Best accesses for wade fishing?

[DainW]

Hello everyone,

My dad and I are looking at making a trip to Arkansas to do some fly fishing on Crooked Creek. I'm not looking for any hot spots or anything like that, just what people think is the best access to point to wade fish crooked creek?

Also, anybody have any idea what optimal wading flows are? I think I saw an old post on here that said anything over 13 ft on the Kelly's crossing gauge you need a canoe is that right?  Right now gauge height is 10.5 at Kelly's crossing and with not much rain in the forecast between now and trip time (October 3rd), we should be ok to wade it right?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

[budman]

How far are you wanting to wade and will you have more than one vehicle? You can always go to the Fred Berry Center and hike up to the far end of the property and wade back down to the old low water crossing and be able to wade most of that. Have done this a few time and always caught fish, some times lots. If you have two vehicles you can turn on Harmon road and then take Crooked Creek Dr and wade from the low water crossing on McDonald Rd down stream to the Harmon Bridge, this is a short wade. You can also turn off that McDonald Rd onto Sharp Ln and wade back to the low water crossing on McDonald R., about twice as long as the other. There are parking in both places. Did both of the a couple spring ago and caught good fish on both. On the upper section we had to swim a short section of the creek to keep from bush wacking those sections. 

[Danimal]

Snow access might be wadeable upstream for a ways too. Might want to give it a look while you're there.

[DainW]

Ok thanks guys. Budman, we'll only have 1 vehicle, but when we smallmouth fish usually just like to find an access and wade/fish as far upstream as we can until we get too tired to go any further or don't think it's productive to go further. Then turn back around fish the holes that were most productive on the way back. Where is the Fred Berry Center exactly? That sounds like a solid plan.

Danimal I also saw snow access and thought that might be a good one to try. I'm assuming most people probably fish the stretch from Kelly to Yellville right, which I would think would mean snow access would see less pressure. Are fish populations more or less the same for most of the river?

[Al Agnew]

Once again on my crusade to have people use the flow in cubic feet per second, rather than the stage in feet, on the river gauges...as you already know, 10.5 feet tells you exactly nothing unless you already know how much water that stream is carrying at 10.5 feet.  But 124 cfs, which is what Crooked Creek is flowing at Kelly's Slab as I write this, IS how much water it's carrying.  Now...as long as you remember that ANY typical Ozark stream flowing between 75 and 150 cfs is floatable by canoe or kayak but not flowing enough water to be jetboat friendly, if it's flowing around 50-75 cfs it's barely floatable and you'd do a lot of scraping bottom and some dragging, and anything below 50 cfs is more wading than floating, that will give you a pretty good idea of what Crooked Creek looks like at Kelly's Slab any time you read the gauge.  Translating that to wading, you'd be running into problems wading over 150 cfs, though probably still doable up to 250 cfs or so if you don't mind deep wading in strong current.  75-150 cfs, wadeable except for the occasional deep pool.  Under 75 cfs, mostly easy wading except for the deepest pools.

Now...you can modify this system a bit depending on the size of the stream at normal flows.  For instance, the lower Buffalo at 75 cfs, being a much wider river than Crooked Creek because there's a hundred miles of river upstream on the Buffalo compared to maybe 40 miles or so on Crooked Creek, will be a different wading experience than Crooked Creek at 75 cfs.  Longer pools, some of them deep enough that it would be hard to wade them and fish productively.  But the riffles on the Buffalo at 125 cfs would still be easily wadeable, same as Crooked Creek.

Of course, the farther you go above the gauge, the smaller the stream is and the less it's flowing.  If it looks a bit heavy at Kelly's Slab when you get there, Snow might be better, and Harmon will be even easier to wade.

[budman]

it is just west of Yellville where the Old Kelly Slab used to be. It has been replaced by a nice new high bridge. Google map it and look for Road 402 just west of yellville and it will lead you to the Fred Berry Center and what is known as kellys slab. You may be able to drive half way back and park just below the center and walk the rest of the way on a dirt road/trail. Once you hit the river you can wade up stream a while and fish your way back down stream. There are several shoals and some deep holes to work. Several year ago I was fishing the area in the back of the property and caught 15 smallmouth and a 14 inch rainbow with my first fly rod. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Yellville,+AR+72687/@36.2447549,-92.7157809,263m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x87ce161cb7b0e7b1:0xf0bc5db704a10ddc This is a link to google map of the area. Hope the map works for you.

[DainW]

Al thank you for the information about flows. I figured 124 CFS would probably be wadeable flows for Crooked Creek, but I had no point of reference. Usually when I plan a trip to a new river, I try to dig up as much information from old posts as I can, before asking a question, so I don't ask something that's already been answered. In the posts I looked through, the only real references I could find to stream flow on this forum, people were using gauge height so that's why I framed my question that way, since that was my only real frame of reference. It's honestly the first time in my life that I've ever used the gauge height graph on a USGS page. I agree, CFS is a much better reading to use as it's a measure of how much water is actually flowing past the gauge at any given time. Honestly, it was probably a "duh" question to ask, because on my home stream, Baron Fork Creek in NE Oklahoma, 124 CFS is very friendly to wade fishing (I've actually fished it and been relatively successful all the way up to 350 CFS), and Crooked Creek is a wider stream channel than the Baron Fork.  I just wanted to make sure that I did ask about the flows though because it'll be a 5 hour trip for us and I want to make sure I'm doing my due diligence in researching the stream beforehand. 

 

Budman, so it sounds like Fred Berry is the Kelly Slab access then, if I'm not mistaken correct? Sounds like it should be easy enough to find.

 

So the question is for anyone that wants to chime in on this, between Kelly's Slab access and Snow access, which one has better fishing?  

[budman]

I just fish Baron Fork for the first time today. Was at the Salvation Army camp and waded up stream from there and caught several nice smallmouth and some blue gill and one largemouth. Good day with my flyrod. There wasn't any fly that worked better than the other. Used a minnow pattern in the holes just below the shoals, a wooly bugger or pistol pete in the eddies and a brown and tan craw in the really deep holes. Baron Fork reminded me alot of the upper part of Crooked Creek, good wading area and it looks like I could float it in my kayak. DainW can you give hints of this great looking creek.

[joeD]

October can be, is, a very tough time to catch fish on CC. Regardless where you go. No spot is better than any other. If the weather stays the same, the water will be relatively low, and very clear. Still, beats the alternative. Go fish and find out for yourself.

[DainW]

Yeah baron fork is pretty sweet. Lots of fish, but have never caught anything huge. Always had my best luck from the proctor access on highway 62 and wading upstream as far as you can go. Never caught anything larger than about 2 lbs, but usually catch quite a few. Lots of craw dad and sculpin in the river. Creek crawlers, woollies, clousers all have been productive for me over there