November: Winter catch and release State Park fishing

November 12, 2012 Monday: I had the day off and fished Bennett Spring State Park. The regular season closed on October 31 with the catch and release season opening November 9, 2012. Monday morning was cool (25°F) after a cold front and rain moved through on Sunday. The sky was clear with a variable wind, which ruffled the water surface; the rough surface provided cover for the trout and shielded my errors from casting shadows and movement. There were only a few fishermen with most of them throwing a line from the shore or fishing the handicap ramps. There was only one other fellow in view of me most of the afternoon. There was heavy equipment vehicles (dump truck, shovel) parked near the dam on the east side of the stream and a shovel on the opposite bank below the dam, in front of the old hatchery building. Mike Mitchell said there would be work on the bank stabilizations projects and work constructing a new platform below the dam.

MDC project for stream bank stablization

The BWO hatch was on time, with the wind blowing from the east; sailing the small Baetis mayfly across the stream above the dam. The trout took delight taking these small morsels. For me, the problem was too much sunlight on the water and welcomed an occasional stiff breeze to make cover for the trout. The trout took the flies by coming straight up out the water showing most of their head on the take and would many times pull the fly out of their mouth. I missed three trout for everyone hooked… it was still a joy watching these trout chase the fly. It was almost 4 PM and near the end of the day to fish. I had my last fish on when a pair of eagles flew up stream just above the dam with the low sun beaming on the birds. I could see the blinking of the eagle’s eye as it passed over me. At the end fishing day, the sound of the siren blasted. I returned to the truck to stow my gear and remove the waders. I then walked back to the water’s edge to get a few photos of the eagles perched on the sycamore trees along the stream. I returned fifteen trout with many short strikes. On the way home, I had to stop for herd of deer as they cross the road in front of me. The next planned trip will be Nov. 18.

November 18, 2012 Sunday: Rod and I met in Marshfield at 11 AM, where we commuted to Bennett Spring State Park. It was a sunny day with a light variable wind. There were a number of fishermen from the spring down past the stone bridge. Rod fished his favorite spot, which gets little attention from other fishermen. I started near the dam and worked upstream a bit until several fishermen moved down stream. The bright sun produced shadows that spooked the fish, especially the trout in the shallow waters near the aquatic plants. It made for a challenging day. My best time for hooking trout was the last thirty minutes when the sun moved behind the bluff enabling the trout to take a #16 caddis. Rod found a dozen in shallow water without getting wet and I managed eight on dry flies. We saw a number of turkeys out in the fields with deer feeding in neighboring plots.

MDC working on the platform project

November 26, 2012 Monday: I finished a 12 hr. shift and had a short nap, woke and made a pot of coffee. After a few cups of java, I packed the truck and off to Bennett Spring State Park. The day was cloudy with a gusty NE wind. There was only a few fishermen and one in sight while I fished upstream of me, 150 yards. The hatch was light and with an upstream wind, left the mayflies in the aquatic vegetation in the small pools for the trout to take. I worked the edges, and managed to fool a few, very few fish taken in midstream. The eagles were flying high and on occasion hear them call out. I did have a Rod moment when I missed several trout in a row and checked the fly; found it was broken and missing a point. I finished the day releasing fourteen rainbow trout. The project in front of the old hatchery building is progressing with the forms built and rebar in place… I am sure in a few days they will pour concrete. There are more plans to fish the state parks in the near future... hoping for a exceptional fishing day.

October: Fishing local waters for trout

It has been a while since my last trip to Bennett Spring State Park (BS). Jenn, Her husband Brent and toddler son, Desmond made a trip to Springfield for a long weekend. We had an opportunity to fish BS Saturday morning. It was too cold for Desmond to fish and he came to BS later in the day with his Grandmother, maybe next spring we will have a time and place for Des to fish. Jenn, Brent and I parked near the dam; it was a typical weekend crowd; I took them down stream below the stone bridge to fish the broken water and where the trout were more willing to take a fly. There were a number of spin fishermen on the opposite bank near the hatchery outlet but the weed bed in the middle of the stream prevented them from throw across the stream, thus allowed us to fish our side of the stream without lures whizzing past us. I worked my way upstream used a #16 Adams dry fly and took a few small trout with it. We were to meet Des and Ann (my wife) at 1230 PM for lunch at the dining lodge. Just as we thought about stopping Jenn hooked a rainbow for Last cast last fish. The trout was taken out of a run that was just vacated by Brent; Jenn presented her fly for the take. Sometimes a different fly or something they have not seen will fool them.

