ColdWaterFshr

but you'll shoot your eye out.

Did we all recently bump our heads and develop amnesia? Seems like we've had this discussion.

Blazerman - do you mind sharing with us the river you were on in Franklin county and a general idea of the location of this beach? How far down or upstream from such and such boatramp. That kind of thing. Just so I can remember to bring a roll of 20's in a rubberband and play the part as a "buyer". Don't wanna have to pee my leg or find myself with new holes in my body should I find myself in some Clint Eastwood movie sitcheation. Or worse, like poor ole Ned in Deliverance.

And how would your pistol have made much difference in that situation? 1. You were in your boat. A pistol is usually only effective at very short range unless you're a dead eye, and there was 2 of them up on the beach, and they both had rifles? 2. Lets say you had your pistol in your boat somewhere. Would you have had time set down your fishing rod to go and get it from wherever you were keeping it? 3. They were meth-heads. Do you think they would stop to carefully and rationally consider the outcome if they saw you show a pistol? I think one could probably make the argument that your situation could've turned out a lot worst if you had brandished anything short of a fully automatic machine gun in that situation.

Everyone is suspect?

Cool pictures. Very colorful, especially those underwater rainbows with the pink hopper mouth ornaments. And what a beautiful brown.

Holy wax-on, wax-off Daniel-son. You busy guy.

Thanks for the offer. May take you up on that. Wouldn't mind doing it in the canoe just for the sight-seeing part of it. Probably wouldn't even take a rod. My fall hell has started though with kids sports. Not sure when I will get time to get away. my son is playing fall ball + on 2 soccer teams middle daughter is playing fall ball, soccer, and volleyball youngest daughter is playing soccer and volleyball

Anyone ever put a canoe in the big Muddy? I've been kicking round the idea of putting in at Columbia Bottoms and run the chain of rocks and take out at the riverfront landing. Not sure if it would be any fun or pretty drab. I would think the time would be at these low levels.

There it is.

Dream Lake for me would actually be about a mile of spring-fed CREEK, not lake.

Bear Lake Rd is under construction from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. -- not letting any cars in during that time. So we went after 4 and yes there was quite a few hikers, especially right around Bear Lake, but they petered out past Nymph Lake. Had it almost to ourselves.

Cool pic. Somebody get the pliers!

Ah yeah, I would like to have a private trophy bass lake to keep just for myself. It would be surrounded by thick woods and I would pay the government mapping agencies to show it as a big gravel parking lot and not the deep, spring-fed, lily-padded paradise that it is. I would have a small sandy beach on the shallow end with a small swimming dock and a solar powered fridge sitting on it always stocked with my favorite beverages. And there would be no mosquitoes at night, just whipporwhils and supermodels that would sneak in to skinny dip each night and I would fix them frozen margaritas right there from the dock and they would giggle and frolic and Here is a picture of a place called Dream Lake in Rocky Mtn Natl Park. I was there 2 weeks ago and standing waist deep in the water casting to rising greenback cutts. Then lightning chased me out and I was sad to leave.

Got a little cheapy clip light that clips to the bill of my cap. $8. Click it once for green light and dim shooting straight down from the bill of the cap. click it twice for 2 green lamps light shooting out in front. third click is full power shining out front white halogen and fairly bright. Petzl also makes great headlamps. Have a big one for camping stuff that has held up really well for 15 years now.

Excellent report. Makes a feller want to load up and head down there right now.

Philmont. Zion Natl Park. Yosemite. Yellowstone. Or -- Boundary Waters is a big boy scout area and adventure. Go for it and start planning now.

MaxDrown - great photos. You gave those boys a trip to remember and my hats off to you and your fellow scout leaders. 50-miler is no slouch feat. I always wanted to do that when I was in the BSA. Our troop was very active with camping, backpacking, and serious outings like this. We even owned our own dozen or so canoes until they got stolen from our churches garage and then considered replacing them but the liability for even having them was discouraged by the BSA. Troop 8, University Heights Baptist Church, Springfield, MO. Hugh Wiley, Ed McElvey (a real indian) and Jimmy Williams were our scoutmasters and they are all heroes of my youth. Its refreshing to see a troop doing something challenging and getting out there. Awesome. Best thing I have read on here in a while. What an experience - wow, floated it to Dalton with all those kids in the heat of summer and making it HAPPEN. I'm sure it wasn't easy on many fronts. preparation ,etc. Good for you!!!

ah heck son, I try to give you good sound advice on a higher much more sophisticated and organic plane and you go and flip channels to watch SpongeBob on me. Taney -- will there be crowds?? Uh, yeah. Branson. Don't get me wrong, its a great place to fish. Bring your 20 ft Ranger and 250 HP merc. On foot, be prepared to crowd around an outlet at the hatchery. Norfork - half of Memphis is usually there and yes, like Taney you are at the mercy of planned or unplanned generation.

Hurricane Cr dumps into Eleven Point and is a very small wet-weather creek. I'm sure theres some fishies in it, but your main objective will be the 11 point.

I don't think there is anything particularly unsafe about the lower Meramec, especially considering these low water levels. Still, there should be adult supervision for swimming in any river. Heck, adults shouldn't swim alone. But like you say, what I can't understand is the giving the kid beer. If that turns out to be true, those people should be charged. Makes me angry.

Eleven Point is about triple the flow of the upper Current. There are some longer, deeper pools that will force you into the brush to get around them . . . . which is why it would be better to have a boat. But if you don't mind getting a little wet, you can get around these pools. And as for camping - were you planning on setting up a camp by your car (car camping), or hiking in to camp. Great camping spot at McCormack lake for car-camping. Or hiking in with a pack -- you got the Ozark Trail as I mentioned.

Depends on what you mean by "plenty". From Hwy 19 bridge you got a half-mile up from there to the spring branch of good wadeable water, several sets of riffles/pools between. Downstream from there you got another half mile, but not as good until you get to graveyard holler that Brian Sloss was talking about. That could keep me plenty occupied for a day or two. OR, if you're more adventurous, hike in at the Ozark Trail trailhead located on the north side road to the Turner Mill access, which will put you roughly down to Hurricane Creek. Lots of great wading water around there, but you'll be working just to get to the river from that trailhead -- probably a couple mile hike in at least. Probably have it to yourself though.

Eleven Point would be my choice.

In these low water levels, you could wade up from 19 to the mouth of Greer Spring branch and back, but to answer your question precisely, no, you cannot wade in the spring branch or begin your wading from the mouth of the branch down since there is no access there.