On the River - A history of the Ozarks float trip

[Quillback]

Looks like it was published this summer.  I have not read it, but may pick it up.  Description in the link:

Ozarks Book Series - Ozarks Studies Institute - Missouri State

[dpitt]

4 hours ago, Quillback said:

Looks like it was published this summer.  I have not read it, but may pick it up.  Description in the link:

Ozarks Book Series - Ozarks Studies Institute - Missouri State

Looks good, might pick it up too. thanks!

[Quillback]

Ordered my copy today.  Came across this video of an interview with the authors which gave me a better sense of what the book was about. 

 

Sense of Community | On the River, A History of the Ozarks Float Trip | PBS

[DADAKOTA]

Can't wait to read it.  My wife's Grandparents owned the Drug Store in Galena for many years.  Her Grandpa used to organize and guide trips on James River.

[Dutch]

Does that book mention Earl Dotson?  He was an old river guide who lived down Spring Creek from our farm.

[Quillback]

26 minutes ago, Dutch said:

Does that book mention Earl Dotson?  He was an old river guide who lived down Spring Creek from our farm.

Sounds familiar, maybe they mentioned him in the video.  I'll let you know once I get the book.  

[Terrierman]

The history of the James River is quite remarkable in the history of Ozarks floating.  We're blessed to be able to use it as often and as easily as we can today.  We're also blessed the clean water regulations we have in place now have brought that river back to the great resource it is and should always be.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Does anyone offer the old style guided float trips anymore?   I read some stories about them on The White before dam construction.  

[Al Agnew]

Looking forward to reading the book.  I've done a lot of research over the years about the history of float fishing.  I watched the PBS interview with the authors, and they didn't say anything in it that I didn't already know.  

Table Rock and Bull Shoals put an end to the classic Ozark float trips, from Galena to Taneycomo and from Taneycomo to Cotter.  I've seen old photos of the White River that was buried by those dams, and it never fails to sadden me that I was born too late to experience the White when it was the quintessential Ozark smallmouth river.  Geez, it was beautiful.  I'm not sure the fishing was all that great, though.  Some of the stringers of fish being proudly held up in those old photos were not as impressive as the fish that any good Ozark river angler could amass today.  Too many people subsistence fishing, too many things messing up the rivers, like the big log and tie rafts, burning the hillsides every spring, etc.  In many of those old photos the trees in the background were sparse and scraggly, because all the good timber had been logged off and the second growth was just beginning to grow.

One of my favorite books for reading about the way things were back then is actually just a book about bass fishing in general..."Freshwater Bass", by Ray Bergman, who was the long time fishing editor for Outdoor Life magazine back in the 40s and 50s.  The White River was one of his favorite places to fish, even though he lived in New York, and parts of several chapters describe trips on the White.  But one whole chapter was dedicated to Ozark float fishing.  It started out with he and his wife coming to Branson, and finding the White blown out from heavy rains.  Jim Owen, who he always used for his floats, called around all over the area to try to find fishable water (probably an adventure itself considering the phone service in those days), and finally found that the Buffalo River was low and clear. None of Jim's guides had ever floated the Buffalo, but they loaded up the boats and headed south.  Bergman didn't say the stretch they floated, but it included the section below Woolum.  Because, he describes coming upon a stretch of several miles where the river was nearly dry, and the stretch from just below Woolum to Margaret White Spring does dry up in dry summers; it's a losing reach.  So they got to that stretch, which he described as not having enough water to "float an axe chip", and there they were with fully loaded 20 foot wooden johnboats.  But they luckily found a farmer there that had a team of mules, and the mules dragged those boats down that four mile reach!

He described the river as being extremely clear, and the fish very spooky.  He finally started catching them on his fly rod with extremely light leader (not monofilament in those days), until he hooked and broke off a four pounder.  He also described the river as the most beautiful he'd ever seen--one of many people to say that.

[Terrierman]

14 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Does anyone offer the old style guided float trips anymore?   I read some stories about them on The White before dam construction.  

I've done a few in the Shawnee.  Grandsons before they owned canoes and kayaks.  That Shawnee is about as close to the old jons they used as it needs to be.