Baron Fork Smallmouth

[LB&M]

I'm back from a high country trout trip and already getting keyed up for something else. September is supposed to be a good time for smallmouth so I've been thinking of a trip to Baron Fork for a couple of days. I know nothing about that area and would appreciate any info some of you might have relative to good access points for wading or floating around in my kayak. I'm always by myself so a float trip is out of the question. I've got a new glass flyrod I'm anxious to try out. I'd probably bring my camper to one of the COE campgrounds on Tenkiller and maybe put in a day on the lower Illinois for trout.

[Danimal]

Not sure about access points on Baron Fork. I do know that you can use Horseshoe Bend access on Tenkiller and paddle up to the confluence (about a mile). You'll have to pull up three or four gravel shoals, but it's not to bad. Lots of smallies where it dumps into the Illinois. Hope this helps. Dan-o

[zackroe]

The Baron Fork is loaded with nice smallies and the fall is great fishing. Most of the creek is private land though, and there is limited access. There is a spot in talequah were the baron fork flows into the upper illinois, and you could track up river to get in Baron Fork Creek. The upper Illinois is also killer fishing in the fall. Plenty of small mouth, large mouth, and big Catfish and the river is low and fishable most of the time.

[Davo]

Zackroe is right. My friend owns a few hundred feet of shoreline on the Baron Fork and public access is quite limited and public parking is non-existent. A lot of people float it, though, especially during the summer. We generally put the canoe in at the bridge on Hwy 51 east of Tahlequah and float down about 4 miles to my friends place. Lots of smallies there and some pretty big ones, too, in the deeper holes although getting the big ones to bite is tough. Too bad there's not more access. It's a good fishery. Tons of deer, too.

I've only fished there a few times and it seems MOST landowners are pretty good about letting you walk or float through if you can find access.

[fly2fish]

The last time I fished it was below the Welling bridge access, waded downstream for about a 1/2 mile or so caught both smallmouth and largemouth on the flyrod using crawdad type flys and also on the plastic baits with a regular hook without the jigheads that came with them. If you need weight use the small split shots that you use for flys.

F2F

[ColeM.]

I am going to float it this spring and see what happens.

[fishinforhim]

I am going to float it this spring and see what happens.

let me know how that goes. i lived in morrow, ar for 3 yrs and the barron fork was pretty hard to beat for me

but it helped i only lived about 3 miles from it.

ive been wanting to do that float for a while and the float on lee creek from ar to ok

[FlyfishinOK]

I'm heading down to camp Darby which is not far from where Baron Fork meets the Illinois River. I'll be fishing Sat & Sunday mornings at sunup. I'll post a report Monday. (Hopefully with some SM pix!)

[FlyfishinOK]

Fished just above the confluence into the Illinois Sat morning. Water was clear and cold. Saw some nice bass but couldn't get them to bite. Caught one 8" SM on a epoxy minnow fly. Fished a small inlet on upstream around dark. Caught 11 small sunfish. Sunday morning it was cold & raining hard. I decided to stay in the cabin and feed the fireplace. I think I’ll try again during the spring.

[ColeM.]

Fished just above the confluence into the Illinois Sat morning. Water was clear and cold. Saw some nice bass but couldn't get them to bite. Caught one 8" SM on a epoxy minnow fly. Fished a small inlet on upstream around dark. Caught 11 small sunfish. Sunday morning it was cold & raining hard. I decided to stay in the cabin and feed the fireplace. I think I’ll try again during the spring.

Let me know this spring and we can hit the area together.