Scenic Rivers Guide Service And Tours

05/13/2026

With river levels more like early-mid summer and water temps getting into mid 60's (62°-68° past 2 days) Smallies are definitely staging up toward summer patterns. Rick Doerr brought his dad (Richard) for some Current River smallie action ! And action it was catching lots and lots with several hard fighting nice ones. We also saw Elk on our way to the access, always an extra bonus. Always a great time with Rick.

Jewel Bait Company Monty's Outdoors
MML Lures Barker Jig
Outside Again Adventures TV - online www.aoutdoorstv.com, Driftwood Outdoors
Ray Eye, Geo Communications Services
Ozarks Smallmouth FlyCo
Ozark Riverways Foundation
Conservation Federation of Missouri
Missouri Smallmouth Alliance
United Bowhunters of Missouri
Jack's Fork River Resort-Eminence, MO
Big Rock Candy Mountain Missouri
Old Desperado Ranch
Eminence Area Chamber of Commerce
Ellington Chamber of Commerce
Van Buren Mo Chamber of Commerce
The Landing Van Buren Mo
Curts Custom Welding: CurtisandBrenda Hunt

05/12/2026

Got my granddaughter Reagan out today for some river time and fishing. She caught a smallie on her first cast !!! And continued to catch several. We enjoyed a boat ride and lunch at the iconic Gravel Spring/Paint Rock Bluff. Jenni was along for the ride also. Another great time on the river.

* Rescued folks in their raft off of a root wad in very swift water. Note: please don't tie you cooler tube to your watercraft, this has cause many incidents on the river.

Jewel Bait Company Monty's Outdoors
MML Lures Barker Jig
Outside Again Adventures TV - online www.aoutdoorstv.com, Driftwood Outdoors
Ray Eye, Geo Communications Services
Ozarks Smallmouth FlyCo
Missouri Smallmouth Alliance
Conservation Federation of Missouri
United Bowhunters of Missouri
Jack's Fork River Resort-Eminence, MO
Big Rock Candy Mountain Missouri
Old Desperado Ranch
Eminence Area Chamber of Commerce
Ellington Chamber of Commerce
Van Buren Mo Chamber of Commerce
The Landing Van Buren Mo

05/10/2026

It was a fun filled day of competition with Ben and Amy. These two don't give each other any slack when one either catches a fish or get snagged. Probably the best one of the day was when Amy said to Ben " How many times have you had your
picture taken today". Ben did have a couple of opportunities on a good one but just didn't get a hookup.
What started out as a good bite slowly turned into a tough afternoon. Sometimes this happens.

05/07/2026

On his third cast the answer to Steve's question was starting to be answered! As we were getting ready yesterday morning Steve ask the question I knew was coming, "Have you had any topwater action" . With anticipation I was looking forward to the annual trip with Bob and Steve knowing Steve was going to put on an topwater exhibition and he did ! And Bob's thumb was raw from all the smallies and goggle-eyes "Barney's" he caught.

It was an absolute stellar day: we both saw elk, turkey, deer on our drive into the access, lots of bird life along river along with cool refreshing weather and they caught lots of fish.

Jewel Bait Company , Monty's Outdoors
MML Lures, Barker Jig
Outside Again Adventures TV - online www.aoutdoorstv.com , Driftwood Outdoors
Ray Eye
Ozarks Smallmouth FlyCo
Ozark Riverways Foundation
Missouri Smallmouth Alliance
Conservation Federation of Missouri
Jack's Fork River Resort-Eminence, MO
Big Rock Candy Mountain Missouri
Old Desperado Ranch
Curts Custom Welding: CurtisandBrenda Hunt
Geo Communications Services
Eminence Area Chamber of Commerce
Ellington Chamber of Commerce
Van Buren Mo Chamber of Commerce
The Landing Van Buren Mo

05/07/2026

Shadow Bass "Barney" here on Current and Jacks Fork !

"Goggle-Eye" Species native to Missouri.

