Howdy and a few questions

[BeefRavioli]

Hello All! 

I hope you do not mind a Buckeye invading your forum. My parents are from Southwest Arkansas and they lived in the Ozark's for a period of time, so I have some Arky blood in me.

Anyways, my 17 year old son and I will be taking a father/son roadtrip this summer that is culminating with a Striper fishing trip on Lake Ouachita. Prior to that we would like to hang out in NW Arkansas for a bit and would love to float a small river or stream and do some fishing from the canoe. We will have to rent the canoe as we will not be bringing one with us down.

Any suggestions you could share with me would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks and I look forward to your responses!

[BeefRavioli]

Hmmmmm....43 views and no comments. Is this the right forum? If not, could you please direct me to the right forum to ask the question?

Or, maybe it is the Buckeye thing 

 

Thanks again!

[Mitch f]

I'm not from the area but you could try the Ouachita River.

[tho1mas]

Change your desired fishing location to about 80 miles north. Then you will get some help from these good guys.

Have fun on your trip.

[Mitch f]

Try the Little Missouri as well

[BeefRavioli]

4 hours ago, tho1mas said:

Change your desired fishing location to about 80 miles north. Then you will get some help from these good guys.

Have fun on your trip.

I am open to any suggestions in the whole region. We still ultimately will end up in the Ouachita region as there is family there.

Thanks!

[Whiskey Joe]

I gotta little Arky in me too, Grandfather was a coal miner on Short Mountain near Paris, got married there.

Look into Mulberry River. I passed over it driving the Pig Trail. Beautiful river! May have trout, very spring fed looking river. We had to stop and dip a toe in it, just too pretty to pass up.

I have floated the Buffalo River. Another real pretty river. Caught a few smallies, nothing of size, but we were canoeing more than floating.

I stayed in a air conditioned Tee Pee on the Little Missouri River. It looks slower and more like the rivers around here (Meramec, Gasconade, Big Piney) so probably better fishing, but not as pretty as the fast, rocky, Mulberry and Buffalo.

If I had to choose between the 3, uh, it'd be tough. Probably the Mulberry because it looks most remote and interesting.

 

Good luck and please report back.

 

Whiskey

 

[Danimal]

No trout in the Mulberry, but decent numbers of smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass. I've never seen any smallies bigger than 15 or 16 inches come out of the river, but I've caught largemouth up to about 6 pounds from it. A couple of other streams you might want to check out a little further east of the Mulberry are Big Piney Creek and the Illinois Bayou. Both are north of Russellville and have good fishing along with great scenery. Turner Bend Outfitters and Byrd's Adventure Center rent canoes on the Mulberry. Contact Moore Outdoors for the other 2 streams that I mentioned. Hope this helps -- good luck!

[BeefRavioli]

On 3/11/2016 at 1:31 PM, Whiskey Joe said:

I gotta little Arky in me too, Grandfather was a coal miner on Short Mountain near Paris, got married there.

Look into Mulberry River. I passed over it driving the Pig Trail. Beautiful river! May have trout, very spring fed looking river. We had to stop and dip a toe in it, just too pretty to pass up.

I have floated the Buffalo River. Another real pretty river. Caught a few smallies, nothing of size, but we were canoeing more than floating.

I stayed in a air conditioned Tee Pee on the Little Missouri River. It looks slower and more like the rivers around here (Meramec, Gasconade, Big Piney) so probably better fishing, but not as pretty as the fast, rocky, Mulberry and Buffalo.

If I had to choose between the 3, uh, it'd be tough. Probably the Mulberry because it looks most remote and interesting.

 

Good luck and please report back.

 

Whiskey

 

 

15 hours ago, Danimal said:

No trout in the Mulberry, but decent numbers of smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass. I've never seen any smallies bigger than 15 or 16 inches come out of the river, but I've caught largemouth up to about 6 pounds from it. A couple of other streams you might want to check out a little further east of the Mulberry are Big Piney Creek and the Illinois Bayou. Both are north of Russellville and have good fishing along with great scenery. Turner Bend Outfitters and Byrd's Adventure Center rent canoes on the Mulberry. Contact Moore Outdoors for the other 2 streams that I mentioned. Hope this helps -- good luck!

Thanks so much for some direction! We have been looking at the Buffalo (online pics are very beautiful) but I am a bit concerned that it may be a very busy river. I will check out the other spots as well. Hope to be able to give you guys a report when its all said and done. The trip is not till June, so who know's if I will remember by then. Thanks again!

[Al Agnew]

On summer weekends, any river that has canoe rentals will be busy, but go during the week and most are uncrowded.  You are limited by two things...by mid-summer most of the rivers in northwest Arkansas will be getting too low to float, and not all of them have canoe rentals.  The Mulberry is usually getting pretty low by the end of June.  The Buffalo might be too low above St. Joe.  The Kings River is another option, with one or two canoe rentals, and it's almost always got enough water in the lower portions.  I believe there's also at least one canoe rental on War Eagle Creek.  If you want to go up into Missouri, there are a plethora of canoe rentals on the Elk River.

Farther down toward where you'll end up, the Ouachita is nice, usually has enough water, and has a few canoe rentals.  Another choice down in that area is the Caddo.

I don't think there's any one river out of those I mentioned that has far and away better fishing.  All are beautiful, but the Buffalo is a cut above the rest in scenery.