Brian Sloss

The only problem I see with the health savings account, and it is a big one, is that the huge deductible and co-pays start again every calender year. So after deductible and co-pay you owe $10k lets say. You get a cancer in Nov and quickly run through your $10k, then Jan 1 comes along, another $10k. Plus you have to pay for your meds, because low coverage policies don't normally cover much in the way of meds, so there goes a few more thousand dollars. In other words, you better have quite a bit of money put away that you can afford to loose from your retirement. That will eat up a lot of IRAs. You normally get better deals in a group setting.

Both Brian and Kyle will take great care of you.

Was that you guys pulling out of Whitten on Sunday around 3:30 in the John boat? Glad you had a good trip.

I think the trout fishing is better up toward Mammoth, so I'd make the drive at least one day. You can get maps to find all the accesses at the Mammoth Spring state park office at the intersection of 63 and Hwy 9. From there start fishing. You can start at the the office just below the waterfall. Lassiter, Dam 3 (hatchery there), and Bayou are the most common. I prefer Bayou because it is the most remote. Don't know what the fishing in Hardy is like, never fished it. The white is a risk if you are not renting a boat or guide because the generation could come on any time and it sucks to drive an hour to find them running all units, unless you have a boat or are willing to rent one and have the no how to operate it under the current conditions at the time. If it is wadeable, it is worth it. The Eleven Point is much closer to the Spring and the North Fork of the White in Missouri isn't too far either if you want a change, but you should be able to find enough water on the Spring to keep you busy. Rent a canoe for one day so you can see and fish more water.

The first thing I would say, is your lodging looks nice, but they are about an hour to an hour and a half from the White river. You can fish the south fork of the Spring river for smallmouth and of course the Spring river itself for smallmouth and trout. From Hardy continue north on 63 about 10-15 miles and at Mammoth Spring, the trout fishing begins going back down toward Hardy. A spinning rod will be fine to catch trout with.

It is dead low and we have not gotten enough precip. to raise the levels. It will probably be well below normal until we get spring rains. At this point we could use about 6-10 inches of rain over a few days. The bigger parts of the recent snow storms either just missed us to the north or west. We have gotten a few inches of snow this winter, but no where near enough to get noticeable rises in water levels.

Got out for about an hour and a half today with the goal of practicing Czech nymphing for baby trout. I hit a couple of shoals and caught 10 to 12 baby trout and one 14-15 inch wild trout. I am kind of new to this Czech nymphing technique, but man is it effective for those small trout in shallower, faster water. Don't think that this is going to be my preferred fishing method, but I can't argue with results in certain circumstances. Good fun and I am pretty pumped with the young of the year class we have right now.

I am assuming that this is a MDC sticker by your description as I don't remember seeing one. I'd start by contacting the closest MDC office near you.

Mark The fishing has been good for trout this winter, but the smallie fishing has been tougher. The lower water has presented challenges and makes catching lots of fish in hole more rare unless you mix up what and how you are presenting to the fish. The biggest difference is the amount of young of the year trout that we are finding. 6 inch trout are not going to provide a huge fight, but they are fun and more importantly, a great sign for the next couple of years. Very curious how this years spawn will turn out with all this low water. Conventional wisdom says that the low water years don't provide as good spawning results. The high water cleans out a lot of silt from the gravel is one idea of why the spawns are good after floods.

