9/15 Wet Report

[Mark]

You can never trust those forecasters. Early in the week, they were predicting the cold front to move thru southern Missouri on Friday with clearing skies on Saturday and Sunday. Well, the front stalled out over southern Missouri and the Eleven Point on Saturday, making for a wet rainy day on the river.

Delvis and I put in a Turner and floated to Riverton, due to the work being done at Whitten. No sooner than we put in my canoe, the rain came. It varied from a light sprinkle, to a steady sprinkle, to a good rain all day. Fishing was slow at the beginning of the day. We found out later that the fish seemed to be in deeper water and we had much more success. Actually, by midday, the fishing was good as we concentrated on the deeper water and bypassed the usual shoals and rapids that have produced in the past.

We were troopers until mid afternoon when we decided we had enough rain and being wet. Unfortunately, we were a long way from Riverton yet - good thing I have a motor on the back of my canoe. I could not believe the amount of trees down from Whitten to Riverton section. We hadn't floated that section in a good while but several treacherous sections due to low water and logs. We had the misfortune of almost tipping the canoe and had to jump out, and that made for a miserable last 2-3 hrs. of being tired and soaked from head to toe.

All in all, the fishing was good, just beware of low water and log jams. It's easy to scrape rocks and get thrown off course and into trouble.

Just wondering - none of the fish we caught had clipped fins. It use to be common practice to clip the fins of the stockers, we just found it hard to believe that all we were catching were natives. Especially since some were good size fish in the 14-16" range. Is it still the practice of MDC to clip the fins of the stockers?

[jdmidwest]

We spent Sat on the Spring River and I was going to meet a friend from Tenn. on Sun. afternoon at Riverton for an overnighter in the jet boat. It rained hard on the Spring and we never launched the boats to float. Sunday morning came and I drove into Thayer to check the weather. It looked like it was going to be more of the same for Sun. and Mon. so I called him. He was still at home and had not hooked the boat up yet. We cancelled for a better time.

I drove on up to Fourche Lake and stood there for a while contemplating on launching the yak. The lake was glassed over and nothing was moving. Then it started raining and I decided to come on back home. From the looks of the radar, the rain stayed in Ark all day both days, so we probably made a bad call.

I don't know if MDC is still burning a fin or not. Most of the time it is one of the smaller fins that are not really noticeable like the adipose fin

[Brian Sloss]

They only clipped fins of fish stocked in the blue ribbon trout area, not the white ribbon fish.

[Mark]

I figure these are questions for Brian primarily, but wonder if anyone else has noticed......

We noticed the work being done at Whitten. Looks like a decent project is being done - lots of rock hauled in, concrete poured with maybe steps going down to the river, a retaining wall where it use to be just a dirt banks by the launch, lots of bulldozing in the area. We were wondering - we heard they were going to put in specific campsites at Whitten, and trying to prevent it from becoming a trailer park on weekends. Are they going to prohibit RVs altogether? Or allow RVs but in specific campsites? It is good to see something being done with the Whitten access. It has been chaos on summer weekends trying to get in and out of there.

I drove around Greer campground on Sunday on my way home. I couldn't tell if RVs are allowed in Greer Campground - never saw a sign saying yes or no. I have heard that no RVs are allowed at Turner North - is that true?

I do think it is a shame that there is no where for RVs to camp on the river, just because I have older siblings in their 60s that bought RVs for their retirements. They have been exploring Missouri State Parks, Trout Parks, etc. and would like to have them go to Eleven Point sometime, but I don't know of a place to park their RVs near the river.

Also, man the section from Whitten to Riverton is loaded with down trees. We even thought that it would be hard for a jetboat to put in at Riverton and go very far upstream. Will the Forest Service or anyone try to remove some of the downed trees and debris? I understand that some cover is good for fish and to slow erosion, but there are sections that look like they are dangerous for canoes, and like I said, jetboats will definitely have problems travelling very far upstream from Riverton. And travelling downstream from Whitten, for that matter.

[Gavin]

I've seen folks in RV's at Greer, Whitten, and Turner South, and McCormack Lake. They have water spigots at Greer, but I dont think they have electric or water hookups.....but thats not a bad thing. Sounds like a fun trip.

[Brian Sloss]

I have been told a few times by the forest service what the end result will look like at Whitten and it has been a little different every time, so I am not going to guess now what it will be like. Just going to wait and see and hope that it is a good deal in the end.

[Brian Sloss]

The best place for an RV by the river is Greer, though there are no hook ups. A private Rv park about 2 miles from Greer called Cornerstone is just getting under way. They will be doing small rodeos, concerts and things like that. Very family oriented place, not a party place.

[jdmidwest]

I was in hopes that the improvements to Greer last year would bring a showerhouse at least, but that did not happen. I don't think they have electric hookups either. Greer is a nice campground, but only has a primitive toilet and maybe a water source by the host.

Whitten has been crowded with campers parked all over the place by the ramp area the past few years. Last summer we stayed under one of the awnings of an RV parked there waiting out a nice thunderstorm, There were several to choose from and nobody home. I personally would not drag one down the rough road to Whitter or Turner, much less like to meet one on the way. I have only been up the the upper part of Whitten once since they improved it a few years ago. I thought it would draw the campers up there.

Down side to any improvements to the remote areas like Whitten and Turner is the vandalism. They put out a park bench and it ends up as kindling for a fire. The pit toilets are for emergency use only and you need a mask to use one. Most of the time they are trashed pretty bad.

[Mark]

It has always been my understanding that Greer Campground is the only place that RVs are allowed. Is that not right?