[kerrtw]

Also you have to have a permit for Sylamore the first 3 days and then it is closed until the 24th.

 

[jackie53]

I know this is an old thread, but it's the most informative I have found about the area. I plan to turkey hunt Sylamore and Buffalo National WMAs this Spring and want to get into some remote areas to find less pressured birds. Would it be feasible to kayak the Buffalo from where it meets the White down to the mouth of Big Creek? My hunt will be mid-April. I'm all for adventure, but I only have two days to scout and three to hunt, so I don't want to spend more time fighting the river than I do hunting turkeys.

Take ya more than 2 days...

 

[RareVisitor]

Also you have to have a permit for Sylamore the first 3 days and then it is closed until the 24th.

I drew the Sylamore permit this year.

 

[RareVisitor]

I kayaked and motored that stretch last year and you'd have to be a heck of a kayaker to do that. I'm assuming you'd put in at Buffalo City. The other thing is you'd be doing a buttload of straight up climbing just to get to where you'd hear a bird. You aren't going to hear many while down in the Buffalo.

Would it be any easier further upstream, such as putting in at Rush Landing? I'm not really concerned about the amount of paddling, climbing, or walking required. My only concern is maximizing my hunting time on low pressure ground. If it's quicker to park at a gate and walk 10 miles, I'll do that.

 

[4setters]

There are a number of comments above that give good information about the Leatherwood area as well as the area around the mouth of Big Creek. In the 90s, I turkey hunted on the north side (mostly) of the big bend that has Big Creek of the south side and Hathaway Gap on the north side. In all of those hunts, I (we) motored down from Rush in a johnboat with a 9.8 motor. Usually, but not always, there is enough water to do that. On several of those hunts out camp was in the old WPA rock schoolhouse on the knob just downstream from the mouth of Big Creek. One evening, as we were grilling a steak in the yard of the old schoolhouse, a gobbler went to roost somewhere near Tater Hill. The next morning I gave him a ride back to camp on my shoulder. The best smallmouth bass I ever caught was at the mouth of Leatherwood Creek. Lots of memories from the lower Buffalo.