#fishing
Floating the Illinois River in NE Oklahoma
AR Own Backyard is an Arkansas Outdoors site, so I try to keep the subject matter limited to Arkansas destinations. But the “Backyard” part is subjective, right? Crossing an hour over state lines still counts as our backyard, doesn’t it? Well, when you want to float during dry season, you do what you have to do. So mid-September of 2022 we crossed the state line to try floating the Illinois River in NE Oklahoma. The Illinois River is a spring-fed river that starts in Arkansas and flows into Oklahoma. In addition to the Spring and Eleven Point Rivers, it’s one of the few spring-fed options we have. And it’s the only one I had not floated yet. So why Oklahoma? Simply because that’s where my crew wanted to go and they planned the trip. But I’m glad we...
Maumee to Rush on the Buffalo River – An Overnight Float
One of my favorite ways to experience the rivers in Arkansas is with an overnight float trip. I’ve done several of these, and my most recent overnighter was South Maumee to Rush on the Buffalo River. All of the lands bordering the Buffalo River are public lands owned by the National Park Service. This makes the Buffalo one of the few rivers in Arkansas where you can camp almost anywhere along the entire river. Maumee to Rush is located on the lower Buffalo, making it floatable – usually – well into July. I love overnight floats because I don’t have to worry about the campgrounds filling up or trying to find a site. I don’t have to worry about getting off the river at a certain time to catch a shuttle. And when I do come off the river I don’t have to driv...
Marble to Marshall Ford on the Kings River
We are so fortunate here in Arkansas to have so many beautiful rivers to float, fish, and hike on. If your goal is to float them all, it can take a while to get to some of them. Especially when you have some favorite floats that are hard to stray from! The Kings River is one that’s been on my list for a while. But due to distance (and competing rivers), it has eluded my paddle for years. So this year, I made the Kings River my top priority. But my buddies and I weren’t satisfied with just any section of the river. We wanted the best water and most scenic. So my 2022 float season started with a float from Marble to Marshall Ford on the Kings River I recruited two of my best buddies, Eric and Neil to join me on this one. We were going to camp, but with rain in the forecast that S...
Norman to Caddo Gap on the Caddo River
The 2021 Spring has been a crazy float season in Arkansas so far. The rain has been even more unpredictable than usual. I’ve cancelled more floats this year than ever due to water being either too high or too low because of the crazy rain. We’ve even had some cold weather all the way into mid-May! This can be frustrating, but it also presents opportunities to float sections of rivers that are rarely floatable. One of those sections I finally got to float this Spring was Norman to Caddo Gap on the Caddo River. I have made countless Caddo floats from Caddo Gap down to Glenwood.. And it’s till my favorite float on the Caddo so far. But I like to float as many different sections of rivers as I can. So when Norman to Caddo Gap on the Caddo River was finally floatable on a day ...
Floating and Fishing on the Upper Ouachita
For the past two summers, I have joined up with my paddling friends in Hot Springs to go floating and fishing on the Upper Ouachita River. I have written about floating the Lower Ouachita before. Even though this is the same river, it’s an entirely different float. What I call the Lower Ouachita runs from out of Lake Catherine down to Malvern and beyond. But what I call the Upper Ouachita is the western portion of that same river, running into Lake Ouachita. The Upper Ouachita is very different from the Lower because it is not fed by a lake. So the water level gets pretty low. I really don’t recommend this river in mid-summer for anyone looking for a fun float with good flow. But I DO recommend it for anyone looking for a place to float and fish. It is great river to catch some...
Floating the Caddo River – Caddo Gap to Glenwood
Have you ever experienced something and then afterward wondered why it took you so long to do that? Like, it’s been there under your nose for so long and you just never did it. But once you finally did, you wished you had been doing it all along? Well for me, that experience was floating the Caddo River from Caddo Gap to Glenwood. I had never floated this river until around 2013. What??!!! Crazy, I know. But wow, this a great float! No, you’re not going to see the towering bluffs and mountains you see at the Buffalo. You won’t see the emerald green waters of the Mulberry here. But this is still a great floating river in a beautiful part of the state. What you will see is a clean river with some cool rock formations, fun rapids, and pretty good smallmouth fishing. You̵...
