My first small mouth!

Congrats! It’s awesome up there. My buddy just finished up a painting of one I caught in the ozarks last summer.

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Just got back from Jasper Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains.

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Don't post too many pictures online. Northern Arkansas is a great secret that doesn't need to get out.

Congrats

I had dreams of lots of fly fishing trips once I retired. Now that I have retired, I take fewer than I did before. Time for me to get off my arse and do some of that stuff!

Didn't realize Michelob brought back the small mouth pull tabs.

Black and white silver flake Flook. And pegged watermelon red baby brush hog

Congrats! It's always nice to add another species to your life list.
Did you camp along the river or just float small sections?
Looks like the views were definitely better than the beer and liquor selection!

Congrats man on marking a new species off the list. I absolutely love north Arkansas for fishing and hiking. The scenery is unbelievable.

I just recently watched a few videos of Kayak fishing in the Ozark Mountains on Buffalo River and Caddo River. I assume there are many more crystal clear shallow rivers to fish from in addition to those. People were catching small mouths very easily casting or trolling. The Kayaks were going in shallow places unreachable by boat or by foot. The scenary was just breathtaking, and the class 1 and 2 rapids look like a lot of fun, and a challenge to get through some spots due to trees down etc.

I also saw one video where it was maybe 2' deep crystal clear and the in kayaks floated right over a giant school of Gars (possibly a hundred or more) maybe between 2' to 6' long. That was crazy. The Gars must have been spawning. That would probably wear someone out pulling in a 6' Gar on a Kayak. I think the Gars were in the Caddo River on the video I saw if I remember correctly.

I'm new to Kayak fishing. Just started rigging out several Kayaks, and just getting started fishing from them. I plan to take a trip up to the Ozarks and go kayak fishing and camping on up to several day floats down the Buffalo River at a minimum with some short hikes mixed in. I can't wait.

The following picture I found on one of my Facebook Groups for Kayaking. Not sure where this was taken. But it shows that someone caught an Alligator Gar from a Kayak. I think I will stick to Trout and Smallmouths in the Ozarks and to Crappie and Largemout, and Striped Bass in my neck of the woods. That Gar would be like having a motor attached to the kayak

“According to her,it was plenty big enough to keep”

I lived in Bull Shoals a couple of years,I caught a good many smallmouths,mostly in Bull Shoals lake,some on the Buffalo River.It’s the one fish I could never bring myself to keep and eat.They’re the hardest fighting freshwater fish there is(other than carp).

I hate to tell this story.I got to be friends with a local in Bull Shoals that guided on the lake.We made a few good trips on the Buffalo.
He told me the smallmouth fishing on the Buffalo would be better if it wasn’t for the local yahoos that would massacre the smallmouths when it rained.
There are creeks that empty into the Buffalo that would have little or no water except when it rained.The smallmouth would congregate where the creeks entered into the river,the local fish hogs knew how to get to those spots on foot.They would bring their rod and reels and a 5 gal bucket and would often fill their buckets.
I suspect he might have done it when he was a teenager but when I knew him he would never keep a bass,smallmouth or large.
He struggled as a guide because he refused to use live bait which was best for bass in the summer,,refused to fish for crappie or bream.Absolutely refused to guide for trout on the White River,to him trout were trash,he wouldn’t fish for them or eat them.
Actually,I don’t think he ate fish at all.He loved bass fishing,though.