Camping Suggestions For Upper Jacks Fork

[ivana]

A few of us are heading down to my absolute favorite river, the Jack's Fork this weekend. Particularly the upper river for its beauty, solitude (somewhat), fishing, camping and exploring.

The problem is, all the places I've been to are generally full by the time we get down there, i.e. Blue Spring, Bluffview, etc.

Does anyone have any ideas of a good spot on the river that is on the water or very close to the water (with a fishing spot preferably!) that isn't particularly busy and has decent fishing?

I just want to be left alone to catch some smallies on my favorite river without a bunch of people partying and screamin and all the "fun" that goes along with "camping."

I have Chuck Tryon's 200 Missouri Smallmouth Adventures and it has a lot of spots on them, but a lot of them I haven't seen in years so I don't remember which ones are doable for camping or not. I'd really like it to be between the Prongs and Bay Creek. Somewhere in that stretch, because I've been meaning to float it for years and have still not gotten around to it. At the very least, this way I can camp and fish and take pictures, and float for my birthday weekend.

Any information is HIGHLY appreciated and very much welcomed. I am strictly catch and release, my fiance and his friend and his wife are going down for some relaxation and fishing, first and foremost. (Fishing above all for me lol) So if you know of any good spots we could check out, please send me a PM because in my opinion, the locals and the regulars that are out on the river every year generally provide the most valuable information.

And I believe in Leave No Trace! So take that into consideration too. We try and make our campsite cleaner when we leave then we arrived.

Thanks in advance for reading this!!!!

[GloryDaze]

I am certainly no expert on the Upper Jack's Fork- However, I did float it this year from the Prongs to Alley Springs. I do know that section is hard to float when the water is low and you will end up doing alot of walking. I have attached a trip report from my float in March that could help a little bit?? Just a tidbit of information- When I floated the river gauge at Mountainview read at 3.6 ft and 900 cfs- currently it is reading at 1.7 ft and 100 cfs. Here is the link to the USGS water gauge site- http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=07065200

Here is th trip report: (It's long but decent to read)

Jack’s Fork Trip Report: South Prongs Access 0.0 to Alley Springs 31.0- 31 Miles

March 7-9, 2008

Boat: Mad River Synergy 12/Necky Manitou 13

Temperature: High Low Water Conditions: (Gauge at Hwy 17) 3.65 is flood level

March 7th 37 25 3.6 foot

March 8th 39 15 900 CFS

March 9th 56 26 ** Perfect Floating Level**

Friday, March 7th:

With snow on the ground Nolan and I took off for a 3 day, 31 mile float around 1p.m. This was my first trip in my new Mad River Synergy 12. Five minutes in, a tree snagged a lawn chair on my canoe, pulled my back end under and ripped the chair into the water. The water could not be more than 40 degrees, so I was already wet and cold. With one lawn chair down, we paddled on with the water level nice and high. The upper section was very technical and had some pretty narrow chutes. The strainers left over from the floods caused the biggest challenge for us. When the water was this level it opens up several chutes to choose from along the way- sometimes you cannot see around the corner of which one will be best, but we only had 1 problem the entire trip. Shortly after the hwy 17 bridge there is a house on river left- there are 3 chutes to choose from- well, what we could not see was a tree had fallen and knocked down the powerlines (insulated) but black and we could not see the line about a foot above the water level. Lets' just say we got hung up and had to bail out and portage the kayaks- Nolan got pinned to a tree and in the chaos, dropped his paddle and it was swept downstream. During the fun, I managed to lose both of my fishing poles as well! We split the paddle in half and we each used it as a canoe paddle for a bout 1 mile. Luckily his paddle was stuck in an eddy and we managed to grab it for the rest of the trip Maybe they have cleared it by now, but it was a little scary. We camped along the river and settled in for a chilly night by enjoying some “traditional foil packs,” vodka and redbull and a good nights sleep. Camped about a mile or two from Buck hollow and traveled about 8 miles today in 4 hours.

Saturday, March 8th:

Woke up to a very chilly morning and goofed around the campsite. We decided to play homerun derby with a stick, rock and the wall was the bluffs across the river. We didn’t break camp until around 11am when the weather warmed up just a little bit. Today went pretty much without a hitch and we didn’t encounter any problems or real obstacles (perfect day of floating) this section of the river is beautiful with tall bluffs, swift water and a lot of wildlife. We had a bald eagle in front of us today but it never got too close and just sat up on the bluffs and watched almost as if it owned this stretch of river and wanted to show us it was king of the valley. Stopped for lunch by huge bluffs and had some turkey and bread (which had been smashed and dried out in my dry bag). We finished the day by camping just upstream from Bay creek at a nice campsite. I remember by this time Nolan was almost frozen to death and swore from now on he would dress according to the weather and not wear shorts. We built a lean- to shelter with a tarp knowing it was going to be a cold, cold night and settled down. We had Cheddar-Wursts for dinner along with some more Vodka and Redbull and Busch Beer. The thing that sticks out most is having all the firewood, most which was pine and how much wood we were burning, but it never seemed to get real hot?? Nolan also snored all night long…I’m talking like a freaking freight train!! Floated about 15 miles today in about 6 hours.

Sunday, March 9th

It was cold last night, got down to 14 degrees (which breaks my record of camping in cold temps…previously it was 18) I slept very little because of Nolan’s snoring and was a little slow to get out of the sleeping bag. Today was going to be a nice warm day and unfortunately we wouldn’t enjoy it since we were getting off the river today. Once again, today was a simple day of floating with no real excitement or problems. The water level did drop a lot from when we started since we did drag a few times on the way to Alley. Today we floated 8 miles in 3 hours.

[ivana]

Thanks for the info. We won't be floating this trip, tho. Just camping and fishing. So any good out of the way camping spots would be greatly recommended.