Looking for anyone who has been to the Buffalo River Wilderness area in Arkansas. I am going to head up there for a weekend fishing trip and am looking for places to wade and fly fish. Anyone have any advice? Thanks.

yeah. wait until the kids are back in school and then go during the week. otherwise it won't matter much.

what you do on the buffalo is float it in a canoe and fish. it can be very good smallmouth bass fishing if you catch it right. but seriously...you might as well leave the fishing gear at home if you go during float trip season.

+1 on above

Well, that was definitely not what I thought I was going to hear, but thanks for the candor. I think I will look at postponing the trip until later in the fall.

x1000 on Ken's post.

Sounds like a popular place....

There are several other creeks in that area that offer nice fishing. White River is nearby and the Little Red not too far south either as I recall. I grew up in that area but it has been a long time since I fished it.

Has it really gotten that popular? I've floated the river 5 or 6 times, but I haven't done it in 10 years. We've done some of the some of the sections between Pruitt and Grinder's Ferry, and we also did a 60-mile trip that took us from Grinder's Ferry to Buffalo City. We never had much trouble with being overcrowded, and the fishing was always spectacular.

I wouldn't say that the fishing is all that much different from some of our hill country streams. The biomass on the S. Llano is on par with or better than anything I've ever fished. However, what I've always found very attractive about the Buffalo is that it's one of the only places that you can camp wherever you want. That simple fact gives you so much more flexibility when planning a trip that I would definitely never discourage anyone from going.

Buffalo National River is over 150 miles long in NW Arkansas. I am local fisherman and I would recommend the fishing most from Pruitt downstream to where it joins the White River, a national-class trout stream. Trout do run up the Buffalo and are a great addition to the blue ribbon smallmouth fishing.

A friend of mine last week, fishing down by the confluence with the White caught a 25 inch brown (not that uncommon). Trout are generally most common in the Buffalo from Rush Landing to points south, but I have heard reliable reports of them much farther upstream. This time of year the river pools up in the upriver areas offering unusual wading and fishing opportunities, these same areas are not generally floatable in mid-summer. Year round floating begins around Gilbert and downstream.

If you come here to fish, don't neglect trout fishing on the White River (very nearby), and Crooked Creek, also a blue ribbon stream with huge smallies. Another decent smallmouth stream is the Kings River.

I would agree with the advice to come after school is in session. If circumstances have you here during low water, the feeder creeks and river pools can be pretty amazing, and great fun with light tackle. I fly fish bass with a 4wt, and a 15 inch smallmouth seems like a tuna.

I am working on a website that will provide a lot of in-depth information on the river corridor of great use to fishermen and nature lovers. I will report back when it is completed. It will provide a lot of information currently missing online.

Should be a good website, because that was a rundown you won't get from many folks in that neck o the woods!