Brian Sloss

It is in good shape, will give a full report first of the week. Guiding Sunday.

Starting with your plan to start at the Current, I'd fish the Current below the park and then head south on hwy 19 to the Eleven Point near Alton. After fishing the Eleven Point, I'd head south on 19 to Thayer and go south a couple of miles on 63 to the Spring river. September would be a good month for both the Spring and Eleven Point river because of the Hexes. Then head west to Mountain Home for the White and Northfork tailwaters. From there head a little north for the Northfork of the White near Dora. Head due west to Branson for Tanycomo followed by Crane creek or Roaring river and then back to OK. That will give a great taste of the Ozark trout experience.

I had a regular client, Barry O'neal, down on Wednesday and Thursday and we opted to fish the Blue Ribbon section both days. Barry and his niece both had good days using spinners (rainbow colored and copper were the two best producers) and also on the fly-rods. Golden stones, Don's crawdad, and white and olive marabou jigs, all fished deep, were effective. Both Barry and Stephanie managed to land a couple of wild rainbows each day and Stephanie pulled in a beautiful 18+" rainbow the first day that was the largest of the two days. We also managed to mix in a smallmouth and some sunfish as well as a few strikes from chain pickerel in the Stair-Step hole although we couldn't get one boated. All in all, two great days of fishing with some great company. Ryan

I would suggest doing a tour of the Ozark trout/smallmouth streams. Maybe starting from the north hit the upper Current south of Salem for wading in for trout. Head down 19 for the Jacks Fork upstream from Eminence for smallies. Head down 19 to Alton to hit the 11 point for trout and maybe the upper river for smallies. Then go down to the White for trout in the Mountain Home area for trout. Remember to clean your boots and waders before heading to your next stream (didymo). From there travel north east to Branson and Tanycomo. Then had east to the North Fork of the White near Dora, Mo for Trout. That trip would give you a great taste of Ozark fly fishing.

check your pm.

Just got off the river with a buddy of mines in-laws for a guide trip. The river is still fishing very good as long as we got things deep. The usual suspects were working well. Caught lots of 12-15 inch trout and a 14 inch, fat smallie. The mother in-law had a real nice one on that broke the line. Good day and a lot of fun.

I know what you are talking about last Sunday at Greer. I've never seen so many John Boat trailers there. Luckily on of them was the game warden, as we had a little poaching on Sat that they wanted to squash on Sunday. Did you get checked? I know he checked a lot of people that day.

The river is fishing well right now folks. A 9lb rainbow was caught in the blue ribbon area this weekend. I saw it at Turner Mill and it was a beautiful fish of about 27 inches. All the fins were in great shape, it may have been streambred by the looks of it. I wish it would have been released, but it was a legal fish, so there you have it. Fishing has been best in the deeper water in the tailouts of the shoals and the upslopes coming into the shoals. Working the seams between faster and slower water has also been key. Big stoneflies have been producing well with a San Jaun dropper. I have been seeing a lot of green caddis on the rocks in-cased in little rocks and will be trying a pattern a tie up for this situation next time out. We will be seeing hexes toward the end of August and all the way through Sept., so it will be Hex nymph time soon. The outlook for the river through the fall is good as the river is in good shape and all 20 miles of trout water are fishing well. Fish DEEP. Thomasville has finally got to be more trouble than it is worth for floating. It is crazy that we got to float it all the way up there until mid July though. Cane Bluff to Greer is still fine and the fishing has been good some days and off others. Not as consistent smallmouth action as earlier this year. Riverton to 142 might be a good smallmouth option now, though I have not gotten any recent reports. We have seen a lot of the conservation agents on the water enforcing regulations, which I for one welcome. Kudos to them.

Vandelay, You better watch out - a couple of more "lesson trips" and Brenda will be out-fishing you! You need to get down and knock the dust off of your fly rod. Ryan

Nothing has changed in regard to the crowds in the last two years. Sundays are fine, Sat is the busiest day, but that is still a fraction of what you see on, say, the Current.

