ColdWaterFshr

C'mon man. I'm ready to go anytime. Pick up the phone and call Paul Dallas.

Good advice. Thanks!

Going here in a couple weeks. Any recommendations where I can catch some of them native brookies near Bryson City. Staying in a cabin 5 minutes from NOC.

Pops still has it.

And Moses said unto Jebediah, do not lay hands on evil serpents. And the word went out across Canaan. Render unto serpents that which art serpents. Render unto campground owners and guests, that which art campground proprieters and guests. - Leviticus 24: 7

Mark's advice is right on. I would go even shorter float for a two-nighter in the heat. Put in at Turners South and take out at Riverton (14 miles). Or put in at 19 and take out at Whitten (about 12 miles). That would allow you more time to fish, swim, explore. Set up camp early afternoon and then take it easy.

Bull Shoals, Stockton, or Pomme, but probably Bull.

Look at the mouth on that thing. Nice fish and boat. Seriously nice bass to pull in on a 5 wt.

Don't panic Coos. Get yourself the book "A Paddlers Guide To Missouri". I think just about any small to mid-size creek will be back to decent levels by Wednesday. But keep an eye on the forecasts and don't camp on gravel bars if t-storms are predicted. Upper to middle Huzzah or Courtouis are not terribly far and offer better water anyway. Even upper Jacks Fork from the Prongs to Bay should be down by then and probably a lot of fun.

Gud wreport, von Ness. Would love to go up there sometime.

Nice amplitude, Corndawg!

Mark, Not sure where you routinely go, but go float the middle Meramec, the Niangua, the Elk, the Big Piney, the Current, the Jacks Fork around Alley Spring, the Black, the Huzzah/Courtouis, the North Fork. . . . . any of these rivers on a weekend from now through the 4th of July weekend . . . . and you will be amazed. The traffic is considerably more than it was in the late 70's and early 80's when I first started going. Even the Buffalo in Ark, I've seen hundreds of canoes floating at the same time.

I hate to give up though. Something needs to be done.

I like the idea of classes and river monitors, but its a pipedream. I think a much simpler solution is daily limits. Max # of boats launched from a given access would be set at 50 boats. Outfitters or personal boats, makes no difference. You get there first you're in, too late and you lose. Get your permit to float, its dated and you're good to go. Don't have it and you get caught, big fine. Big sawhorses go up once the daily limit is reached - ACCESS CLOSED. Probably talking about about less than a dozen weekends Friday/Saturdays that this would need to be policed. Mid-May to July 4th and then a couple weekends before school starts. Of course the outfitters would never let this happen -- another pipedream.

17 to Rymers, and yes I double checked the gauge - it was around 117 cfs Friday through Sun. Very little dragging if you picked the right course. I can't blame the article either. I think the crowds were out in force due to a lot of things. Previous weekend was Mothers Day weekend, so probably few were out. Prior to those weekends the weather has been dicey or the river too high.

Nah. We floated at only 110-120 cfs and only had to drag a couple times and not very far.

No kidding. What a fantastic trip. Just you and the dog and the trout. Really enjoyed that report and great photography. And the pictures of your meals got me hungry.

I was trying to remember that Seinfeld quote. Thanks, Eric. The part where you say "I don't get why you can't just take your kids camping and canoeing . . . ." Well -- that wouldn't have been me. My parents weren't campers or outdoors types or even fishermen. Scouting brought me and my brother TO the outdoors. Whether we would've discovered it on our own eventually anyway, I don't know. But I think there was something about the MISERY of it all. Having to carry a 20 lb heavy canvas, floorless pup tent in a heavy canvas backpack, slogging through Hercules Glades on a 10 mile hike through the rain and pitching it in a chigger infested area, forced to dig a trench around the perimeter to keep the rain out, the taste of the water from an old steel canteen, the hardass scoutmaster grilling you at your board of review, the week long misery of Camp Arrowhead and having to swim to the bottom of that ice cold spring-fed swimming pool and retrieve that concrete block so you could qualify as a "blue" swimmer and not be relegated to the shallow end with the weaker kids. Did I mention the chigger bites and poison ivy?

