Posting the lyrics of the chorus to the famous song, Red River Valley last week made me more than a little bit curious about it since I sing and play guitar. Well, I found an old 45 record called Red River Rock by Johnny and the Hurricanes, so I bought it and listened to it on our record player last night. (Yes, we still listen to records... albums mostly.) Turns out, it was a million-seller hit back in 1959, a rockin' instrumental that captivated listeners in the US and Europe as well. Who knew? So, since I'm on the track of discovering more interesting news on the subject of our Red River and its history, it occurred to me that fisherman Bill Carey might have some information to share. Boy, was I right! Bill has stories galore. He moved to Texoma in 1963, so he's had 50 years now to accumulate stories from his mom's family here in Texas, plus his own "fish stories" he's lived over the years. The following conversation was Bill Carey's response to my questions about identifying and fishing the Red River channel in Lake Texoma: "Lake Texoma was a river before it was a lake. As a result, some of the Blue Catfish in the lake may be older than the lake itself. Although Lake Texoma is known as the Striper Capital of The World, one of our best-kept secrets is catfishing. These monsters are too magnificent to keep. We just catch and release. My own personal best is 86 pounds. The Red River in Lake Texoma has provided nine of the twenty existing world's records for various test line catches, although the world's record for a Blue Catfish was broken by a youngster on the Mississippi River. In order to find the best fishing in the river channel from a boat, it is best to get an experienced person to guide you. The best thing to do is to find a good topographical map. It will show you the lake bottom and the river channel. A good one I like to use is from www.hooknline.com/products/ , and it's also available on Amazon.com. Once you are looking at the map, you have to remember that fish seek out structure near the river "banks" or ledges, all of which are underwater. The river channel is near the deepest water in the lake, running from west to east towards the Denison Dam. The Army Corps of Engineers used to have river channel markers in place. They were buoys used as hazard markers because the water depth can change so dramatically. At some point they began to disappear and have not be replaced, making it much more difficult to identify the river channel. Use of a GPS unit helps, of course. Especially during the recent and current drought conditions, the lake level is a serious issue for boating and fishing all over the lake, and there are political ramifications for us all. The watershed contributing to the formation of the Red River and Lake Texoma is huge, but the whole area has been suffering a lack of rain. That's why it's good to keep up on what's happening in our area politically. And it's also good to make a point to listen to all the older Texans talk about this area whenever possible. They are passing away and soon a lot of interesting history about the Red River and the whole area will pass away with them if we don't make a point to write it down." Besides interviewing Bill Carey, I picked up on a suggestion in a web forum online, and it seems like a good fit here on the subject of topological maps for fishing Lake Texoma: "A USGS quadrangle topo map will give you an unbelievable, bewildering amount of information in painstaking detail. That makes them extremely valuable maps. It also makes them somewhat difficult to read until you get used to reading USGS topo maps. They are very good maps; but sometimes they are just too much. " I have had trouble finding USGS topo maps of the Red River channel of Lake Texoma. Does anybody have some suggestions for me? I'd love to get your comments and links to share with everyone on LakeTexoma.com next week. Thanks for getting in touch!