Fly Fishing the Buffalo River Wilderness in Arkansas // A 3 day Kayak Camping Adventure

Hey everyone, welcome to the channel. Today we're out here on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. Me and my buddy Jake, we're going to float down 25 miles until it empties into the White River. We've got three or four days and we're just going to camp and fish and so it should be fun. This is the third attempt to plan this trip. The first two times got canceled due to high water but this time we've actually got low water but it's floatable so it should be fun. No rain in the forecast for the next three or four days. Highs in the upper 80s, 90s, lows down into the low 60s. Never been here before. We're going to take our time. We've got four days to do it. We may finish in two and a half. It may take us all the whole four days. We have no specific plan but just enjoy ourselves out here in the wilderness. We're using Buffalo River Floats as our shuttle service so they're going to drive our truck down. That way when we float down our truck will be down at Riley's. Very hospitable, very friendly and gives a lot of information about the river. It's Saturday, September 30th. We got on the river about one o'clock and we're going to float however long, set up camp and then do that again for a couple more days. Just an absolute beautiful, beautiful river here in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Plan's just to fish, have a good time and make it to the truck. But been looking forward to this trip for a long time. Glad we finally made it happen and so should be a fun few days. This water's so clear. Oh get it, there's a little one. That's cool, I saw him come up and get it. He's not a big one but it's cool watching him feed. That was awesome. Little bitty guy. Oh see you later. He's all right, he's all right. Man what a pretty fish though. Look at that fish. All right we went about four miles here. We had to do quite a bit of paddling just to make some headway. We fished quite a bit at the beginning and paddled the last mile or two but found a pretty good camping spot right here and going to get camp set up and eat some grub and enjoy this beautiful evening. Jake how many fish have you caught? How many fish have you got? Seven. You got two that were one that was 17 inches and one that was 18 inches? Yeah. So he's caught two chunkers and I've caught a bunch of small ones but he's catching them mostly off of a Ned rig and most of mine have been on a on a fly rod on a tan like double deceiver sex dungeon type fly but yeah found us a good flat spot here that we're gonna set up at and enjoy the evening. All right well good morning. Day number two. It's a beautiful morning. Foggy little breeze about 60 degrees and had a fantastic day yesterday and hoping to do it again today but went about four miles yesterday. We're going to try to make up some make up some time today and I'd like to do 10 miles today but just an awesome awesome place. Nobody around. Just out in the middle of the wilderness. Pretty cool so but we're gonna get on down the river. Oh that was cool. I saw him come up and take it. First fish of the day. I saw him chase it. He's over there in that shade. Oh my god these things hit so so hard. So much fun. Oh they hit it so hard. There's a fish down there right up by that rock. Eat that. He's a monster. All right we've went a few miles today so we're all in all we're probably eight miles down the river so caught a few fish here and there. Been a lot quite a bit of paddling but uh Jake how many fish have you caught? 20? All about the same size or? All little ones except for maybe two nice. Yeah. Yeah catching fish there's a bunch of average size fish in here. A bunch of small ones but um we've seen a few few good ones floating around. Jake caught a couple yesterday but hadn't really caught anything of size today but still just a beautiful day beautiful float so we're gonna do a little paddling try to make some headway here and if we find a good hole we'll stop and fish but just finished up lunch and i got our bellies full and so we're recharged and gonna head back down the river the water we've had a drag in a few spots but not too bad so at least it's not raging or anything like that we're not we're not really hadn't been in a situation where the rapids or anything like that were really bad where we felt like we were going to tip so um so we're gonna mosey on down the river. I just switched to a booger and hit it right off the bat nice this is the biggest fish of the week so far he's not real big but he's the biggest one don't get off there buddy he's not real big but we've been floating just paddling for a few few miles and i've tried some of these big streamers and uh just hitting up a hole here and there and nothing but as soon as i put that booger on he hit it so nice that kind of gave me a little bit more hope i tried several different streamers i lost my tan my tan uh dungeon that i was using and uh hadn't really caught anything since since i lost both of them tried several different streamers and nothing and i was like i'm gonna put the old trusty booger on and uh first cast so good deal nice nice nice went through greasy greasy shoals would have felt that on it anyways yeah this will work yeah what do you think all right here's some bear tracks right here right here yeah see here's some bear tracks came right up through here yeah well um we found us a good camping spot we went about 14 miles today um so we went four miles yesterday floated about half a day and then paddled most of the day today and uh did a little fishing but paddled quite a bit but so we got six miles left tomorrow but caught a few fish here and there but like i said mostly just just paddling and enjoying the scenery but uh found us a good good camping spot with some sand looks like uh several people have camped here before but uh there's quite a few bear tracks um around here so but yeah we're gonna get camp set up and enjoy another beautiful evening out here on the buffalo all right day number three we got camp all packed up and uh we got about six miles here to go before we get to the white so i've got it marked on my onyx maps i divvied it up into four six mile sections so this is the last last section here float on down and fish a little bit more today than we did yesterday um did a lot of paddling yesterday we were pretty worn out but had a great time at camp great great set up here had some sand which was after camping on the rocks uh camping on the sand was uh so much more comfortable great camping spot i've got on a woolly booger i'm gonna start off with that this morning do a little bit more fishing and but uh another beautiful beautiful day out here in the ozarks so we're gonna go get after it i believe that is elephant rock looks like an elephant little bitty but man beautiful color beautiful color little bitty guy fish seem to be a little smaller down here i don't know we're catching some bigger ones at the beginning but i don't know maybe some better holes down here a little bigger not real big but compared to what i've been catching saw him come up and grab it i love the way these fish fight the way they look all of them unique markings but small one got it instead there's a big one out there this guy grabbed it before he could underneath that rock this is a good spot we're about a mile away from the white i was hoping the fishing would be a little better maybe the water's a little colder i don't know since the they generate water in that water from the white river backs up in here i thought well maybe it'll maybe it'll cool off maybe it'll cool the water off i don't know maybe the fish like it but it seems like the fishing is better swam in there underneath those rocks yeah i just saw that stick pretty fish look how painted this thing is well we made it to the white the whites right there um our takeout just on the other side of this island here but at riley's outfitters so we're gonna get across the white and uh what a awesome few days here on the buffalo river um lots of lots of smallmouth nothing real big but uh still had a blast beautiful scenery great float great camping weather um so just an awesome awesome trip so but yeah we're gonna cross the white and then uh we may get into a little trout fishing tomorrow we did it well we're here at our takeout riley's outfitters and uh what a trip lots of fun no self-service so that was great it's 25 miles of wilderness