Flooding On The Eleven Point

[kc300c]

We were planning on a 4 day float on the Eleven Point tomorrow, Saturday 12/27, but looking at the forecast, there is a Flash Flood Watch and it's calling for 1 - 3" of rain tonight and tomorrow. We decided we are going to push back the trip by a day and get down there on Sunday morning the 28th. It's supposed to be beautiful Sunday through Wednesday with sunny skies, highs in the mid to upper forties and lows down to 25 with no rain.

With all of this rain expected to end Saturday late afternoon, I would think the river would be flooded. What do you think the river will be like midday on Sunday? Floatable? If it is still flooded on Sunday, is there camping at the highway 19 access area in case we need to wait until Monday morning to begin floating?

Also, since I am new to fly fishing, what is the best way and place on the Eleven Point to fish during high water? What type of fly would you use and how deep do you think the fish will be?

Thanks.

[FishinCricket]

We were planning on a 4 day float on the Eleven Point tomorrow, Saturday 12/27, but looking at the forecast, there is a Flash Flood Watch and it's calling for 1 - 3" of rain tonight and tomorrow. We decided we are going to push back the trip by a day and get down there on Sunday morning the 28th. It's supposed to be beautiful Sunday through Wednesday with sunny skies, highs in the mid to upper forties and lows down to 25 with no rain.

With all of this rain expected to end Saturday late afternoon, I would think the river would be flooded. What do you think the river will be like midday on Sunday? Floatable? If it is still flooded on Sunday, is there camping at the highway 19 access area in case we need to wait until Monday morning to begin floating?

Also, since I am new to fly fishing, what is the best way and place on the Eleven Point to fish during high water? What type of fly would you use and how deep do you think the fish will be?

Thanks.

One of these days I will have enough experience with this river to answer your question, till then.. Brian Sloss, where are you? (Hes one of the guides down there).. If not, call him.. His advertisement is at the top of the page.

The best answer I can give you is an observation about spring fed rivers.. The spring will increase, but it doesn't flood nearly as much as a "warmer"river.. One time when we floated the Eleven Point after two days of rain we just about called it off because the Current showed it was up 10 feet.. Lo and behold, we get there and the river is up a little and kinda dingy, but beautiful still and EXTREMELY fishable.. Matter of fact the trout were darn near in a frenzy!

Check the USGS for the actual river level, Good Luck.. Wish the wife and I could bail out on life for a few days and come with you.. LOL

[kc300c]

One of these days I will have enough experience with this river to answer your question, till then.. Brian Sloss, where are you? (Hes one of the guides down there).. If not, call him.. His advertisement is at the top of the page.

The best answer I can give you is an observation about spring fed rivers.. The spring will increase, but it doesn't flood nearly as much as a "warmer"river.. One time when we floated the Eleven Point after two days of rain we just about called it off because the Current showed it was up 10 feet.. Lo and behold, we get there and the river is up a little and kinda dingy, but beautiful still and EXTREMELY fishable.. Matter of fact the trout were darn near in a frenzy!

Check the USGS for the actual river level, Good Luck.. Wish the wife and I could bail out on life for a few days and come with you.. LOL

Thanks for the reply. We would have loved to have had you along. The more the merrier. I hope you're right about the river. We made this same trip two years ago, the day after Thanksgiving. The first three days were beautiful, then the last night there was a huge rain storm with hail and heavy rains all night long, from 100:00 pm until about 5:00 am. There was even a tornado spotted between us and West Plains. We woke up at about 7:00 am the next morning to find the river flooded and the water level rose by close to 7' or 8'. The width of the river when we first set up camp was maybe 15 yards wide. That morning it was about 100 yards wide with fallen trees and debris rushing by. We stuck a stick into the ground right at the waters edge and began breaking down the camp. We finished in about a half hour. When we went back to the stick, the water was up about 8". We were in trouble. This was the last day and we had to make it back to the pull-out point at Riverton to go home. If we didn't get home that day, the wives would have been in a panic and would have called out the National Guard to look for us, so we had to go. Let me tell you, that was the most scared I had been in a long time. The water was probably going 15+ MPH when normally it would have been 5 or 6 MPH max. We traveled 13 miles in about 45 minutes. WOW! We were so stressed that we had to stop at Boze Mill to rest for a while before we finally made it to Riverton. When we got to Riverton, we put another stick in the ground at the edge of the river and loaded everything into the truck, after a half hour we went back to check it and it had risen another 8"! I can't believe we did it.

This time at least we will have a choice on whether to put in Sunday at Hwy 19 or camp that night and see what the river is like on Monday.

[Brian Sloss]

I am out of town for Christmas, but happened to check the forum. 1-3 inches would be welcome to the river now and should be fine for floating. Check the river gauge near Bardley at the top of this section, anything under a 1000 cfs is good fishing. I'll be back in Alton on Sunday afternoon.

[flyfisherman]

My friend and I fished it today before the rain. We were to rent a canoe from brian, but with the iffy weather we decided to hike in and fish the 1st two islands. The water looked great and could use a shot of rain. We caught fish from about 9 to 2 today, and the rain came about 30 min later. If the flow stays below 1000 it should fish well. I hook a monster at Island two. It was beast and took me into my backing eventially breaking me off, while my bud was coming down to help me. We saw a bunch of eagles and more importantly no one else was on the river. With temps being in the 50's, I would go for it.