Hi yall..

Just curious if anyone fishes the UMF river?

I used to go there as a kid on camping trips and remember absolutely wearing out the smallmouth bass. Went there a few days ago and only caught 1 10" smallmouth, 1 Kentucky, and about 60 of the biggest green sunfish that I've ever caught.

Was just curious if the smallmouth numbers were down in the UMF or do the smallmouth migrate towards the deeper part of the river in hot temps? Most times I fished it in the past, it was September/October.

Also, I've yet to fish the LMF...how's the smallmouth fishing down there?

Thanks!

Hardly ever hear about the UMF. Have you consulted withe OKWD biologists? They'd probably love to hear from you
http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/contactus.htm

Thanks for the contact info, no I haven't talked to anybody about it yet. Didn't know what to expect when I fished it recently since it had been so long since I had been there. When I used to go there, it was 8 miles from any paved road. Now there's $200/night cabins where our old campsite was!

I just hope there's still decent smallies in the system, even if I have to go to the LMF to catch em.

Well I for one look forward to what they have to say. Again, the UMF seems to get nowhere near the attention that the LMF does. That might be a good thing!

I know it was ranked as one o the top smallmouth rivers in the country by feild an stream a few years ago.

Just put a call in to one of the biologists in the mountain fork river area. He actually just returned from a snorkel survey on the UMF last weekend.

He told me that sporatic drought/flood conditions from the last several years has really displaced a lot of fish, particularly smallies and spotted bass. Hence, the reason we didn't catch near the numbers as we did...in the particular holes we fished. He did say that they surveyed some areas where there were a few really nice bass in some holes, and in others, no bass seen whatsoever.

I didn't get to ask him about the LMF.

I also asked him about the Glover River and he said they noted plenty of good largemouth and smallmouth numbers and sizes.

Good news! So they hopefully put you on some good spots.

Glover River rocks !!

neosho smallmouth (Micropterus dolomieu velox)

Nice report.

I went up to the UMF last November, but it was too low to yak. We ended up fishing the northern end of Broken Bow. There is a nice secluded camping area right on the beach of the river leading into the northern end of BB. We really enjoyed it, but didn;t get any smallies.....

I have not fished for them but I hear the "Rock Gardens" on the LMF is the place to catch smallies.

I was actually thinking about heading up again this Saturday. Is the LMF as busy with kayakers as I have heard? I hear it has great smallies but I really don't want to fight a crowd.

I was going to go and do short stretches of the upper. Find a place where I can launch and then paddle up and down fishing then load up and move on.

I have also thought about the Glover but I don't want to hassle with the land permit. Does anyone know anything about the permit. Most of the information I can find pertains to hunters and atv riders. Is the permit required for the portions of the Glover that resides within the national forest?

Regarding the UMF..About 3-4 miles south of the hwy 259, hwy 4 junction, there's a low water crossing that I think you can put in at. A few hundred yards further, there's a bridge that goes over a feeder creek that dumps into the river. I tubed that and caught some small smallmouth and a ton of big green sunfish. The river is pretty wide and slow moving there. You can pull off right before the bridge and put in there also.

In a also fished on the river north of Watson a few weeks back. It's considerably narrow there and lower than I remember. Not much for a yak but easily tubed in the holes.

Regarding Glover River...I used to bowhunt hogs there nearly every day but haven't been in there since the ATV riders took it over. Good fishing in there but I preferred to wade it than tube or kayak it. The majority of the area I fished was around a concrete bridge. Turn north off hwy 3...it's the last left turn before you cross the river if you're heading east. Once you turn off hwy 3, keep taking rights at the forks until you hit the river.

The land permit issue is confusing..if you ain't hunting or fishing, it's only $5. If you are fishing or hunting, it's a yearly $16 permit. Actually, for out of staters, I believe it's $20-$25 bucks. They sell em at any walmart. It's called the Three Rivers Permit or something. Buy the permit..it's cheaper than the ticket for not having one. Even if you are in a remote are, I've had the game commission guys waiting at my truck for me 2 hours after the sun went down.

That's about all I know. If you come to the UMF, and see a guy and gal tube fishing, come say hi.

I've floated the UMF a bunch of times over the last 5-6 years. Usually one trip in the spring an done in the fall, and usually float 2 1/2 days each trip. We stay at Rivers Edge cabins and float several sections just up and won stream from there.

The UMF can give you great days of floating and sometimes a good day of fishing, but it can present some big challenges you don't have on the lower MT. Fork.
The first is water flow. It is upstream from Broken Bow and there is no dam upstream from there, so the flow goes up and down a LOT. It Can vary from less than 20 CFS to 30,000. For floating you want 50CFS up to about 500. Less than 50 and you will do a lot dragging over a whole bunch of really slick rocks. Thin k walking downstream dragging your yak or canoe, instead of floating and fishing. More than 500 and start to get dicey plus you just float too fast to fish. usually also means less water clarity. There's a USGS
Water Data website and a gage point at Smithville. You can check it out.

The second big challenge is access points. There are very few places to get on and off the river. If you stay at Rivers Edge it opens up lots of options. You can go upstream several miles to a low water bridge and float down to your cabin. That's an easy half day. You can put in at your cabin and float down to a small feeder stream just north of the Smithville bridge. That's a full day. Or you can put in there at Smithville and float way down to the low water bridge at "the narrows". That's a long day. Plan on 8-9 hours f you float and fish and keep moving. Don't try it when water is way low - it's a lot of dragging.


Fishing can be good but a bit unpredictable, depending on water flow. We always catch some fish and occasionally have a great day. usually catch a mix of largemouth, spotted, perch (locals call 'em goggle eye perch), and some
smallmouth. Biggest smallie I've caught is 18".

So there ya' go. That's the scoop on the UMF.

great place to fish the Glover and war eagle creek; former sheriff owns this property so access is assured. Be sure to check river levels as they kinda lose their flow late in the summer-p-
http://treetopviewcabins.com/