South Fork Caddo River and Thunder Mountain Riverfront Cabin, Caddo Gap, Arkansas
Ellen and my ears perked up at the sound of truck tires rolling over gravel. It was the telltale sound of a vehicle approaching the cabin. We both looked at each other excitedly, "They're here!" she said, and then promptly scampered off the back porch, through the backdoor of the rental cabin, and onto the front porch. We could see the headlights of Van and Katie's truck as they made their way to the cabin. The truck's headlights bounced along the gravel driveway, weaving through the trees. A weekend of fishing and exploring the waters of the South Fork Caddo River was about to begin.
Most of the time when Van and I get together in Arkansas, we are camping out of our trucks. This time however, we decided to do things a little differently. We rented Thunder Mountain Riverfront Cabin through AirBnB.com. This cabin is ideally situated on the banks of the South Fork of the Caddo, just south of Caddo Gap, Arkansas.
The South Fork flows from west to east where it meets the Caddo River. The Caddo River is a pretty popular river when it comes to kayaking and tubing. However, the South Fork is a bit smaller and has virtually none of the traffic that the Caddo River has. This fact made Van and I eager to hit the water on the South Fork and see what the fishing was like.
After looking at a map of the area, we planned a short float, starting up-stream from the cabin. We planned to end our float at the Thunder Mountain Cabin. It was approximately two miles, short but sweet.
By mid-morning we were on the water. Ellen and Van were in kayaks and Katie and I were in my 2-man raft, called a Flycraft. The water was pretty skinny at first and we had to jump out and drag our respective watercraft over some shallow riffles. This was to be expected, it was still the summer and flows were at the lowest they had been all year.
Once we made it through the shallow section, we floated into a deep hole. Almost instantly, Van and Katie hooked up with fish. Two young smallmouth were brought to hand. The day was off to a good start.
I won’t bore you, respected reader, with a play-by-play of every little bend, rapid, and hole that we fished. Suffice it to say, the South Fork is loaded with fish and we had a blast angling for them all day. The afternoon was filled with shouts of, “Fish on!” as our little flotilla slowly made its way down the river. We didn’t catch any record-size bass, but the sheer numbers of them kept us engaged for the entire float. Smallmouth and largemouth were plentiful, along with three species of sunfish. We caught green sunfish, longear sunfish, and bluegill.
Van and Katie used spinning rods and reeled in fish after fish. They threw small spinners, a small ultra-light chrome minnow by Rapala, and the Big Bite Bait Cricket in black. When I wasn’t rowing the Flycraft, I used my fly rod to lob foam terrestrials. The various species of sunfish seemed to really like that.
There is a section of the South Fork that is a stones-throw from the back porch of the Thunder Mountain Cabin. This section of the river is about a quarter-of-a-mile in length. It is easily navigable by kayak and is likely over 7’ deep along the north bank of the river. We had great luck fishing this section for both smallmouth and largemouth. Precisely placed lures under the overhanging foliage of the undercut banks produced quality fish in good numbers. Frequently, the bass were lying in wait, and darted out from the undercut banks or large rocks when a well-placed soft-plastic lure came swimming by their place of ambush. We fished this section of river everyday while we were at the cabin.
There is so much of Arkansas that still needs exploring, but we are very happy that we took the time to explore the South Fork of the Caddo River. The area surrounding Thunder Mountain Riverfront Cabin was serene and secluded. The waters of the South Fork were beautifully clear with a tinge of aqua-green coloring. Perhaps when we go back again, we will hit the main Caddo River and try our luck angling that river. If it is half as good as the South Fork, it will make for a great day of fishing.