Brian Sloss

Snagged, You hit the nail on the head. I couldn't agree more. And by the way this will help farm owners and is better for the envirnment. It is not perfect, there are cleaner sources, but we could switch eth. soon if we really decided to do so. The technology is available.

I may be a little late on this one, but rubber is the way to go. I just have not ever seen one small enough for carrying around while wading.

Personally, I'd love to see more alternative fuel sources become available, but I feel the politics of getting them to the market place may make this a much longer process than it needs to be. By politics I mean lobbyists for industries that would rather not see them. As for whether global warming is happening, I tend to believe the scientific community on this one. The vast majority thinks this is the case, so I tend to go along with them. Unfortunately, those who don't agree tend to just dismiss them as environmental loonies (not everyone, but a lot with loud voices do) rather than trying to solve the problem. Unfortunately, in my line of work I need powerful trucks to pull our trailers, but would love to switch over to something (maybe ethonol) when we can get the technology available in our neck of the woods.

Shocker, mine is the Eleven Point and I still believe there is no better river in Missouri.

Took the drift boat out for a guide trip between Turner and Whitten with a couple of Springfield guys, Ted and Irv. Now Ted you may have seen on a previous thread with a 22.5 inch trout on a marabou jig. Though very experienced 11 Point anglers, they wanted to learn more about fly fishing and in particular, 11 Point fly fishing. Neither had done much fly fishing on the 11 Point and Ted was pretty new to fly fishing all together. The end result was good, both guys caught plenty of fish with a couple in the 15-16 inch range. MOATs, stoneflies, crawdads, sparrow nymphs, egg patterns, and a couple of other things caught fish. We also took a few on spinning gear using jigs and Ted's secret lure. We caught in the probably 13 or 14 on the fly with almost as many lost after being hoooked. They caught a similar number on spinning gear. The day was a pleasure and these guys really picked up on any fly fishing instruction quickly.

Took a guy out for a guide trip the other day from Turner to Whitten in the drift boat, the Blue ribbon had been fishing slowly, and we had a decent day. The morning was pretty good but after about 1 pm the fishing slowed dramatically. Don's crawdad and bh bombers caught most of the fish and the swing is where most fish hit. We had a couple 15 inchers with the highlight being an 18 incher caught just above stinking pond. They have since stocked that area and the fishing should be very good for the next week or so. My business partner Ryan and one of our employees, Shorty, did well at stinking pond catching trout at will at Stinking Pond on rooster tails.

No Hufstedlers own or work for that canoe rental anymore, but you can buy it if you like. It is on the market.

They are for sale, but still operating.

These pcs go with the report

Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 38 Location: Alton, Mo PostPosted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: 6/20/06 Eleven Point River Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post Delete this post My good friends from Cloumbia, Mo., Mike and Jerry were in town Monday and Tuesday and we floated the Blue Ribbon area in the drift boat on Tuesday. I got to say, Tuesday was the toughest fishing of the year for me and the guys. Early in the morning we caught a few at island 1 and Mary Decker and the last shoal above Turner Mill in the evening produced a few fish and aside from that the fish were few and far between. A bead head boomer (like a prince nymph with a red tag on the tail), a red brassie, and olive Don's crawdads took the fish we did catch. The heat of mid day really had the fish knocked down deep and put them off the bite. Mornings and evenings are definitely the best time to get out. I'd also look to cloudy days for better fishing prospects. The white ribbon area is fi8shing pretty good with the regular stockings it is getting. Mike and my business partner Ryan went to Thomasville and waded around and caught smallies readily on Monday evenong.

Snap, You hit on the head. Crawdads are a major food source here all the time. I use a small crawdad fly all the time and it out fishes anything else most of the time.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. We sell them for like $2.50. Quite a bargain at a cost of 17.32.

I'd go with 6lb, but bring along 4lb just in case.

Take a size 4-8 hook and put a large Tungston bead on 1st followed by 2 med sized tungston beads. Using black thread, tie on a tail using black or brown rubber legs. Put peacock dubbing on thread and wrap a little ways up hook, then add rubber legs. Add a little more dubbing, then another set of legs. Then wrap dubbing covering all but the large Tungston bead, whip finish and add head cement. Done.

Don't ignore above dam 3. The Lassiter access is a public access in a residential area of Mamouth and you can always catch fish there. Dam 3 itself is very wadeable and Bayou Access is good(closest to feeling like you are away from town anyway.

Nice pics. None of the previously pictured trout came from Mary Decker and all were returned to the river in good shape. That is a huge belly on that one trout you posted. The gravel bars have not changed in any signifigant way, though some of the holes have changed a little, but not a lot. hope to see you out there sometime.

John, Look forward to seeing in a couple of weeks. Brian K, My business partner caught an 18 inch smallie recently wading around Thomasville. As for the lower river, there is a lot of good smallie fishing to be had. The river is a bigger down there and there are good fish down there. Knock'm dead. By the way, make sure your hp is no more than 25 horses (that is the reg). Have fun and let us know how it goes.

After some less than great fishing reports over Memorial Day weekend and a poor showing myself at the 19 bridge, I decided a float through the blue ribbon area was in order. With a kayak and a fly rod in hand, I hit the river ready to fish hard. The end result was a 15+ trout day and one nice smallmouth. The backside of island 3 and the shoal above Mary Decker produced the best. All but about 2 or so shoals produced at least a fish and best fish came about 1/2 below island 4. The best trout measured about 17-18 inches as crudely figured by measuring against my arm. Black stones heavily weighted and fished deep produced most of the fish with the crawdad dropper getting the others including the smallie. If your not hooking the bottom every now an then, you are not deep enough and your catch rate will be much lower.

Memorial weekend sounds like a real bad time for a fishing tourny near Van Buren. The traffic should be insane there.

They measured it at only 22.5 inches and I say "only" because for its girth and heft that seems short. That fish is eating very well. Looking at the pictures it seems longer to me.

Plenty of water, but a few portages between Thomasville and Cane Bluff.

hee it is

Check the horse power restrictions on the waters you plan to run. The Eleven Point has a 25 horse limit, so you may want to check with the NFOW. It would suck to spend the money and not be able to use it everywhere you want to go. For the record, a 25 horse runs real well up the Eleven Point (some say too well in fact).

Ted Madden from Springfield is a regular angler down here and I thought I'd share his recent weekend catch with everyone. He caught a pig in the blue ribbon area on a grey marabou jig. I'll post the pic as soon as I can figure out how to get a pic from my email to the forum.

beauty fish Brian.