MississippiAngler

I did Cane to Greer the weekend of October 3 and the weekend of October 10 and it IS a dragathon. The water is LOW and, for fear of exaggerating (and I am not), clearer than the water in a water bottle. Seriously. I filled up empty water bottles with Eleven Point water and they were identical in clarity. Clear water means the fish are spooky. Smallmouth, too. I caught fish both weekends, but in small numbers and small sizes. My best catches were in deep water where the line was less visible (I was chucking 6 lb. test in the green color versus my usual 8 lb. test in red). Crawfish replicas proved best. Soft plastics floated and drifted in current (crawfish shape), tubes fished DEEP on 1/4 oz. sinkers and spinners all worked, though, again, nothing worked WELL. I am not much of a trout fisher, though I have caught a few in my day. Still, as spooky as smallies are, trout hookups were tougher. My usual standbys -- rooster tails, spoons and crawfish and minnow cranks -- were all pretty weak on trout. I landed a few, but the bites were tepid. Still, fall colors right now are incredible. I was amazed by the color I saw Sunday, Oct. 10. Next weekend will be perfect. So even if the fishing stinks, there's still good reason to go.

It helps a ton. Thanks, Tito. We did that stretch Labor Day weekend (the only stretch we did Labor Day weekend that wasn't bumper boats) and, as I said, it was not great, but tolerable from a dragging perspective. Thanks again for the reply. I'll let you guys know if we get into the smallies. If I don't have a report up by next Tuesday, you can safely assume that we couldn't catch a cold.

Jet boat? Seriously? Idea: Save the jet boat for another location. The Eleven Point is best enjoyed from a paddle-powered boat with a friend who doesn't whoop, holler, get drunk and fall out of the canoe and who doesn't yell "show your t*ts!" to every female who passes in a canoe. Seriously, the Eleven Pont is a rustic river. Keep it clean (of trash and of trashy behavior). If you must put a motor on that beautiful river, observe the 25 hp rule. If that doesn't work for you, I highly recommend the Spring River a few miles away. When you go there, yelling "show your t$ts!" to passing women means you've got experience on that river and are, in all probability, a regular.

Brian, Tito (or anyone who may know): I was up a few weeks back and Cane to Greer ran LOW with a moderate amount of dragging, but it wasn't what I'd call "prohibitive." For the record, I was in a canoe with another equally portly fellow (my dad) and our combined weight plus gear was easily 500 lbs. I'd be riding higher this weekend in my kayak. Just curious: How low is low? I really like that stretch and want to do it, but no way I am dragging all 9.3 miles of it. Give me a prognosis. I know it's not your "money" stretch, but it's a nice float. Anybody looked at levels above Greer and have a read on it? Thanks for the help!

I think the trip from Thomasville to Cane can be beautiful or disgusting. Depends on your persuasion. Yes, there are cows on private land along the water's edge. I've gone through several times and had the canoe scare off the critters while they waded (and pooped) in the river. So, cows are an issue. Now the good. The banks are not littered with homes as some private banks are. The waters aren't brimming with sunbathers. In fact, I've done the stretch a dozen times and have only encountered another canoe twice. Once it was a couple who put in the day prior and did an overnight on a sandbar and another time, we waved a pair of canoes who came up on us past. The fishing is great. The scenery is nice, but hardly majestic like it is downriver. And no trout. And if the water's running low... well, that's a literal drag in a few spots. So it comes down to 1) whether you're chasing smallies or trout, 2) whether the cows ruin the experience (and on this stretch the cows are allowed because it's private land) and 3) whether you prefer fewer boats or whether this doesn't matter.

Water from Greer Spring is about 55 degrees year round. We should be nearing the time that water temps upstream begin to warm to that level. I would think in the dead of winter (through the end of February) Greer Spring would warm the water. For purposes of my trip, above Greer was where we found the better fishing, although we didn't hit either the blue ribbon trout area or the white ribbon area where temps may have been warmer from Greer Spring. As far down as we were on the Riverton stretch, any benefit from Greer's higher temps would be lost.

