How Far Can I Float In A Day?

[Gavin]

40 miles in 2.5 days is a ton of work. Can do it but I don't like it much. Baptist to Cedar is a long day float if you want to catch fish. Can take a couple days to figure out the big brown trout bite. Cedar to Akets. Fine day float, but best off season overnight. Akers to Pulltite. Fishing stinks, maybe 10 miles. Usually fish in the cooler for that float. 5-6 hours. Pulltite to Round is about 10ish. bought 7 hours usually.

[ozark trout fisher]

How far can I paddle and how far can I effectively fish in a given period of time are two entirely different things. 40 miles in 2.5 days is easy if you aren't fishing, but would be an absolute nightmare if you are. I wouldn't consider more than 30 under any circumstances, and would lean more towards 20 or less.

I'd just do Baptist to Akers over the three days and take it really easy. The trout fishing never tails off much throughout that stretch-and you don't have to ever worry about leaving a good hole because you're short on time. That's no way to fish a river like the Current, because fishing from the canoe/kayak is rarely the best option. You'll essentially be paddling from one wade-fishing location to another.

[2sheds]

Plenty of sound advice here - you can tell there are lots of good options. But I will aim some comments at the other themes of your summer weekend trek.

If you want solitude and fishing, definitely put in at Baptist in the 1st wave to stay ahead of the early traffic. I'm torn between take out at Pulltite (25 mi) and take out at Akers (16 mi). Either is excellent scenery. Choose your campsites based on likely river traffic (Put In & TakeOut locations and time of day). If you float downstream of Akers, there will be more floaters and you will need to pull over to let them pass while napping in the shade. Come prepared to enjoy the bikini hatch. Best fishing will be early and late anyway.

PS - If you enjoy maps, Carrs (perhaps others) used to sell a very nice topo set in 6 panels that covered Tan Vat to Round Springs containing some handy campsite and landmark info.

PPS - My son and I routinely floated 100 miles from Baptist to Big Spring - easy 5 days (Mon-Fri), plenty of time for gourmet cooking, lounging, and fishing. My rule of thumb is that your travel rate (miles per day) is inversely proportional to the square of the number of canoes in your party. With just one, its easy to be efficient. The more canoes in your party, the longer to make decisions, break camp, stop here & there, et al.

[Ehop8605]

It all depends on what you want your focus to be. I've done floats where the main focus is fishing and in those cases have found that 6-10 miles/day is about right depending on what part of the river and what the flow of the river is. Mid and late summer it is typically a little lower so if you want to focus on fishing more than floating lean towards the shorter distances to cover in a day. If you plan to only fish here and there and mainly focus on floating you can easily do 10-15 miles. Baptist to Akers is probably my favorite stretch of the current river and I have done that in a single day several times but did not do much fishing. Further down stream I have found that the same distance of trip become tedious due to the slower flow. Below Akers I have found that when fishing a lot do not plan to cover nearly as much ground. Even when not fishing I wouldn't try to cover more that 10-12 miles in a day below Akers if you want to enjoy the scenery and take the time to relax. But like I said...its really personal preference when it come to what you want to do on the float and how much paddling you want to do.

[King]

Well, just thought I would follow up on this topic. I did get the chance to float this stretch a few weeks ago with a few buds. (Cedar Grove to Round Springs 2.5 days)

Carrs Canoe Rental provided a car shuttle. They were friendly and professional. $50 for them to bring my truck back to Round Springs.

As far as distance goes, we didn't have any trouble. Like most of our trips, we averaged right around 1 mile per hour.

This includes floating/fishing with the current, stopping to fish, stopping to eat, stopping to sight see, couple swimming sessions, etc.

The scenery was great and the fishing was a little slow. I did manage to land a 15 in pickerel as well as a 17 in smallie, amongst several small goggle eyes.

The only down side to this float was the company. It seems like there were a thousand party floaters with us.

Drunk and loud was the theme. One group used their paddles as drum sticks on the side of their canoes and sang White Stripes songs. Actually they weren't that bad come to think of it.

We were also passed by several calmer floaters and some family kayakers as well.

I bet we didn't have more than ten minutes of seclusion during the entire 2.5 days barring the camp time.

On my next float I'll be looking for something a little more secluded.

[Flysmallie]

I bet we didn't have more than ten minutes of seclusion during the entire 2.5 days barring the camp time.

Sounds like a typical Current River float.

Still seems like you had a good time. It's always good to be on the river, it's just better to be out there without the Karaoke Bar.

[jibro]

yeah thats why i wont float the current or the meracec/huzzah/coutois in the summer on a weekend. before memorial day and after labor day you are fine on the weekends but the summer brings out the party floaters. big piney is great any time of year, hardly run into anyone there and its not much farther. we went on memorial day weekend and only came across 4 other canoes.

[2sheds]

Hey King,

Growing up in StL, I used to float ONLY the Current. As an adult driving up from Texas, I would budget a week-long float trip every year. Only complaint was the party floaters. I could work out strategies to minimize our interactions, but never found a way to escape.

Then a shuttle driver told me to try the Eleven Point from Alton down to Riverton or The Narrows. Its a longer drive, but that also dramatically limits the party crowd. Check it out. Contact Brian Sloss at Eleven Point Canoe for current river conditions and fishing trends. Beautiful wilderness float ! I would also rate the summer-season fishing two clicks better than Current+Jacks Fork.

[SmallyWally]

Hey King,

Then a shuttle driver told me to try the Eleven Point from Alton down to Riverton or The Narrows. Its a longer drive, but that also dramatically limits the party crowd. Check it out. Contact Brian Sloss at Eleven Point Canoe for current river conditions and fishing trends. Beautiful wilderness float ! I would also rate the summer-season fishing two clicks better than Current+Jacks Fork.

Definitely. Thumbs up.