June 2-4 Camping Trip

[Mark]

After missing a last year, two fellow teachers and myself resumed our traditional end of the school year campout on the Eleven Point. We selected Stinking Pond gravel bar as our base camp and used Snap's jetboat to haul in our gear. This trip is more about relaxing after another school year under our belts than it is about fishing. Another three buddies stayed in a nearby cabin and joined us during the day. Except for last year, we have been making this an annual trip for the past 10 or so years as we have found it a perfect way to unwind and relax after the stress of having kids all hyped up at the end of the school year. This seemed like one of the longest years of teaching with all the snow days.

A quick fishing report - I would rate the fishing as good and the river conditions as excellent.

After setting up camp on Monday afternoon, I caught a nice 14" on my first cast, another on my third cast, and a third on by my tenth cast. Terry landed one on his first cast as well, as we thought we had hit the mother load. Our cabin friends soon joined us, and we decided it was time to start Happy Hour. We set up our lawnchairs, got the hot wings and thighs started on the grill, and enjoyed cocktails as Terry and I picked guitars and Snap joined in periodically on the harp. Fishing the rest of the day consisted of short excursions to usual hot spots with limited results as the bite wasn't what it was when we first hit camp. Still, between the six of us, we probably had 8-9 fish to clean by dusk. The outlook for the rest of the week. We started the campfire and turned on the Cardinals/Royals game as the cabin crew headed home for a more luxurious night's sleep. We barely stayed awake until the game was over - Cards lose.

We awoke Tuesday morning with high hopes. Snap and I were on the river early and headed to the deep hole at McDowell's Cave. No luck. We headed upstream to a nice stretch of moving water and each of us landed a fish or two a piece. After an hour and a half of cherry picking the hot spots, the action was only so-so which we attributed to sunny skies instead of overcast we had on Monday and an increase in wind, and we headed back to camp to get some breakfast started. The cabin crew arrived about midmorning and we again made short excursions in jet boats or wading the Stinking Pond stretch. Admittedly, none of us fished that hard and plenty of time was spent on the beach in lawnchairs. Midafternoon, a young couple pulled in to our gravel bar for a stretch. We hit it off immediately with Zach and Muffet, and soon they had pulled up their chairs on the beach with us. Time for Happy Hour again. Zach was quite the interesting character. He and Muffet were from Arkansas and were on a two week canoe adventure hitting numerous streams in the Ozarks. It was their first trip on the Eleven Point. Again it was time to fire up the BBQ grill and guitar picking. Zach was very knowledgeable on every stream in Arkansas and SW Missouri, and gave us lots of information on streams we had talked about floating in the future. Happy Hour went so well that Zach asked if he and Muffet could camp the night with us and the fishing was pretty much over for the day, although a couple of the cabiners did have some success drifting the Turner Mill Access stretch. Zach helped Snap load up the boat with firewood and we had quite the bonfire going. The cabiners left about dusk as we settled in for the ballgame. Zach turned in early and Muffet entertained us with her psychedelic Hoola Hoop. None of us had ever seen one of these - it had blinking and strobe lights that alternated patterns and was quite the lightshow when she twirled it. Very cool - all we needed was Dark Side of the Moon playing! It was all we could do to stay awake again for the game - but all for naught - Cards lose again.

We awoke Wednesday morning and it was business as usual. Zach and Muffet were off by midmorning after exchanging contact information (it turns out that Zach's family owns a cabin on the Buffalo River and he invited us all down sometime to return our hospitality - pretty neat to make friends with a much younger couple considering we are all middle aged me), the cabiners arrived, and the day was spent with short fishing excursions and wade fishing at camp. The fishing was on and off, but for the most part we all had enough success to keep up our interest. A fish fry was on the menu for our last night with blue gill, catfish, and trout fillets, as the dark clouds gathered as they had each day late in the afternoon. But it became apparent by late evening that these clouds could bring us rain. The cabiners left early, we started the campfire and turned on the game, and immediately the lightning started in the distance. For the next two hours, we could see the distant lightning build and thunder rumble, as we debated whether we were going to get hit or not. A radio weather report said that a severe thunderstorm had been spotted in the Birch Tree/Winona/Eminence area with warnings until 10:30. Occasional lightning got closer and then seemed to move north. We stayed up until 11:00 listening to the game - Cards lose again - and a light sprinkle started so we headed to under the tarp. It soon quit and we headed to our tents. As soon as we laid down, a light rain started and quit again. I barely went to sleep when BOOM, the loudest blast of lightening/thunder crashed and immediately shot straight up. The following half hour got scary. Close lightning, loud thunder, and then the wind started blowing hard. My tent was trying to blow away except for me inside. There was no where to hide now so I sat up waiting on a tree to crush me. The rain pelted and started leaking in my tent. Not much I could do. Eventually the lightning and thunder slowed down, and it stopped raining. Only a slight puddle in the bottom of my tent. So I went back to sleep, but soon the rain began coming down in buckets again, but luckily no wind or lightning. By now pretty much everything in my tent was damp and I just had to tough it out and sleep on a damp sleeping bag. BY far, the most severe weather I had ever camped in. I have to admit, it was pretty scary for awhile.

When we awoke the next morning, we had pretty much had enough fun for three days. It didn't take long to break camp and get on the road. Overall a great trip. Caught fish, good eating, lots or relaxing, and made new friends. The thunderstorm sure made it a trip to remember!! Can't wait until next year!!

[Brian Sloss]

Great report, glad you got through the storm ok.

[snap]

.....something like that!!!....a young lady asked when the movie coming out??? ....don't know how to answer that one

[GloryDaze]

Sounds just perfect, really appreciate your trip and attitude. Most trips I make are not about the fishing rather getting away from it all, relaxing and having a good time. If I catch fish it is a bonus, but we never complain no matter the conditions.