ROLLIN' DOWN THE SPRING
Access to the Spring River is excellent. You can start a trip downstream at the AGFC's Cold Springs Access off U.S. Highway 63 two miles below Mammoth Spring in northeastern Fulton County. The popular Dam No. 3 access is one and a half river miles below Cold Springs on state Highway 342 a mile west of its intersection with U.S. 63.

The AGFC's Bayou Access is at river mile 6 off Fulton County Road 67. Between there and the next major stop, at Many Islands Camp you'll paddle to Cottonwood, Saddler and Horseshoe falls and pass two resort/outfitters. Rookies should stop to study these drops from shore. Once you're beyond such dropoffs, turn around and cast into them-smallmouths lurk beneath the edges, watching for prey.

Many Islands Camp is the next busy access, about eight miles below Mammoth Spring. Myatt Creek, another fine smallmouth fishery that can become too low to navigate in the summer, is on the right a mile and a half below Many Islands. About two and a half miles farther downstream, watch for another waterfall with standing waves best left to expert paddlers; beginners should portage. Some outfitters also use the privately owned access at Taylor's Camp, which is about 13 1/2 miles downriver from Mammoth Spring.

Hardy Beach, a public park about 18 1/2 miles downstream from Mammoth Spring, is another favorite put-in and takeout spot with outfitters and visitors with their own canoes and vehicles. The AGFC maintains the next public ramp at the L.B. Access, a few miles downstream on the northeastern edge of the Harold E. Alexander Wildlife Management Area.

Williford is the next access, where you can put in or take out behind the post office on state Highway 58 about two miles south of its intersection with U.S. Highway 63. This stop is ten miles below Hardy Beach. It's another five miles from there to Ravenden, where you'll find one access just south of town and another to the east at the U.S. Highway 63 bridge. The final section of the river covers 15 miles from Ravenden to the state Highway 166 bridge next to Old Davidsonville State Park, where the Eleven Point and Spring meet. You can also get on the river at an AGFC ramp five miles below Ravenden at the U.S. Highway 62 bridge at Imboden.

WHERE ARE THE SMALLMOUTHS?
"It seems to me that the best smallmouth portion of the river is probably from Many Islands down to Hardy," Henry says, recalling personal experience while awaiting final results of a three-year study that he and Barkley will complete later this year. "We didn't see many smallmouths in the upper portion of the river, in the trout waters," which he describes as the first four and a half miles below the spring.

Henry and Barkley electrofished the river at different times between the fall of 2004 and spring 2006 and have calculated important fishery descriptors, such as the electrofishing catch rate per hour (which indicates population densities) and the average percentage of smallmouths that were more than 11 inches long and more than 14 inches long in a given area. These proportional and relative stock density numbers indicate the percentage of fish in a population that have reached first-quality sizes.