Category: Outdoor Fun

Jitterbuggin’ on the Buffalo River

Keith Sutton September 10, 2024 No Comments

The night was incredibly beautiful and serene. The full moon splashed a ribbon of silver across the mirrored surface of the Buffalo River. The sky glittered with a million stars. A cool breeze carried the evergreen fragrance of a nearby cedar glade and the ghostly songs of two lovesick screech owls. Along the water’s edge, shining in the mud, we could see the yellow-green tail lights of thousands of glow worms, the larvae of lightning

Lake Ouachita Stripers

Keith Sutton September 8, 2024 No Comments

The water on Lake Ouachita was calm on that September morning, so my son Matt, my friend Bobby Graves and I had no difficulty seeing big schools of shad churning the surface in several locations. One fountain of baitfish gushed topside 50 yards to the starboard. The school of fish exploded in every direction like silvery shrapnel. Something swirled beneath the baitfish, something large. Then more shad broke the surface to our left, and another

Rush: An Arkansas Ghost Town

Keith Sutton September 6, 2024 No Comments

Have you ever thought about visiting a ghost town in Arkansas? There are several, including Rush, a once-thriving mining community now located within the Buffalo National River boundaries. In 1880, John Wolfer, Bob Setzer and J.H. McCabe moved to Buffalo River country in the Arkansas Ozarks. Drawn by tales of lost silver mines, the prospectors spent months tunneling for ore, hoping to strike it rich. Their dreams seemed to come true when an 1886 assay

Fred’s Fish House in Batesville

Keith Sutton September 4, 2024 No Comments

If you get up around Batesville way and have a hankering for something really good to eat, let me recommend a visit to Fred’s Fish House. You will have to look far and wide to find a place with better food and service, and if you love fried catfish—U.S. farm-raised catfish—as much as I do, you’ll be especially glad you dropped in. Fred Ward, the original owner, knew how to fry up some catfish. He

Oh, Possum!

Keith Sutton September 2, 2024 No Comments

If you could travel back thousands of years, you’d find yourself surrounded by bizarre and unfamiliar creatures: Alticamelus, the “high camel” of America with the neck and legs of a giraffe; Castoroides, a 9-foot-tall beaver; Latifrons the bison, whose horns stretched eight feet from tip to tip; and Megatherium, Mylodon and Megalonyx, mighty ground sloths the size of elephants. Amid these strange beings, one animal would stand out as familiar. Didelphis, the opossum, remains a

Kayak Trio

Keith Sutton August 31, 2024 No Comments

(All photos courtesy of Arkansas Dept. of Parks & Tourism) Those of you who enjoy year-round day trips in the outdoors should consider renting or buying a kayak and exploring some of the state’s many beautiful lakes and streams. For a relatively small investment, you can enjoy fishing, floating or just immersing yourself in a truly peaceful on-the-water experience. With no rumbling of a motor—no sound at all except that of your paddle slicing through

“Fishing Arkansas” Books Make Great Gifts

Keith Sutton August 29, 2024 No Comments

It’s not too early to start buying Christmas gifts and putting them away for family and friends. One that would be ideal for anyone who loves the Arkansas outdoors is Keith’s book, “Fishing Arkansas: A Year-Round Guide to Angling Adventures in the Natural State.” With 288 pages, including 44 big full-color photographs, this 6”x9” softcover guide was first published in September 2000 by the University of Arkansas Press. We recently got them to do another

White River NWR: My Favorite Place to Fish

Keith Sutton August 27, 2024 No Comments

I am often asked, “Of the many places you’ve gone fishing, which is your favorite?” You might think that query would stump me. After all, I’ve been fortunate enough to fish throughout much of the Western Hemisphere, from Canada to Brazil. I’ve fished for salmon and halibut in the shadow of the beautiful snow-capped peaks in Alaska’s Chugash Mountain range. I’ve cast for catfish and peacock bass in the verdant jungles of Brazil, and targeted

Fried Bream With Taters & Onions

Keith Sutton August 24, 2024 No Comments

The bream bite was good on our most recent fishing trip, just as we expected, and since we had decided to eat some of the fish we caught, that was definitely a good thing. It was Lew’s idea to pack what we needed to cook a shore lunch: some cornmeal, salt, pepper, peanut oil, a few potatoes and onions, two big cast-iron skillets and a Coleman stove. “Remember when we took Ma down there to

Don’t Forget to Water Your Birds

Keith Sutton August 22, 2024 2 Comments

The past two months have been dry ones here at Sutton Place. We haven’t had a drop of rain, and the temperature has approached or exceeded 100 degrees most days. I’m sure many of you are experiencing the same thing. When it’s like this, you’ll often find me near a window where I can watch the variety of birds visiting the four-level fountain beside our deck. Theresa and I bought it years ago as an

DownHome Arkansas

Food, Travel, Wildlife & More

Category: Outdoor Fun

Jitterbuggin’ on the Buffalo River

Lake Ouachita Stripers

Rush: An Arkansas Ghost Town

Fred’s Fish House in Batesville

Oh, Possum!

Kayak Trio

“Fishing Arkansas” Books Make Great Gifts

White River NWR: My Favorite Place to Fish

Fried Bream With Taters & Onions

Don’t Forget to Water Your Birds

Jitterbuggin’ on the Buffalo River

Lake Ouachita Stripers

Rush: An Arkansas Ghost Town

Fred’s Fish House in Batesville

Oh, Possum!

Kayak Trio

“Fishing Arkansas” Books Make Great Gifts

White River NWR: My Favorite Place to Fish

Fried Bream With Taters & Onions

Don’t Forget to Water Your Birds

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