The Spring River, located in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma, begins in southern Lawrence County, Missouri south of Aurora. It goes north of Verona and turns west across Lawrence and Jasper Counties before crossing into Cherokee County, Kansas. It flows past the east sides of Riverton and Baxter Springs before emptying into the Grand Lake o' the Cherokees in Ottawa County, Oklahoma.
There are no known campgrounds located along the Spring River. There are no known outfitters located along or serving the Spring River in Jasper County, though it is posisble that at least one can be found in Joplin or Springfield.
The Spring River Tributaries Watershed is located southwest of the Eleven Point Watershed and is bounded to the west by the North Fork of the White River Watershed. For the purposes of this report, the Missouri/Arkansas state line represents the southern boundary of the watershed in Missouri. The Spring River Tributaries Watershed in Missouri occupies 480.3 square miles of the Salem Plateau Subdivision of the Ozark Plateau Physiographic Region. It constitutes approximately 39% of the total area of the Spring River Watershed with the remainder in Arkansas and of which the Eleven Point River is also a tributary. The watershed occupies parts of Howell and Oregon Counties in Missouri. Caves, springs, losing streams, and sinkholes are common in the watershed. This is due to the highly karst nature of its topography. The watershed consists of three major streams which generally flow in a south to southeast direction and cross the Missouri/Arkansas border to join the Spring River in Arkansas. These streams include the South Fork of the Spring River, Myatt Creek, and the Warm Fork of the Spring River. The longest of these tributaries in Missouri is the Warm Fork of the Spring River which originates in the headwaters as Howell Creek within the city limits of West Plains, Missouri. From there, it generally flows in a southeast direction for approximately 28 miles where it then turns in a general southern direction and flows for another 10 miles before crossing the Missouri/Arkansas border. The Warm Fork becomes the Spring River at the confluence of Mammoth Spring at Mammoth Spring, AR.
For the most part, there have been no significant channel alterations within the watershed. Some channel alterations undoubtedly have occurred in areas of the upper portion of Howell Creek and some of its tributaries in and around West Plains due to urban expansion and development.
Little data is available regarding sport fish populations within the Spring River Tributaries Watershed within Missouri. Much of this fishery consists of small, wadeable, creeks and small rivers. Because much of the land ownership within the watershed is private, stream fishing access is limited.
Most of the fishable streams within the Spring River Tributaries Watershed in Missouri can be considered warm water/cool water fisheries due to the somewhat sporadic spring influence within the watershed. Sunfish dominate these sport fisheries. Sport fish species (as defined as game fish in MDC 1999a) include shadow bass, and smallmouth bass. Largemouth bass, while prevalent in ponds and small lakes throughout the watershed, seem to play a lesser role in the stream sport fishery. Chain pickerel, brown trout, and rainbow trout have also been observed in the Warm Fork of the Spring River. Along with the previously mentioned sport fish species, bluegill, green sunfish, longear sunfish, northern hogsucker and black redhorse occur in the streams throughout the watershed.
Riffles, coves, brush, deadfalls, shoreline timber and riprap, channels.