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Finally got the whole family on a trip, my 3 boys and my wife, her first overnight kayak trip. We made a trip down the lower Mountain Fork and Little River in Oklahoma over the Labor Day weekend. The put it was at Ambush Adventures next to Hwy 70 (Saturday) and the take out was Horatio, Ar, (Monday). They were not releasing much water my guess is <200 cfs. We paddled about 7 miles the first day and camped at a private property called WW10 along the Mt Fork. There were some tall clouds and thunder in the area but we never got any rain. The water was cool and refreshing and made for a good way to cool off at the end of the day. The fishing was ok, with some crappie, small mouth, and perch. Dinner the first night consisted of steak, potatoes, and green beans.
The next morning we had sausage, eggs and toast. We got packed up an on the water by 9am and stopped at the Mt Fork and Little River confluence for a snack, some fishing and swimming. While fishing at the confluence I caught a saugeye. I had never caught one before but after reviewing the pictures and description of a walleye vs. a saugeye, I concluded it was indeed a saugeye. Just around the bend from the confluence there is a great rope swing on river left. The boys and I enjoyed this for about an hour while the wife took pictures. We got on our way down river and came to our next nights campsite which was a set of 3 islands. We arrived about 1:40 and set up camp. I set up a shade over the water and put my wife’s chair down in the water. She got her book and sat down for the rest of the afternoon and stayed cool with the water flowing past her legs. Later I poured her a glass of wine and brought her some appetizers, she was getting pretty laid back about all this kayak/camping stuff. I had caught some white bass earlier in the day and had them on a stringer tied to the shade close to her chair. Around 4pm she hollers over at me and says that there is a snake trying to eat one of my fish. I though right, well I get over there and here she is with her feet in the air and there is a 10 inch copper head with his mouth clamped on the back of one of the fish. Quite the ambitious little guy, I scared him off and he swam downstream. To my delight my wife was not that bothered about the whole thing and had her feet back in the water once he was gone. I gathered some small muscles with the help from one of my boys and later cooked them in some olive oil, white wine, garlic, onions, and tomato sauce for about 10 mins and had these with my fish, potatoes, and green beans. The muscles were a little tough but good, the fish well, excellent. I did find a couple of small pearls in the muscles. The wife and boys had pork chops, green beans, potatoes, and pineapple. As the daylight diminished the bats began to flutter above and the owls made their presence known. A little later the nearly full moon peaked above the trees and the night was lit up. I slept in a chair next to the fire until about 11pm, the wife and two of the boys were in the tents and my oldest had his bag out under the stars and moon. The next morning we all had oatmeal, toast and juice. We quickly packed up and got on the water about 7:45. We made it to the take out in Horatio by 10:45 and were all loaded on our way by 11:30. The total distance from put in to take out is about 28 miles. This was my 6 or 7th trip down this river but the first with my whole family. Here are a few pictures.
Get out and get wet,
Earl
