Flat Creek - Advice Needed

[chub minnow]

Our trip was June 11-14th starting at the low water bridge at McDowell. We floated 3-4 miles to some point upstream of Stubblefield access the first night. This was the area where we caught several crappie as well as lots of bass. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise that would signal the start of a great day. At some point a few miles downstream there was a bluff that was absolutely covered in growth thanks to the numerous waterfalls seeping out between the rocks.

Camp the second night was in the national forest stretch I believe (between 39 and EE). We woke up to a heavy fog that was as slow to rise as we were on this Sunday morning. We ate a HUGE breakfast of 24 eggs, 2 pounds of sausage, 4 peppers, 2 onions and a bunch of greens.

We did finally get going and headed out for highway EE bridge where we would be losing three members of the party. This stretch is pretty shallow, but we still managed to catch lots of little fish, including a nice catfish that would be part of Sunday night dinner. Once we departed from highway EE bridge we were down to the three buddies that have been hanging out since high school. At some point in the afternoon we digressed to our youth and put away the poles in favor of a few of the numerous rope swings (I swear there is one on every bend of this stretch of river).

After this, the river starts to pick up speed and current as it plunges faster towards the old James River. We camped just a few miles above the start of flat water for the night and had a dinner of beans and greens with catfish and goggleye. We hung out all morning the next morning after another huge egg breakfast and joked about old times until the storm clouds started gathering. We had been worried about flooding the whole trip, but now we weren't worried because we were close to the lake. We should have hurried a little more.

We fished our way into the lake I managed a nice little walleye right before our own private hell started, at least for the two of us in canoes. The wind started to pick up right as the lake widened and our progress was limited to a crawl while expending huge amounts of energy just to keep the boat heading into the wind. The two of us watched the kayak disappear around the final turn as we tying together to battle the wind in tandem (at least we would have a paddle in the water on both sides!). We did finally make it to the dock at the Flat Creek Grill and headed up to have a burger. That tasted great after 4 days of beans, greens and fish. Once we loaded two canoes a kayak and all our gear in the (short) bed of pickup we made our way (slowly) back to the put in to see if the shuttle car was still there after 4 days. Thankfully it was fine.

[RSBreth]

Awesome report and pictures, I just wish you'd posted it sooner!

At any rate I'm glad you guys had a great time. Trips like this are why the Ozarks are such a great place to live, even if you are close to civilization you can go and get a little taste of the wild, if only for a few days.

Thanks again.

[ollie]

Thanks for the report! Sounds like you had a good time.