Jenn with last cast last fish...

We stopped for lunch and met Ann and Des at the diner. After lunch, Des and I play on the playground equipment and then they had to return to St Louis.

I decided to fish longer; Ann went to Lebanon to shop and returned at 5 PM. I checked out some other spots and took 20+ trout. I did endure some rain without a raincoat and then it cooled off; just a hint of winter fishing, which I truly enjoy

Eleven Point River October 2012

Dr Taylor fishing the Eleven Point River

10/23/2012

Today back to work after spending the morning drying my camping gear from last night’s thunderstorm; the gear was in the bed of the pickup truck overnight from a three-day weekend on the Eleven Point River. Last night’s storm was much different than the weather this weekend, which was balmy, with some cloudy days and plenty of bright sunshine on Monday to highlight the colors in the Irish wilderness by way of a wonder stream, the Eleven Point River. Dr Bill Taylor and I planned and decided on this weekend three months ago to fish and camp the gravel bars between Greer access and Turner Mill access. We hoped for good weather and bright colors, which we were not disappointed.

September 20, 2012 Saturday: We started our journey Saturday morning and on the river by noon leaving Greer access and paddling upstream to Hwy 19 Bridge. There were a few fly fishermen above the bridge, a spin fisherman came up behind us and chatted with us for a while.  A little later Tom, a regular on the river from Dora was powering his way up to the spring in his canoe powered by a 3 h.p. outboard engine. Bill picked up a rainbow as we floated downstream past Greer access. We stopped at the first island to fish and decided to camp there for the night. Unfortunately, the fishing was good but the catching was subpar. Bill hooked and released a pickerel and I finally caught and released a large mouth bass at dusk. After dinner, we sat near a campfire and stared up to the sky to watch streaking satellites and falling meteorites. We turned in at 8 PM with the campfire losing light and night had fallen upon us.  The moon was half full and crept behind the hills by midnight. The night sounds of insects, owls and coyotes that woke us throughout the night; it’s hard to get a good night sleep on the river.

September 21, 2012 Sunday: The next day, we broke camp and continued downstream, a Hyde boat was sitting in the tail out below the island and we continued downstream. We fished above the next island and found a few trout taking streamers. We had several canoes pass us this day, some pleasure paddlers enjoying the scenery and a few spin fishermen looking for trout in the deeper holes. We passed the day, leisurely fishing the islands and deep water stretches. We stopped at the last island and decided to set camp; it would be a good spot to fish at dusk. It a short time the tents were up, a campfire was blazing and dinner to fix. We set the grate over hot white coals of sycamore to grill some steaks and fried some potatoes and onions in a hot iron skillet.  That evening, Tom floated by looking for a place to camp; he spent the previous day near the spring. Soon, I was back in the water and taking a few trout in the tail out next to our campsite. I called it a day at 6:30 PM, collected some more wood before dark. The fire was bright; the stars were beginning to show with approaching night sky. Bill and I pick out a few constellations; Cassiopeia, Andromeda and Cetus to name a few in the eastern sky. The big dipper was low in the sky with the trees blocking it from our view. We sat next to the fire until 8 PM and turned in for the night. A noise across the stream caught our attention; we beamed our lights in the general direction but unable to discover the source. The coyotes sounded off an hour later. Bill had a problem with mine getting into his dry store, eating through the plastic packaging of his trail mix. He gathered his supplies and threw them into the cooler. Typical experiences on the riverbank at night, sleeping on the gravel bar. The night air was pleasant and slight breeze passed through the tent.

