Brian Sloss

Coldwaterfhr, what is the rest of your list. Come on anyone else have an opinion?

Took the Gibsons from Michigan on a trip in the Drift boat in the blue ribbon area today and it was a beautiful day. There was a call for rain (50%) but it held off and the weather was great. The river looks great right now. We only saw one other canoe. The fishing started off slow, but picked up as the day went on. The first mile and a half was surprisingly slow, but then we picked up our first fish and from there on we picked up fish regularly. we had four or five fish in the 15 inch range give or take and they all looked healthy and fought well. The rest were in the 11-13 inch range with a couple of smaller ones. Mostly we nymph fished with MOATs, Stoneflies, Don's Crawdads, poxy back sparrow numphs, birds nest nymphs, hare's ears, and eggs. Keeping your rig was key. All of the aforementioned flys caught fish at one time or another. Mr Gibson also pounded the bank with woolies and other streamers in some of the longer slower streches and got some strikes, but nothing hooked up. Both caught plenty of fish and a good time was had by all.

Izzy scares me as a closer. Loaded the bases last night before getting the last out. Interested to see how 2nd base and the outfeild holds up and of course pithing (especially relief). Should be a fun year, they've looked pretty good so far. My business partner is a Cubs fan, so Cards/Cubs can get pretty interesting around here with some pretty stupid bets bets involving work load or a beer. Go Cards!

Top five flies in my opinion are: Stoneflies (black, brown, and Golden)- I'll include the MOAT in this catagory. They need to be heavy to get down to the bottom. I always throw a dropper off the Stones when I use them. Crawdads- My favorite is Don's Crawdad, but some prefer the crayfish nymph. Both work. the smallest sized crawdad patterns will often be fished as a dropper off the Stonefly. Streamers-Anything that imitates baitfish. I'll include leeches in this, mohair being a popular choice but, but bunny and ostriech work well too. In-cased caddis-Black tung. bead, green flor. thread, sparkele olive and tan hare's ear dubbing. copper johns, hares ear, pheasant tials, prince nymphs, san jaun worms, eggs (these do very well, but many won't fish them). If it looks meaty and you can get it deep, it will probably catch fish here. I couldn't give just 5. Sorry. On the Eleven Point most of the time it is about getting the fly deep in the right area with a good drift. Don't ignore the swing and let it hang in the current a couple of seconds before picking it up.

To be more specific, it was a poxy back sparrow nymph. Pcific Fly Group sells them if you have a catalog. Looks like a big black hare's ear with an epoxy back. The tail is tan. It has long soft hackles and I think a little marabou above the hackle at the head of the fly. It looks like a meal, but nothing in particular, which is often the ticket on this river. I know that is a lousy description, but I can't take a pic that shows it with any clarity.

I got to fish at the 160 bridge for 30 minutes before the canoes I was waiting for arrived early. Caught 6 trout on a MOAT with a birds nest dropper, most on the swing. they were all small except the first one, which was a fat, hard fighting 15 incher. It jumped big time 3 times and was a load of fun. Will have a more detailed report by Thursday.

You can catch bass(samllmouth), you just can't keep them until May. Trebble hooks are legal in the blue ribbon area. No bait (live or synthetic) or soft plastic (ie worms or grubs).

First in regard to the float camps, they will be able to handle 3 tents. Some are larger than others and can handle more than one group, but this time of year you won't have to worry about getting a float camp to yourself as there isn't much traffic. There are plenty of people who leave their cars overnight in the lots and don't have a problem, but you never know. To be up front, I am an outfitter. If you use us to shuttle, your vehicle will be in our lot overnight. Also, you won't have to lose the extra hour to hour and a half shuttling yourself. Also, if you only have 1-2 canoes, you won't have to drive 2 vehicles all the way down here, spending as much or more on gas just getting here as the shuttle will cost. That shuttle costs $30/vehicle. My number is 417-778-6497, if I'm not there just leave message and I'll call back. I'm going to be out the rest of the day. Whatever you decide to do, have a good time.

Nice report, glad you had a good time. If i am thinking of the right place, the area you were at is what I call Big bluff shoal. Is it about 1/2 mile before Little Hurricane enters on the right descending side? That is a very good run that gets overlooked a lot. Most people don't stop there, but there are some good fish there. Hope to see you sometime when you are fishing the river. Actually, I think I did. If you guys were in belly boats, I think you passed Greer access as I was dropping a couple guys off at the Greer boat ramp. Did you use any caddis pupae? I saw some of those flying around Sat as well.

Sorry, but I forget to define it, but I have if you go into the archives. A MOAT stands for mother of all tungston. Size 8 hook, 1 large tungston bead and 2 smaller ones, rubber tail and 2 two pairs rubber legs, and peacock dubbing. It looks like nothing but maybe a stonefly, but mostly it looks like a big meal. Most importantly it gets deep fast and when the water is up and moving that is doubly important. A MOAT has stung many Eleven Point trout.

