North Toledo Bend, Louisiana and Beaver Lake, Arkansas

[Fiishergurl]

NORTH TOLEDO BEND STATE PARK
Technically, Terry and I are supposed to be in Texas right now, but I ended up accepting a three week computer job in Portland, Oregon at the last minute (actually on our drive to Texas) so we drove to Texas and Terry dropped me off at DFW Airport so I could fly to Oregon and he went to visit family in Arkansas. But on our way to Texas we stopped in Louisiana at Toledo Bend State Park which was one of the spots mentioned by Huntinslabs when I posted and asked about where we should stay on our drive out.

First of all the pictures I took do not do the place justice. It is beautiful in a take your breath away kind of way. The park is in great shape, the trees are huge, the staff were very very nice and the other campers were friendly and lots of fun. We were around a big group that had come down for the weekend from Shreveport (on an annual trip) to fish together. We got in late Friday night, spent the day there Saturday and left Sunday early and I was sick sick sick with some of the worst food poisoning I've ever had, but I still went fishing. The lake is a resovoir and there are trees, logs, and staubs everywhere which made it great fun for jigging. I was relegated to using a cork because other wise Terry had to spend too much time freeing my jigs (or tying on new ones). But I had minnows and worms and got to see my cork go under and I was happy.

We caught several specks (known locally as white perch), bluegills and a good eating sized catfish. We had planned to eat what we kept for dinner but my food poisoning wasn't agreeable to that so we gave our fish to the group next to us for their cookout. They had big ol cauldrons of some good old louisiana cajun cooking going on too. We would have joined them if my stomach hadn't been upside down.

Anyways, if you ever get a chance to stop by this park, you won't be disappointed. We would have been happy to stay there for a month!





Boat ramp where we launched the boat, but we were able to park it right at our campsite for the weekend.


Terry and Princess fishing.


My pole with my cork.


The gars were sitting on top of the grass sunning. I could have reached over and grabbed this one.


Princess fishing some more.


Camp - before we put the boat in. Or maybe after we took it out?


View from the tent down to the water. We parked the boat down there.


Love love love this park and the fishing was great! It was also a great bass fishing lake too.


BEAVER LAKE, ARKANSAS
So I'm still in Oregon but Terry went to Bentonville, Arkansas where he grew up to visit with family. He learned to crappie fish on Beaver Lake which was created when the river was dammed up when he was 9 years old. They used to go to a site and pay a nickel to look through a telescope and see the construction on the dam. He probably hasn't fished Beaver Lake in about 30 or so years and he was surprised that most of the trees that were everywhere just under water (from the flooding) were gone. But the screened in porch that used to be attached to an RV that his dad had on some property they owned on the lake (and where Terry took many girlfriends during his highschool and college days) was still there 30 years later. The land had been sold long ago and of course the RV was gone, but the screened in porch was still there with nothing attached to it (30+ years later). Ahhhhh memories.

Below are some pictures Terry sent me of his fishing day with his twin brother Jerry.

Jerry fishing.



Beaver Lake - they were the last boat in that day.


Beaver Lake


Jerry hard at work fishing... NOT!


Look how clear the lake water is. They kept these six for dinner.


Prarie Creek area of Beaver Lake


Today Terry and his brother are going to Table Rock Lake, also in Arkansas.

Ginny