Me and my brother both made it to Eagle. It was a great experience all the way around. We had a very active troop that did a lot of camping, backpacking, and canoe trips. We even had a fleet of dozen or so canoes until they got stolen from the back of the church garage. Come to think of it, we had a good sized garage that was packed to the rafters with all kinds of camping gear (dutch ovens, tents large and small, mess kits, axes, rope, fishing rods, archery stuff, you name it. It was like an Army Surplus store. I think I was into fishing before getting into scouting, but certainly scouting helped me build a passion for hiking, camping, canoeing . . . just being outdoors and checking out new places, new adventures, new ways of roughing it, how to be prepared, and lots of other things, etc. My brother recently sent his Eagle back to BSA due to the flap about their stance on homosexuality (he's not gay by the way, not that that matters). I don't even know where my Eagle medal/pin is or my old merit badge sash . . . wish I still had it, but I wouldn't go as far as to send it back. We never talked about homosexuality, and don't even recall it being brought up once. Anyway, wandering off topic. Scouting altered my passion and love of the outdoors, no doubt about it.

One other thing . . . if you're floating in loaded boats, my biggest concern right now would be what the river levels will be like in 2 weeks. I'd say its getting real close to being the lower limit of floatable right now, especially from 17/Buck Hollow.

3 nighter during the week you should be fine. I'm sure you'll see a few people since it is the start of vacation season. The crazy thing about the 200 canoes we saw -- 90% of them looked like they were packed for overnight camping. When we floated out yesterday, we didn't see but maybe a dozen people the rest of the day, and we got on the river by 8:30 a.m. It was weird. I thought for sure we would pass multiple gravel bar camps . . . but they were all empty. I guess we had set up camp so early in the day on Saturday, that many of them must've floated well down stream of us, probably taking out at Bay Creek or Alley. When we got back to our cars at Buck yesterday, there wasn't a parking spot to be had . . . cars and trucks lined both sides of the road going into the parking lot. And thats just the people with their own boats. Windy's and 2 River's and Harvey's all had a HUGE # of boats out all weekend. My advice . . . pick your choice camping/gravel bar early in the day and claim it. Don't wait until later in the day when you may start to run out of good choices. We had a couple late floaters come up to our gravel bar around 7 p.m. on Saturday night and ask if they could camp on the same gravel bar as us but about a 100 yards down. We didn't say no, but I think they judged from our reaction that we weren't real crazy about the idea. It was nice of them to ask and they didn't look like hoosiers. They ended up floating on down and finding a good spot. Harvey's or Windy's will take care of you. Might call them and ask what they think about the shuttle timing and how much notice they need. Jacks Fork IS a crown jewel. I'd say the Current, the 11 point, and the Jacks Fork all 3 offer the very best that Missouri has to offer. I think its time to start limiting the # of boats that can put in at an access on a given day -- at least on these National Scenic Riverways. We didn't seen any drunken rowdies, but it was way too many people. As for fishing -- we didn't really even see that many fish. I only saw one or two that were in the 16" range, but over 2 and a half days, that's pretty poor IMO. All the fish we caught were under 13. Fish early and fish late would be my advice, and be the first to the hole and I'm sure you'll do better. The fish are there -- I think they just hug the bottom of the deep holes and under boulders when the canoe hatch is going on.

Went down to the Jacks late on Friday. Did a quick shuttle from 17 down to Rymers. Floated down to a little past Blue Springs and set up camp. Fishing was pretty lousy but the scenery more than made up for it. Caught a few on buzzbaits and the usual soft plastics. Mostly watched the kids collect crawdads, sculpins, and minnows. Great weekend to be out and apparently everyone else got the memo too --- must've had 200 canoes pass us by at our 2nd campsite just above Jam-Up cave. Heard from one of the floaters that some guy was rappelling off one of the bluffs and his rope broke 30 feet up, sending him falling into a tree and a hard landing in 3 feet of water head and shoulder first. He got up and walked away. The official beginning of crazy season. No more weekend floats on popular rivers for me until after Labor Day.

Nice largemouth, Scott. How can you be disappointed with those fish, especially yours?

I just bought a Panasonic Lumix TS20 for $119 at Target and got to try it out this past weekend on the Jacks Fork. Very happy with it so far. Big improvement over my 5 yr old Pentax Optio. Shutter speed is quicker, pictures are sharper. Underwater mode takes pretty good shots. Shoots HD video. Zoom is decent. I like that is shock-proof from 6.5 ft too. And at only $119 I don't have to baby it and always fret over the abuse I'm giving it. In another 5 years there will be something much better out.

Beating Chief to the punch today, I submit to you these photographic gems . . . . .