Mark

The Illinois State High School Activities Association is sponsoring the first high school fishing championships this weekend at Carlyle Lake. What a neat idea!!!!! St. Louis Post Dispatch says that this is the first high school championship in the country.

Fishing was slow at Easter. Does anyone know if it has picked up?

I thought we had a bear in camp one night but it was just Snap snoring!!!

IF you set up garlic and/or onion on top of coolers, food boxes, trash, etc., it will keep the coons and other critters out of food. Foolproof method hasn't failed us yet!!!! Preferably garlic!!!

As of this past weekend, the river hasn't been stocked yet this year with trout. Fishing was slow in White Ribbon Area. At least so I hear, since I spent last Thurs. and Friday hanging out at the cottage playing pitch and BBQing. Rained all day Thurs. and cold and windy on Friday. But others in our group toughed it out fishing. But had to work for the fish. Good Luck!! Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Catching fish is always a bonus, but you will enjoy the scenery.

My fishing report for April 9-10. Sat in the cabin for 2 days playing pitch and eating jambalaya. Too wet and cold.

Give us a hollar if you see us the next 3-4 days. Snap has a camoflage riverboat jet prop - his first trip with his new toy - and I'll be in an Old Towne with a 2.5 Mercury on it. Depending on how many we end up with, we may give you a call for an additional canoe. Staying at Summre Cottages. We'll give a report next week.

OK Brian, if we go Whitten to Riverton and don't catch any fish, ...............

So since we are coming in this weekend, would you suggest Whitten to Riverton for better fishing in White Ribbon area??

August 13

Brian, We can always count on a stocking right before Easter in the past. Are they doing a stocking along with the electroshock?

Take 67 at Festus. Our group has a variety of preferences. The one common approach is determining the amount of weight to get the bait bouncing off the bottom, The secret is just enough weight to get it to the bottom without getting hung up. Brian will also advise you to fish deep whether using live or artificial. Power eggs are also popular with our crowd. The stay on the hook well. Mix combos of white, pink, and yellow. I prefer the tailwater of rapids where water begins to slow in deeper pools such as after the water has come around a bend. Others in our group fish the fast shallow water again with alot of weight. All in our group prefer moving water, but one in our group has shown us success is drift fishing the deep slow water. You will see those in jet boats drift the slow deep water, turn around and come back, and continue doing the same all day. Like I said, if you are just going the 7 mile stretch and get an early start, just stop at every stretch of moving water, pull the canoe over, and wade from top to bottom of stretch, and you will catch fish. It really is a pretty easy river to pull over and wade which it sounds like you like to do. We spend the whole day fishing this way and usually do well. Just make sure you are bouncing it off the bottom. You may tie a few hooks throughout the day, but will catch more fish. Good luck - we look forward to your report and impression of the river. Mark

Yeah - take 55 to Festus and get on Hwy 67 there. A couple other shortcuts that will save 30-45 minutes; On 67 past Fredericktown about 30 miles, take right on HWY 34 thru Piedmont (toward Sam A Baker Park and Clearwater LaKE). Hwy 34 combines with HWY 21 for several miles. Splits off again and stay on 21 to end. Eventually ends at HWY 60 just east of Van Buren. Right on 60. Easily saves 20 minutes vs. going to Bluff. About 10 miles past Van Buren, turn left on State J (Conservation sign points toward Irish Wilderness). Go 25 miles and turn right on Hwy 160. About 20 miles to Alton. Probably saves another 20 minutes vs. going to Winona. Takes about 3 hours from Farmington to Alton. Grannies in downtown Alton is a good place to eat. As I say, you will be pleasantly surprise at the wilderness. Even in summer, during the week, it isn't very crowded usually. Better smallmouth on 2nd part of White Ribbon Area, and further on down to Ark. border, also walleye below Riverton. I have a feeling your Spring River trips may be over!!! The Eleven Point is Missouri's best kept secret, so mum is the word!!!!!!! HA (My friends always rip me for telling people about it. We like the seclusion and want to keep it that way).

