Mark

Annual fall trip is just a week away. Looks like Eleven Point area is getting a good soaking today. How is the work progressing at Whitten? Is boat launch still closed? Any idea on when it will reopen?

Larry - one final tip on one of the best, most awesome places to camp and fish (and my buddies will give me crap for this one), - about 3 miles downstream from Turner Mill (or 8 miles from Greer) you will come to Tumbling Shoals, the largest rapids on the upper section. You will know it when you get there. It's an easy run, but a good drop off with some whitewater waves even in this low water. At the bottom of the run, the river makes a slight right turn and a gravel bar is on the right. A slight hill from the gravel bar to a great campsite. The tailwaters of this shoal is one of the best fishing spots on the river - we absolutely slayed them here a month ago - and it is a definite spot to hit every trip. Since you are going this time of year and heading out on a weekday, you are almost 100% be guaranteed that no one will be camping there. The sound of running water splashing all night makes for great campsite. You know you are getting close when you get to a big wide right turn with deep water and you see a cave up on the hill on your left. You will have about a quarter mile of very deep water after the turn before getting to Tumbling Shoals. It's my favorite place to camp on the entire river and we always catch fish there.

Look for us at the first gravel bar down from Turner Mill access. We are not floating this fall trip. One friend has a jet prop and will shuttle us to one of our favorite gravel bars to hang out for the day on Friday. We'll prolly pick another spot for Saturday.

Just a suggestion Larry - IMO you are going to find the best fishing from Greer to Riverton, especially trout. Take your time thru this section - the first 21 miles. We like to only cover about 5-7 miles per day to hit all the fishing spots. You will find if you are covering 10 or more miles per day that you will be passing up lots of good fishing. I am not familiar with the Eleven Point into Arkansas and have only did the sections below Riverton to Arkansas a few times. While we did catch enough smallmouth below Riverton to keep our interest, IMO the best fishing (and the prettiest section) is the Greer to Riverton stretch. The Greer to Turner Mill section is about 5 miles and this is the trophy area with artificial only. The Turner Mill to Whitten access (currently closed for renovations) is about 7 miles. And the Whitten to Riverton section is about 9+ miles. Most people make this a 3 day trip. You will find plenty of good place to camp that will provide both evening fishing and early morning fishing. IF you go downstream past Riverton, you may want to consider using Mike Jones from Hufstedlers Canoe Rental at Riverton for convenience sake since he is located down river farther. He is a great guy, along with Brian Sloss from Eleven Point Rental in Alton. Both will provide you with lots of info. Just my 2 cents from experience - don't get in a big hurry to make mileage in the Greer to Riverton section if fishing is your primary interest.

Oh and by the way, we'll see you there. My group makes our annual Fall Float that weekend. (Although we will not be floating this trip but instead will be shuttling in a camo riverboat with jet prop. Give us a hollar if you see us! We concentrate on the sections around Turner Mill access.

You will absolutely love the Eleven Point River. Fishing is good right now and fish seem to be holed up in deep water. I am an admitted bait chucker - pink, white, yellow powereggs can't miss. Locals use minnows which are plentiful to seine. Black and yellow rooster tails, and dark Gitzits work well for smallies. 5 days sounds great to explore the area. Take a mile by mile map from Missouri Conservation Department and check out the various sites along the way. Take the time to walk back to the springs that feed the river. Greer Springs, Turner Mill, Boze Mill, and the Narrows are all great sightseeing musts. I don't know if you have your trip details planned out, but the water levels are low, and expect some minimal work. Be prepared to get out of the canoe at tricky spots - the low water will cause you to bottom out in rapids and turn you directions you don't want to go, namely into downed trees. Lots of downed trees the closer you get to Riverton. I would suggest putting in at Greer - 5 miles of special management trout water, then no regs the rest of the way. The closer you get to Riverton, the trout fishing slows down but smallmouth fishing increases. Below Riverton, mostly smallmouth fishing. Drift fish as you float will snag many fish. IF you float downstream past Riverton and Hwy 142, the river flattens out and start to see houses and cabins along the river. But from the headwaters down to HWY 142, you pretty much have the river to yourself and any gravel bar you choose to camp on. And there are lots of fantastic places on the river to camp. You will be in awe of the solitude and beauty of the Eleven Point. I promise your first time will not be your last.

Good Brian. I really hate to hear about the thievery. That is something we have never had to worry about on the Eleven Point before so I hope someone catches them.

Sorry to hear about the theft. I know I am guilty of being too trusting sometimes with unattended gear but I have never experienced anything being messed with on the Eleven Point. Just goes to show you. I am always leery of leaving a vehicle too but again have never had a problem. I hope they catch whoever did it and put it in the local paper to discourage further problems. I have heard of these things on other more popular streams in the Ozarks but not my favorite waters.

I am heading to Grand Mesa area for a Christams vacation with another person, specifically Grand Mesa Lodge. We plan on doing some snowmobiling and hope to do some winter fishing. I've checked and found some creeks we may try but wonder if anyone is familiar with the Grand Mesa area and can offer some advice.

Has anyone fished the Gunnison in the winter? I am making a trip to area over Christmas and wondering if I should take my fishing gear.

Good report. Fishing is good right now.

Come on, Jeb. THis is an appropriate venue for this topic. No one has diverted the discussion to further candidate or the others political agenda beyond conservation, environment, or outdoor recreation.

Once again, I believe Al has hit the nail on the head with each party's stance on the outdoors. I doubt if either Obama or Romney knows, cares, or will do much of anything about fishing, hunting, or other outdoor activities. Of course they will say whatever a particular audience at the time wants to hear. If asked, I'm sure both are pro fishing, pro hunting, pro environment, pro whatever you want them to be pro for!!

