AGFC fish sampling

[Quillback]

Fisheries biologists in north-central Arkansas recently evaluated Crooked Creek's sportfish populations from Pyatt to the Yellville access. Sampling revealed a healthy population of Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Ozark Bass, and Longear Sunfish, including numerous quality-sized Smallmouth Bass!

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission maintains six designated public access points along the river, with the sections between Pyatt and Yellville representing the most popular floating sections.  For optimal floating conditions, we advise checking the United States Geological Survey (USGS) real-time gage data. For an enjoyable float, we recommend targeting river gage levels between 11 and 12.5 feet. Always wear a life jacket and check weather conditions and the USGS gage station before your trip.

Fishing Crooked Creek provides an excellent opportunity to enjoy the Arkansas outdoors this summer. We encourage you to explore a river or stream near you soon!

Smallmouth Bass sampled on Crooked Creek

[Dutch]

What’s an Ozark bass?

[Quillback]

1 hour ago, Dutch said:

What’s an Ozark bass?

Goggleye.

[curtisce]

usually by this time of year the water level would be too low but looks like it is doable now. Fished it a few years back good SM habitat

[Dutch]

3 hours ago, Quillback said:

Goggleye.

That’s what I thought.

[tjm]

6 hours ago, Dutch said:

What’s an Ozark bass?

@Al Agnew's  page that compares the three "goggle eye" species. https://riversandart.blogspot.com/2020/04/growing-up-in-missouri-ozarks-and-being.html  The Ozark bass is supposedly only in the White River. Although I think some may have been introduced in Little Sugar Creek/Elk River back when they were considered to be "rock bass". I've certainly seen some in L Sugar that fit the description and I think all the "goggle eye" are non-native in the Neosho  Drainage. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

2 hours ago, curtisce said:

usually by this time of year the water level would be too low but looks like it is doable now. Fished it a few years back good SM habitat

I’m tempted to run up from the white.   I did it several years ago in the winter.  

[Al Agnew]

It's not like Crooked Creek gets enough fishing pressure...

Back in the 1970s or so, Crooked Creek had gotten the reputation of being the best smallmouth stream in the Ozarks, with magazine articles touting "numerous 3-5 pound smallmouth".  I believe much of this started because a handful of the guide businesses on the White River found out they could drum up some extra business by guiding smallmouth floats on Crooked Creek, but there were writers who wrote glowing articles about how great it was.  I remember one article in particular that talked about floating the lower portion of the creek, describing it as low water levels and brushy and log-jammed and full of cottonmouths but terrific fishing because few people braved it.  I was and still am very skeptical about that old article...because TYPICALLY the lower portion of Crooked, from a few miles downstream from Yellville all the way to just a couple miles above the White, goes almost bone dry by mid-summer.  There are only isolated pools, and LONG stretches with no water at all.

That lower portion of Crooked is the most spectacular example of a losing stream in the Ozarks.  In the flowing portions upstream, even at its lowest, it still flows 60-90 cfs when the lower section has no flow at all.

I've fished it a few times, and caught some really nice smallmouth, but I wouldn't consider it anywhere near the best stream in the Ozarks now, and it probably wasn't then.  I think those 3-5 pound smallmouth were at best guesstimates of 1.5 to 4 pounders.  And it just ain't that big of a stream; only about 25 miles are commonly floatable.  So I really question why AGF should see fit to give it more publicity.

[snagged in outlet 3]

15 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

the best stream in the Ozarks now

What do you conside the best these days?

[Al Agnew]

6 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

What do you conside the best these days?

Heck, I don't know anymore.  I used to know one that I thought had to be the best, but it's declined considerably.  I catch more fish from Big River than any other stream on average, but that's just because I've fished it so much for 60 years that I pretty much know what I'm doing on it more than any other.  I've always said that it's a whole lot easier to tell somebody which is the WORST than which is the best, because there are a bunch of stream sections that are very good, but not many that are very bad.