budman

How far are you wanting to wade and will you have more than one vehicle? You can always go to the Fred Berry Center and hike up to the far end of the property and wade back down to the old low water crossing and be able to wade most of that. Have done this a few time and always caught fish, some times lots. If you have two vehicles you can turn on Harmon road and then take Crooked Creek Dr and wade from the low water crossing on McDonald Rd down stream to the Harmon Bridge, this is a short wade. You can also turn off that McDonald Rd onto Sharp Ln and wade back to the low water crossing on McDonald R., about twice as long as the other. There are parking in both places. Did both of the a couple spring ago and caught good fish on both. On the upper section we had to swim a short section of the creek to keep from bush wacking those sections.

Will be floating the Buffalo from Rush down to the White Oct. 6-8. The water levels look great but not sure what to expect when we hit the White. We will be floating in kayaks loaded with all our gear for camping two nights. Last year when we hit the White the water was flowing at 4200 CFS and looking the last few days it have been flowing anywhere from 16,500 to 21,000 CFS. We were able to take out at Riley's Station last year but that doesn't seem as likely this year. What I am wondering is what it is like to float down the White to Shipps or is there somewhere else to take out.

Check with a local kayak shop in the area you want to go fishing. Most of the ones here will rent you any kayak and then discount the rental price if you decide to buy one.

Floated in a kayak from the gravel parking lot to gore landing about a week ago fishing for trout on the upper half and then switched an 8 weight and big streamers, 4 to 5 inches. Tried white to black and I to got skunked. Only one of the three of us even caught a fish. I was a striper about 1/2 mile up stream from gore landing. Saw a couple of guys with a guide fishing just below the car lot and watched them each catch one striper each. They were throwing big streamers and stripping really big and fast. No trout and last I heard the wildlife dept was still not stocking. Then water was real murky the whole way. Will wait a while before we try again.

We did this same float last year around Oct. 1st and the water was at about 2.5 ft and 78 cfs. We did have some long pool that we had to paddle through but only had a couple of spots where we had to get out and drag our kayaks. Look for my post from Sept. 2014 about water on the lower Buffalo. I also wrote a report on the fishing during our trip. We are planning on making the same trip the first week of Oct. this year. Great section to float. We used Buffalo River Float Service to portage our truck and trailer to the white river. We didn't have to paddle to much up stream, just on the back side of the island at the mouth of the Buffalo where it meets the White. It was not the White Buffalo but a smaller place just down stream.

Used him a few times to shuttle us a couple years ago. He was full of information and kept talking until we floated away. We stopped by one morning just to ask about the creek and what was working and he gave us all kind of information, even though we didn't need him to shuttle us that day. Good man, he will be missed for all his wisdom on CC.

Hoglaw is right about Jimmy Walker. I have used him a couple times. Take the road to Snow, I think road 406 and his house was on your left about half way to the launch at Snow.

You can go to the USGS site and put in the dates you want to check for and get gage height, precipitation, and flow. On April 30 the gage height was 11.54 ft and flowing 353 CFS. Was water was really clear and there had been no rain all week. Right now it is about 2 feet higher and flowing about 3 times as much CFS. Don't think I would float and fish today.

Floated from Pyatt to Snow on 4/30 and the water was at about 11.5 and very clear. Found lots of smallmouth on bed they were not interested in anything we threw. But we did catch several nice one that had already spawned. Everywhere we found beds we would catch a lot of goggle eyes, which I love to catch. We found several places where there were trees across the creek, and one where we had to get out of the kayak and drag them through the grass. The best fishing was in the middle section between pyatt and snow and wish we had not spent so much time fishing the first couple mile and should have fished the last section harder but was running short on time. The best baits were small green craws and tubes. Best flies were woolly buggers and pistol pete in dark olive.

At 12.5 feet it is at the old low water bridge and I have floated and waded it several time at that or a little higher. If you go way up stream the creek is a lot smaller and some good wading but you may have to swim through some deeper holes. We have waded above Harmon a few times and the fishing was always good. No monsters but a lot of 12-14 inch smallmouth and good ozark bass.

The only National Park campground that I know of that has both cabins and camper spots is Buffalo Point. It is about 14 miles south of Yellville, Ark. Nice camp ground. I have tent camped there several times. But don't know about the cabins. You can float from the campground down to Rush, last take out until the White River, it is 7.5 miles or put in up stream at Spring Creek and float down to Buffalo Point, it is about 6 miles. There are a couple companies as you turn off Hwy 14 to go to the campground. I think the cabins are hard get so plan early.

Had talked to the lady at the Fred Berry Center this morning and she said the creek looked a little up but no was was it 11 feet over the low water bridge. So the gage is not correct. If fact she said the creek was really clear and looking nice today and that she wished she didn't have to work today so she could float. The USGS gage went from 23.05 feet and flowing 26,200 CFS at 1230 to 12.32 feet flowing 568 CFS at 1300. She said that should be the correct reading according to the way it looked when she crossed the bridge to get to work this morning. Hope it stays that way when we are there next week.

If it keeps going up and you don't get any locals to give you an update you can call the Fred Berry Center Tuesday at 870-449-3485.

We are planning a trip in about a week also and I have been watching the gage height and it has been rapidly going for the last several days. Not that much rain in the area. Is something wrong with it or did some unknown darn break and start flooding the area(joke). In the last four hours it has gone up another 6 inches and over 8 feet in the last week. Would love to see CC if it is correct but would never try floating or fishing it.

Check out my post " Water level on the lower miles. I got lots of good information and wrote a report of our trip.

