After the Wild and Scenic part ends
Most of what gets written about the Eleven Point is about Missouri: the 44.4 miles from Thomasville to Highway 142 that became one of the original National Wild and Scenic Rivers on October 2, 1968, and the trout water below Greer Spring, which Wikipedia says more than doubles the river's flow. Below Highway 142 the river soon crosses into Randolph County, Arkansas, and changes character. There is no trout management on this side; AGFC does not list it as trout water. What it has is smallmouth, rock bass and a native river walleye, in a valley the state lists as an Extraordinary Resource Water and an Ecologically Sensitive Waterbody, though not as one of its Natural and Scenic rivers.
It came close to being a lake. The Flood Control Act of 1938 authorized a Water Valley Dam on the Arkansas reach, and the Corps did not recommend dropping it until April 1965. The river now runs free to its mouth on the Spring River near Black Rock, west of Davidsonville Historic State Park.
Dalton is the first ramp
There is no public access between the Missouri line and Dalton, so the Arkansas river effectively starts at the Dalton ramp. From Highway 90, about halfway between Pocahontas and Ravenden Springs, take Highway 93 north six miles to the bridge, turn right on the township road and follow the pavement around behind Dalton Country Market. The annual Great Eleven Point River Float puts in on private land four miles up at the old Woody's Campground and takes about five easy hours to reach the ramp.
AGFC's Brett Timmons says Dalton works as bank access when the water is low but really shines as the top of a float down to the Eleven Point River Access at Highway 62 near Pocahontas. Trukees Cabin and Canoe Rentals on Highway 62 West (870-810-3486) runs shuttles and owns a private take-out called Shanty about six miles below Dalton, a three-hour float with no cell service. Beyond those, AGFC's access names and the river miles between them are not published anywhere we could find, so bring a map and do not count on the banks: most are private.
The Ravenden Springs gauge in a dry year
USGS 07072000 near Ravenden Springs has daily records back to 1929 and drains 1,130 square miles. On September 24, 2026 it read 369 cfs at 2.51 feet, after two weeks between 362 and 765, which is a little over half the September long-term mean of 656. It has been a lean year: April 2026 averaged 722 cfs against a long-term April mean of 2,077. No outfitter publishes a floating range for this gauge, so the 600 to 1,300 cfs band on this page is the span of the long-term monthly means outside the spring high-water months, from 640 in October to about 1,280 in January. A Missouri paddling site rates readings near 370 as poor, but paddlers on the Dalton section report steady flow and no dragging in dry summers, and Randolph County tourism makes the same point: the springs keep it running.
At the other end, the National Weather Service sets action stage at 12 feet. The record crest is 29.14 feet and 164,000 cfs on April 30, 2017, just above December 1982.
One smallmouth, no crayfish, hands off the hellbenders
The 2026-27 guidebook's entry covers the Eleven Point from the Missouri line to the Spring River confluence. It is now a Blue Ribbon stream: one smallmouth a day, 15 inches or longer. That replaces the two-fish, 14-inch rule you will still see on older sites and on AGFC's own statewide limits page. The same entry tells you not to disturb Ozark hellbenders, which are endangered in Arkansas and may not be taken, and closes the river and its tributaries to crayfish fishing, so a live crawdad is off the table and a crayfish fly is the substitute.
Everything else falls under statewide limits: ten black bass combined, ten rock bass, six walleye. Because this is not trout water, a trout permit is only needed if you keep a trout. Cross into Missouri and the regulations change: MDC allows one smallmouth, 15 inches minimum, within six black bass, and puts an 18-inch minimum on walleye.
Walleye in March, smallmouth into October
The walleye here are not lake fish. Timmons calls them a riverine strain endemic to the Black River system and names the Strawberry, Spring and Eleven Point as the places to hook spawning fish. AGFC's timing for that run is males moving up in early to mid March, the fishing peaking around the third week, and the spawn moving shallow at 48 to 50 degrees.
Smallmouth pick up as the water passes 55 degrees, which Steve Dally puts anywhere in March on nearby Crooked Creek, and hold through late October; AGFC gives the spawn as April to June. AGFC's growth data for this river put a 15-inch smallmouth at about five years old. Justin Spencer, who guides the Missouri reach, calls fall the most consistent season and fishes marabou jigs under an indicator, sometimes six or seven feet down, because the fish key on minnows, sculpins and crawdads. For summer evenings Family-Outdoors suggests poppers, small Jitterbugs and Zara Spooks, and for daytime a crawdad crankbait.