Oct. 16-17 White Ribbon Area

[Mark]

Four of us made our regular fall trip this past Friday and Saturday. Kudos to Sherri Hollis for the fine accomodations at the Summer Cottage. The river was still running high and fast, making wading a challenge and a workout on the legs. We put in at Whitten and worked out of a single jet prop boat with Capt. Skip at the helm. On Friday we worked upstream as Skip took turns shuttling us up to gravel bars. Surprisingly, it was not as cold on the river as I had expected, although we all had several layers of clothes on. Delvis had the hot hand as he landed a dozen or so, mostly in the 12-14 inch range and one nearing 18 inches. Skip and myself caught enough to keep our interest while Joel, a relative newcomer to our Eleven Point circle of anglers, took the big goose egg as the fish gods were not shining on him. Delvis was full of advice, commentary, and braggadocio on the boat ride back to Whitten and throughout the remainder of the evening cocktails and fish fry. Upon explaining his secrets to his exemplary angling skills, he informed us of his unique ability to use all his senses in fishing, including a sixth sense that normal humans aren't capable of using that allows him to "sense" that trout are actively feeding.

Included in his extraordinary sensory awareness is his ability to hear the fish also. Henceforth, Delvis will be known as the "Trout Whisperer".

Saturday, the gang was up bright and early at 9:00 am. After coffee, breakfast, and more tales from the Trout Whisperer, we headed back to Whitten and headed downstream. Skip dropped off Delvis and Joel with the hopes that Delvis could conjuer up some of his magical sensory angling applications towards Joel's hook. Skip proceeded to take me farther down river to one of my favorite camping sites below Green Briar Float Camp. The river makes a right turn with a perfect gravel bar on the right where I have spent many nights listening to the whippoorwill's unrelenting song. I spent the next few hours in complete solitude viewing the opposite hillside with multitude of fall colors with every shade of red and orange imaginable. I immediately landed two trout, one of decent size. I explored the area around the campsite, amazed at all the fresh firewood that the recent high water had dumped close by, and wished that we would be spending the night on the river at this very spot. I landed another good size trout a little later but it somehow manage to get off the stringer. And I had another nice one get to the bank before getting off the hook.

Capt. Skip arrived by late afternoon and hauled me upstream to meet up with my comrades. Once again, Delvis the Trout Whisperer had made a mockery of the supposedly elusive trout by consisting catching rainbows throughout the day. Skip had his consistent day of catching fish, while Joel continued to struggle with the fast moving water conditions as he was only able to land a couple fish on the day. Another evening of fried fish, BBQ, Mizzou football, and tales from the extraordinary ablilites of the Trout Whisperer completed the 2009 Fall Fishing Expedition.

[Flysmallie]

Mark that was a very entertaining report. Thanks for sharing.

[one-shoe]

Brain-to-body-weight ratio, also known as the encephalization quotient, or EQ, is a rough estimate of the possible intelligence of an organism. The greater the weight of the brain in relation to the organism's body mass, the higher the possible intelligence. Humans have an incredibly high EQ compared to the lowly trout. I applaud Delvis for his ability to get down to trout-level-thinking. Most of our brain-to-body-weight ratios are too high to whisper to trout. Good for you Delvis.

[Mark]

Welcome to the Board, He Who Fishes with One Shoe!! Your intellectual enlightenments on all subjects will be enjoyable.

[Scooper]

Four of us made our regular fall trip this past Friday and Saturday. ... Another evening of fried fish, BBQ, Mizzou football, and tales from the extraordinary ablilites of the Trout Whisperer completed the 2009 Fall Fishing Expedition.

Mark-

Thanks for your eloquent description of your annual fall trip to the Eleven Point. I first floated the Eleven Point with my late Dad shortly after I graduated from high school in 1973. We fell in love with the river and floated it several times in the years since then. The last time we floated the river was back in the early 1990s. I hope it hasn't changed much since then. Sadly, my Dad passed away two years ago. I think he was happiest when he was floating on an Ozark stream. I noticed you mentioned Mizzou football. My Pop not only played football at MU, he coached there for almost 40 years.

[Mark]

Wow. Who was your dad if you don't mind me asking? If you haven't floated the Eleven Point since the early '90s, that was probably before the MDC started stocking with rainbow trout. I'm sure the river hasn't changed much. Still lots of solitude. You should become reacquainted.

[Brian Sloss]

Trout have been here well before the early 90's, decades earlier.

[Mark]

My bad. Just thought that they weren't stocked before early '90s.

[KEITH R]

Brian,

any chance we could fish wekend of 7th?

[Brian Sloss]

Do you mean a guide trip or on your own? The water is still too high for good fishing now, but might be ok this weekend, but would be borderline at best if it is, unless the water starts dropping quicker than it is now. The following weekend would be better, but that is opening weekend of deer season.