Floating And Fishing May 4-5

[budman]

We are going to be floating and fishing Crooked Creek in early May and have only floated from Snow down to Yellville. Can someone tell me a little about what it is like farther up stream. Looking at from harman down or Maybe starting at Pyatt. What is the usual water flow like, would we have to drag canoes alot if the water is normal. Also what kind of fishing is that far up stream, like deep pools or can we fly fish.

[Andy & JoAnne]

I was down there last June-July and the creek was flowing just fine. I think I would be more concered about high water. I saw a couple of canoes go by....no problems. I waded up creek from my property and caught a lot of good sized healthy smallmouth bass (2-3 lbs). I met up with another OAF member and, he and his soon to be wife did very well also. I am heading back down in a few weeks to get the land cleared and do some more fishing. You should check the USGS map at this link. BTW...the area I'm talking about is between Pyatt Access and Snow.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00045=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_stats&period=60&site_no=07055607

Looking forward to a few pictures and fishing report.

Hint : Jig & Craw

Good Luck and Have Fun

[mford1]

I was down there last June-July and the creek was flowing just fine. I think I would be more concered about high water. I saw a couple of canoes go by....no problems. I waded up creek from my property and caught a lot of good sized healthy smallmouth bass (2-3 lbs). I met up with another OAF member and, he and his soon to be wife did very well also. I am heading back down in a few weeks to get the land cleared and do some more fishing. You should check the USGS map at this link. BTW...the area I'm talking about is between Pyatt Access and Snow.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00045=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_stats&period=60&site_no=07055607

Looking forward to a few pictures and fishing report.

Hint : Jig & Craw

Good Luck and Have Fun

[mford1]

I fished the creek twice this week. floated from pyatt to snow, and the water was barely floatable, and 2 trees across the water. need to bring saw next time! that water level website is good info on floating levels, much lower than 11 feet and you be dragging. the water is deeper the further downstream from harmon of course. as for fishing, used the spinning rig on the float and did ok on grubs and flukes, no keepers. had a largemouth swimm right up to the canoe to check me out. that fish was every bit of 24 " the water is a little high for fly fishing, but I didnt bring it anyway.. fished again around harmon and this time waded with fly rod. caught about 12 bass, goggle eye and a carp. 2 nice keeper bass. clouser minnows and near nuff crawdads did the trick.

[Andy & JoAnne]

We are going to be floating and fishing Crooked Creek in early May and have only floated from Snow down to Yellville. Can someone tell me a little about what it is like farther up stream. Looking at from harman down or Maybe starting at Pyatt. What is the usual water flow like, would we have to drag canoes alot if the water is normal. Also what kind of fishing is that far up stream, like deep pools or can we fly fish.

Hope you got to go. If so, any luck? I am headed that way in two weeks to visit family and fish the creek.

Thanks

[budman]

Andy we did get to float last week and the fishing was fair. We floated two sections, Snow to Kelly's Slab one day the went up to Old Pyatt Bridge to Snow another day. We all caught some fish, mostly 10-12 inch smallmouth and ozark bass. Everyone caught at least one in the 14-16 inch range and there was even a 15 inch rainbow caught about a mile above Kelly's Slab. If you float from Old Pyatt bridge you better watch out for the big log jamb about 1/4 mile down river,it is a bad one. From the new bridge on down river it was nice and used mostly olive or watermelon grubs, craws, and chompers. Also caught alot of small stuff on Rebel craw crank baits, orange bellies seem to work the best. The locals were fishing below Kelly's Slab with live bait the netted there and we saw a few 18-20 inch fish pulled out around 6 PM that way. Good luck and enjoy.

[Andy & JoAnne]

Sounds like you had fun...A rainbow above Kelly's slab...wow. I am heading down soon and will post a report from Pyatt access to a couple of miless above Snow.

Thanks for sharing

[Westsider]

Andy we did get to float last week and the fishing was fair. We floated two sections, Snow to Kelly's Slab one day the went up to Old Pyatt Bridge to Snow another day. We all caught some fish, mostly 10-12 inch smallmouth and ozark bass. Everyone caught at least one in the 14-16 inch range and there was even a 15 inch rainbow caught about a mile above Kelly's Slab. If you float from Old Pyatt bridge you better watch out for the big log jamb about 1/4 mile down river,it is a bad one. From the new bridge on down river it was nice and used mostly olive or watermelon grubs, craws, and chompers. Also caught alot of small stuff on Rebel craw crank baits, orange bellies seem to work the best. The locals were fishing below Kelly's Slab with live bait the netted there and we saw a few 18-20 inch fish pulled out around 6 PM that way. Good luck and enjoy.

Budman I bet that spot at the logjam above Pyatt bridge has a permanent poop smell!lol