I thought the same would be true, fozzie, but we found the fishing above Greer much better and "saw" more fish activity. I know that doesn't always mean squat (as water depth below the spring makes seeing them more difficult), but they were obviously doing better upstream from Greer. Again, we're talking smallies. Tito: Competence with a fly rod all but escapes me. It's great fun and I've caught a few fish on the fly, but I grew up fishing for largemouth mostly and making the transition to a fly rod was harder than downsizing the baitcast equipment to spinning tackle. It's hard for me to be patient with a fly rod when I know I am good with spinning and baitcast tackle.

Mark: What stretch were you on? Seemed to me that fishing was better above Greer Spring, but it could be coincidence or the particular days in question.

One of the 16 inchers.

The river seemed to be running low to me. While I am not an Eleven Point expert, I visit the river once or twice annually and have done so for a number of years. At Thomasville, the water was running a little low and it ran below what I am used to from Cane to Greer. Downriver from Greer, I notice that less with the tributaries feeding in and raising the levels. At any rate, we had very contrasting days. I'll offer a breakdown. 3/15/2010 Whitten to Riverton Put in about 9:15 a.m. at Whitten and cruised to Riverton. Temps hovered in the low 50s with periods of sun breaking through the clouds. Good bit of wind at times (gusts to 15 or 20). The fishing was awful. We threw a lot of lures and were absolutely SHUT OUT. Not even a goggle eye grabbed a lure. We threw crawfish cranks, spinners, tubes, minnow cranks, jigs and soft crawfish imitation lures. Again. Nothing. We were off the river by 3, no problem. 3/16/2010 Cane Bluff to Greer What a difference a day makes! The day started around 9. It was sunny, but the sun went away fast and temps stayed in the low 50s. It was chilly and damp. Wind was moderate. The fishing started at a slow to moderate pace. I pulled a couple of 13-inchers from our first hole fishing 2.5 inch tubes (dark, natural colors). My partner was going with a minnow crank and a crawfish crank and eventually tried a spinner. None bore fruit. As the morning wore on, things seemed to slow until about midday. Starting around noon and running until 3 p.m., things were HOT. By that time, the tube was the lure of choice, slow twitched across the bottom. Let me say here that we never catch a lot of LARGE smallies in the Eleven Point. We generally see a lot of fish in the 11-13 inch range. When, in short order, we pulled a pair of 16 inchers in, we were thrilled. We went on to grab several in the 13-14 inch range. The females were hungry and were striking. Their bellies were bloated (I know they spawn in spring, but I am not sure where they are in the process... either way, throw those suckers back as we did). As the day wore on, longer pools of slack water with medium depth at the drop off points were where the strikes occurred. It was better nearer the fast water on the ends on the high bank side of the river, halfway between the bank and midstream. The fish were actively feeding and were aggressive in the current. I lost track of how many we caught, but between the two of us, I'd say nearly 20. 18 would be a solid guess. Again, tubes were hot. Strikes were detectible (not necessarily powerful), but the fish were feeding steadily. We came off the river around 5:30 p.m. Get out there soon, folks. Things look pretty good.

An absolute beaut!

I list lures for both the blue ribbon area and for all other areas. Be sure to follow the rules to protect the fishery. Anyway, this is what works for me: 1) Crawfish cranks. Vary size, depth and color. I'd start with something realistic with a deep lip to run at or near bottom and work my way up. If you try a few different things and nothing happens, move on down the list. 2) Deep diving minnow cranks. a Berkley frenzy deep diver works well at times. A few years ago, a Walmart special $1.97 Smithwick minnow in silver/black/purple wore them out. The key is DEEP DIVER. Bounce, bump and bang it off the bottom. I prefer a "countdown" style crank, which is to say one that SINKS slowly rather than one that floats. 3) Spinnerbaits. A marabou jig on a spinner works well. Natural and white. Beetlespins are good. Rooster tails are OK (though I find the treble hook very annoying and don't carry these anymore). Standard largemouth spinners scaled down (1/8 oz to 1/4 oz.) work OK. I like black/yellow, solid white, red and black and blue skirts with single spinner setups. Sometimes I add a twin tail white trailer. I slow roll them deep. Fall, reel, twitch, twitch, fall, reel, twitch, twitch (subtle on the twitching and patient on the fall). The farther away from the boat, the better. 4) A small bass jig. Same as you'd use for largemouth, but 3/8 oz. or smaller (I like 1/4 oz). I like crawfish colors (orange/brown) with a twin-tail trailer. A black and blue with a white twin tail trailer has worked before. Outside of the BR area (Cane Bluff to Greer for purposes of your float), I'd add these to the list (and my order would be 1-crawfish cranks, 2-tubes, 3-deep minnow cranks, 4-grubs, 5-spinners, 6-shakeyheads, 7-jigs): 1) Tubes. I like something like a smoke/red flake color, 2.5-3.5 inches. These are also productive on goggle eye, which are, in my humble opinion, fun, but only worth catching to prevent a shutout if the smallies don't bite. Run these in deep channels, off rock walls and keep a tight line. Again, plastic, so avoid don't use these in the BR area. 2) Grubs,. Light line, light bullet sinker (1/8 oz), natural colors work best. Vary the retrieve. This is a versatile bait that can find the fist at any depth. 3) A 1/4 oz. shakey head jig. If you don't know this arrangement, look it up. Two pieces of advice: use a floating worm in a natural-ish color (watermelon, watermelon with red flake, motor oil, pumpkinseed, etc.) and work that sucker slow and with VERY light line movements. The moving water will cause undulation and your twitches need to be subtle. Any twitch will cause a greater reaction than you expect.

