Above Buck Hollow you walk
The river begins where the North and South Prongs meet in Texas County, and the NPS float table starts there: 7.2 miles from the Prongs to the Highway 17 bridge at Buck Hollow, about three hours when there is water. Most of the year there is not, and Family-Outdoors describes this top stretch as a wade-fishing proposition. The name comes from John Jacks, a Shawnee who settled near the headwaters in the 1830s. Above the Highway 17 bridge the statewide stream rules apply: six black bass, 12 inches minimum, no keeping bass from March 1 through May 22.
From the Highway 17 bridge down, one bass over 15
The Wildlife Code allows only one smallmouth a day, and it must be at least 15 inches, from the Highway 17 bridge to the confluence with the Current at Two Rivers; MDC calls that 38 miles. It sits inside the six-bass aggregate, and older web pages that say 18 inches and stop at Eminence are out of date. Goggle-eye have carried a 7-inch minimum on the whole river since 2017, 15 a day. From March 1 through the Friday before the fourth Saturday in May no stream bass may be kept, and the 2026 harvest season opened May 23. Fishing permits are not sold inside the park, so buy yours first.
Park rules add a few more. You cannot fish, wade or float in springs or spring branches, which puts the Alley Spring branch off limits. The upper Jacks Fork, from the park's western boundary to the Eminence gap, is closed to motors in peak season, roughly April 1 to September 14, and limited to 25 horsepower jet or 18 propeller the rest of the year; from Eminence to Two Rivers the cap is 60 jet and 40 propeller all year. Horses may cross only at designated fords.
Rymers, Jam Up and a float that ends in June
Buck Hollow to Blue Spring is 2.6 miles, Blue Spring to Rymers 6.6, Rymers to Bay Creek 9, and Bay Creek to Alley 5.8, by the NPS table. Between Rymers and Blue Spring, reachable only by boat, Jam Up Cave opens about 80 feet high and 100 wide; MDC says it is technically a natural tunnel. The canyon walls here run to 200 feet, and MDC's 3-mile survey around it counted 40 native fish species, six of them Ozark endemics, and four crayfish species. In spring the first 25 miles to Bay Creek are Class II.
Harvey's says the upper Jacks above Alley usually runs out of floating water by early June, and Two Rivers Canoe tells paddlers to float it before mid-May. MDC notes that from mid to late summer water is lowest from Buck Hollow to Bay Creek. Family-Outdoors puts the best upper-river fishing in late spring, after the water warms and before it drops, and recommends 1/32 to 1/8 ounce marabou jigs in olive, white and black.
Alley Spring changes the river
Six miles west of Eminence on Highway 106, Alley Spring adds 81 million gallons a day of 58-degree water through a half-mile branch beside the red 1894 Alley Mill. USGS pegs it at about 125 cfs. That flow is why outfitters float Alley to Two Rivers all year: the NPS lists Alley to Eminence at 6.3 miles and Eminence to Two Rivers at 7.3, about three hours each, while Harvey's and Two Rivers Canoe count 7 or 8 miles for each leg. Alley to Eminence is the most popular summer float, so launch early or late. Family-Outdoors thinks the cold spring flow trims bass numbers right below it.
MDC expects good smallmouth numbers in 2026, with plenty of fish over 8 inches but few past 18. Look along rock ledges and boulders in the bluff pools, and for goggle-eye around big rocks and the edges of water-willow beds. Ron Kruger's MidWest Outdoors piece works 1/16-ounce Road Runners, Mini-Spins, 3-inch Flukes and Beetle Spins on 6 to 8 pound line through the boulder runs where crayfish and hellgrammites hide; fly anglers match the crayfish and minnows, and early and late the topwater bite takes small poppers.
Read Eminence in cfs, not feet
USGS 07066000 at Eminence sits between Alley and Two Rivers, so it measures the year-round float. Its long-term monthly means run from about 214 cfs in September to 909 in April, and USGS gives the average as 466 cfs. In mid-September 2026 it ran 92 to 126 cfs, and Two Rivers Canoe describes Alley to Two Rivers as a float for any time of year. No outfitter publishes a cfs range, so this page's 100 to 470 cfs band runs from that late-summer low to the USGS average, the typical winter level. The NPS closes the river to canoes and kayaks at roughly two feet above normal and posts closures on its Facebook page and at 573-323-4236.
Be careful with foot readings. The NPS table lists an average of 4.4 feet at Eminence, but the gauge read 1.52 feet on September 24, 2026, so older stage figures likely reflect a different datum. The Eminence record crest was 19.82 feet on November 15, 1993.