a shallow big body of water and started to cool myself off in a pool maybe 4 foot deep and a Alligator gar atleast 5 foot came out thrashing and hit me in the chest, knocked the wind out of me so bad that I couldn't move. It thrashed around for a few minutes and disappeared. I didn't stick around.

If you know where Lake Elsworth is, me and some friends were jumping in and out of the dam runoff pool, a man fishing there said "you boys need to get out of there, theirs fish in there that can eat you". We just thought he was just being shitty about us disrupting his fishing. Well, he caught a 7 foot gar from that same place we were just swimming in while we were there. So nope, nope nope.

[dee]

Lake Texoma has some nice "beaches" on it that I found yesterday messing around on the boat. There are plenty that don't require a boat, but to get away from other folks it is nice to have one.

Was not having much luck fishing (seemed everyone else was though - but my first time fishing that lake), so I found a few beaches for my 3 year olds to play on. They were WORE OUT by the time I got them home. (so was I)

Just an FYI on that though. Nice soft sand. Some litter to watch out for, but nothing abnormal (glass...etc) and good training for the kids to watch where they are walking. Think I found 3 things of concern the whole time.

I haven't been to Texoma in over 10 years we always stayed around the Rock creek. PawPaw creek area and had awesome luck fishing for sand bass. Best luck was around the sand bars with sassy shad lures or light colored rattle traps. We stayed back towards Big Mineral a few times and had better luck there with white slabs. Also had good luck tying up at Willis bridge and fishing for catfish.

I was walking the Red river a few years ago and got into a shallow big body of water and started to cool myself off in a pool maybe 4 foot deep and a Alligator gar atleast 5 foot came out thrashing and hit me in the chest, knocked the wind out of me so bad that I couldn't move. It thrashed around for a few minutes and disappeared. I didn't stick around.

If you know where Lake Elsworth is, me and some friends were jumping in and out of the dam runoff pool, a man fishing there said "you boys need to get out of there, theirs fish in there that can eat you". We just thought he was just being shitty about us disrupting his fishing. Well, he caught a 7 foot gar from that same place we were just swimming in while we were there. So nope, nope nope.

They usually are that big in this area but down the river a bit where Cache Creek and the Wichita River dump in there are some big Gar. I saw one on the Wichita River that was longer than our 8ft boat and as big around as a steering wheel. I had one bump into my while running a trot line in chest deep water that was every bit of 5ft long, it freaked me out since it went between my legs.

[46Tbird]

About ten years ago, I was waiting for my buddy to get the boat going so I could wakeboard. While I was floating, a 3-4 foot gar swim right up between my legs and jumped out of the water. Scared the shit out of me. One of its fins scraped the calf of my left leg and left a slimy, 6" cut that took three months to fully heal. Weird experience all around.

[YALE]

We had a big gar follow us while we were drift-fishing for Crappie near my family's place in Louisiana, and we just couldn't land a fish. We'd get one hooked, start reeling, and he'd grab it. It was the worst.