Brian Sloss

Jim, I'll look for you Sat morning, but will be out of town until Friday night as my mother has taken ill. we will have an old town for you to use for sure. If you need anything before that feel free to call me on my cell phone @ 417-270-2497. Brian

I don't feel comfortable emailing about stockings as that can get out of hand as well. When they start stocking, the fishing gets fairly consistent down there though. I have had a number of people ask me to contact them right after stockings happen and I decided long ago that was a bad idea as it goes against the spirit of the conservation dept. policy of not announcing stocking schedules. Plus that would soon turn into a two-headed monster.

I prefer to not post that detailed of information on the internet or the day after the stocking truck shows up the river will be filled up with people yanking them out too quickly. Also, the conservation dept does not announce its stocking dates for that reason and I wold prefer to live up to the spirit of their reasoning. I can say they will start sometime this spring and stockings will continue periodically from there into the fall.

It should be getting stockings periodically by then.

.....not my fault.....

Can't say what the fishing is like down there recently as I have not been down there lately. But, like I said, that is where I would try. NO guarantees though.

The Eleven Point is not that hard to run, it is all class 1 and some class 2 stuff. You can run Mary Decker, but you may want to walk it so you can fish it. Given the numbers we saw in the sampling site from Turner, I'd do Whitten to Riverton. The elctroshock trip was fun and educational, as it is every year. The blue ribbon area had a reasonable amount of fish, but as per usual, the numbers have thinned over the winter. We saw some nice wild fish and nice previous year stockers. There were a few of 2008 fish that looked good, but a number of them that looked poor. They have been showing up like that since they spawned starting in Nov. There are still quality fish in that section, but the numbers are down a bit. This simply confirms the way the fishing has been lately, which has been a bit hit and miss. If the conditions are right we have been doing pretty decent, but the next day could be tough. We went through part of Turner to Whitten looking for 2008 blue ribbon trout and I don't think we found any. Hopefully they will stock the Turner stretch soon, but I don't know when.

On my way out the door to shock with MDC and saw your question. They cross-bred McClouds from Crane Creek with the hatchery strain and stocked them when they tried to go strictly wild years ago. So there is McCloud blood in there. I understand that while they were not stocking that genetically the McCloud strain was coming to the forefront, but the numbers were just not sustaining at a high enough number to not need other stockings.

I would consider anything bred in the stream as wild and yes you can tell easily. Fish stocked in the blue ribbon area have a clipped fin. 2008 right pelvic, the year before left pelvic and the year before that adipose. 4 years ago right pelvic and so on. The white ribbon stocked trout end up there sometimes as well with no clipped fins, but you can often tell because they have worn fins from the race way. The wild fish have perfect fins with white tips and their color is often more vivid. Thier fins are also a little bigger in proportion with their body size as the hatchery fish grow faster due the easy meals in the hatchery.

Mark, Stocking is a different animal altogether. Also, we will be in the blue ribbon area. The white ribbon area will get stocked starting some time soon if the past is an indicator. We will also be shocking part of the Turner to Whitten stretch, which never gets sampled, to see how many blue ribbon trout may have traveled down there. Very interested in the results down there. I will report on what I witness Weds. I highly recommend going on one of these trips on your favorite river with the MDC if you have an interest. Highly educational.

There are wild trout on the Eleven Point and the percentage that you will catch will depend on when you are there. There are not enough that stocking isn't needed, they tried not stocking for over ten years once to see if they would take off on their own. This time of year you will catch a higher percentage because the stockers have thinned out. I think because the stockers didn't make through the spawn very well among other reasons. Also, if a stocker wanders out of the blue ribbon area they can be taken under the looser white ribbon regs. Also, as with all our rivers, poaching can play a role inside the blue ribbon area. Anyway, the blue ribbon area usually holds anywhere from 150-250 wild trout per mile. Just an estimate. I am going on the electroshock trip down that section tomorrow and will report what I see afterwards. I am hoping to see a lot of babies as they were spawning hard last Nov.

Nothing new, probably going to throw a roll bar across the back and call it good for now.

After a couple of weeks being sidelined from fishing with a sprained wrist, I got out a couple of times with the kayak and fished for an hour yesterday and the day before. Wed I kayaked down from Greer to the top of the 1st island. caught 1 fish and headed up and got a couple drifting from the bridge down to the boat ramp. Nothing big. Thursday I paddled up from Turner to Cave shoal and fished for an hour and another 3 fish with one at 16 inches. Both days I was fishing deep with stoneflies and crawdads with both taking fish. A group of St. Louis boys got out Tues. and said they had pretty steady action all day. The water was a little stained on Tues, which I think helped. They were using the same things I was using. I am waiting for good reports on samllmouths as they should be getting active soon. I'll be taking a trip upriver to see how the bite is in a couple of weeks. They should turn on sometime soon.

Brian, you guys catching very many young of the year trout yet. I've been keeping my eye open for some over here given the spawning action last Nov. Not a lot to report over here yet, how about the NFOW? Many young ones yet?

Along with what Mark mentioned, the minnows and crawdads will do well too.

Actually it is narrower water as it is upstream of Greer spring, which doubles the size of the river and chills it for the trout. The other to floats are downstream of Greer, so the water is bigger.

I would advise either Turner to Whitten or Whitten to Riverton depending on how they are fishing for trout when you come. If you want to target smallmouth, I highly recommend Cane Bluff to Greer that time of year. There will be places to get out and wade on all those floats. I sell worms and minnow traps at my shop.

You will need stonefly nymphs, Don's crawdad, leeches, and other meaty flies of that nature. For spinning rebel crawdads and other deep diving crankbaits, panther martins, and Marabou jigs (both spin and fly). That is a start list anyway. Fish deep is a general rule here.

All sold out. Thanks guys.

Thanks for the referral, I'm pretty sure I have already set something up with him, as he was from your neck of the woods. I don't know when I will be able to get up your way as I am tied up the next couple of weekends and then we start getting busy. Maybe next winter though. I have not fished the Niangua in years.

No pics as I have dial up and uploading pics for 6 canoes would take all day, but they are older boats in the fleet and have seen plenty of river in their lifetime.

Making room for some new boats at the canoe rental and I will be selling up to 6 used Old Town Discovery 169 canoes. The price will range from $150-$300 depending on which one you choose. These are as is and first come, first choice. We are in Alton, Mo at 417-778-6497, so please call if interested. Thanks guys.

Ditto Bman

The White Ribbon area does get some big fish, some hold-overs and brood stock from the hatcheries get stocked every year as well. Most of they bait guys I know on the river who are more likely to hang some 20+ inch fish are using live bait (ie minnows and crawdads). That doesn't mean a big fish won't ever get caught using power bait or corn, just that the bigger fish are more likely to take the live bait. The bigger fish tend to eat a lot of minnows and crawdads so that is what I would suggest. You can fill a minnow trap on the Eleven Point pretty quickly.

Two of them hit in slower water while he was stripping streamers while he was the only one fishing and the other two hit jigs while wading at Little hurricane just off the main current by a rock ledge. It was where he was fishing more than anything I think. I brought a camera and charged the battery all night, but when I went to get a picture of my first fish the battery was dead. Must be a bad battery, which sucked.