Made this trip in Sept. in 3 days and two nights. Very good trip and the fishing was good also. Didn't catch any monsters. There were a lot of really good gravel bars to camp on. We only saw 1 other person before we got to the white. There was only one spot with really low water, about a mile upstream from the White. We were in kayaks but you should have no problem in a canoe. We used Buffalo River Float Service to portage our truck to the White, I think it was 60 dollars. Don't remember the place where our truck was left, but we didn't have to paddle as far up stream as Buffalo City. It was just on the back side of the island where the Buffalo meets the White. If the water is high you only have to paddle straight across to the island and walk up stream to the first cut and paddle over to a small boat ramp and dock to take out. We hope to make that trip again next year.

Never mind, I just looked up madtom and there are 29 different kinds and the chucky madtom is or was only found in two stream in eastern Tenn. Didn't know there were so many of them. Not sure if I had ever seen a madtom. If I had I just thought it was a small catfish.

Just read a story last night in National Geographic about small fish in streams. It said that J. R. Shute and Pat Rakes, ichthyologist, formed the Conservation Fisheries, Inc to help study, preserve and propagate about 65 rare species of small fish in creeks and rivers. It said the last chucky madtom, in the ark, died in 2008, and have not seen one in the wild but hope there is still one out there but it is not looking good. So you guys might look them up and let them know there are still some out there and let them know where you found them.

That should have been 8 mushrooms not a mushroom.

Saw a 1/2 ounce of dry morels the other day in my local store for $15.99 a pack, about a mushrooms. That would equal over 500 dollars a pound. Have never found enough to try and dry some.

Bass Pro has their Osprey breathable wader on sale right now for $90. Bought them for my wife and think they are better then my Simms Freestone, more features. They are stocking foot so you would have to buy a pair of wading boots. Get a size bigger then normal so you will have the extra room you will need in the toe box. Easy to walk in then boot foot style.

Ours was a boating problem but a wading problem. Fished last week and there were very few out there Monday, it never got above freezing. Had a guy walk up to within 15 feet of us, and we weren't fishing in an outlet. Then after about 10 minutes he decide to wade downstream of us, but he never got out of the water. He walked right behind us, 5 feet or so. Didn't say excuse me or even make sure we weren't about to case. Felt like casting any way just to see if I could hook him on the back cast. Even made a commit about him out loud, know he could hear me and it didn't seem to faze him one bit. I guess some people think just because the bought a lic. & stamp that they own the water.

I agree with all the above choices. My go to had always been a woolly bugger or craw pattern until a three day trip on the lower Buffalo. That is when I discovered a Pistol Pete. It is really a woolly bugger with a blade on the head. Read about them and thought I would give them a try. The first few I tied wouldn't work because the blade didn't spin because I committed the first mistake of tying, too much too close to the eye. Took a few tries to get it down right where they would spin while stripping it back. What worked best was a #8 long shank in dark olive, weighted with 8-9 wraps of lead wire and a brass blade. One day I will learn how to post pictures, so you can google Pistol Pete Fly and get a good look. I had also tied some with a cone shaped beadhead if the water was runny fast or if I needed them to go deeper. But since we floated in late Sept. the water was low and didn't get to try them.

First time I have taken advantage of Phil's Fishing Buddy special, but it won't be the last. It's the best deal you can get and a great place to stay. We got there about 10:30 Monday morning with the temps around 28 degrees and some light snow flurries. They let us check in early so we had a warm place to change clothes, instead of having to freeze in the parking lot. We started fishing about 11:30 up by the Dam. It didn't take long for our guides to freeze solid, needed some antifreeze. Temps never got above 32, I think, so it happen all day long. We fished from outlet 2 up to the cable and only managed to catch a few fish, about 8-10, but saw a couple of guys catch about 20, we have a lot to learn about this river. Tuesday we fished the opposite side of the river a little farther down stream, across the river from the boat ramp and worked our way down to the first shoal down stream. It started slow as we tried to find out what they wanted. The only thing we found that worked constantly for us was a CQ Streamer, nice little fly. We all caught several fish, either just above are in the middle of that area and thought we had it figured out when they sounded the horn about 2 o'clock, was supposed to be O generation until 6 PM. So we head back up river to the old boat ramp and noticed the water had only come up about 3-4 inches so we fished there at the old boat ramp. We fished there until about 4:30 and caught several more each. Ended up catching about 30 fish that day. Wednesday they were generating 25 all day so we had higher faster water all day, another day of learning how to fish Taneycomo. We started fishing around Outlet 2 and worked our way down to Outlet 3. Didn't catch a thing the first hour, then saw some fish feeding in a eddy below there. I switched back to the CQ and caught my first fish of the day. We all fished the same area and caught a few more each, about 12-14 fish by noon. Short day because we all had to get home. So we caught around fifty fish, which we thought was good considering this was our first trip to Taneycomo. Almost all the fish had great color and fat bellies. Most in the 12-14 inch range but had a couple of 16 - 17 fish. We saw several eagles, herons and had a nice group of mallards feeding around us. The most interesting sight was the group of mallard who didn't mind us fishing close to them or when any vulture, heron, or hawk flew by but when two eagles came flying up the river they all started making a fuss and headed for deeper water in case they needed to dive. All said it was a good trip that we will do again, taking what we have learned and build on it, hoping for the day when we all say "do you remember that day when we slayed them on that trip." Which we understand happens from time to time there. Thanks Phil for this great deal and hope to make this an annual trip.

Two friends and I will be staying at Lilley's and fishing Monday to Wednesday. We plan on wading up by the dam unless they are running lots of water. Don't have a boat so we would like to know some place to wade and how much is too much water. We will be fly fishing and plan on bring a good assortment of different flies. We have never fished there and would like some ideas or some places to start.