Eleven Point Report

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, Terrierman said:

Once upon a time there was a big tree hung up in it.  Wiped everything above the gunwales into the bottom of the boat, including the sonar unit.  I drink whiskey.

FIFY

[WestCentralFisher]

A few things  I meant to mention in my report but forgot to: the fishing was bizarrely on and off. I would say about 80% of the fish caught came in two one hour stretches. And I know it wasn't changing spots, because we did the bulk of our fishing/catching on the trip in the same few spots near where I camped. And it wasn't even all that correlated with normal good fishing windows (morning and evening). 

For example, on Friday the fishing was awful all morning, but from approximately 1-2 pm I was getting strikes from either trout or smallmouth bass very regularly. I caught about a half dozen combined, but with better reaction time on hooksets the number could have been higher. Then from 2 pm until dark, I hooked two fish that weren't creek chubs or mooneye, both trout, one caught and one lost. Saturday morning, fishing was dead at sunrise, but from 7:30-8 am (when I stopped to cook breakfast and take down camp) I was hauling them in. The fishing stayed hot once we got in the canoe, except the trout were in all the wrong places. Deep holes with dead current. One was caught when I accidentally left my rebel craw in the water while paddling through frog water. 

Basically, the fishing was overall just fine if definitively unimpressive, but it was really strange. Just when I thought I had something of a handle on how that river fishes, clearly I don't. 

Oh, also Bigfoot Burgers in Winona was a clutch after the float/fishing trip dinner spot and I would highly recommend it.

[Terrierman]

Fishing a jig deep in those big holes got us bit

[jdmidwest]

22 hours ago, WestCentralFisher said:

A few things  I meant to mention in my report but forgot to: the fishing was bizarrely on and off. I would say about 80% of the fish caught came in two one hour stretches. And I know it wasn't changing spots, because we did the bulk of our fishing/catching on the trip in the same few spots near where I camped. And it wasn't even all that correlated with normal good fishing windows (morning and evening). 

For example, on Friday the fishing was awful all morning, but from approximately 1-2 pm I was getting strikes from either trout or smallmouth bass very regularly. I caught about a half dozen combined, but with better reaction time on hooksets the number could have been higher. Then from 2 pm until dark, I hooked two fish that weren't creek chubs or mooneye, both trout, one caught and one lost. Saturday morning, fishing was dead at sunrise, but from 7:30-8 am (when I stopped to cook breakfast and take down camp) I was hauling them in. The fishing stayed hot once we got in the canoe, except the trout were in all the wrong places. Deep holes with dead current. One was caught when I accidentally left my rebel craw in the water while paddling through frog water. 

Basically, the fishing was overall just fine if definitively unimpressive, but it was really strange. Just when I thought I had something of a handle on how that river fishes, clearly I don't. 

Oh, also Bigfoot Burgers in Winona was a clutch after the float/fishing trip dinner spot and I would highly recommend it.

Bigfoot Burgers what took over Flossies Apple Barrel after covid.  They were closed last time thru, have to check them out.

[WestCentralFisher]

1 hour ago, jdmidwest said:

Bigfoot Burgers what took over Flossies Apple Barrel after covid.  They were closed last time thru, have to check them out.

It was good. Nothing fancy but perfect "just paddled a canoe all day" type food. I hadn't remembered it being there, but wasn't certain.

I did some work out of Winona for a few months the better part of a decade ago. I'd fished the Eleven Point once before that, but that was when I really fell in love with it.  I didn't have a canoe/kayak then and was dependent on wade fishing, which was NOT always easy on that river. Back then, I could consistently catch trout just about any place on the Blue Ribbon Section on could find my way to and that had wadeable water. And I was willing to hike a lot so I found some good places. I did get lost on both roads and trails several times. 

I also got to know the upper Jack's Fork around then, which is a lot easier to wade fish. That'd be my fallback when I got tired of getting tossed around like a rag-doll on the slick rocks on the Eleven Point. 

[Jerkbait1]

Good report thx for sharing