Help Al, And Other Regulars

[Mark]

A partner and I are heading down to Eminence area next week and wanting to fish the Round Springs area or below. We would like to camp near an access and camp out near my truck - not wanting to work that hard to set up and tear down camp daily nor spend all day for several days in a canoe (back and knees get sore!), so we are looking for a base camp instead of float camping. More of a relaxing trip than working hard everyday!! Thinking we could find a gravel bar within a 100 yards of an access so we can get to my truck if we need to go to town or go sightseeing. I have my canoe with 2.5 HP motor and hoping to find a place where we can fish upstream and downstream 2-3 miles each way. Can you recommend any access where there is plenty of water to use my motor to get around upstream and downstream? I need about 18" of water for my motor. I don't mind walking canoe thru a few shallow ripples, just don't want to walk thru long stretches all day long. I guess I am assuming there is plenty of water in that stretch at Round Springs and below. We don't necessarily have to camp near Round Springs. Williams Landing, Jerktail, or any access in that stretch would work if I can get my canoe upstream and downstream and back to base camp. I was thinking of Round Springs because we may want to do a short float one day (8-10 miles is about my daily limit) and maybe find a local to pay to help me shuttle my truck to a takeout and figure there will be people at Round Springs campground I may be able to talk into or I believe Carr's canoe rental is at Round Springs.

It will be my first time on that stretch of the Current and have read the fishing and scenery is good. Any advice to suit our needs would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Mark

[Gavin]

Thinking below Two Rivers if you want to run a prop. Powdermill might work...Run up to Owls Bend and Pitch a tent.

[Mark]

How is the fishing/scenery in that stretch? From what I've read on hear, Round Springs to Eminence is good fishing and great scenery.

So in your opinion, the water below Round Springs would be too shallow for prop?????

[Gavin]

Its the Current River...its outstanding scenery. Fishing is good to great in most stretches...except Akers to Round..Might want to set up a base camp in the Park Service campgrounds...There are CG's at Round, Two Rivers, Jerktail, Powdermill,. There is usually a host at the bigger CG's...some maintenance workers, and LEO's patrol too.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, the riffles above Two Rivers are sometimes runnable by prop but more often not. And the pools are short up there, so to get enough away from the established accesses to matter, you'll have to get through at least a couple of riffles. Otherwise might as well do as Gavin suggested and stay in the campgrounds. Below Two Rivers the pools are longer and the riffles deeper, and you might be able to easily get away from the accesses. You might check out Logyard. Easy to get to, and there's actually some pretty nice gravel bars that you can almost drive to there. You can also try to figure out how to drive to the river across from Blue Spring. It's one of those unofficial accesses, but I've seen people there a lot. The stretch from Two Rivers to Logyard is beautiful scenery and still good fishing, just lots of jetboats, but then again Round Spring to Two Rivers has lots of jetboats on weekends, too.

[Mark]

OK - I've camped at Logyard. We are wanting to go somewhere new. I haven't seen any of the river from Akers to Logyard. And we are going in middle of week so hopefully jetboats won't be too bad. We'll probably pick a FS campground and work upstream, in case we would shear a pin or break a prop, at least we can float back to camp. So I've narrowed it down to Jerktail or an access below Twin Rivers. Makes sense that there is more water below Two Rivers. My buddy is a little skittish in a canoe and not wanting to dump. Thanks for the advice and if any more advice out there, we would gladly consider. So much river I want to see. Looking forward to a new adventure

[Al Agnew]

Might seriously check out that spot across from Blue Spring. I think you get to it from a road turning off on the west side of Powdermill. It's a primitive campground. Don't know how good the road is leading into it.

Depending upon what kind of vehicle you have, you might also be able to drive down to Williams Landing and go downstream a bit. I think there is a road that goes down the river from the access at Williams Landing, never been on it but locals use it apparently.

If you don't have the Chuck Tryon book, 200 Missouri Smallmouth Adventures, try to get it. He knocked around a lot down there and explored all the passable roads.

[2sheds]

There is a non-managed driveable potential campsite (no facilities) within ONSR near Owl's Bend ACROSS from the Powdermill Access & Blue Spring (5 miles downstream from Two Rivers). The upper end is at river level, the lower end has a nice bluff overlook that I enjoy camping at on my Baptist to VanBuren float trips. I have never driven in, but have walked the dirt road back to 106. You might be able to launch from the campsite areas, but worst case would be a short drive across the river to the Powdermill Access. Latrine, but no potable water at Powdermill. I think the smallmouth fishing should be pretty good around there. I remember floating downstream a few hundred yards to some nice spots (honestly remember the paddling upstream, more than the floating down). Maps updated per Al's corrections (dang it, he's just about always right !).

[Mark]

Very good Twosheds! Definitely will check it out.

[Al Agnew]

Actually though, Blue Spring is downstream from where 2sheds shows it, it's the little bit of blue that comes into the river near the bottom edge of his posted map. It's about 1.5 miles below Powdermill. The place I was talking about is at the end of the road that goes along where he shows the camping possibilities. Right across from Blue Spring, as I remember, is a big somewhat grown over gravel bar.