kayaker

I want to take my boys camping and fishing on the Elk next week but I looked at the water gauge near Tiff City and it looks like the river spiked up recently. I have no idea where Tiff City is but we will be near Noel, MO. We plan on going next Wednesday and Thursday to do some floating, fishing and swimming. How is the river right now and would it be decent next week if it does not rain again? Thanks

Wow, you really did fish hard if you just covered 2 miles a day. I take it you camped on your own on the river since most of the few outfitters/campgrounds are further downstream. What do you do for fishing in St Joe. I have some good ponds I hit around my place, but I need to hit a river with my kayak soon. I can get to the Little Niangua in about 2 hours 45 minutes.

For a guy from St Joe you sure hit alot of ozark streams, how do manage that. I am from Kansas City area and I thought I was far away from everything.

What section did you hit. Were you up by Mule Shoe or further down by Howards Ford or Fiery Fork. I imagine it is up and high right now, I am hoping to hit it soon as river conditions drop and clear.

You would have caught a lot more than that if you would have used the fly I told you to use. How did Bob do?

My buddy and I just ate some this past weekend that we caught out of the Pomme de Terre river because we were desperate for a fish fry on our trip and that is all we mostly caught. Compared to the blue gill we fried up they were not very good of course. The meat was very white when filleted but seemed kind of rubbery compared to the blue gill. Of course not to many fish fry up as good as blue gill.

I will be staying at a relatives house in Hermitage this weekend and I am not sure if I am reading the water levels correctly. The gage at Polk said it spiked up from 3 feet to 16 feet earlier this week, is that possible. There is an access site near the house I am staying at and I was wondering if the Pomme River is floatable and fishable.

My float trip ended-up being a very enjoyable time. I got to spend some fun time with some old friends floating the river and got in some good fishing. We floated on a Saturday and I have never seen a river that packed with canoes. If you want a little more solitude for a family trip take the time off work and go on a weekday. River Ranch resort is where we stayed this time. I think your 4 year old daughter would like the mini-golf and playground they have. Plus, the fishing below the Noel dam was great. None of the canoes float past the dam, they all take out before it, so I had that section of the river all to myself. I caught over 40 fish, mostly smallies but two largemouth, a rock bass, and a channel catfish also.

We stay at Shady Beach resort which is a little above Noel. The owner is very nice, he shuttles our kayaks upstream and we do a float back to his campground.

An article in the Kansas City Star newspaper last month said the reservoirs and rivers in Southern Missouri were extremely low. They specifically mentioned the Elk River being down 85%. Just wondering if the rains we have been getting in Kansas City are filling up things down south. I have a float trip planned for June 24th. Last summer I did great on the smallmouth and rockbass. Has anyone floated or fished the Elk lately. This river gets very few topics for being such a great river. From the river gage link it looks like the water levels spiked alot recently.

Bill, What flies were you using? Floating or sinking line and what weight? Those are two nice fish, good job.

I decided to follow up on all the fishing reports you guys have been posting. I fished the Spring River this past Thursday and part of the day Friday. It was definately worth the drive down from the Kansas City area and the out-of-state license. I got quite a few looks from all the boaters because I was the only guy on the river in a kayak and flyfishing. Total for a day and a half of fishing was around 50 white bass. When I first showed up at the highway ten bridge boat ramp I could not believe all the white bass littering the shoreline. I never seen anything like it, must have been a thousand cleaned fish. I knew that was a good sign. I was using my 8 weight with a floating fly line, a Rio 7 foot sinking leader and 5 feet of 8 pound test. Magic fly was an orange and white Clouser minnow. I have never gotten in on a white bass run before and I had the time of my life. They gave me all the fight I wanted on my 8 weight, made me glad I was not using my trout rod. I was impressed with the size of the fish. I caught very few little ones. I cleaned 20 fish to bring home and only three were females. All the fish came from water depth of 6-8 feet. No one was catching them in water shallower than that. All the other boats were reeling in fish in the same depth of water on crankbaits.