Too Hot To Float? Not Really.

[jdmidwest]

Launched out at 2:30 am on Sat Morning to do a little float weekend on the 11pt River, best place to be on a hot summer day. Arrived at Thomasville 8 am after parking truck at Cane Bluff. Fishing started out great, smallies and goggle eyes on almost every cast. By the 3rd hole, I had already landed a nice 20" smallie on the Rapala and my buddy had gotten a nice 9" goggle eye. Water was great and everything looked fine.

Then came Posey Spring Branch, it entered on the left along with about 20 head of cattle crossing the stream like they would in so many places to come. From there to below Graham Spring Branch, both sides of the river was destroyed by cattle, tromped to mud in most places. There was one place with over 50 head standing belly deep in a hole, the water was stirred up into pure mud and, well, other cattle by-products. I was not expecting this on a stream protected by the National Scenic Riverways. The water was nasty and stunk, we did not get out much and did not swim. A thunderstorm rolled thru and I had to get out and stand under an ash tree with cow crap squished between my toes of the crocs at Dry Creek for about 20 minutes. Bass were slow in that stretch and goggle eyes quit, longears picked up in numbers.

This was my first time on the upper stretch floating and was impressed and disappointed. We arrived at Cane Bluff tired and wore out at 7 pm after paddling most of the lower part after Graham Spring. Roaring Spring was neat, we missed Blowing Spring along the way. Had a nice supper at Rivers Edge Fish and Grill in Thomasville, which was packed at 8:30. Off to Hufstedlers, pitched a tent and sweated myself to sleep at 11. My buddy said it was not 2 minutes from the time he heard the zipper close on the tent till he heard the snoring...

Sunday, drove up to Whitten and put the yaks in. Got a late start and did not launch till 10 am. Alot of jet boat traffic due to the fact that Halls Bay chute is now closed off and dry, only places to access the upper trout part of the river are at Whitten, Turner, and Greer for the jets. Many that did the overnight from Greer to Riverton reported that Sat was a bad jet boat day on the upper river. Good news, the boats petered out a few holes below White's Creek. Fishing was slow, river was running good, higher than I have seen it in years for a summer.

The river was great, cool and wet for a hot summer day. Sunday was the best, we bailed out and sit in the river and sipped a few cold ones to keep cool. Spent about an hour playing at Hall's Bay in the waves. Then the long drive home with dinner at Jolly Cone in Van Buren. HWY 60 is now 4 lanes from Winona to 67, and 67 is almost all 4 lanes from there north now, cutting a good 30 minutes off the old drive.

We did see several snakes, including several cottonmouths on the upper river. One was hanging in a tree about 5' off the water in a run above Cane Bluff, luckily we spotted it before we floated under it. We passed one along a cut bank that was reared up and showing the open mouth thing, probably protecting something. Could not get the camera out of the dry hatch fast enough to get a pic.

[eric1978]

Cool pics, but where's the one of the 20" smallie? Did you call the authorities about the cattle? That can't be legal there, right?

[jdmidwest]

Cool pics, but where's the one of the 20" smallie? Did you call the authorities about the cattle? That can't be legal there, right?

Sorry, I did not get a pic of that one, my buddy was still behind me in the previous hole. He did get a pic of a double I caught a few holes down, 13" and 8" on a F7 Rapala, but I have not seen them. Normally, I don't like to keep a fish very long to take a pic and my camera was in dry hatch all day this trip. I have a pet peeve about stressing fish just to get a pic. I will say he was nicely colored and very thick bodied.

I will email the agent, but I think the area is above the ONSR. ONSR lands are public with very few private plots. This was all private land and certainly one large cattle ranch. Watering ponds and wells would be a good solution. Most of the farmers I know locally know better. I think a visit from the local MDC guys may give him some options that would be better than what I saw. I will not hold my breath, I run across it a few years back on Big River and got a run around. MDC said it was DNR's problem, email from DNR did not find any sign of cattle in stream. I guess they don't own a gps and can't access the coordinates I provided.

[eric1978]

I keep my camera in a Pelican under my seat and tethered to a thwart, so I can get it out and snap a quick photo in about 15 seconds...I certainly would have gotten a shot of a 20 incher, but I understand and appreciate your wanting to get her back in the water right away. Very noble.

Shame about the cattle. Whadya gonna do? Some people are just scumbags and use the earth as their toilet. If it's not ONSR land, I guess there's nothing can be done. But if 4-wheelers are illegal in streams, cattle should be, too.

[jdmidwest]

I really need to invest in a waterproof digital. Wet hands and splashing fish are hard on one that is not waterproof.

I have never understood what the attraction is to taking a pic of a fish out of water. Most have seen a 20" smallie, this one was no different. It was not the first, certainly not the last I hope. We caught several close to it during the course of the day, many 12-15, several 8". They all looked alike except for the one eyed one.

I have one fish hanging on the wall, I kept him solely to make a mounted Brown Trout from back in the early 80's. He is only 19", was pretty and fully finned. If I had to do it over, I would have let him back. Deer antlers and one head mount are on the wall, but you eat the meat from them. The only photos of me on the wall with fish are of a few I caught the first trip to Alaska, a special trip. I have taken pics of fish from time to time, I tend to take pics of friends and scenery. That is the memories I want to dredge up later, I can always remember the fish.

[Guest]

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[Gavin]

Nice report, thanks...I'd be calling the Forest Service about the cattle...The 11pt is designated as a Wild & Scenic River controlled by the USFS not the Park Service. You can contact them here. Cheers.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/marktwain/ranger_districts/doniphan/

[Trav]

Never too hot for our Ozark streams! In fact, they are the best fishing when it gets into the dog days. I went yesterday and waded the Finley and James just to cool off a hook (and myself).

[Coldspring]

Too bad about the cattle. Most of the river between Thomasville and Cane Bluff runs through the 14,000 acre Eleven Point Ranch, which is owned by the descendents of a Chicago businessman. They do cattle, logging, and hunting leases on the ranch. You might had better be glad they don't have to divide the ranch up, or there would be a bunch of cabins jutting up against the Scenic Easement. I'm not sure what kind of agreement they have with the government for their cattle operations, but I would bet it is a long standing one.

Between Riverton and the Narrows is the old 13,000 acre Pigman Ranch. It was on the market for a long time and there were no buyers...it would have been a bargain for a wealthy person from a city, but no buyers were found. It is now being divided up more and more. Sure wish I could hit that powerball and keep some of the Eleven Point ranches together. In fact there was a lottery winner bought an 1,800 acre parcel just south of the Narrows, years ago, so that's more land held together.

[steve l]

The Halls Bay chute closed off & dry? Can you expand on that just a bit? did the river close off the top of that chute? is there a tree there? etc.

thanks.