I'll second Snap's suggestion. Turner to Whitten is about 7 miles with more places to stop and wade. This would be trout water and White Ribbon area with no bait restrictions. The first 3 miles you can stop about every 1/4 mile with plenty of small rapids, shoals, ripples, and turns. There isn't a lot of slow water where you have to paddle for long stretches. Take your time, as 7 miles isn't very far, but if you stop at every fishable/wadeable spot, you can make it last all day and not spend much time in a canoe. Plenty of minnows, crawdads, and sculpins to be found. The scenery is awesome. The entire length is Ozark National Scenic Riverways with no private ground on either side for 1/4 mile from the river, so no houses, private cabins, private gravel bars, etc to worry about. The second half of the White Ribbon area is Whitten to Riverton. It seems to be about 9-10 miles although most will say it is also 7 miles, but it does seem longer. More stretches of slow water requiring some paddling. The best fishing for trout is in the first half of this stretch. You also would have to go through Halls Bay Chutes, a rather hair raising experience that could be close to Class III water with a couple hundered yards of whitewater over a few ledges. It will get your attention. The trout fishing slows down considerably after that, and it is more smallmouth water. So that stretch may be more suited for you if you were wanting a wider variety of fishing. It sounds like you like to fish just like we do. You can't really go wrong with either stretch and you could do the entire stretch in one day. But we find we spend too much time in a canoe and pass up too many good fishing spots when we go the entire 14 mile stretch. Snap and I and our group will be going the week before you on our annual Easter pilgrimage. We'll try to save some fish for you!!! Where you coming from in Illinois? We come from Ste. Genevieve so we may be able to save you some driving time as we have learned a few short cuts. You don't want to take HWY 160 from Poplar Bluff to Alton without a supply of Malox!!! I have a feeling that once you experience the Eleven Point, it will become your favorite. Go on a weekday and you will practically have the river to yourselves.

June is the perfect time - I may see you there as I make a couple June trips every year. A few suggestions for you if you are a first timer - take a break from fishing and take in the sights as well. Greer Springs is worth the hike - absolutely beautiful. Turner Mill North access - hike back to the spring and check out the old mill wheel. Nice picnic area. White Creek Cave - first bend in the river past Whitten and a good mile hike back to the cave - stalamites and stalatites. Gravel bars for campsites aren't that abundant, but better than Forest Service campsites if you like to be right on the water. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can just happen to find one late in the evening - in some stretches they are few and far between, and the few may be taken. If you come across one by 4 or 5 in the afternoon you like, you might want to grab it.

The summer fishing is fine, although it does tend to slow down later in the summer. You can definitely tell the difference between stockings. No doubt the locals hit it hard after word gets out that it was recently stocked. But even in the slow months or periods between stocking, fish can be caught with patience. I would say that the entire stretch of White Ribbon area will produce fish except for maybe the last 2 miles before Riverton.

Thanks, Gavin, I'm an Eleven Point loyalist but want to do the Upper Current this year. I want to do the White Ribbon area mainly. I have my own canoe and am assuming that Akers Ferry rental people will provide a shuttle up to Cedar Grove. Correct??

Are there plenty of gravel bars to camp? Any dangerous shoals where a fella could dump a canoe? I can dump about anywhere but would hate to lose my cooler!!

Wow - don't see many poor fishing reports from Elelven Point - hope it picks up for our annual Good Friday trip - of course we will be chasing the bows

All great advice. Keep it coming as I am learning. Anyone care to go into detail on specific flies and lures? (Keep in mind some of us don't know a caddis from a stonefly?)

Yes, forgot to mention we fish exclusively the White Ribbon Area.

Is there secrets to catching big trout or is it all luck? Fellow posters Snap, Delvis, Terry, and I, as well as others that we bring along to the Eleven Point, have had this discussion many times. My theory is that we have been coming to the Eleven Point for about 12 years and besides doing alot of fishing ourselves, we have introduced several more fisherment to the river, and none of us have ever caught a wallhanger, so we must be doing something wrong. My belief is since we are bait fishermen, we are not attracting the big fish or they are just too smart. We also tend to only fish the wadeable water and bypass or just drift fish one time as we pass the slow deep water. So I believe it's a combination of the bait we use and the water we fish. My compadres will always counter with seeing someone pull out a 7 lb. on corn. They say it is all luck and chance. Are our chances better using bigger spoons and lures, flies, etc? I find it hard to believe that in 12 years of coming to the Eleven Point, (and some trips we stay for up to a week), we have caught maybe a total of 4 fish in the 18-20 inch range in our group that sometimes numbers as many a 7-8 fishermen. Nothing bigger than 20 inches and maybe 2.5 lbs. What say you more learned fishermen? Any tips for catching bigger fish? I would love to have just one lunker on the wall!! Or is it just a crap shoot?

