Illinois River: Welling Bridge on the Baron Fork to Horseshoe Bend on the Illinois River (November 12, 2022) City of Siloam Springs Kayak Park to US 59 Bridge Access (December 3, 2022)
A Tale of Two Illinois River Floats...
There is roughly 90 miles of navigable water in the Illinois in Arkansas and Oklahoma above Lake Tenkiller. One of my goals will be to say I've floated and fished all of it. These two floats add to my knowledge and there are only a couple stretches I have yet to try (about 10 miles).
Since both of these floats are on the Illinois River (for the most part), I decided to cover them in one post. Dad and I have tried our best to see as much new water as we possibly can. Now, after two consecutive floats, I can give my take on these two stretches. Aside from the first 3 miles of the second float, these stretches were new to us. Although I don’t have much to say about the Welling Bridge to Horseshoe Bend (just above Lake Tenkiller), the stretch from the Siloam Springs Kayak Park to US 59 was incredible. The majority of the water covered was on the Illinois but a small portion was on the Baron Fork.
Welling Bridge on the Baron Fork to Horseshoe Bend on the Illinois River (November 12, 2022)
I’ve paddled virtually all of the Baron Fork. Or at least the accessible portions of it. Having floated Welling Bridge down to where the Baron Fork meets the Illinois, I feel like I can honestly say I am a Baron Fork expert. And now that I am a Baron Fork expert, my "expert" insight is that this Welling Bridge float is not a particularly good fishing float. Especially compared to the last Baron Fork stretch I covered on the blog, and other Baron Fork experiences. Why you ask? I’ll tell you.
First, I want to provide a disclaimer. We went fishing on a chilly day in November so obviously the fishing could and probably would be better at other times of the year. With that being said, there are a handful of reasons why this float doesn’t hold up compared to other stretches of the Baron Fork. It was little less than 5 miles (1.5 miles on the Baron Fork and 3.2 on the Illinois). The flow on the Baron Fork was ~140 CFS (cubic feet per second) and the Illinois was ~750 cfs. On other rivers this might be perfect especially if you want a half day on the water (depending on stream flow). However, the morphology of the stream made it not as ideal as other stretches/rivers. The lack of bends in the stream and narrow, deep pools made quite the contrast from the upper most stretch dad and I did recently. If you are trying to methodically fish appealing eddys or backwaters, the strong current makes it difficult. Perfect smallmouth water simply was not as easy to come by. The "perfect" water, in my opinion, is represented in several of my previous videos made on the Baron Fork. Areas where the water is deep (4-10 feet deep), crystal clear, with chunk/slab rock on the bottom. All of these features as well as a bluff wall or a steep bank usually are the best signs for a high quality smallmouth hole. Unfortunately, there was only one spot that had any resemblance to this description. Without many areas that dad and I were confident we could catch smallmouth at, we didn't catch many. As the river channel grew wider, we found it was increasingly difficult to fish for them effectively. The most production came in backwaters for largemouth. At the end of the day, dad and I still managed to catch a few fish each (mostly largemouth). We managed to catch a few of these largemouth on GoPro footage and there is a video attached entitled "Backwater Largemouths" Although this has nothing to do with the fishing, the shuttle isn’t easy. It requires you to drive all the way back into Tahlequah to get to Welling Bridge.
City of Siloam Springs Kayak Park to US 59 Bridge Access
The next float we did on the Illinois River would be quite the opposite fishing-wise. On December 3rd, I got to see the portion of the Illinois River known as "Lake Frances". This portion comes after AR 59 Bridge and is mostly in Oklahoma. There was tons to enjoy about this float. And most importantly, the fishing was consistently good.
The Kayak Park to US 59 was 8 miles long. The water conditions were ideal, around 550 CFS and slightly turbid. Although the temperature never got above 48°, the sun was out which was crucial. We knew what to expect in the first 3 miles of the float, so we didn’t spend much time fishing it. Even so, we managed to catch a couple. However, the next 5 miles was when we got into a fishing rhythm. I will break down the fishing of this stretch in three parts.
Part 1: Smallmouth
Not long after AR 59 Bridge was about a quarter mile of ideal smallmouth water. It had the perfect combination of attributes mentioned previously, complete with enough current to keep us moving but not so much that we couldn't effectively fish. Even with slightly turbid water, dad and I consistently caught smallies. I was particularly surprised by how shallow the smallmouths seemed to be sitting. Until recently, I was under the impression that smallmouth made their way for deeper water this time of year. Dad and I both caught several, but the real gem came at the end of the run. An 18" pig of a smallmouth pictured here:
Part 2: Spotted Bass
The good spotted bass fishing came shortly after the smallmouth bite turned off. Most of the Spotted Bass were caught not far from where the water was backed up at Lake Francis. The terrain was relatively flat and wooded. This part of the float featured more mud banks and a narrower channel. We caught a good number of the spotted bass on the bends of the river which can be seen in the video attached to this post titled "Lake Francis Spots".
Part 3: Largemouth
We finally had success catching largemouth near the end of the float when the water finally became backed up in Lake Frances. It created a long, virtually unmoving pool. This pool ran along a bluff with plenty of partially submerged cover along where it met the water. Yet again, we found that casting on the bluff side and being pushed downstream by the mild wind was very effective. Dad and I caught several nice largemouth between the two of us. Pictured below are several of these largemouth:
Aside from a couple smallies that I caught on a jerk bait, the majority of my fish came on the same small jig I was raving on in my previous post (a small PB&J football jig paired with a Z-Man TRD BugZ in Watermelon Red as a trailer). Dad went with the trusty Rage Menace Grub from Strike King in watermelon red flake and had some luck with a generic red crawfish crankbait.
One important thing to mention is the new kayak park being made at Lake Francis. It is significantly more dangerous than the one at Siloam Springs. Giant waves, massive boulders, and an incredibly steep gradient add up to what would be dangerous for anyone but the most experienced paddlers to go down. As a matter of fact, only small white water vessels with skirts, foam or flotation bags should go. Dad and I took the quarter-mile walk down the sidewalk that runs next to the course. Although there is still construction going on nearby, the course itself appears to be finished and looks really cool. Here is a photo of the park I shot when I stopped to take a break from hauling the heavy canoe with dad. Here is a link to information about WOKA Whitewater Park (https://visitwoka.com/).
I gotta give another shout out to dad for stepping up and making these awesome videos that capture a fragment of the fun we had!
Thank you for reading, now get to fishing!
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