Trip Report 7/9-7/11/2010

[Gavin]

Great trip this weekend! My friend Chris and I drove down Friday AM...Nice drive with a

stop at Ruby's in Eminence...mediocre food but it hit the spot. Got to Greer

around 1:30 or so, then hiked down to Greer Spring followed by a bit of fishing

on McCormack Lake.

We received no love from the pickerel at McCormack. We paddled the canoe up and down the lake a couple times

without much success. We ended up with a couple chases, and one

largemouth in the boat. It looked like rain, so we packed up and headed to Cane

Bluff CG. Cane Bluff offers two campsites, a stinky pit toilet, and a boat ramp. One site

was occupied so we claimed the other, set camp, unloaded the boats and went

fishing.

We took the canoe up 3-4 holes and fished our way back down...Water was low,

and a bit stained, but it didn’t take long to figure them out. A 4" chomper hula grub

on a stand-up head did the trick, and we caught fish in all the likely spots.

Nothing big but fun fishing, plus a bit of scare...

I had a banded water snake scare the #$%#$ out me when I almost

stepped on it hidden in some willow weed...Thought it was a cottonmouth, but I

realized it wasn’t as it swam away. To close for comfort... Got off the water at

dark and set to making dinner.

It was Chris's night to cook and Mike got there as Chris was tossing the Chicken &

Shrimp on the grill. Fun time around the fire, and Marc arrived just as we were

going to bed.

We ran our shuttle down to Turner and got on the water at Cane Bluff around 9am. Chris watched the gear,

and reported only a couple boats ahead of us, and there were a couple other fellows rigging up at the boat ramp.

Turned out that one of the the fellows was Dr. Lance & the other his friend Dale. They were floating Cane to

Greer.

Fishing was a little slow from the get go. Picked up a few on plastics here and there, but fish were on the small

side. I had some good luck at one of the spring holes. The spring flow cleared the water allot, and the hole was packed

with smallmouth. I picked up 6 in about 8 casts on a Zoom Fluke. Below there it went back to picking up

oneseys & twoseys for the rest of the way down to the Greer confluence.

We stopped at Greer and re-rigged our rods for trout. Chris & I rigged our

fly rods, and Mike and Marc rigged with small cranks and roostertails. Chris

found the magic spot on the bluff side at Greer, and started pounding fish

immediately...I was about 50 yards below, hooked one, popped it off, and lost

all my candy in the tree canopy. Lots of good water downstream and I figured

Chris might be busy for awhile, so I said "See you down river" and paddled on.

I didn’t see him for 4-5 hours after that.

Seems that I am a bit rusty with the long rod these days. Missed a bunch of hits, broke off a bunch of flies,

and LDR'd a bunch of fish. It was hot, I was a bit fed up. Mike & Marc wanted to take a break, and then look for a campsite.

So we took a Siesta in the shade for 45 minutes or so, till they went looking and I got back to fishing.

The Siesta helped...I ended up with two nice rainbows back to back...a 15" and a fat 18"....I measured it twice...

18" on the button and after all the grief I had on Saturday.... it went in the cooler. Having caught my limit,

I paddled on down to find Mike & Marc.

Mike & Marc ended up finding a great gravel bar just across from Little

Hurricane Creek. We set camp, had a couple cocktails, and waited for Chris. He

came in about an hour after us...We didn’t plan to float that far (10 miles

on a 13 mile float), but it ended up working out great.

We hardly saw anyone between Greer & Turner, got the best gravel bar on that

stretch, and most of the folks we saw came paddling though at dark after we set camp.

Great Dinner by the campfire...Rib Eye Steaks, Fresh Caught Rainbow Trout, Taters &

Onions, a bit of wine and to bed pretty early. Broke camp at 8:30am on Sunday

and we planned to take our sweet time getting down to Turner...Fish every shoal hard, and have fun...Then something happened.

Mike imbedded a barbed treble hook in his pinky finger while releasing a fish at

L. Mary Decker Shoal. It looked bad...right through the skin, a good chunk of meat, and through the

other side...Fortunately, he was able crush the barb and get it out without too

much damage. Could have been allot worse, but we broke out the first aid kit to patch him up and he was able to

paddle & catch fish with no complaints. Everyone caught plenty of fish on the way down to Turner at 1pm.

My best was around 17” but we couldnt find any rhyme or reason to the bite..We caught fish on darn near everything we tried.

Pat’s R. Legs, Don’s Craw, Bloody Mary, Princes, Hare’s Ears, Buggers, Glo-Balls, you name it.

We stopped at Dairy Shack in Eminence on the way back. The burgers & fries were lousy (freezer burned), but the

milkshakes were good. We had a horrible drive home on Sunday. Got caught in the rainstorm out by St. James

and had to white knuckle it half way back to St. Louis...Aside from the drive, Great trip.

Gavin

[steve l]

No, come on, give some detail.

Great report - makes me want to head down, but no July trip with the brothers this year. This will have to do...

[snagged in outlet 3]

Sounds like a great time.

That drive back is a killer!

Excellent report.

Thanks, SIO3

[jdmidwest]

Next time down, try out Flossie's Apple Barrel in Winona, it is good food. Never had a bad meal there yet. There was a decent buffet on the square in Eminence, can't remember the name of it. I will look for it this weekend probably.

[RSBreth]

No major injuries, vehicle breakdowns, or run-ins with weirdos.

Sounds (and looked like) a great trip.

Good report!

[Coldspring]

Just keep your expectations low for food in Eminence, Winona, or Alton. I usually enjoy Flossie's in Winona though, but I'm not too heard to please.

[Brian Sloss]

Nice report, glad you had a good time.

[Nortrad]

Excellent reporting Gavin. Love the campsite meal w. beverages after a long day of fishing. I want to fish the 11 Pt. this fall.