Cotter, Arkansas campgrounds

[Curtis E. Niedermier]

Hey all,

I haven’t been very active on here this year. It’s been a busy summer, but I’ve finally gotten a fly rod back in my hands.

I’m trying to plan a last-minute trip to Arkansas for this weekend. My wife is going out of town, and for once I have no responsibilities. Can anyone recommend a good place to pitch a tent and camp out in the Cotter/White River area? I heard there was a place on the Norfork reservoir, but I’m not sure what it’s called. I was also considering the Bull Shoals Reservoir-White River State Park.

I want to do this trip on the cheap, so I plan to campfire cook and sleep in a tent. Ideally, something close to a decent wading access area would be good.

Thanks,

Curt

[Zach Matthews]

Curt –

Two options, three if you don’t mind breaking the law just a touch:

(1) Quarry Park below Norfork Dam. Take Hwy. 5 south of Mountain Home to Salesville, turn left and the road practically dead-ends at the Dam. Good fishing right behind the tent, especially at night by the mouth of Dry Run Creek.

(2) White River State Park below Bull Shoals Dam. A little further from Mountain Home and a little bigger water. This area also has great fishing and we may just be getting into the brown trout pre-spawn, although realistically that’s another few weeks away. The river in this area is gravelly and fairly stark, and only wadeable at low water.

(3) Rim Shoals. Technically there’s no camping here but I’ve slept in my car and gotten away with it. The advantage here is wade-out fishing onto Rim Shoals itself.

BIG CAVEAT: I am not sure what minimum flow will do to wading conditions. I would plan to bring a pontoon boat or other type of boat if you’re going to Rim so you can drag it well upstream, paddle across, then repeat on the other side. The back side of Rim Shoals Island is the best place to look for pre-spawn browns, most likely to be clustering up in the deep slots (I doubt they will be shallow yet but if they are it will be right at dawn, then they’ll move off as angler and boat traffic hits at day time).

I’d call Steve Dally at the Ozark Fly Fisher and ask for the most recent scoop before you go.

Zach

[Mark Schafer]

this is probably to late but we stayed at the rainbow drive campground in the spring and it was fine hot shower and i caught fish everyday right in front.

[Author]

Posts