It was a shocker for me. Never had it so slow on the Eleven Point. Six smallies in four days and probably 12 goggle eye. It was a real bust. Last year, about the same time, we had a good run on the smallies using deep diving minnow cranks (The Magic Lure was the nickname for the silver, black and purple sinking deep diver). In the middle of the day, crawfish cranks (dubbed Old Reliable) produced moderately well. This time, our old tricks failed us. Still, I'd recommend a tube if the bite is slow. Probably getting about time to start tossing spinners, too. It was a little early when we were there. My guess is your Easter weekend trip should be perfect on the timing... still early before it's overfished and late enough for the fish to be coming out of the cold, deep water to feed. Good luck!

Each year, I look forward to time on this fabulous river, mostly for the scenery and the solitude of it, but also for some excellent smallmouth fishing. The following report comes from the four-day period beginning Sunday, March 15 through Wednesday, March 18. like the higher part of the river, Thomasville to Cane Bluff, but low water is a real problem there right now. It looked like a real dragger, so we missed it on this trip. CHECK WATER LEVELS. All stretches are running below normal for the season (as of March 18 and assuming that light rain March 19 didn't make much difference). March 15 - Cane Bluff to Greer I read Superfly's analysis and don't have much to add to that. I didn't meet him, but assume he's one of four chaps traveling together in a pair of canoes who we passed on the river doing an overnight on that stretch. Smallies were slow on the take with our only reward coming closer to the beginning of the stretch than to the end, both coming on a silver minnow crank running deep. Small size, 12 inches, tops (my fishing partner's fare, not mine). The remainder of the day we were shut out, mostly on crawfish cranks (more on those later) and on minnow cranks. Some plastics were tossed with no success (should have tried those grubs superfly mentions). I'd note that we got shut out at Spring Creek. By the end of the stretch, we were half-hearted in our casts due to an exhaustion of patience. It was a cold, cloudy day. March 16 - Whitten to Riverton First time to do this beautiful stretch. I like the higher part of the river, but above noted problems considered, we opted for stretches down river. It was great for scenery, but awful for fishing. Again, we were tossing for smallies and got shut out on this day on this stretch. Eventually, tubes started generating some strikes from the goggle eye (rock bass) in very deep holes and we pulled a few out there. My recommendation, if the bite is slow, is to hit the deep holes with a small tube, preferably with some red in it, but anything with a dark color (2.5 inch was working for us). Work it slow across the bottom (1/4 ounce head). Sometimes you can save the day with a successful run on goggle eye. Some jon-boaters (with motor, a discussion already in full swing that will go without comment here) pulled a few out of a deep hole as well, claiming success came on Rebel craw cranks. I'm not so sure that wasn't a standard answer to the question, "You figured out what they're hitting ?" In his defense, his answer came as he unhooked a small fish from the end of his line. I couldn't distinguish the species of fish or the lure in question. Our Rebel crawfish cranks never generated a strike on all the days we fished. That's downright abnormal on this river. Crawfish were evident on the bottom, as I noticed several throughout the river. Better weather, with some sunshine, high in the mid 60s. March 17 - Greer to Turner Agggh! It was like the smallies had lockjaw! Again, another awful day for smallies, but we saw that coming and tossed for goggles in the deep holes (yes, the well-known left side of the first island was a producer). Hauled about 10 goggles out of that spot before we abandoned it while it was still hot to get downriver. Since plastics are out due to the blue ribbon trout habitat, use something that will get you deep. Crawfish or minnow cranks that will dive 10+ feet and jigs should be good choices (jigs were what we had luck with). Good goggle eye, bad smallmouth! Sunny day, high in the low 70s. March 18 - Cane to Greer (again) With a couple of days of good, warm weather behind us, we hit this spot again and found our luck was (while not great) a little better. Tubes were producers, helping us haul three smallies from deep areas and one smallmouth came from the back of a shoal where the water deepened on a minnow crankbait. It was a deep diver, but the hole was only four feet deep, tops. This was (including the two smallmouth my buddy caught the first day out) one of three smallmouth that we caught in a mode I would describe as "actively" feeding. The others hit tubes when the tubes hit them. This stretch was noticeably lower than it was two days prior and quite a bit of bottom dragging and one portage occurred. Bright, sunny and warm. The high hit about 77 degrees. Summary: Low water has you dragging on some stretches. Downriver, you're apt to get better flow. Smallies are still deep and are not actively feeding. As Brian Sloss noted, the water is still quite cold and the area is coming off a pretty rough winter. A few days of warmer weather perked things up and my guess (and it's only a guess) is that in about one to two weeks, the bite will improve a lot, if it isn't already doing so. I don't go for trout, so no advice about that. If we catch them, it's an accident (and a good accident at that), but, unfortunately, no accidents on this trip. This is smallmouth based (with caveats about how goggle eye are more fun than nothing). Happy fishing and practice catch and release!

