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Home › Waters › Mississippi › Strong River
River · South central Mississippi, running southwest through Simpson County past Pinola and D'Lo toward the Pearl River · Mississippi

Strong River Fishing Guides

A small sand-bottomed Mississippi river with white sand bars, clear water and a float-and-swim culture that most anglers overlook.

Still bayou water ringed by moss-draped cypress at golden hour
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Strong River

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About the Strong River

The Strong River is the sort of water that people who grew up nearby are quietly loyal to and nobody else has heard of. It runs southwest through Simpson County over a bed of clean white sand, cutting steep banks on the outside of its bends and dropping broad sand bars on the inside, and its water runs noticeably clearer than the Pearl it eventually joins. The D’Lo Water Park reach is locally famous as a swimming and tubing spot, which tells an angler most of what they need to know about the summer character of the river.

The fishery is a classic southern small-river mix. Largemouth and spotted bass hold against the cut banks, the root wads and the deeper outside bends. The sunfish population is the everyday pleasure – bluegill, redear and longear are abundant and take a popper or a cricket readily, and longear in particular are spectacularly coloured here. Channel catfish work the deeper holes, flatheads hold in the log jams, and crappie stack in the slower water and the backwaters near the Pearl confluence.

Bowfin are present and worth mentioning, because an angler who hooks one on light tackle in a warm backwater will remember it. They are ancient, powerful and entirely unbothered by low oxygen, and they are a legitimate sport fish rather than a nuisance if approached in the right spirit.

The Strong floats well in a kayak or canoe at moderate water, and the sand bars make for easy stops and good camping on the longer trips. Access is a mix of bridge crossings, the D’Lo Water Park and informal put-ins, so scout before committing to a long day. USGS publishes no drainage area for this gauge, which is worth knowing rather than guessing at; the river rises and falls quickly with south Mississippi rainfall, so check the gauge and the forecast together.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Strong River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Robert Bush Road near Pinola - the gauge reach and a bridge access.
D'Lo Water Park - the best-known access, swimming and float launch.
Pinola - bridge and roadside access on the middle river.
Highway 49 crossing - access on the lower river.
Mendenhall area - access on the middle reach.
Magee area crossings - upper river bridge access.
Pearl River confluence - the bottom of the run.

Seasons

Spring: the best flows of the year and strong bass and crappie fishing.
Summer: low clear water, heavy tubing traffic on weekends, best fished early.
Fall: quiet water, cooling temperatures and excellent sunfish and bass fishing.
Winter: slow and cold, with catfish and crappie in the deeper holes.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Strong River?

As of Sep 17, 5:15 am, the USGS gauge STRONG RIVER AT ROBERT BUSH RD NR PINOLA, MS reads 83 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Strong River?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Bowfin, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Longear Sunfish, Redear Sunfish, Spotted Bass, White Crappie on the Strong River in Mississippi.

Where can you access the Strong River?

Robert Bush Road near Pinola - the gauge reach and a bridge access. D'Lo Water Park - the best-known access, swimming and float launch. Pinola - bridge and roadside access on the middle river. Highway 49 crossing - access on the lower river. Mendenhall area - access on the middle reach. Magee area crossings - upper river bridge access. Pearl River confluence - the bottom of the run.

When is the best time to fish the Strong River?

Spring: the best flows of the year and strong bass and crappie fishing. Summer: low clear water, heavy tubing traffic on weekends, best fished early. Fall: quiet water, cooling temperatures and excellent sunfish and bass fishing. Winter: slow and cold, with catfish and crappie in the deeper holes.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Strong River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Mississippi agency site: https://www.mdwfp.com/enforcement-education/general-fishing-rules-regulations