One Float, Two Rivers

Canoe Adventure Explores Indian Creek, Elk River

Last updated Wednesday, October 1, 2008 3:26 PM CDT in Outdoors

By Flip Putthoff
THE MORNING NEWS

Alan Bland of Rogers and I took in the scenery and sampled the fishing when we canoed the four miles during the last gasp of summer.

Frightful Start

On some river trips you wonder why you ever got out of bed. This one was off to a rocky start.

First, we'd left two pieces of gear in the pickup that was now being shuttled to our take-out at Shady Beach. Then Bland stepped on a nail when we launched our canoe into Indian Creek at Lanagan city park.

The ouch factor wasn't too severe and the nail point didn't puncture skin, but it was a scary couple of seconds. Bland grimaced and gave the green light to start our two-river adventure.

Both Indian Creek and the Elk River have enough water for canoeing year-round. Clear, cool water cradled the canoe like a gentle hand and carried us along at a walking pace.

Indian Creek flowed a tad low on this late summer day. We hoped that would translate into good fishing for smallmouth bass. The needle on our optimism meter went way up when we chatted with Richard Womack of Springdale who was wade-fishing near Lanagan city park.

He'd just got started and said he'd caught a few. Womack fished the previous day on Indian Creek about 5 miles upstream.

"I had a good day and caught several smallmouths. Four of them went 2 to 3 pounds. They were fat," he said, standing knee deep in the transparent water.

Womack uses twister-tail grubs or light-brown tube baits to fool the smallmouths.

Indian Creek is his favorite of the two rivers.

"The Elk is so busy I don't fish it much. But (Indian Creek) and Big Sugar (Creek) have some great fishing," he said.

Big Sugar and Little Sugar creeks meet near Pineville, Mo., to form the Elk River.

We left Womack to his fishing hole and put the city park behind us, experimenting with assorted soft-plastic baits cast into the dimpled current.

There is little in the way of pools on Indian Creek or the Elk. Both streams are on the move, even when flows are low.

Feisty Fighters

The smallmouths were no-shows the first mile or so on Indian Creek, but the action on goggle-eye made up for it. What most anglers call goggle-eye are correctly named Ozark bass. Whatever you call them, they were eager to bite on Indian Creek.

"I don't care what anybody says, these little fish are fighters," Bland said, boating a feisty Ozark bass.

Another bite, another fight and Bland was looking at an Ozark bass bigger than his hand and a dandy eating size. The fish make delicious table fare.

I experimented with tube baits while Bland stayed with his favorite river lure, a Zoom Tiny Brush Hog. The little lizard-like offering has proven itself on every stream in the region. Smallmouths devour them. Ozark bass pounce with vigor.

Bland tussled with a 12-inch Indian Creek smallmouth. That was enough for me to stash the tubes and tie on a little Brush Hog.

The smallmouths got hungry around midmorning and we were ready to chow down by high noon. Your basic sandwich became gourmet fare enjoyed on a bright, clean gravel bar with the river flowing by.

Lawn chairs spread out beside this fast stretch of Indian Creek were comfortable and turned our streamside picnic into fine dining.

We'd frittered away the morning floating a whopping 2 miles. After lunch, Indian Creek zigged this way, then that and spilled us into the Elk River.

There at the confluence we found the party. Eight river revelers were packed into a bright yellow raft, but the Elk was quiet for a late summer Friday.

Down Under

Canoe traffic didn't seem to bother the smallmouths. Bland boated a 14-incher, the largest of the trip. That was cause for celebration with a refreshing swim in the Elk River and some exploration of its underwater realm.

Bland donned a scuba mask and disappeared underwater near a fallen tree. When he surfaced, Bland gasped that a sunfish was guarding a spawning nest from predators. I took a look-see and watched the tropically-colored sunfish ruling the roost over the nest fanned out in the gravel about five feet deep.

Two humans peering through oval masks didn't scare the brazen little sunfish.

Later, Bland snatched a small turtle from underwater, surfaced to admire it then set the reptile free.

We settled back into the canoe to drift the final mile. A railroad trestle and a concrete bridge mean the two-river float is, sadly, almost over.

On warm days like this one, gaggles of kids enjoy jumping off the bridge and doing cannonballs beside unsuspecting paddlers. Bland told two boys on the bridge we were wise to their game. The young swimmers splash-attacked the canoe behind us.

Savoring the last minutes of the float won out over fishing on the lazy drift to Shady Beach. We rarely dipped a paddle.

Floating any river is a joy. Two is even better.

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