Those of you advocating increasing the Blue Ribbon Area to include Turner's Mill to Whitten, please answer the questions I posted a couple pages back; Is there more fly fishermen or bait fishermen on the Eleven Point? How many people use the Blue Ribbon Area now compared to the White Ribbon Area? Is there congestion now in the Blue Ribbon Area that leads you to believe the Blue Ribbon Area needs to be expanded? Will decreasing the size of the White Ribbon Area lead to a decrease in the number of fishermen (and the decrease in tourism $$)? Will increasing the Blue Ribbon Area actually increase the size of fish (factual not theoritical proof)? Exactly WHY should the Blue Ribbon Area be increased at the expense of the White Ribbon Area? I don't know if there are more bait fishermen than fly fishermen on the Eleven Point (I actually believe there are). We stay in the White Ribbon Area, so we see people that like to harvest fish for supper including lots of locals. Decreasing the White Ribbon Area would force us all in about a 9 mile stretch, and opening up a total of 12 miles to the fly fishermen. Granted, we could still fish the Turner to Whitten stretch with a limit of 1 over 18", but those are the fish most of you want us to put back to keep growing. As I stated in another post, I believe Mike Jones from Hufstedler's Canoe Rental, a lifelong resident, who said he believed that there just aren't as many big fish as there use to be because there are more people fishing the Eleven Point, as I have witnessed in the past 12 years of fishing the Eleven Point (which is good for businesses). Our group of 8-10 guys probably wouldn't travel the 4 hours (and for 4 of us that's 5-6 times year) as often with new regulations that decreased our fishing area. We usually come for at least 2 days, float Turner to Whitten the first day, and Whitten to Riverton the second day. We sure do love the Eleven Point River and don't want to see it change.

Lots of interesting responses, opinions, and differences. I'm not too sure I agree with soggyfeet's hypothetical stats on bait fishing mortality rates. I will tell you what our group of bait fishermen do. We would consider ourselves average fishermen, and no way do we gut hook 30-50% of the fish. We all fish the same way, bouncing the power eggs on the bottom and setting the hook quickly. Anything we gut hook goes on the stringer. If the fishing is good and we already have a couple of the stringer, we catch and release most of the day if the fish is unharmed. We always leave one slot on the stringer open so we can keep fishing for the big one, and many times end up the day with only 3 on the stringer. No big deal for us. Let's say on our annual Easter trip, there are 6 of us bait fishermen. IF we all catch our limit, that's 24 fish, and more than we need for supper. We prefer fillets deep fried, so we may clean and fillet 15 fish and have maybe 5 fillets each with 9 fish leftover. If we do the same thing the next day, we will have 18 fish we haven't eaten for supper. A couple of us don't care to take fish home while some do want to take fish home for the family, so maybe 3 guys take 6 fish home each. We certainly don't see that as being greedy, as we are now paying something like $24 for fishing license and trout stamp, not to mention our friend who is paying for a nonresident license. No one in our group would ever think of poaching from the Blue Ribbon area or taking more than our legal limit. And we have heard the stories of the locals who are one step ahead of the law. I see that as the biggest problem. PLUS THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE SANITARY OUTHOUSES AT THE CAMPGROUNDS ALONG THE RIVER INSTEAD OF EVERYONE CRAPPING IN THE WOODS AND THE CRAP ENDING UP IN THE RIVER. But I guess what's the difference when livestock are crapping in the river upstream from Thomasville to Cane Bluff.

Not me, I've seen Snappy shirtless and his hairy man boobs don't do much for me!!