Brian Sloss

The river is currently reading 1200 cfs, which is good especially for the smallmouth. Don't know how long that will hold, so take advantage while you can. Should be good for the trout as well. No snow & ice is gone in the Eleven Point area. Enjoy folks. I'd fish heavy and deep for both. Marabou jigs, stoneflies, crawdads and streamers on a full sink or sink tip.

The Okuma reel is very good for a $45 reel.

Heck of a day fishing for browns, you won't forget.

I would hit where the spring enters the river for smallmouth and trout.

Very nice!

You are about 1.5 hours from the Eleven Point trophy area. From Mammoth Spring Alton is 20 minutes and then it is another 8 miles to Greer and the Blue ribbon area. Feel free to call me at 417-778-6497 for directions and suggestions. The water is low enough this year to do plenty of wading.

Don't forget the sucker! It was fun hanging with you guys today, thanks for the ride and the company.

What tragedy on the trail? I have not heard anything about this...

Depends on how much water the spring sources gained and we won't know that for a couple days. Frankly that is not a big issue when it comes to the smallmouth, the big issue is now we will have proper water levels, at least for a while.

We had about a 5ft rise in water levels overnight. Good news is the smallie fishing should get good soon and the trout will benefit as well. Bad news is I had to do a 1 am rescue on Turner road to pick up some guys who camp was flooding out at Stinking pond. They hiked through the woods until they hit the road at the top of the ridge. Rough night. We were expecting about 2 inches of rain and got between 6 and 8. It rained steady from about 11:30-am to 12:30 am. I thought we got more like 10 inches, but a friends gauge said 6. I think the river and other areas around here got more though.

We did not get to go after all.

I am always the first to say, don't expect to catch trout on the 11 Point on dry flies. Today was different. After noticing trout cruising and sipping the surface by the 19 bridge for a week or so now, I decided to bring some dries as a back up when I went fishing this afternoon, just in case they were sitting near the surface again. After fishing my way about half way up to the spring using the usual suspects fished deep and catching about 3 trout and A smallie, I waded back to the bridge. Sure enough they were sipping something very small off the surface, but I could not make out exactly what it was and there was not a ton of them flying around. Tried a small caddis, no dice. Small crackle back, a little interest and one half-hearted swipe at it. I don't have a ton of small mayfly imitations and I did not bring any as I still was not convinced this dry fly thing was going to work out. I said screw it, they are looking up, I'll try making it worth their while. Threw on a stimulator and bam they started showing interest and about 1 out every 3 or 4 follows would strike at it. After catching a few, they wouldn't commit all the way to the dry anymore so I dropped a size 18 psycho prince off it about 15 inches and caught a few more on that. Good fun and a rare dry fly treat on this river. By the way this is not going on everywhere on the river, it is happening at a very specific spot.

Man that sucked! Just kidding, great stuff as always.

Bloody Mary, red butt and red copper john will be packed.

I sell jigs, tackle and flies at my canoe rental in Alton (8 miles south on 19 from Greer), though we are open by reservation this time of year. Give me a call at 417-778-6497 and I will meet you to get some jigs for your trip. There is not a tackle shop at Greer. There is a canoe rental, but I don't think they sell much in the way of tackle (jigs). Have not been below Turner in a while, check the report 5 days Greer to Riverton. They talk about fishing below Turner.

Got up and fished for about an hour and an half from the 19 bridge just over half way up to the spring and back. Caught about 10-11 fish with all but one being trout. The odd ball was a 10 inch smallie. Came across and active spawning redd. Please leave these guys alone so they can give us more trout in the future. That said, I went downstream and caught a number of trout eating the spawners misfires on egg patterns. Fishing is still good, but the water is super clear still.

thanks

A buddy and I are thinking of taking his boys for an afternoon at Dry Run creek. Do the boys need a trout tag or license of any sort? The older one will try his hand with a fly rod, but the younger one may still use a spinning rod. Is a marabou jig on a spinning rod legal there?

That first shoal after Mary Decker where it sounds like you camped, had spawning redds all over the head of the shoal a week ago as did the following shoal where Huricane creek enters. Did you try an egg pattern there with the fly rod? We fished downstream in the shoal from the redds with egg patterns a week ago and did real well. There were also a couple redds just upstream from the boulders and just downstream of the boulders at Mary Decker, though we did not do as well there as we did at the next two shoals. Sounds like a fun trip, glad you had fun.

4-6lb test will be fine. Let me know if you need a shuttle or anything befroe you come down.

I am referring to the feathers, don't remember the head colors.

Mic, Please rephrase, not sure how to answer.

Ginger/white, ginger/orange, olive, olive/yellow, white/grey and I am sure a few others that we did not try.

Got out in the drift boat with my friend/business partner Ryan Griffin and fished the blue ribbon area. The water is still very low and clear, but we caught good looking rainbows regularly all day. The upper half fished the best, but there were a few holes on the lower half that produced pretty well. There were a number of spawning redds on the lower end at the head of some of the shoals and a few on the upper end. Only a couple of fish on any of them, which means they were mostly done spawning. Fishing egg patterns in the shoals downstream from the redds was productive. Marabou Jigs under an indicator were very effective. Tried out the Zig Jig (on the rec. of a regular fisherman down here) on the fly rod as well and it was effective in some of the slower sections jigging it up and down. Biggest fish of the day was maybe 16 inches, but man were they pretty and colored up. Guys the trout fishing is still good even with the low water. You might not be able to catch record numbers now, but you can consistently catch fish in most of the likely looking spots. Saw more eagles than people, it was a great day.

pics are on our facebook page. www.facebook.com/groups/102606856450001/