Rockhouse To Trigger Gap 4/11

[zthomas]

Did the Kings on Sunday from Rockhouse to Trigger Gap. Beautiful day and near-perfect flow. This was my first time on the Kings and although the bluffs weren’t quite as dramatic as the Buffalo, it’s a similar experience—clear water, clean gravel bottoms, almost no litter, and far less traffic than the Buffalo.

Didn’t have a temp gauge, but water felt mid-50s, and fishing was slow, at least for me. Three smallies—the biggest 12 or 13 inches—and a couple of goggle eye, all on a weighted brown craw pattern stripped slowly on a sink-tip line. River was just loaded with life, though—all kinds of suckers, gar, snakes, turtles, sunfish. Nice to see that.

In case it helps anyone with trip-planning, the 8-mile float took exactly 5 hours, fishing fairly hard but only stopping for a total of maybe 20 minutes. A few trees down in lower half of run—some you’d probably want to scout and possibly portage in a canoe.

I’ll probably head back to the Kings in a couple weeks here for an overnight when my father visits from out of state. Any tips on a stretch that would make a good, leisurely overnight float—maybe 15 miles or so?

[TroutRinger]

That is a beautiful river. I would love to float that some day.

[Coldspring]

interesting article about The Nature Conservancy buying some land along the Kings.

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/arkansas/preserves/art31224.html

I'm planning on visiting next month or early June.

[zthomas]

Bump. Sounds like Marshall Ford to Rockhouse would be a good overnighter, at least in terms of distance. Anybody know how that stretch floats and fishes relative to the Rockhouse to Trigger Gap run? Good gravel bars along the way?

[Danimal]

Floats and fishes well. Great gravel bars and it's more scenic than the lower sections. It can be hard to arrange a shuttle if the folks at Kings River Outfitters are busy. I'd call them well in advance unless you plan on doing your own shuttle. Good Luck. Dan-o

[Ham]

The shuttle from Marshall Ford to Rockhouse is a beyotch.

[zthomas]

Hey thanks, Dan and Ham! Just called KRO to pre-arrange the shuttle and reserve a little bigger boat for camp gear. Fortunately, we'll be launching around noon on Friday, so we'll get on the water ahead of most.

[hoglaw]

Hey thanks, Dan and Ham! Just called KRO to pre-arrange the shuttle and reserve a little bigger boat for camp gear. Fortunately, we'll be launching around noon on Friday, so we'll get on the water ahead of most.

Note to self - launch at 10:30 next Friday.

[24KGold]

I've found the fishing to not be quite as good on the first half of the Marshall Ford to Rockhouse trip as the last half is. The first part is more scenic though. I've always caught bigger smallies and in greater numbers the closer I got to Rockhouse. In fact, several years ago after a small rain, the river was a little stained but dropping. We put the canoe in about halfway down, which you can't do anymore I don't think, and in a prety good set of riffles, we caught 4 smallies larger than 18 inches. My biggest one was 20 inches long. Had several other's break off in that same spot with 8lb line in the current. It was a great day. I really love that section of river from Marshall Ford. You can also float from Trigger Gap to the bridge in Berryville. That's a good overnighter.

Terry