Mark

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!!

Maybe I was a little defensive about being a bait fisherman, but I sure don't like the idea of expanding the Blue Ribbon area by taking away from the White Ribbon area. I actually haven't float Greer to Turner in 25 years and have never fished it, simply because we do like to eat fish when we go to the Eleven Point (and maybe we're a little gun shy of Mary Decker Shoal - HA). My favorite stretch is Turner to Whitten because it has more wadeable water that Whitten to Riverton and less stretches of long slow water. But I guess the fair thing to do for all who use the Eleven Point is to determine the answers to a couple of concerns; How many strictly flyfishermen are there compared to bait fishermen and those who use both methods? Is there congestion in the Blue Ribbon area because of the number of flyfishermen in that 5 mile stretch? (I am curious about that one. I don't know because I don't use the Blue Ribbon area, but I doubt congestion is the issue for those advocating expanding the area to below Turner.) How many flyfishermen only fish the Blue Ribbon area? How many strictly flyfishermen also fish the White Ribbon area? Will expanding the Blue Ribbon area lead to a decrease in the number of fishermen using the Eleven Point River (and spending less $$ in the area)? Will expanding the Blue Ribbon area increase the size of the fish in the Eleven Point River? I believe this last one is the major contention of those advocating expanding the Blue Ribbon area and we don't know if that is necessarily true. Mike Jones from Hufstedlers has told me that he doesn't think the Blue Ribbon regulations has led to bigger fish. He claims there just aren't as many big fish as there use to be. There are just more and more people fishing the Eleven Point than there use to be. Our group of 6-8 guys have been coming to the Eleven Point for the past 12 years on a regular basis (from Ste. Genevieve County) and we have seen an increase in the number of people on the river. But still in the spring and fall, and an occasional summer weekdays, very often you can spend days without a lot of traffic. As I stated previously, I do believe further restrictions in the areas we like to fish may cause us to not make the 4 hour trip as often as we do now. And last year I spent almost 30 days throughout the year at different times on the river (and spending $$ in the area). We love the river just the way it is!!

WOO FELLAS!! I'm gonna have to disagree with ozark trout and flyfisherman. There are us bait fishermen that part of the enjoyment is catching a few fish to keep for supper. We stay in the White Ribbon area and leave the Blue Ribbon to you guys. If MDC changed regs in the White Ribbon area from what it is now and went to regs in the area we fish to include artificial baits only, size limits, and reduction of number of fish kept, it would certainly cause our group of guys to reconsider coming to the area (and spending our money) 4-5 times a year as we do now. I know you flyfishermen look down your nose on us baitfishermen who like to harvest some fish when we go fishing like we are doing something you consider unethical. They're fish for goodness sake, we're suppose to eat 'em. But you know what - I don't understand what the big deal is with flyfishing the way it's done on the Eleven Point. I thought flyfishing was about throwing a hairy little booger that looks like an insect and letting it float on top of the water. From what I understand, most flyfishermen on the Eleven Point fish the same way we do - with enough weight added to bounce it along the bottom - the only difference being the bait being presented and we use ultralight rods instead of skinny canepoles!! Me and my buddies actually laugh at you guys while you look down on us!! KEEP OUR WHITE RIBBON AREAS THE WAY THEY ARE NOW!! That's my opinions - FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH - as Buffalo Springfield would say!!

I like the way you think lizard.

The only time the Eleven Point gets overcrowded is holidays and summer weekends, which is to be expected. I would hate to see a limit on the canoe rental places as that is their bread and butter and they need those big days to stay in business. Spring, fall, and weekdays anytime are the best time to float and not see much traffic. And even summer weekends after the 4th of July, traffic slows down. PS - Snappy, I'll have to see you operate your new toy before I worry about you driving circles around anything.

My only pet peeve is jetboats that go up and down so much with the same people that pass you all day long when I am in a canoe. I hope our friend Snappy isn't like that with his new toy!!

OK Cricket, now that we have let you in on our little hidden secret, let's not get carried away and advertise too much. We like it just the way it is!! Glad you enjoyed your experience. My friends and I have been going to the Eleven Point 4 or 5 times a year for about 12 years now. It is indeed the "Hidden Jewel of Ozark Rivers".

Welcome, and be careful jumping in with both feet in those trout waters, especially this time of year. BURRRRRRRRRRR