September 22, 2012 Monday: The next day, we made coffee and finished breakfast with a breakfast burrito. We broke camp, repacked the canoe and planned to finish the final 2.5 miles to Turner Mill by 4 PM. The day was a full sun without a cloud in the sky the wind blew from the south with temperatures reaching the high seventies.  The autumn colors in the hills were outstanding and bright. We only one other canoeist on the water and she passed us early in the morning. The highlight of the trip was seeing a group of four eagles high over the hills, later in the day a pair were performing aerodynamic maneuvers together in close flight. This was Bill best day catching trout, finding them in broken water with one being a wild trout of five inches. We stopped for lunch at the gravel bar below Little Hurricane creek and without success fished a usually reliable area. The water above Mary Decker was non-productive but the scenery was outstanding. We finished the day at 4 PM, the truck was shuttled by Richard’s Canoe and waiting for us. We unloaded the canoe and filled the bed of the truck and drove back to Springfield.

Some notes: the river was flowing at 325 cfu and at 2.7 feet at the Barkley station. It was very clear with many leaves blowing into it with us hooking a few throughout the day. Bill and I totaled eighteen trout with two being wild, one pickerel, one large-mouth bass and a chub. Yes, the fishing was a little tough, maybe it was the leaves in the water, or the fish have become wise to common fly patterns. Needless to say, it was a great trip in part to the autumn colors and scenery.

Dr Taylor fishing the final shoal, above the cave hole

September: Alaska Bound

Alaska 2012

 September 21, 2012 Friday: Rod and I left Springfield for Chicago at 6 AM with no problems. Next, we took off for Seattle with less than an hour between flights. We flew and landed in Anchorage at 4 PM; it was there we found Kodiak Island was fogged in with no flights landing or taking off. They tried to fly us out at 6:30 PM and we had to wait in Homer for several hours before ERA returned us to Anchorage. We called a hotel and stayed at the Puffin Inn near the airport. We found our room and settled in at 10 PM. We woke at 4 AM to catch our fight at 5:30 AM the next day.

 September 22, 2012 Saturday: We did make it to Kodiak City on the early flight but our deep fishing trip was canceled. We took a taxi to the Best Western near the harbor in Kodak City and stowed our gear. We had breakfast while watching a college football game then strolled about the harbor taking a few photos, checked out the local fly fishing/sport shops and took in a museum. We had dinner at a restaurant named the Powerhouse. We returned to the hotel to turn in at 9 PM.

 September 23, 2012 Sunday: We check out of the hotel at 10 AM and Brent took us to Dave's place where the floatplane was moored. Dave flew us out to the lodge on Saltery Lake lodge. It was a great fight with blue skies and mountains covered in autumn foliage; Dave gave us a fly by over the lodge to get a feel of the land. The staff (Geoff, Matt and Roger) greeted us at the plane and moved our gear into cabin #2. We made it to the water before noon, Rod went to the lower hole and I started in the lake. I managed to keep a limit (2 silver salmon) and released six more. Rod caught a limit of salmon and released five more with a few Dolly Varden released. We did see a few bears moving along the water’s edge and I could see bear moving about at the mouth of Lake Creek. We finished the day at 5:00 PM and returned to the lodge for a meal prepared by Roger. After supper, Rod and I walked down to Lake Creek. The creek had plenty of water with a good flow, there were a few Red Salmon moving in the creek. That evening, we spent time watching the computer with Rod bringing the “Big Bang Theory”.

 September 24, 2012 Monday: We had breakfast at 7:30 AM and on the water by 8:30 AM. The water was clear and air temperature in low fifties. I used an 8-wt rod with large Clouser minnow pattern and fished the lake above the mouth of the river. The silver salmon were very cooperative taking the fly. I kept two silver males for the freezer and released ten more salmon for the morning. Rod and I stayed on the water through lunch; the other guest returned to the lodge for a meal. I managed eight more silvers in the afternoon for a total of twenty salmon for the day. Rod fished the lower hole and released ten silvers and a few Dolly Varden. The bears were on the move with several encounters throughout the day as the bears moved along the lake looking for fish or napping on the lakeshore in view for several hours with no concern for us. There were a few Red Salmon spawning along the shore for the bears to catch with more salmon in Lake Creek.