Some of you who have been to my shop may recognize Brenda. She has been our right hand along with her husband Joe. She may have taken your reservation or been working the register when you came in. Anyway, she has been wanting to fish for a while now so I took her out in the drift boat for a day of fun and fishing on Monday. She was not comfortable with the idea of fly fishing so she used a panther martin, single hook as we hit the trophy area while I fly fished. We caught the heck out of the fish. Getting deep was key and Golden stones and Don's Crawdad did well. They were in deep water coming into and out of shoals. After Brenda lost her second panther martin, I finally convinced her to try the fly. At little Hurricane shoal, I worked with her a little on her cast and she landed her first trout on a fly. It hit the golden stone on the swing. I was so proud of her, I decided she earned the right to get her photo in front the ODDS sticker on the boat.

Panther Martins are doing well. We have a single hook version at the shop that works really well for easy releases in the trophy area. I'd bring some 1/16 oz marabou jigs as well.

GD, If it was within the last 10 years then you would talking about Mike Jones. He and his wife own Hufstedler's and they are doing well. And you are correct, he is a great guy. Ryan

If you want to add good smallmouth action, start 7.5 miles above Greer at Cane Bluff. There is plenty of water this year and the bite has been good.

Cook, That cuts....deep, I work hard on my river fashion.

Went fishing in the evening in the Blue Ribbon area with my business partner Ryan and friend John Ikonomou, who guides for us and the fishing was good. In particular the deeper holes at the end of the shoals and the up-slopes right before shoals were best fishing golden stones, Don's crawdads and San Jaun worms deep. Fishing is really starting to heat up down this way. John got the fish of the day, a beautiful 18.5 inch beauty that fought hard, making a few strong runs.

We have seen no noticeable increase in the party crowds since the new rules went into place on the Current. We are too far from St. Louis and Memphis.

Being in West Plains, you should try the Eleven Point sometime.

County guys can and have written game violations on the river and so can the forest service guys. We are not part of the NPS but rather USGS forest service, so the new Current river and Jack's Fork rules (ie Mardi Gras beads, etc) don't apply. If we start seeing those kinds of crowds coming down here in large numbers, I would not be surprised if they are adopted.

It is floating great right now, you should be fine. Call me for a fishing report before you come down if you want @ 417-778-6497. it is fishing well right now and I suspect it will be fishing well then.

It is all about the fashion, it took me hours to pick out that outfit.

Fished a couple of guys from Kentucky, Gary and Farrel, on the lower river with both fly and spinning gear. Fishing was good until about 1 pm and then things shut down. Flies did well on the rubber leg golden stones. Blue fox spinners did well on ultra light spinning rods. Farrel used a blue fox to land this beauty.

Fished a couple of Texas guys, Randy and Jack, and their Welsh Terrier, Rambo from Whiten to Riverton. They were very new to fly fishing, but they picked up fishing a heavy 2 fly rig pretty quickly. We got an early start and around White's Creek we stopped and they picked up their first few Eleven Point trout. The morning was definitely faster than the afternoon. Sotneflies fished deep with either San Jaun or crawdad droppers did best. We picked up fished pretty regularly until about 1, and then the fishing slowed a bit, though we got a few more after that. The last place we fished was Hall Bay shoals where Rambo fell out of the boat just below the shoal. He sank like a stone and took a couple of seconds to come to the surface so Randy could grab him. It was funny after he was rescued, but a little nerve racking at first. After that they were spent, so we paddled out so they could get on the road. Two great guys to spend the day with and a good time was had by all.

John, Good to have you guys down again (the die-hards that made the trip!) and glad that the fish were cooperative. See you next time, Ryan

Have not turned a report in a while so here is an overview. Small mouth fishing on the upper river above Greer has been solid lately with streamers and crawdads. Spinning gear using various colors of soft plastic creek tubes or rebel crawdads. Downed trees are an issue, but you can get through fine. For that matter trees are an issue everywhere, but everyone that has paid attention has been fine. Too many beers can account for most of the problems that I have seen. The trophy area has been hit or miss lately, though I look for that to improve as the water is coming down. The white ribbon area has been fishing consistently since they have stocked the river. Whatever you are using, being deep will help your catch rate. Stonefly nymphs, Don's crawdad and San Jaun worms have been doing well. My busy season for guiding will be kicking in soon, so now is a good time to look at booking a late summer or fall trip (sorry for the blatant plug). The late summer and fall outlook is good.