Today was a prime example of not using a boat and limiting yourself on this river. I was able to get out for a little while for the first time in a long time, so i thought I'd see how the trout were doing. I didn't have long so I fished for about 45 minutes at Graveyard hallow (island one) and 15 minutes at the 19 bridge. The water was moving fast and is up almost a foot, which is good for the spring. The down side was without a boat I couldn't get to a lot of places I would have liked to. My fishing was religated to a lot smaller area. At graveyard I was able to land 3 out of four strikes. My favorite on was a fish that was hiding in an undercut bank. There was an undercut bank with real swift water running past and an overhanging tree above it. Also there was about a foot of a back eddy by the bank. It look promising, so I threw a side-arm cast under the tree tight to the bank and the MOAT wasn't in the water for a second before a 14 inch rainbow took it. I love it when it works just like you draw it up on the chalk board. All fish landed took the MOAT. One thing to note about the fish, they all looked hungry. There are a lot of theories about whether the fish eat better when the water comes up. Well these fish looked to have been eating a minimal amount while waiting for the water to recede a little. they did not fight as hard as fish normally do here. Maybe it was just the fish I hooked today, I don't know. My bet is that while the waters continue down a little the feed will pick up and they will regain their strength. By the way, I didn't hook anything at the bridge, but I didn't fish long as I couldn't get to the best parts of the water there due to the current. I bet the fishing will be better and better as the week continues and the water slows a little. There are some areas that I know would have been fishing great if I had my boat with me to get to them.

On the Eleven point, bounce jigs more the size of 1/16 off the bottom through the shoals and into plunge pools at the end of the run. Also don't give up on the rebel crawdads. Use smaller sized deep divers, a lot of peop;e catch a lot of trout on this river with those.

Auxvasse, a North Callaway man then. Hope see you guys on the water sometime. Brian

I grew up in Fulton and graduated in 1986. My dad taught at Westminster for years there and my Mom still lives in Fulton so I get back there fairly often.

A sink tip would be fine. I ussually use a floating line when nymphing with a strike indicator above my MOAT, stonefly or whatever and then throw a dropper off that. That way I can adjust for depth easily. Normally you don't have to make ridiculously long casts around here so after a little getting used to it, the heavier flies are not that big a deal to cast. I use sinking lines for streamers normally around here. Bring stoneflies, crawdads (Don's Crawdads work well), Leeches, woolies, eggs, and san Jaun worms. We sell all of these at my shop (corner of 160 and 19 hwys in Alton) though I think we are out of San Jaun worms. Call if you are coming down and need some help @ 417-778-6497.

Hey a Mexico boy, I grew up in Fulton. Nice to have someone from my high schools rival on the board. I live in Alton, Mo now and fish the 11 Point all the time.

The 11 Point is about 1 ft higher than normal and moving about twice as fast as normal. The water is stained but not too bad to fish. Talked to a guy who hooked a 20+ incher yesterday about 1/4 mile up from Mary Decker on a black wooly. Water should continue to go down the next couple of days, but will still be a little high and off color by this weekend. I think it would be worth fishing, but a couple of areas might be a tough wading proposition. You will need to weight things pretty good. Brian

Snap, I started a string about this very issue in the conservation issues topic section. You can get more info there. The tracts of land that are specifically up for sale are not easily recognized from the web site. I can't make heads or tails of it, I hope that is not their intention. I'd email your rep. in Washington and make your comments known from the fed web site. Brian

The water is stained and moving pretty swiftly right now, though it is coming down. The fishing is good in the blue ribbon area, but before the 19 bridge becomes wadeable, the water need to drop another 6-8 inches. You could belly boat from the spring to the bridge, but you'd be better off in a canoe, kayak or personal pontoon. You will really miss a lot of the good water if you don't float from shoal to shoal through the whole blue ribbon area. It is only 5.5 miles long, but you can easily make a full day out of that. You really should make a trip down here sometime.

Yikes! Did I see yachts were mentioned to be coming to Tanycomo. Doesn't seem big enough for that. Someone mentioned a Lake of the Ozarks comparison. That would be horrible. I've kind come to think of the Lake of the Ozarks as the sacrifical lamb of Missouri conservation. All the ridiculous boats there so that the other lakes in Missouri remain safe. At the Lake of the Ozarks, 35 ft boats can and do get swamped in the main channel. I'd hate to see that in Tany. Surely the powers that be can see the folly in allowing high powered yachts on such a lake. I would hope so anyway. By the way I won't swim in the Lake of the Ozarks anymore, nor will I eat anything there. I have a friend whose family has had a cabin there for a long time on a cove just off the main channel. He went there acouple of years ago on a weekend and the oil slick covering the water in the cove has kept him away ever since.

It is running brown today.

It is all national forest so you can pull over anyplace. I think there is either a gravel or sandy area where you could camp in that stretch. If you are going anytime soon, I'd suggest a float camp. It is not likely you would have any neighbors now anyway.

Had a couple of guys get out and float the blue ribbon area and fly fish today. I don't have too much info other than they said they caught at least 3 trout in every shoal. I think they used leeches, woolies, and a prince nymph on steriods (big and heavy) for most of the day. Anyway they had a good day, though they didn't get any huge ones, but did have one on. I'll be getting out this weekend and will have a camera so I can give a better report.

I contacted Jo Ann Emerson on the 17th and have not heard back yet. I've caqlled and they confirmed receiving my email and promised to get back to me, so we shall see. Jim Talent has not replied yet either. I'm hoping for the best.

The land along the banks of the Eleven Point were siezed through eminent domain. Thanks for your input and taking the time to stop by Blunts office. Glad to hear he will be voting against the measure. A gold star to old Roy in my book!