Water Level On The Lower Miles

[budman]

We plan on floating from Rush to the White Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. Looked at the water levels and at Harriet it says 2.65 ft and 189cfs. We have never floated this section so I have no idea if this is any good or will we be dragging long sections. Does anyone have any experience in this area and give us any insight on the floating and fishing.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Sounds kind of late unless there are some good rains. You Might check with Miles at Riley's Station. He has always been pretty open and he knows the lower Buffalo.

If you need a shuttle they used to do them pretty reasonable. You drive to there place at Buffalo Point and he rides back to Rush with you. You take out at his place on The White, across the river from the Buffalo, where your vehicle is kept on private property.

[budman]

I am sure that we are using Riley's Station to shuttle our truck/Trailer. That is a good idea to call Miles.

[Al Agnew]

189 cfs is okay. If it drops below 100 cfs be prepared to do some dragging and scraping in the wider riffles. You won't have to drag long sections, just short riffles, but the pools will be very slow so you have to paddle steadily between riffles.

[budman]

Thanks for the response Al. After posting this question I started looking at older post and found the one you posted about cfs and floating Ozark Streams. Good information. We plan on floating three day and camping two nights. Hope to fish as much as possible with both fly and spin. Have been on all the middle section so I expect to use the same lures on the lower section. We have been told there are lots of great camping and we can get the chance to catch a few trout closer to the White.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I wish I could remember exactly where is was when we floated it, but I belive it was a little higher and wr had some long drags on the lower end. I remember one bed rock are that was a long slick walk.

Camping gravel is everywhere and generally on a nice long pool with a lot of fishig water to work in the evening..

[Al Agnew]

Yeah Wayne, that bedrock stretch can be a pain. Last time I floated it, around the first of November, it was flowing about 75 cfs and we had to walk the bedrock section. I don't think it would be too big a problem at more than 100 cfs, but I could be wrong.

Keep in mind that the days are shorter now. If you're used to overnight floats in the summer, you'll find you can't cover nearly as much water and still fish effectively in the fall. I don't mind floating 12 miles or more per day in the summer, but can't fish more than about 8 miles or so a day by October. When we floated it in November I really wanted to fish the good pools hard with jerkbaits, but we were doing it in three days and simply didn't have enough time to slow down and fish jerkbaits...I would have preferred floating no more than five or six miles per day by that late date.

[joeD]

good luck budman!

maybe you'll be different from all those other seldom posters who have grand plans of epic multi day floats, only to, um, let' see, NOT do it!

not you though.

[Ham]

Keep in mind that the days are shorter now. If you're used to overnight floats in the summer, you'll find you can't cover nearly as much water and still fish effectively in the fall. I don't mind floating 12 miles or more per day in the summer, but can't fish more than about 8 miles or so a day by October. When we floated it in November I really wanted to fish the good pools hard with jerkbaits, but we were doing it in three days and simply didn't have enough time to slow down and fish jerkbaits...I would have preferred floating no more than five or six miles per day by that late date.

Excellent point.

During the winter/early spring trout certainly do move up the Buffalo from the White, but I wouldn't count on catching too many until you get to that last pool that connects to the White this time of year.

Good Luck with your trip. It should be awesome

[budman]

Unless the weather turns really bad we are going. Will pack rain gear and we plan on carrying a tarp in case we need something to sit under in the evenings. I will try to post some pictures if I can figure it out. I fished the Arkansas River in Tulsa a few weeks ago and caught several channel cat with my fly rod and tried to post a couple pictures but it said they were too big. What do I need to do to be able to post about our trip.