Secluded Multi-Day Float Suggestions

[TroutRinger]

I appreciate your comments on my thread about the Devil's River. With a baby on the way this summer, there are too many unknowns to make that kind of trip work this year, but I am working on it for next year.

My friend and I do want to do a 3-4 day/2-3 night overnighter on a remote stretch of stream probably the weekend before or after Memorial Day. I was thinking lower Buffalo from Buffalo Point/Rush to the White River or the upper Jacks Fork above Alley. While I have not experienced these particular sections of the rivers, I believe both get very little traffic and are quite beautiful.

The only thing holding me back from just picking one of those two is that I have floated both of those rivers many times (just not those sections), and I really wanted to make it a point this year to float some new streams. So far I have been on Little Niangua, Big Niangua, Big River, Meramec, Huzzah, Elk, James, Finley, Big Piney, Buffalo, Current, and Jacks Fork. That leaves Bryant, White River, North Fork, 11 Point, Gasconade, Osage Fork, Big Sugar, St. Francis, Black, Kings, Shoal, Courtois, Spring...might be missing a couple more...unexplored.

Do any of those, or others that I have not mentioned, offer similar scenery, solitude, and decent fishing for a ~15-25 mile stretch? I am content with both the lower Buffalo or Upper JF, if you all do not think anything else fits the bill better.

Thanks in advance

[Lvn2Fish]

My favorite is the 11 pt ! Upper is good if you have the water . But I’ve never been south of Riverton . I usually float Greer to Riverton a couple of times a year . Makes for a nice two day float . If you add Thomasville or cane bluff it’s easily a three dayer. 

[TroutRinger]

7 hours ago, Lvn2Fish said:

My favorite is the 11 pt ! Upper is good if you have the water . But I’ve never been south of Riverton . I usually float Greer to Riverton a couple of times a year . Makes for a nice two day float . If you add Thomasville or cane bluff it’s easily a three dayer. 

I wonder what Thomasville to Turner would be like around June 1 as far as water levels?

What’s the scenery like up there? Anything compared with to Upper JF or lower Buffalo?

[Terrierman]

41 minutes ago, TroutRinger said:

I wonder what Thomasville to Turner would be like around June 1 as far as water levels?

What’s the scenery like up there? Anything compared with to Upper JF or lower Buffalo?

Not the same kind of scenery, but predictably good water and fishing.  NFS campsites accessible only by river are very handy indeed.

[Al Agnew]

You simply won't find scenery comparable to the upper Jacks Fork or lower end of the Buffalo.  Even the other parts of the Jacks Fork and Buffalo don't compare to it, except the upper Buffalo downstream from Ponca for 10 or 12 miles is better yet, though different.  Even if you've floated the middle Buffalo, you won't be prepared for what the lower end is like.  And there's a huge difference between the Jacks Fork above Alley Spring and the JF below Alley.

The two stream sections are quite different in some ways but very similar in others.  Both the lower end of the Buffalo and the upper Jacks Fork have NO flat bottomland, they are nearly canyons, wooded all the way from the top of the ridges to the edge of the river, nothing but bluffs, trees, and gravel bars.  The lower Buffalo is almost wilderness, with little or no human settlement for a long way from the river, so you won't hear anything manmade except for jet airplanes passing over.  The upper JF is a narrow canyon with gently rolling uplands adjacent to it, so human activities are not more than a mile from the river in many places and you'll hear the occasional lawn mower, tractor, or automobile in the distance.  Plus, the upper JF has several accesses, while the lower Buffalo doesn't have any real accesses between Rush and the White River.  But still, you won't see many signs of people on the JF.

However, in that time period, you probably will encounter at least a few other floaters on the Buffalo, and if there is enough water, quite a few on the JF.

As for your other rivers you listed, some of them are more likely to furnish solitude...especially if you're willing to put up with low water levels by going higher up on the stream.  If solitude is what you're seeking, hope for low water levels and do one like the upper Kings River, upper half of Bryant Creek, Eleven Point from Thomasville to Greer, Osage Fork, upper Gasconade (well above the stretch that Gasconade Hills services), or the St. Francis.  I'd rate the scenery fairly similar on all those except the St. Francis, which is unique among floatable Ozark streams.  I wouldn't recommend floating the whitewater sections, but you could start at Silvermines and float downstream as far as you wished to cover.  There are a lot of difficult passages on the St. Francis above the Highway C-N bridge, rocky rapids and willow jungles, but the landscape is scenic, interesting, and very different from most Ozark streams (and the fishing can be quite good).

[MickinMO]

Big Sugar can be some awesome fishing, but that is more of a half day float and stay in Pineville or Anderson type of thing to do multiple days in a row. Lot of snakes in Big Sugar fyi. Use live crawdads. Personally, I would do the 11 point, upper Current, or upper Jacks Fork. Gasconade has too many jet boats no matter where it seems you are.

[Smalls21]

IMO, there is no better river than the Buffalo!

[TroutRinger]

On 4/17/2018 at 9:05 AM, Smalls21 said:

IMO, there is no better river than the Buffalo!

Can’t argue there. I am amazed everytime I float or hike it. 

[drew03cmc]

On 4/16/2018 at 9:54 PM, MickinMO said:

Big Sugar can be some awesome fishing, but that is more of a half day float and stay in Pineville or Anderson type of thing to do multiple days in a row. Lot of snakes in Big Sugar fyi. Use live crawdads. Personally, I would do the 11 point, upper Current, or upper Jacks Fork. Gasconade has too many jet boats no matter where it seems you are.

Live craws? Catch and release is the aim here. The upper Gasconade is way too small for jets, so there's that option. Maybe go upstream on Pomme as well? I don't know anyone who floats this water, but it seems like it would be amazing. 

[MOPanfisher]

Problem on upper Pomme is that there isn't much of it.  If you go very far up there are not many accesses or places to camp.  Crooked Creek is another option.