Brian Sloss

I meant a flood about a third the size of what we got though.

The river has been over 11k cfs numerous times before and after 1966. That is high, but not too bad relatively speaking. Wish that was all we got.

That is national forest land entirely. There is a forest service campground at Greer that costs $10 per site and is nice. A more primitive camp area at Turner that is free on the south side. No camping on the north side, it is day use only. First come, first served at both. You can camp on any gravel bar in between if you want as well, but you have to canoe to the gravel bars. The river should be back into shape by then.

We have been at this level now 4 times in 3-4 years. This used to happen every 25 years or so. The weather comes in extremes any more.

Actually, relative to a lot of other float rivers in the ozarks, the opposite is true, especially below Greer spring. Because it is a little larger, it takes a little more to get this river to flood, but it also takes longer for it to recede. Granted it will rise and fall faster closer to the crest, but it will stay higher than ideal a little longer. Given that I don't know where it will crest, I don't want to guess. Besides, once you think you have the river figured out, it will surprise you.

For anyone thinking of coming down, the river is blown out. Thomasville is brown and out of it's banks and Greer is to the top of the boat ramp, brown and logs floating by. I actually had someone try to talk me into putting them out in a canoe today. Are you kidding me? I'll post updates on levels when they look like they may be getting favorable again.

In this day and age of such polarized politics, you will see less and less middle ground in policy. It is absurd that an elected official can't see merit in the other sides ideas on anything and work to find middle ground to make sensible policy. They do that now and they won't get out of a primary and that is just sad. Hopefully things will swing back and politicians will be able to work together some day, but it doesn't look good now.

This fish is becoming the 'pet brown' of Sunburst Ranch! Stop in, buy some flies, hook a 23.5" brown. Repeat. Haha! Congrats to Chris and Kevin on a beauty fish! Now when do you get a photo op with the King? Ryan

Nice, looking forward to seeing it in person.

That is why I am asking.

props or Jets?

I have to agree with what Justin has said about the Old Towns. They have one of the best designs out there, but the quality of construction has gone down the drain. The materials are cheaper and thinner than they used to be and they do separate. I have around 80+ Old Town 169s and the older ones that still run, are awesome, but the new ones suck to be honest. Half of the new ones we got a couple of years ago, split on the interior layer of plastic within the first 2 months. I have resealed them on the interior and they run fine, but they won't last nearly as long as the Old Towns of the past. We have been moving to the Wenonah Northforks like Justin is simply because of the quality of construction and materials is much superior. I wish Old Town would sell to someone besides Johnson Outdoors...someone who would once again like to provide the best canoe on the market. Cricket, I've got some older canoes for sale for a cheap price$150-200.

Very nice.

If I am the one you plan to see on Fri afternoon, could you please give me more info as we don't hang around the shop all the time this time of year. Give me a call at 417-778-6497 if you need a reservation.

I don't mean this harshly so please don't take it this way, but there is a lot of: there are other possible ways to spread didymo so I don't want to give up my felt soles out there. Well fine, then bring those up at a meeting or call an MDC office and fill out a survey form. They will email it to you I bet. I did and have printed it off and mailed it back. Call them and request a meeting in the cities, I bet they will do it if they can. Tell them you would like to stress education. But back to the main point, just because it can possibly be spread on other things does not mean they should not ban felt soles. If no felt means a 10 % decrease in the chance spreading didymo, then it is worth it to me because that stuff is nasty and I don't want it in my home water period. We are talking to the MDC and the forest service about funding a cleaning station at the Greer access right now with money from our fall fly flingers weekend. They are planning them at trout parks and that is good. I encourage the FFF clubs, TU chapters and the MSA to explore the viability of funding stations at other rivers and creeks as well. A problem I see in society all to much is, "I'll only do the right thing if I don't have to give anything up, no matter how small". It would be a small sacrifice, we all waded for years without felt and did just fine. I gave felt up a year ago and it kind of sucked the first time out, but I got used to it and I still wade all the same water I used to.

I hope there is some hyperbole in your size estimate, Superfly! That hole at the mouth of Spring Creek is a great spot for smallies but a couple of oversize otters could do some damage to it. If only otters tasted like pulled pork...

Benitas: Tues-Sat Good lunch and dinner, I eat there a lot. Grnadmas: Good breakfast and they do lunch and dinner. Sunday closed after lunch buffet. Redneck cafe: pizza and snadwiches Burger Palace: open 7 days. Gas stations serve some food as well

Thomasville to 142 is entirely inside the national wild and scenic riverway easements, though almost all of the land from Thomasville to Cane Bluff is private. You can camp on gravel bars and the land at Denny Hollow is public. Cane Bluff to Riverton is almost all public. Riverton to 142 has lots of private land, but there is a float camp at Morgan spring just up from 142. Great place to camp there.

Bring a variety.

Gavin's suggestion of starting at Cane Bluff is a good one then. Cane Bluff to Greer is good smallmouth water and then the trophy trout from Greer to Turner and you can extend into the White ribbon trout area to Whitten. If you are wanting to keep trout or don't want to deal with lure restrictions, consider Whitten to Riverton for trout and then Riverton to 142 for smallmouth. The line size depends on clarity, but 6-8 pound will be fine probably. Lots of tube baits for smallies on a jig head, marabou jigs,crankbaits and crawdad imitations (soft plastic and cranks)for smallmouth. Trout I would have lots of marabou jigs, smaller crankbaits (rebel crawdads), spinners and Little Cleos. Flies: Stone Fly Nymphs, bigger princes, fox squirrel nymphs, egg patterns and a few other bigger nymphs you can bounce along the bottom.

The shoals at Stinking Pond are loaded with baby trout right now. Was that where you caught them between Turner and Whitten? Always love to hear where the successful spawns happened. There are lots of first year trout in the blue ribbon area and I even caught a few near Riverton a couple of weeks ago.

What kind of fish do you want to catch?

Thanks

Anybody got the dates for Sowbug?

Wonderful video, glad you had a good time.