Finley River Float

It's always nice to get a Saturday where you can go do something you don't normally get to do. Today, we (Tyler, Daniel and I) floating the majority of the lower Finley River located just south of Springfield. The Finley is a tributary of the James River, which flows into the northwestern part of Table Rock Lake. Two years ago Tyler and I floated the entire length of the lower James River from Springfield Lake dam to Galena, MO. I think that float ended up being around 50 miles....which we completed in a 24 hour period....not to brag or anything.

Getting back on subject, today's 15 mile float further completes me and Tyler's unstated goal of floating everything that is feasibly floatable in this area of the Ozarks. The unusual nature of this float is the fact that we did it in the middle of July. Normally the Finley river is nothing more than a mere trickle. This year has provided unusual amounts of rain to our area, so we have been able to float rivers that are impossible to float during the summer months.

Our trek started at Linden, MO where there is a small spillway and parking area near the creek bed. This is a popular site for people during the summer to come to the river since the spillway dams up the Finley forming Lindenlure lake. I'm not sure if this is actually recognized as a formal lake, but that's what it's called. I found a watershed website explaining some of the places we went through today.

The first 5 or 6 miles was very pretty with large bluffs and some decent pools of water. I think this was actually my favorite part of the whole float because of the bluffs. Eventually the river flattens out as you approach Ozark, MO. When you get to Ozark there is a park on the left and several private docks. Just past the park and no more than 200 feet past the McCracken road bridge is a large spillway by an old mill. This spillway proved to be the most challenging part of the whole day. Tyler and Daniel were able to hoist their kayaks down a stair step part of the concrete spillway, but my kayak is significantly larger and I didn't even want to try it, so I found another way down.
From Ozark, MO down to Riverdale Dam was the second 5 mile(ish) stretch. This part of the river was nice, but we had to drag 4 or 5 times through some pretty hairy brush. I was suprised to see how many canoes were on this stretch considering the blockages we came across. I think overall this was my least favorite part, but I really can't complain because it was still pretty nice and clean.
From Riverdale Dam to the end bridge we took out at (I think the road is called 2 rivers road), was the last 5 mile stretch and I don't think we had to drag at all on this stretch. This leg also had the fastest current of all. If someone wanted to float a part of the Finley I would probably recommend this section as it was the widest, and also had pretty good access to the river. If you want you can continue on down the James and take out at Hooten Bridge where there is a nice parking area for people wanting to access the river.

For those of you wanting to know how my kayak repair held up, it did very good. I think I even banged it on a few logs and rocks and there is no sign of damage or cracking whatsoever. I'll give it a couple years and see if I can still sing it's praises...

There were several people fishing today and I think everyone was doing pretty good. I overheard some guy saying his kid caught his first, second and third smallmouth and 2 goggleye. If you want to know anything about local fishing conditions there is a great website I found this year that had just about every body of water that is fishable on it and people can post to it telling their fishing stories of what they caught, on what and where. The site is www.ozarkanglers.com. Here is the link to the Finley River section on that site.