We did a canoe run from Thomasville to Cane Bluff March 9, March 10 and again March 12. At that time, water levels were high (particularly the earlier dates), but navigable. There were a couple of pretty significant rootwads, one bad enough to require us to portage around it on March 12. Higher water March 9 and 10 allowed us to shoot past it (albeit narrowly). On this high stretch, our goal was smallmouth, exclusively, though we would have gladly enjoyed bites from largemouth or goggle-eye. And, as anticipated, smallmouth was what we got. The best day of fishing proved to be the first, probably because our strategy was better. We tended to catch more fish mid-morning (10 a.m.-ish) and they was much more interested in SMALLER, narrower, minnow crankbaits running deep. A silver, black and purple Renegade crankbait that sank slowly and ran deep was nicknamed "Old Reliable" for its ability to catch fish. A gold and black crankbait in an identical style also produced, though not as well. Small crawfish cranks would take an occasional fish, but they seemed more popular with largemouth and sunfish than with smallmouth. Goggle eye were nowhere to be found. We caught 16 fish (14 smallies, two largemouth) on March 9. March 10 offered up six fish, including two largemouth (we skipped early fishing to hurry to some holes downriver near Cane... bad move). March 12 offered up about six fish as well, but we got a late start. Also, all fish were small. They all ranged from 10-14 inches with 12 inches being about the median size. Water clarity didn't seem to be a major problem. The water was dingy March 9, which proved to be our best day, and clear on March 12 which proved to be below average. On March 11, we ran the stretch from Turner Mill to Whitten, which was awful. The water was wide, high and fast, making fishing from a canoe impossible. Stopping points on the river were limited as well and with fast water coming down, fishing from the bank was equally frustrating. I like this stretch better later in the season when the rains pass. Of course, it would be fun to fish it from a jon boat this time of year, but I detest motor boats on the river (this is a personal preference and I pass judgment on no one, so don't take offense) because they, to me, ruin the wilderness experience which is as big a part of the process as the fishing is. However, if my goal were to catch fish exclusively, I wouldn't run this stretch without a motor this time of year. We caught two fish -- a goggle eye and a rock bass, both from the boat ramp at Whitten where we beat our shuttle by two hours due to an inability to waste time and fish on the river due to current. Grrrr. Of course the flooding makes all of this academic and largely irrelevant. The temps are up as is the water. But that's my fishing report for March 9-12, 2008.