Fishing Report Jan. 22 And 23

[kayaker]

Made my first trip to the Spring this past Friday and Saturday. Stayed at Riverside resort. What a nice looking place. Stopped in to see Mark Crawford at Spring River Flyshop, super nice guy, gave us lots of pointers. The river was flowing very strong and was pretty murky all weekend from some rain earlier that week. I thought the fishing was kind of slow. I hear it was really good the previous week. One of the those, "should have been here last week" things. We still caught fish, just not as many as we usually do on the White and North Fork. We like to wade and did not want to fight generation on those rivers. We always do an annual winter trip to Arkansas. My buddies and I are from the Kansas City area. I did like the looks of the Spring River and the ease of driving to different access points. I will have to give it a try again sometime and see if I can do better. Caught most fish on Y2K's, some on buggers and pheasant tails.

[jdmidwest]

Was it murky or muddy? Spring River almost never runs crystal clear, it usually has a milky greenish tint with good visibility. If it is up, it would have been brown muddy.

I was just wondering how it was, thinking about heading down next weekend. Was the campground very full or did you stay in a cabin?

Its a good river to float and fish, you can rent canoes from Riverside or they will shuttle you if you take your own. This time of year that would have been a good trip and you could have seen more of the river.

[kayaker]

We stayed in a cabin at Riverside. Only one other cabin was taken and two pop-up campers were there. They had a great stretch of river right there at the resort, but the fishing was not very good there. Most of our luck came at Dam 3 and Lasseter. The Warm Fork River had muddy water flowing into the Spring River. Mark at the flyshop said it was muddier than normal. It was starting to clear when it rained again Saturday night and was muddier than ever. Too bad the Warm Fork has to enter the river right there at the beginning. Would have been nice if it joined the Spring about 10 miles downstream. We had planned to float on Saturday. There was 5 of us so I agreed to be the odd man out and float by myself in my Native Ultimate kayak. I was really excited and then my buddies chickened out on getting canoes because the water had a strong current and they were worried about tipping canoes.

[Justin Spencer]

Why a trip to Arkansas? If you are looking to fish a free flowing stream, you are passing up some of the best right here in Missouri. I happen to be on the North Fork in Missouri above the lake, and besides the scenery being much better than the Spring or the tailwaters, we have some big browns, and beautiful wild rainbows. The Eleven Point and Current are two other nice rivers on this side of the border that are worth checking out. Most of these rivers need to be canoed to get you to the best spots, but that is half the fun. This time of year you are likely to be the only ones on the river, and most rivers have cabins that can be rented near the rivers. We have several to choose from that are right on the river depending on your budget, we also have a mile of good fishing right here. Get some new friends that aren't scared to canoe, and come down and give us a try, I know you will love it. Check out sunburstranchcanoe.com to see what we have.

[gotmuddy]

Why a trip to Arkansas? If you are looking to fish a free flowing stream, you are passing up some of the best right here in Missouri. I happen to be on the North Fork in Missouri above the lake, and besides the scenery being much better than the Spring or the tailwaters, we have some big browns, and beautiful wild rainbows. The Eleven Point and Current are two other nice rivers on this side of the border that are worth checking out. Most of these rivers need to be canoed to get you to the best spots, but that is half the fun. This time of year you are likely to be the only ones on the river, and most rivers have cabins that can be rented near the rivers. We have several to choose from that are right on the river depending on your budget, we also have a mile of good fishing right here. Get some new friends that aren't scared to canoe, and come down and give us a try, I know you will love it. Check out sunburstranchcanoe.com to see what we have.

wild rainbows? As in they weren't stocked? We canoe there in the summer.

[Justin Spencer]

I think the last time they stocked rainbows was back in the 60's, and there are plenty to catch. Kyle kicknetted a 1" rainbow this weekend so it looks optimistic for a good spawn this year. They are definately a little smarter than stocked fish but fight harder too. Best rainbow water is Rainbow Spring to Patrick bridge, they do stock browns on the lower end, best brown water from Patrick to Dawt. Bring your rod this summer and if you get out before the canoe hatch you will surely catch a few fish.