Hwy 101 To The White

[Crooked Creek Angler]

I've done this trip more than a dozen times, though usually in the spring when there is sufficient water to float. It turns into a series of pools usually by early summer. If you are young and tough and a little brave, (there is definitely a thriving population of cottonmouths in the area), you can drag it in a day even when the water is low. You are dead on on the distance, somewhere in the 9-10 mile range.

The AGFC put an access about a mile down from the 101 bridge about 3 or 4 years ago and it's an easy place to put in, (although not terribly well marked). When there's enough water it's a fairly easy float with only a few tight and grown up places. There are quite a few big largemouth in this section with one over 5 not being terribly uncommon. I usually catch more largemouth than smallies, but there are some good smallies as well. Going up from the White is a no-win situation. Another poster was correct in saying you can go about 1/2 a mile, and that section gets fished to death by boaters. I've also walked it and waded it in a day going from some houses about a mile or more up from the White on the south side of the creek up to 101 bridge. Again, that's a trip for the young and in shape, which no longer includes me.

To summarize, can be great fishing, hard to get to, not for people who are afraid of poisonous snakes.

Best of luck,

CCA

p.s. - there are some good gravel bars to camp on. Like the rest of CC it is all private property.

[gotmuddy]

I may try it one monday when it warms up a little. it would definetly be a ALL day ordeal.

[taxidermist]

siusaluki someday you will say the old phart was correct the stream is filling up with gravel.. I can remember when the slab at Harmon was enough water to float i most of the year now it has to have a lot of water, you can almost never get your ankles wet. Same for below Pyatt its not knee deep most of the places.

I have no idea how few years you have been around CC, but I can tell you I grew up fishing the creek beofer Kieth Sutton wrote his stories or anyone thought of a Blue Ribbons Smallmouth stream. My fist trip to CC was somewhere around 1965-1966 and except the years I was overseas I have fished most of the length more than a time or two.

Do you think Forest Wood would stand up and tell people lies about how the creek has filled in since gravelmining stopped? Do you?????? Why dont you read the transcripts of the meeting on gravel mining just a few months back.

So they stopped pulling out thousands of tons of gravel, where do you think it has went the past few years????? McClinton pulls gravel out for many many years from Pyatt and now look how full many of gravel the holes are!

I have seen Bear Creek fill up too many many places from the are of Cottonwood road to the lake.

Long creek to from Denver to the lake.Yep someday the creek will heat tot he point that largemouth will be the only fish in it. Oh Wait thats Happened. Check the difference in temps out over the years.

You have seen the best of CC its long gone, the hay days are in the past.

Just out of curiosity where do you think the thousands of tons of gravel at the mouth of CC in the White river and down White to the area past Angels resort came from.

Even older guides on White River know where the gravel has came from!!! The hole fillup if it he gravel is not removed.

No mining hurts the smallmouth population!

[gotmuddy]

its tough to say about the gravel. There are lots of deep holes below the gravel mining area below snow. There are quite a few holes on the buffalo that are over 10ft deep and there is zero gravel mining.

[taxidermist]

It would be a long float from Dr. Bob's.to 14. might be ok with some rain. Last time I fished down through there is was pretty shallow everywhere. Lots of gravel filled in holes.

As for Buffalo. there are a lot of holes that are gone from 40 years ago and the fact it has a larger basin than CC makes a huge difference. There are a lot of holes in CC that have filled in with gravel. The stretch by Patton Cem, use to be a deep stretch.

We waded and fished a stretch that you could not 6 years ago and now its knee deep, same with Long creek.

We headed out to a place where white bass used to be and I have seen boats there back in the late 1970's and its ankle deep this week.

Look at the area south of Pyatt, its filled in. Harmon Bridge, back in the 1970's it was deep enopugh to float in a flatbootm boat with a 7 hp motor now, its ankle deep.

[KrookedKreekKing]

CC Angler, I appreciate your input. Unless we got a lot of rain, I won't be attempting that stretch anytime soon. I saw a nest of cottonmouths on crooked last weekend. They were warming up on rocks and moving pretty slow, but when you sight three together, right past where you just walked, it will get your heart pumping pretty quick.

