Trails offer access to backcountry hunting, fishing

If you are looking for remote places to catch a fish or call a spring gobbler, our trails will take you to places where others never venture.

Hunters and anglers are creatures of comfort and convenience. Most hunters go to only places they can reach with a four-wheeler, and they seldom venture more than 200 yards from a road. Anglers, likewise, only go to places that are accessible by boat or car. They will wade short distances upstream or downstream, but they don’t go overland.

If you are the adventurous type, the Ozark Highlands

Trail can take you to some of the best public hunting and fishing in the state. Two of my favorite stretches of the

Ozark Highlands Trail go through the Richland Creek Wilderness Area and the Hurricane Creek Wilderness Area. The creeks contain small holes that teem with smallmouth bass.

Small farms once checkered most of the Ozark National Forest, so the entire area contains secluded ponds that shelter largemouth bass and sunfish. I once took Chris Gulstad, executive director of sales and marketing for PRADCO, and Andy Crawford, assistant editor of Louisiana Sportsman magazine, to one such pond knowing that they would never find them again on their own.

The most productive trips are overnighters because you know you are beyond the range of casual anglers. For these excursions you need a three- or four-piece spinning rod that fits into a compact case that you can strap to a backpack. Eagle Claw makes an excellent backpacking rod. A 3-weight fly rod is fun if you know how to cast in tight quarters, but sometimes quarters are too tight to cast even a spinning rig.

In these environments, you’re usually casting amid bankside pushes. For this, I let out enough line to come halfway down the rod. I pull the bait back to the reel, which loads the rod with tension like a bow. The sudden tension release slings the lure to the desired spot. The creek is no place to practice this technique. Refine it at home to save yourself frustration and possible injury. You don’t want a hook in your hand a half day’s hike from a trailhead.

Isolated ridges deep in the Ozark and Ouachita national forests are wonderful places to hunt wild turkeys, which behave differently in remote places than birds that live near roads. I call those “urban” turkeys, whose daily patterns are disrupted by shed antler hunters and people who can’t resist calling to turkeys before the season starts, and of course, by slobs that can’t resist shooting birds before the season starts.

I distinctly remember one morning hiking with my sons during spring break in 2007. A gobbler woke me and bellowed from the ridge above our camp for nearly an hour.

You really have to plan ahead for a backcountry turkey hunt. You must pack light, with little or no comfort weight, so to speak. A shotgun gets mighty heavy on a half-day walk in the mountains, and you also have to account for the possibility of carrying a heavy gobbler out of the woods.

Remember also that you probably can’t get a cellular connection in the national forest, so you won’t be able to check your bird on the Game and Fish Commission’s mobile app. You’ll have to tag your bird the old-fashioned way.

Remember also that black bears are abundant in the national forests, and they might be on the move in warm weather. I learned this the hard way during a spring break hike with my sons in 2012 in the Caney Creek Wilderness Area of the Ouachita National Forest. A bear raided our campsite shortly after we retired and strewed my cooking gear all over the place. It took nearly an hour the next morning to find it all. To avoid that kind of encounter, hoist your food into a tree with a rope.

Accessing the Ozark Highland Trail and Ouachita Trail is easy. Several excellent trail guides are available at any outdoor equipment store. Lesser known trails, like the Womble Trail, offer excellent opportunities, as well. Acquaint yourself with small areas. Cover them thoroughly and branch into new areas as you gain confidence.

It is the best way to discover excellent public hunting and fishing in our great state.