THE BUFFALO RIVER...A BEAUTIFUL OZARK RIVER

Buffalo "Brownie" (photos by Mike Shannon)

The Buffalo is a premier smallmouth bass stream in northern Arkansas. I caught them in mid-April on silver floating Rapalas thrown up right to the rocky shores of this swift flowing river. I also had a first for me. I hooked two bass on one cast. They were both pretty small fish, but they were certainly aggressive. I caught the "brownie" above on a purple salt lizard I bought in Harrison, Arkansas.

The Buffalo features the highest bluffs in the Ozarks, beautiful waterfalls, and a genuine rapids. We put in at Ponca on a weekend in April. The weather was great and there were quite a few other paddlers on the river. We passed Big Bluff, the highest bluff in the Ozarks, but unfortunately did not have time to climb it. We camped at Hemmed-in Hollow, which is a narrow gorge that ends in an arcing sheer cliff over which a small waterfall gets transformed into mist before it hits the base of the falls.

A typical Bluff along the Buffalo

Downstream from Hemmed-in Hollow is a genuine rapids called Grey Rock Rapids. It is long, but negotiable. The locals sit on the eponymous rock and watch canoeists try to negotiate the tricky turn upstream from the rock .

The next morning started what we later referred to as "The Day the River Gave Us Everything". I got up early and caught the fish pictured above for breakfast. As we were picking the last remaining fish scales out of our teeth, I noticed a plastic cooler top come floating by. It was soon followed by a six-pack of beer, a life preserver, the bottom of the cooler and a few other items. I hopped into my canoe and retrieved as many of these items as I could from the pool by our campsite. Soon an empty canoe with two soaked guys showed up. They had tipped over in one of the chutes upriver. I returned the items I had retrieved and in gratitude they gave me two beers. When I got to shore I found another brewski under my seat that I hadn't seen, so there was one beer for my two buddies and myself. Even slightly warm, those beers tasted especially good. I usually carry a small flask of 151 Puerto Rican rum in case of snakebite and as an emergency fire.starter. It's compact but not very tasty stuff, so the beer was most satisfying.

(photo by Mike Shannon)

We took out at Pruitt on a cold rainy Sunday at 8:00 in the morning. We had a 500 mile drive back home and wanted to get an early start. Unfortunately, the shuttle operator that we had hired in Jasper was supposed to have the car at Pruitt when we got there, but did not show up until noon. It was a frustrating morning and a long , late drive home.

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