Taxi, I am curious about Bear Creek. Is it a good float, or is it too shallow? How is the fishing? Is it possible to put in at Bob's Lane and float down to the 14 Bridge, or are there better floats?

Are you sure you guys aren't just seeing banded watersnakes which are pretty much harmless and very abundant in ozark streams? I float crooked creek and the buffalo all of the time and I rarely see an actuall cottonmouth during the daytime. I'm not trying to say anybody's wrong. I'm just curious because I go with people a lot who see these water snakes, and they always get a little frightened because they think they are cottonmouths. If you're truly educated on this matter and see them quite frequently, feel free to tell me, although there is no reason I would miss them because cottonmouths are easy to spot because they can't swim as well as these watersnakes, and in my experience, aren't too weary of humans either. For those of you who are unsure, look it up, and you'll have much less worry about what's slithering ahead of you.

[Crooked Creek Angler]

Are you sure you guys aren't just seeing banded watersnakes which are pretty much harmless and very abundant in ozark streams? I float crooked creek and the buffalo all of the time and I rarely see an actuall cottonmouth during the daytime. I'm not trying to say anybody's wrong. I'm just curious because I go with people a lot who see these water snakes, and they always get a little frightened because they think they are cottonmouths. If you're truly educated on this matter and see them quite frequently, feel free to tell me, although there is no reason I would miss them because cottonmouths are easy to spot because they can't swim as well as these watersnakes, and in my experience, aren't too weary of humans either. For those of you who are unsure, look it up, and you'll have much less worry about what's slithering ahead of you.

I'm quite familiar with identification of water snakes and have seen hundreds and hundreds of the non-poisonous variety on Crooked creek. In the past 20+ years I have only seen one cottonmouth above the Hwy 14 bridge at Yellville. However, on a hot summer day below the 101 bridge it's not uncommon to see 6 or 8 sure enough cottonmouths, some with bad attitudes. I'm not particularly afraid of any type of snake, poisonous or not, but I tend to give the poisonous ones a little wider berth. I actually used to wade some of the lower end at night alone, Last time I went I almost stepped right on one of the nasty type and decided that was it for me! I still float that section in the daytime though, especially in the spring when the waters cool and the snakes aren't too lively.

I've noticed an increased population of cottonmouths on the lower Buffalo too in the past 5-10 years.

[Harps]

...... although there is no reason I would miss them because cottonmouths are easy to spot because they can't swim as well as these watersnakes.......

Cottonmouths swim quite well in my opinion. They are obvious to me when I (rarely) see them as their bodies ride almost entirely on the water's surface unless they dive. The water snakes bodies are mostly under water and just their heads are at the surface.

Ever wonder what the creek was like before people started mining? Where did that gravel that has choked the stream come from? Perhaps from the hillsides during the early logging era? Mining will not cause much harm to what is already destroyed, but neither will it solve the problem IMO.

[Al Agnew]

Cottonmouths swim quite well in my opinion. They are obvious to me when I (rarely) see them as their bodies ride almost entirely on the water's surface unless they dive. The water snakes bodies are mostly under water and just their heads are at the surface.

Ever wonder what the creek was like before people started mining? Where did that gravel that has choked the stream come from? Perhaps from the hillsides during the early logging era? Mining will not cause much harm to what is already destroyed, but neither will it solve the problem IMO.

I suspect that some of the gravel originally came from the early logging era, but I also suspect a lot of new gravel continues to come into the river from all the development up around Harrison, as well as all along the highway that parallels the river. As I've said here before, I think a lot of people would be amazed at how much new gravel comes into these rivers from all the little tributary creeks and hollows when there is a big rain. If you want to do something about the gravel problem you have to do something about stupid development in the watershed that clears land which shouldn't be cleared.

[Greasy B]

"What were the streams like then?"

I think there is very little documentation on what the streams were like prior to settlement. Few early explorers and settlers were educated enough. I recall comments by one explorer named schoolcraft describing bedding down along rivers in pine beds under huge trees for lack of anywhere open enough to set up camp. Examples of what they looked like are the middle 11pt and the gasconade between nebo and hazelgreen, a stable substrate and very few gravel bars. An example of what they have become would be the Black around Lesterville where the river flows through huge beds of loose gravel.