It has always been my understanding that Greer Campground is the only place that RVs are allowed. Is that not right?

I figure these are questions for Brian primarily, but wonder if anyone else has noticed...... We noticed the work being done at Whitten. Looks like a decent project is being done - lots of rock hauled in, concrete poured with maybe steps going down to the river, a retaining wall where it use to be just a dirt banks by the launch, lots of bulldozing in the area. We were wondering - we heard they were going to put in specific campsites at Whitten, and trying to prevent it from becoming a trailer park on weekends. Are they going to prohibit RVs altogether? Or allow RVs but in specific campsites? It is good to see something being done with the Whitten access. It has been chaos on summer weekends trying to get in and out of there. I drove around Greer campground on Sunday on my way home. I couldn't tell if RVs are allowed in Greer Campground - never saw a sign saying yes or no. I have heard that no RVs are allowed at Turner North - is that true? I do think it is a shame that there is no where for RVs to camp on the river, just because I have older siblings in their 60s that bought RVs for their retirements. They have been exploring Missouri State Parks, Trout Parks, etc. and would like to have them go to Eleven Point sometime, but I don't know of a place to park their RVs near the river. Also, man the section from Whitten to Riverton is loaded with down trees. We even thought that it would be hard for a jetboat to put in at Riverton and go very far upstream. Will the Forest Service or anyone try to remove some of the downed trees and debris? I understand that some cover is good for fish and to slow erosion, but there are sections that look like they are dangerous for canoes, and like I said, jetboats will definitely have problems travelling very far upstream from Riverton. And travelling downstream from Whitten, for that matter.

You can never trust those forecasters. Early in the week, they were predicting the cold front to move thru southern Missouri on Friday with clearing skies on Saturday and Sunday. Well, the front stalled out over southern Missouri and the Eleven Point on Saturday, making for a wet rainy day on the river. Delvis and I put in a Turner and floated to Riverton, due to the work being done at Whitten. No sooner than we put in my canoe, the rain came. It varied from a light sprinkle, to a steady sprinkle, to a good rain all day. Fishing was slow at the beginning of the day. We found out later that the fish seemed to be in deeper water and we had much more success. Actually, by midday, the fishing was good as we concentrated on the deeper water and bypassed the usual shoals and rapids that have produced in the past. We were troopers until mid afternoon when we decided we had enough rain and being wet. Unfortunately, we were a long way from Riverton yet - good thing I have a motor on the back of my canoe. I could not believe the amount of trees down from Whitten to Riverton section. We hadn't floated that section in a good while but several treacherous sections due to low water and logs. We had the misfortune of almost tipping the canoe and had to jump out, and that made for a miserable last 2-3 hrs. of being tired and soaked from head to toe. All in all, the fishing was good, just beware of low water and log jams. It's easy to scrape rocks and get thrown off course and into trouble. Just wondering - none of the fish we caught had clipped fins. It use to be common practice to clip the fins of the stockers, we just found it hard to believe that all we were catching were natives. Especially since some were good size fish in the 14-16" range. Is it still the practice of MDC to clip the fins of the stockers?

Thanks for PM Brian - appreciate it.

What is the Cane Bluff to Greer section like right now with the low water? I'm heading down this weekend and we don't like long sections between takeouts. Greer to Turner is possibility but just wondering if anyone had put in at Cane Bluff lately.

Brain - when you get to the bottom of the hill at Whitten, the road forks with one going to Whitten access and the other goes down a trail to the gravel bar that is at the last right turn on the river before Whitten that the locals use to bank fish. Is that closed down also?

I'm wondering the same thing. Does "shut down" mean you cannot get down there at all just to pull out canoe? How about the last turn before the long stretch heading to Whitten? The road leads back to the gravel bar used by locals to fish from the bank. It would be possible to load up the canoe there but wondering if road is totally closed down.

Any other posters heading to the Eleven Point this weekend? I'm guessing that it will be good fishin', not many people on the water, and looks like great weather. Give us a hollar if you are an OAF regular. Would like to put some faces to names.

I haven't given this a moments thought until now... I'm on the fence on this one. I definitely see KC's point and I wonder what the point is. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the idea is to get the elk herd established in Peck Ranch and the herd will always be limited to Peck Ranch. The size of the herd will always be limited somewhere in the 200-300 elk range. When the size of the herd starts to grow beyond the size limits, the hope is that a hunting season will be established to thin the herd. SO realistically, what are we talking about - maybe in a good season, 25 to 50 lucky hunters will get their names picked in a lottery to kill an elk. Sounds like a lot of trouble and expense to go to just so a handful of hunters can kill an elk in MO and the rest of us can say "Oh yeah, we have elk in Missouri". I wonder now what is the total cost of this project to satisfy a miniscule percentage of hunters? And couldn't that money be put to better use? Just saying ...... but since I don't hunt, I'm sure the majority of hunters have a different opinion.

One thing I have never been able to master is fishing alone. On fishing trips, I do take time to get off by myself to fish. But I enjoy company when I am recreating - whether it is fishing, golf, or drinking a few cold ones. I went on a couple 3 day solo floats by myself when I bought my canoe and it just isn't as much fun by myself. I would much rather have a friend or two along. Probably why I don't hunt - to me it's boring.

Only in America...............................

So besides the boat ramp, what else are they doing? I understand that they are trying to prohibit the "trailer park" of RVs that congregate there. Are they building specific spots for RVs, building tent campsites, and holding people accountable for RVs and camping in spots reserved for such. It really is a mad house around there on weekends. But I have always thought that the Eleven Point needs places for people to park RVs along the river. I would like to tell some people with RVs that I know to visit the Eleven Point River, but as far as I know, you can't get an RV close to the river besides Whitten access, and the road is horrible, and the crowd is, well, it's a trailer park on the weekend.