6/5-6/8/2007 reports

[Brian Sloss]

Over the winter I donated a guide trip to the Ozark Fly Fishers club in St. Louis for a fund raiser of thiers. Don and Rita bought the trip and booked a couple of extra days as well so we could cover the entire 20 miles of trout water on the Eleven Point.

On Tuesday we hit Whitten to Riverton which had been reporting the best fishing on the river recently and that held true for us. That stretch of river produced the best over the 3 days. Stoneflies, crawdads, yellow eggs, bloody Marys, green caddis larva, and when it clouded up for a while, red San Jaun worms tore them up. As you can see from the list of flies, no distinct pattern stood out as the go to fly. Don did land a nice 18 inch rainbow though.

On day two we hit the blue ribbon area and did pretty well up there compared to how it had been fishing the last time I went up there. My proudest moments were when Rita landed a nice trout after the 1st island in the fast, submerged boulder strewn shoal and when Don got a nice 'bow out of the fast water in Mary Decker shoals. They both did well presenting their flies in difficult water. The fly selection was much the same as day one.

Day 3 was the slowest day we had and that was between Turner and Whitten. This section had been getting hammered by fishermen for a couple weeks and it showed. The number of caught trout on this trip beared that out. Though Rita did hook a beast that got away that was at least 20inches. Don and Rita were great folks to spend 3 days with on the water.

On Friday I took Jeff from Wentzville from Whitten to Riverton, since it fished the best of the previous 3 days. With overcast skies in the morning and a light rain, I thought we would tear them up. We fished all the usual suspects listed earlier and more in the morning with little success. I practically had Jeff throw the whole fly box at them and he still only had a couple on and none landed, by no fault of his own. The fish just were not buying what we were selling. Over lunch we were trying to devise another plan of attack and Jeff mentioned he had some 1/16 oz marabou jigs. I don't normally fish with them, but what the heck, nothing else was working so we threw on an olive one and fished it under a strike indicator (deep) and drifted it like a dead minnow. Within 5 minutes, bam, a nice trout. From then on, fishing picked up and he even hooked a smallie. The best fish came fishing the fast water at Hall Bay Shoal. Hard to hook and hard to land in that fast water, but Jeff handled it like a pro. A good day after a slow start and I am going to have to carry some emergency jigs now.

[Rapalafella]

Thanks for the update and the photo's. How are the water levels and clarity compared to normal?

[Brian Sloss]

Levels and clarity are close to normal, though a couple of inches up.