05/06/2026

Ray Holt was back for a couple days again with his grandson and great grandson. Ray is an inspiration at 92 yrs young and still going strong ! Ray grew up near Current River on Rogers Creek, Peck Ranch Area. He has fished many many times on the river. First day they caught over 100 smallies and goggle-eyes, it was definitely a fish-on day. The second day was much different as we went down stream from Big Springs, Ray had never been on that section and I hadn't this season yet. They caught about 35-40 but overall quality was better.
Water Temps fell back into the upper 50's (58°)at the start of each day.
Then yesterday Chuck was back, he brought Kevin for his first time. We battled strong winds but still manage to catch several. Its always a great day with Chuck and who ever comes with him.

Jewel Bait Company, Monty's Outdoors
MML Lures , Barker Jig
Outside Again Adventures TV - online www.aoutdoorstv.com Driftwood Outdoors
Ray Eye
Ozarks Smallmouth FlyCo
Missouri Smallmouth Alliance
Conservation Federation of Missouri
United Bowhunters of Missouri
Big Rock Candy Mountain Missouri
Jack's Fork River Resort-Eminence, MO
Old Desperado Ranch
Curts Custom Welding: CurtisandBrenda Hunt
Rivercraft Trailers: Randy Sullivan
Geo Communications Services
Ozark Riverways Foundation

05/02/2026

It was another fun filled day with these two Tom's !!! Catching smallies and cutting up. Tom S and I go back to the days when we worked at the Park, it was great to see him. Tom P is a regular client and one heck of a fisherman " the dude is a stick". They caught lots even with the falling water level, about 6" during the day and water temps dropping from mid 60's last week to 58 starting out and north wind with high blue sky's ! We also got to see two elk crossing the river, a turkey flying across, several bald eagles plus other bird life.

04/30/2026

Its was another great day on the river with my good friend Bob and Elmer. It was especially rewarding knowing the Elmer hadn't got to go fishing for quite some time and watch him catch several hard fighting smallies. As Bob said they caught lots !

Jewel Bait Company, Monty's Outdoors
MML Lures , Barker Jig
Outside Again Adventures TV - online www.aoutdoorstv.com, Driftwood Outdoors
Ray Eye, Jenni Chilton Smith
CurtisandBrenda Hunt:Curts Custom Welding
Ozarks Smallmouth FlyCo, Ozark Riverways Foundation , Missouri Smallmouth Alliance
Jack's Fork River Resort-Eminence, MO
Big Rock Candy Mountain Missouri
Old Desperado Ranch
Conservation Federation of Missouri
United Bowhunters of Missouri
Geo Communications Services
Eminence Area Chamber of Commerce
Ellington Chamber of Commerce
Van Buren Mo Chamber of Commerce
The Landing, Van Buren Mo

04/28/2026

Becky and Bill accompanied me yesterday for some springtime smallmouth bass fishing before the storms arrived. And the bite was excellent ! They had been here during winter and it was a much slower ( and colder !)day. They contacted me couple weeks ago about availability and due to a schedule change I got them worked in.
Also a big shout out to Jenni for rescuing lunch: "somebody left it ".
They caught lots of quality hard fighting smallies along with several goggle-eyes and we got off the river before the high winds and storms moved in.

04/26/2026

Finished up a very busy but great week with a couple days guiding Rick and his son Joshua. Its always good to get out with Rick, he has a passion for smallies and it shows. As he says " we came here to fish" and it payed off with a beautiful 20" hard fighting dandy ! This was Joshua's first time in this area and on Current River, he was amazed at the beauty. They both caught lots with several quality fish.

Jewel Bait Company, Monty's Outdoors
MML Lures , Barker Jig
Outside Again Adventures TV - online www.aoutdoorstv.com Bill Cooper
Ray Eye, Greg Clanahan
Ozarks Smallmouth FlyCo
Ozark Riverways Foundation
Conservation Federation of Missouri
Missouri Smallmouth Alliance
Curts Custom Welding
Geo Communications Services
Jack's Fork River Resort-Eminence, MO
Big Rock Candy Mountain Missouri
Old Desperado Ranch
Eminence Area Chamber of Commerce
Ellington Chamber of Commerce
Van Buren Chamber of Commerce
The Landing, Van Buren Mo