Nice

For a while now Brian Wise, who many of you know from the NFOW fame, and I have been discussing getting a day out on the Eleven Point to chase some fish. Super Bowl Sunday turned out to be the day. I met up with Brian about 8 am at the canoe rental and threw our stuff together and ran up to Greer with the drift boat in tow. Since Turner road was sketchy we decided to fish up and down from the boat ramp. We caught fish regularly throughout the day. We tried lots of things early but jigs drifted under an indicator were the order of the day throughout the morning. We had to change colors regularly to keep them interested, but that was easy enough. Caught a couple small smallmouth and another about 13 inches plus plenty of trout. After lunch we hit a few couple shoals to do some wading. Brian set up a Czech nymphing rig and starting catching first year trout. On the way through the next shoal I caught a real nice smallie (maybe 15 inches)and Brian got a couple more baby trout. As I rowed to the next shoal Brian hooked a real nice smallie on a jig that threw it while airborne. At the next shoal, I tried the Czech method and quickly hooked up with 3 fish, including a baby trout (not landed) and a 10 inch wild one and missed another couple fish due to daydreaming syndrome. Went to a more traditional method and hooked a nice one that wrapped me around a branch. Brian and I hiked to another shoal where a few more baby trout and a 17 incher (Brian claims this, I did not see it so I am not sure)were caught. You might notice a trend, we had a good spawn last year and there are more young of the year trout swimming around and as a result the last few months we have been catching more 5-6 inch trout lately. Really cool. After it started raining we decided to pack it in so we could get to our respective TVs to watch Green Bay bring the Lambardi home. I had a great time and we both caught plenty of fish, which was nice given the fishing was off the last time I was out.

I enjoyed the pics, thanks.

Great read Al, I enjoyed it very much. Glad you had a good day on the Eleven Point and for that matter on the Jack's fork and the Current. Would love to see that picture of the 20 inch trout. If you make your way down to the Eleven Point again this winter I would enjoy wetting a line with you.

Kids under 3 stay free.

Great report, gotta love those little wild guys. Justin and Amy are ok too.

Unfortunately we have a mortgage on these cottages that did not exist for the previous owners, plus we have greatly expanded the satellite tv offerings and two of the cottages have free wifi. We have been doing some painting and upgrades on furniture that needed replacing. All while trying to keep the rates reasonable. I hope most will agree. We are still cheaper than most hotels in St. Louis or for that matter, hotels in West Plains.

Awesome, but not likely because it is still inside the wild and scenic easement. No boat ramps, cutting of trees or new building anywhere near the river. A cabin just below 142 still allows you to motor up to the area you like easily or float down to your place in a canoe. There is good smallmouth in that stretch as well.

We ave not decided yet.

That is a good question, but from what I have heard, it would be quite a ways back. Good question for the forest service 573-996-2153. There are cabins that come up for sale between 142 and Myrtle every now and then and they are right on the river.

FT The Eleven Point does not allow stramside development, at least not until you get below 142 or above Thomasville. Though there is mostly private land between Thomasville and Cane Bluff and from Riverton to 142, it is mostly ranch land and/or under easement which does not allow for development. Anyway, Terry is right, they are very close to the canoe rental in Alton.

I know a few guys noticed that we recently bought some rental cottages to go along with our canoe rental and guide service. I just wanted to officially announce it here now that our web site has been updated. Please go to www.11pointcanoe.com to see the updates. Click the camping and lodging link to see the cottages and get info on them. The fishing and guide service page has been updated as well. Also, the maps and directions page has been redone and the confusing mapquest function removed and replaced with actual directions. I would appreciate any feedback on the changes. Also, our email address has changed to canoe@ortrackm.org. We did not want to change it, but had no choice. Sorry for any inconvenience to anyone who has our email saved. Hope no one is offended by the plug.

I know a few guys noticed that we recently bought some rental cottages to go along with our canoe rental and guide service. I just wanted to officially announce it here now that our web site has been updated. Please go to www.11pointcanoe.com to see the updates. Click the camping and lodging link to see the cottages and get info on them. The fishing and guide service page has been updated as well. Also, the maps and directions page has been redone and the confusing mapquest function removed and replaced with actual directions. I would appreciate any feedback on the changes. Also, our email address has changed to canoe@ortrackm.org. We did not want to change it, but had no choice. Sorry for any inconvenience to anyone who has our email saved. Hope no one is offended by the plug.

I agree that raw is best. Stonefly Tar Tar.

I looked it up, I really like the winning stone fly. I might have to get that for my shop. It looks like a fly designed for the Eleven Point and the NFOW. Wonder if it can be improved with rubber legs. Rubber legs are like the bacon of the fly world for me. They almost always make everything better.