Gavin

I'd try Round Spring to Two Rivers on the Current its about 21 miles but you'll have some jet boats to contend with...If you want a shorter float, and no boats.. I'd float Pulltite to Round Spring 11 miles. Carr's Canoe should be able to set you up with a haul up to Pulltite, or a car spot down at Two Rivers. The Jack's is looking kinda low at Buck Hollow (66cfs) and Alley (119 cfs)right know...Youll be draggin alot if you head down there. Cheers.

Most of those creeks are covered in the Tryon book "200 Missouri Smallmouth Adventures"..I'm sure youll find someplace to fish if you go looking for it. Cheers.

Great trip this weekend! My friend Chris and I drove down Friday AM...Nice drive with a stop at Ruby's in Eminence...mediocre food but it hit the spot. Got to Greer around 1:30 or so, then hiked down to Greer Spring followed by a bit of fishing on McCormack Lake. We received no love from the pickerel at McCormack. We paddled the canoe up and down the lake a couple times without much success. We ended up with a couple chases, and one largemouth in the boat. It looked like rain, so we packed up and headed to Cane Bluff CG. Cane Bluff offers two campsites, a stinky pit toilet, and a boat ramp. One site was occupied so we claimed the other, set camp, unloaded the boats and went fishing. We took the canoe up 3-4 holes and fished our way back down...Water was low, and a bit stained, but it didn’t take long to figure them out. A 4" chomper hula grub on a stand-up head did the trick, and we caught fish in all the likely spots. Nothing big but fun fishing, plus a bit of scare... I had a banded water snake scare the #$%#$ out me when I almost stepped on it hidden in some willow weed...Thought it was a cottonmouth, but I realized it wasn’t as it swam away. To close for comfort... Got off the water at dark and set to making dinner. It was Chris's night to cook and Mike got there as Chris was tossing the Chicken & Shrimp on the grill. Fun time around the fire, and Marc arrived just as we were going to bed. We ran our shuttle down to Turner and got on the water at Cane Bluff around 9am. Chris watched the gear, and reported only a couple boats ahead of us, and there were a couple other fellows rigging up at the boat ramp. Turned out that one of the the fellows was Dr. Lance & the other his friend Dale. They were floating Cane to Greer. Fishing was a little slow from the get go. Picked up a few on plastics here and there, but fish were on the small side. I had some good luck at one of the spring holes. The spring flow cleared the water allot, and the hole was packed with smallmouth. I picked up 6 in about 8 casts on a Zoom Fluke. Below there it went back to picking up oneseys & twoseys for the rest of the way down to the Greer confluence. We stopped at Greer and re-rigged our rods for trout. Chris & I rigged our fly rods, and Mike and Marc rigged with small cranks and roostertails. Chris found the magic spot on the bluff side at Greer, and started pounding fish immediately...I was about 50 yards below, hooked one, popped it off, and lost all my candy in the tree canopy. Lots of good water downstream and I figured Chris might be busy for awhile, so I said "See you down river" and paddled on. I didn’t see him for 4-5 hours after that. Seems that I am a bit rusty with the long rod these days. Missed a bunch of hits, broke off a bunch of flies, and LDR'd a bunch of fish. It was hot, I was a bit fed up. Mike & Marc wanted to take a break, and then look for a campsite. So we took a Siesta in the shade for 45 minutes or so, till they went looking and I got back to fishing. The Siesta helped...I ended up with two nice rainbows back to back...a 15" and a fat 18"....I measured it twice... 18" on the button and after all the grief I had on Saturday.... it went in the cooler. Having caught my limit, I paddled on down to find Mike & Marc. Mike & Marc ended up finding a great gravel bar just across from Little Hurricane Creek. We set camp, had a couple cocktails, and waited for Chris. He came in about an hour after us...We didn’t plan to float that far (10 miles on a 13 mile float), but it ended up working out great. We hardly saw anyone between Greer & Turner, got the best gravel bar on that stretch, and most of the folks we saw came paddling though at dark after we set camp. Great Dinner by the campfire...Rib Eye Steaks, Fresh Caught Rainbow Trout, Taters & Onions, a bit of wine and to bed pretty early. Broke camp at 8:30am on Sunday and we planned to take our sweet time getting down to Turner...Fish every shoal hard, and have fun...Then something happened. Mike imbedded a barbed treble hook in his pinky finger while releasing a fish at L. Mary Decker Shoal. It looked bad...right through the skin, a good chunk of meat, and through the other side...Fortunately, he was able crush the barb and get it out without too much damage. Could have been allot worse, but we broke out the first aid kit to patch him up and he was able to paddle & catch fish with no complaints. Everyone caught plenty of fish on the way down to Turner at 1pm. My best was around 17” but we couldnt find any rhyme or reason to the bite..We caught fish on darn near everything we tried. Pat’s R. Legs, Don’s Craw, Bloody Mary, Princes, Hare’s Ears, Buggers, Glo-Balls, you name it. We stopped at Dairy Shack in Eminence on the way back. The burgers & fries were lousy (freezer burned), but the milkshakes were good. We had a horrible drive home on Sunday. Got caught in the rainstorm out by St. James and had to white knuckle it half way back to St. Louis...Aside from the drive, Great trip. Gavin

You can find some float maps for the Bryant & NFoW here.... http://www.missouricanoe.org/index.html Blair & Patrick are in the trout water...starts at Rainbow Spring on the Map...but there are several public access points above...Hebron, Hammond Camp, ets...its usually too low to float up there this time of year though. I'd try the Bryant instead. Talk to Justin about your float/shuttle options. I stay at Sunburst often and they treat people well. Cheers.

