Brian Sloss

I just might take you up on that. By the way, I have taken lots of people who have never fly fished before. Teaching them is part of the trip.

Glad you had a good trip. Just let me know when you want to get in the front of the drift boat, as you know, now is the right time of year, probably through Dec. or Jan.

I will be out there tomorrow guiding, so I'll see you on the water. Call me and I will arrange for someone to meet you and get your shuttle done.

Her name is Sherri Hollis and her number is 417-778-7305. She is located between the Turner and Whitten access roads on AA. They have 2, 2 bedroom cabins and they are nicely kept.

Took Bob and Al from St.Louis out for a guide trip in the drift boat on Friday and the fishing was wonderful. Everything we usually use fished deep did well, especially the Don's Crawdad dropped off a stonefly nymph. Lots of fish caught and all were colored up well. Even had a sucker hit the crawdad. Al had the fish of the day, an 18-20 inch beauty. Late Sat night, Ike came through the area bringing heavy winds, but only 4 inches of rain. The river is up a little and slightly stained, but will be back down and cleared by Weds I'd bet. Still not too bad today though. Lots of trees down with the storm, there may be a couple new ones in the river I don't know about yet.

We got about 4 inches last night with very heavy wind gusts and big branches and a few trees down here in town. Probably a few trees in the river today after last night. Going to the river today to see if the access roads are blocked at all with any downed trees and see if it colored up. Don't know how much rain we got upstream, so I don't know yet if we will get a bigger rise tomorrow. Going up to Thomasville to check that out as well.

We are bracing for heavy rains tonight into tomorrow. It may not happen as bad as we think it might, but we WILL get rain and strong winds tonight. If we get too much rain tonight, I may turn you away if safety requires it. It is all about safety and if I think it is too dangerous, I won't put you out. I have to see how bad the weather and rain gets, but we might get too much. The run I told you about is 5.5 miles and takes 2.5hrs to float, but can be all day if fishing.

Mark, Hope you guys have a good trip. Be sure and give us a report when you get back. Ryan

Mark, The latest I have seen is today (fri.) 20%, tonight 30%, Saturday 50%, Sat. night 75% and Sunday will be wet. Bring some rain gear and maybe plan on pulling out Saturday night to miss the worst of it. As far the river goes, it is fine now and we aren't getting anything at the moment. I would think it will be fine for the weekend and start to muddy up Monday or Tuesday as the water from the northwest comes down into the river. Hope this helps, Ryan

We can help you. A shuttle is $35. Bring a spare key and drop it at the shop (intersection of hwys. 19 and 160 in Alton) and then go put in and we will move your car and have it waiting at the pull out spot. Call me at 417-778-6497, and I will be happy to go over the best options for fishing and answer shuttle questions.

A 5 or 6 wt. 9ft rod is best, as you will be throwing heavier rigs. Floating line with 4 or 5x is fine. Use 4x first as it will be easier to cast the heavy flies and only go to 5x if the bite is off. They are not leader shy for the most part. fish under an indicator and floating line and you may need to add a BB split shot in some areas (ie faster water). A sink tip or full sink line will be good for throwing streamers if you want to give it a try. You should be able to catch fish on woolie buggers, sculpins and mohair leaches. Olive is a great color, but have a variety. Occasionally we pick up a smallie on the Don's Crawdad, but you will get more trout on it, especially through that stretch.

30-40% chance over those two days as of right now.

I have been taking lots of guide trips lately and the fishing has been consistently good going deep with stoneflies, hex nymphs, crawdads, San Jaun worms and eggs. Then came Gustav and we got about 7 inches or so of rain and the river started rising. By Thursday evening the river at Greer looked fine as far as clarity goes and Thomasville was back to a creek, though murky a little. On Friday morning I arrived with friends to find the river brown and up about 8 inches from a week previous. If we had not been sitting at the ramp and they hadn't of traveled a good distance to get here, I wouldn't have gone. We threw the kitchen sink at the fish and only managed 10 fish to hand and a few more hooked between 6 guys the hole day. Yesterday I got out in the drift boat with a friend and the river was still up about 4 inches and slightly murky green. The river fished much better, though not quite as good as before the rains. Another day or two and it will be. We caught lots of fish using all the flies mentioned earlier. You have to be DEEP though. The trout are fighting hard and they are fat and colored up well.

It was nice to meet you and put a face to a name on a computer. Glad you had a good trip.

I'm hoping the MDC gets it between that bunch, but I can't imagine they would be able to outbid the others. It would be nice to have more public trout water.

Dry fly action is very limited at best, don't count on it. That being said, we should be having our hex hatch still, so in the evening between 6-7:30, you might get a rise or two. The operative word is might.

5-6 wt 9ft rods are best. You need to throw heavier stuff. 4x tippet will be fine, no lighter than 5x is needed.

The river has not risen signifigently with the rain of yesterday and last night. It depends on if we get more raintoday and tonight or if we got lots of rain upriver that I don't know about. I pretty sure the river will be fine. As for spinning gear, I'd suggest marabou jigs (1/16), deep diving rebel crawdad and panther martins.

Had a wet guide trip today. I thought it might be a long day today when a dump truck about pulled my anchor system off the back of my boat while I was gassing my truck up this morning. A couple tightened screws later, it held for the day, though it isn't as straight as it used to be. Not even an apology from the guy, he seemed indignant that he clipped a stationary boat at a gas pump. Anyway, Bill was a great guy to spend the day with and though we got rained on literally all day, the fishing was very good. All the usual suspects fished deep.

Good for him, we need more people to speak up in those situations.

Great report! Hall Bay shoals is the name of the last shoal you spoke of in the report.

Took Reed, Brett and Brett Jr on a guide trip on Thursday and the fishing was very good. Reed fly fished while the two Bretts spin fished and all did well. The Brett's mostly fished olive or white 1/16th oz marabou jigs under a float, sometimes with an egg dropper. Olive did best in the morning and white in the afternoon when the sun came out. Reed did well on Stoneflies with various droppers and the dropper of note was the hex nymph. We are expecting to see the hex hatches start any day, so I brought some along to see how they would work and they out preformed everything else. Fishing deep was key yet again as was fishing the swing. Lots of 12 to 15 inch trout, with a couple around 16 inches. Brett Jr nailed a very good smallmouth right off the bat in the morning.

Hey GD, A couple of nice shots - thanks for sharing. Ryan

Took 3 people from Memphis on a guide trip on Sunday and the fishing was quite good. Joe, Bill and Sara were their names and they were wonderful people to spend the day with. Given that when I went to bed the night before the trip there was an 80% chance of rain, we were very happy not see a drop all day. It was cloudy and foggy all morning and the sun came out in the afternoon. We starting catching soon after putting in and continued to do so all day. Three people fishing from a drift boat can get hairy, but by rotating 2 people fishing at a time and a couple of times all three, we tangled up only a couple of times. Fishing deep was key as usual and rubber legged stoneflies did well, as did the Don's crawdad, bloody Marys and eggs. Sara got the fish of the day, a beautiful, wild, hooked jaw 19 inch male on a big stonefly. A great day with very enjoyable people.

Fishing is very good right now. I'd start at Greer and end at Whitten, camping around stinking pond. That is a twelve mile trip. Otherwise you could go 20 miles from Greer to Riverton, camping around horseshoe bend. I've also seen people do as little as 6 miles over two days if really just fishing. Feel free to call me @ 417-778-6497 and I will be happy to go over the details with you and help you come up with a trip plan that works for you.