I want to fish somewhere in the Ozarks this summer. Would prefer to wade and can backpack anywhere. Any suggestions? I am looking at Herber Springs on the Little Red but being solo I can go anywhere. Will spend plenty of weekends on LMF, just wanted a change of scenery.

Heber Springs is good.

I'd suggest you check out the Mt. Home area also. You have the White river, the Norfork river, and Buffalo rivers just to mention a few in the immediate area. The Norfork has tremendous numbers of trout as does the White. The Buffalo is one of the most beautiful streams/rivers to float anywhere. It's a great area and worth checking out.

The white, little red, and norfork rivers are all great places to fish, but if you plan a trip around fishing one of these and you prefer to wade, you might come back disappointed. These are all big tailwaters that are managed for power demand by SWPA, so the flows fluctuate daily, if not sometimes hourly. You can wade all three of them on minimum flow, but minimum flow doesn't happen all that often. If you're planning a trip to one of these, I'd highly recommend getting a guide, if for no other reason but to have access to a boat.

Lots of good smallie fishing around there though. Crooked Creek is another one that's close by and the smallmouth fishing is world class.

If you're wanting to chase trout, I would recommend heading a little further North into Missouri. The blue ribbon section of the current river is one of my favorites. It's a great little spring creek (in the upper stretches) that's full of rainbows and browns. There are also a handful of smaller creeks that are managed for wild trout populations. You might check into the Little Piney, Crane Creek, Mill Creek, and Blue Springs Creek. Plus the smallmouth fishing may be just as good if not better in Missouri than Arkansas.

I've stayed at His Place in Cotter on the White. At "minimum flow" you can wade fish right out in front and for several hundred yards upstream, and it's good. From His Place it's 45 minutes to fish right at the Bull Shoals Dam in the state park. This is also good. It's also 45 minutes, a different direction, to GREAT fishing on the Norfork branch. But, as Dain said, you can only wade these places at minimum flow. I was lucky when I went in November that mf happened a lot. I don't know about this time of year.

A further upstream dam is at Eureka Springs. That area is the Beaver Dam tailwater. I heartily recommend staying at Spider Creek Resort. They're really nice cabins right ON a good wade fishing area. There's also camping, I think, a mile or so away, also on the river. Same thing applies. You can't wade if they're generating. Also, Eureka Springs is 10 minutes away. The women-folk are pretty well guaranteed to like that. The big town near Cotter, on the other hand (I think it's Mountain Home?) is boring and generic by comparison.

I think this site is where you can check on the Ozark gen scheds

Just got back from a two day trip to Heber Springs. Fished Libby Shoals on the Little Red each morning with no success. I have never had much luck on the Little Red; caught many more trout on the White (both wading and from a boat).

I second trying Missouri, lots of beautiful spring creeks to fish, taneycomo on the white is also fantastic trout fishing, lots of big fish in taneycomo.

I've never fished it but Roaring River state park in Southwest Missouri has camping and cabins. Parts are full of bait clunkers but parts are fly fishing only. It's also a trout hatchery and has an off limit area full of huge trout above the river.

There are also private streams with trout in the area.

I haven't been up there in 20 years but they do have a website that lists weekly fishing conditions. Not sure of the URL but you can Google it.