Water will probably be low, and I'm not sure how much snot moss is in the river this year.....Fish early or late, and bring some smaller flies and lighter tippet, and be prepared to clean your flies off often. Cheers.

I dont know either...Last time was down that way the upper section didnt look that inviting. Dont remember going by Orla, but there were lots of cattle in most of the spots that didnt have no tresspassing under penalty of death type signs. Ended up fishing the Upper G. Nade between Competition & Falcon. Fishing was pretty good. Cheers.

DVR'd Gasland a couple weeks ago and I finally had a chance to watch it tonight...It was a small sample, and reactionary IMO, but enough substance there to raise a heck of alot of concern. It doesnt sound like the fracking process can be done safely and predictably....add the water use, waste disposal problems, air quality issues, water quality issues, no regulation, and I see a real problem developing. Our need for energy and minerals is real, but there must be a better way to do these things.

I agree...lots of great water on the G. Nade & Big Piney..wish I could fish those rivers more often.

It gets pretty boney under 100cfs....I probably wouldnt put in above Blue Spring at the current level. Cheers.

Dunno..I'll be headed back that way on the 11th...will check it out.

It says July? but they didnt give a date. Brian or Tito may have more info. The Campground at McCormack Lake would be a good fall back or you could always camp on the river. Cheers.

From the pic.... Scud Hook Marabou Tail Two or three materials for the body...just a guess but I'm thinking 2 strands of v-rib or similar material wrapped together. Thorax is dubbing of some sort with swiss straw for the wing pads...Cant see the wing case material very well, but anything will work Add a turn of marabou or ostrich herl at the head. Buy a couple and cut them up if you really want to be sure. Cheers.

There are a few trout up by Hwy 8 on the Huzzah, but smallmouth & panfish are the main attraction. Soft Plastic's, Spinnerbaits, Cranks, Buzzers, Soft Jerkbaits will all catch fish. Just get there before the mob, or fish after the mob is gone. My wife and I are staying with some friends near there this weekend. I'll post up a report when I get back. Cheers.

Looks like a set of skid plates would fix it right up...How long will it last...dunno really? Depends on how much you float...I used to go though the stern skid plate in 2-3 seasons when I was single and floating 30+ days a year. Married with kids...not floating so much. Cheers.

Gotta be more to the story..Those bass dont look all that big and kind of skinny...for all I know they might be taking a few fish out of a small lake or pond. If so, I couldnt care less.

Sushi most of the time.

I'd probably go with Orvis or Simms in a boot foot...I used to swear by Simms, but my last set of G3's didnt hold up very well so tried a set of Patagonia's . I've been using them for a couple years w/o any problems. I'm not sure if Patagonia makes a boot foot model though. Cheers.

That Cortois trip is a nice one..We usually do Butts slab(Bass Resort) to Scotia Bridge on the Huzzah(Browns Canoe), or pull out at Onandaga on the Meramec if we want a longer float(Ozark Outdoors). Its a total zoo on the weekends, but its usually peacefull early in the week (Sunday PM-Tuesday). Cheers.

Congrats on a great day....sounds like your getting dialed in on that creek...My wife and I floated the Cedar to Akers Stretch on Friday. The river had a good amount of traffic on it but we caught 4 each...6 smallmouth, a chain pickeral, and a goggle eye. My wife was fishing a 4" Curly tail, and I was fishing a Zoom Fluke. Rigged up the fly rods at Welch and fly fished below there.....No trout. Stayed with a bunch down at Pulltite on Friday night and floated from Akers to Pulltite on Saturday....Fishing was a complete waste of time...had 3-4 strikes but nothing big enough to eat a 5" Zoom Fluke. Good float but I had a run in with some overzealous canoe jockey from Jadwin Canoe Rental...apparently he thinks he owns the beach at Pulltite cuz he didnt like that I pulled my boat into "his" spot...he wanted exclusive use of the access...and I told him what I thought about it. He may pay to use it, but its federal land and its mine as well as his... And I let him know it. They cant occupy the whole darn ramp for hours and demand that private boats...pull out downstream way far away from the parking lot... Closest I've been to a fist fight in a long time. I cant recall the last time I used Jadwin for a shuttle or anything....but I'd urge you all to boycott the place..

No need for apology..Guess I should have added a couple smiley faces or something.

Ahh...The "confusion" argument...That always seems to come up as an argument against regulatory change.....I'm sure their will be some mis-identification, ignorance, and confusion but that isnt anything new. Frankly, I think that the "confusion" argument is a fallacy of consequence....Folks will be too dumb to figure it out, might get a ticket, etc... I truly have the belief that most folks will figure it out and I'm not worried about the folks who cant or wont. Cheers.

The other Baptist camp its right by Mill Creek

I'll give you that....monitoring is a management task, but help me define the goal? What is the goal and what are the key performance indicators? Smallmouth are far from an endangered species in Missouri so why do we need to do extensive monitoring if it doesnt effect change? I think its time for them to make some changes, or admit that they dont give a hoot and spend the money on something else. Just my .02 and you are welcome to disagree with it. Cheers.

Sorry, but there isnt any nearby trout fishing...might try a bit of warm water fishing on the Maries and Tavern Creek...Have fun.

I dont have any ideal solutions. Al's ideas sound good, Chief's too, many others sound good too...I think all of them are worth a shot and its not a contest to see who's idea is best....I think that were all in agreement that changes are needed....It's time for MDC's to step up to the plate. MDC has plenty of data, dozens of people on the fisheries payroll, and the ability to manage our smallmouth fisheries in an active manner. Its time for them to do something or justify the need to fund all their research and payroll if they arent actively managing anything. Cheers.