My Simms waders had a leak, both legs were wet with the cool mountain water, I suffered mild hypothermia... (I need to get rid of them and I did). I did have a spare neoprene wader with me, which were watertight. The neoprene waders were more comfortable and kept me dry in the cool water. The day was mostly sunny in the morning with rain in afternoon. The temperature was mild throughout the day. I did have some issues with the salmon once caught; a few raced towards me and swam between the grassy bank and me, which were only a few feet. One salmon actually went between my legs with the rod tip trying to follow, I was lucky enough to see it coming and released the tension of the rod and lifted my leg over the line. This is my fourth year fishing Alaska and all rods have remained intact… just lucky.

September 25, 2012 Tuesday: The entire day was overcastted with a light rain off and on. The temperatures continued to be mild in the mid-fifties. We returned to familiar waters with Rod starting at the upper hole and hooked into a salmon on his first cast of the day and proceeded to have the Silver Salmon hit his fly on consecutive cast. See video here: http://youtu.be/ioEiNPb1pQQ. I moved into the lower section of the lake at the mouth of Saltery River only to find rocks and broke off two flies. I decided to move back into the lake. The catching was more difficult on this day with two salmon kept and five more released. Rod kept two salmon for the freezer and released three silvers, a chum salmon and many Dolly Varden. I did have a close encounter with a bear. The bear came up behind me and I first saw him 30 yards away at the water’s edge. I talked to the bear to let him know I was near and he moved away before posing at the point and swimming across the lake.

 I would have more close encounters with this and other bears. The bears are round and full of Red Salmon; they seemed to want to keep some distance between them and the man with a stick. Another funny occurrence happened when a hooked salmon took off for the other shore, I was into the backing, and then I heard a pluck sound. My spool fell off my reel and into the water, I went to my shoulder retrieving the spool from the bottom of the lake and had to hold it between my thumb and fore finger as the salmon continued to fight. I was able to get the tension off the salmon to settle him down and reassemble the reel. I did bring him to hand and release him. It is amazing the crazy situations one can be in with stress on the rod… The general idea is to hang on and hope for the best.

 September 26, 2012 Wednesday: The day started out with brisk winds and a light rain blowing through the mountain pass and down the lake... in the afternoon the weather turned bad with gale winds and with a light rain blowing across the lake; it looked like a great mast sail of a Yankee clipper moving with a tailwind, this was somewhat unexpected but typical for Kodiak and Alaska. We fished until noon and retreated back to the lodge for lunch, to dry out and to get out of the wind. From the lodge, we could see the rain moving over the lake at 50 - 60 mpr with wind gust over 60 mpr.  The winds decreased some by 3 pm and we returned to the water. The rain continued into the night. I had another bear encounter with a bear coming out of the brush and coming into view up stream of me and within 15 yards; he entered the water to swim across the stream. I did not see the bear coming since my back was against the wind and rain. Brent was fishing downstream from me; he saw it first and kept pointing to the bear until he caught my attention. I was standing in the water waist deep and nowhere to go, so I figured take out the camera and get a picture. The bear eased into the water and swam across the stream. Rod and I both kept a limit for the freezer with rod releasing five silver salmon and I released four salmon. The weather was cool, and wet typical for this time of the year.

September 27, 2012 Thursday: Saltery Lake came up two feet from the overnight rain; the water was cloudy with visibility less than a foot. We found a few silver salmon in the sand just above the river. With the high water, there was limited access to the holes with all of us at the lodge sharing the limited water space on the lake. The upper and lower holes currents were difficult to fish with the fish probably lying low or behind structure. Not many fish taken this day, I was able to take a limit with three silvers released. Late in the day, I decided to look at the lower hole, Frank (Geoff’s father) tagged along. Rod's favorite spot was full of water but I worked my way to the river and waded into the stream. Frank was above me and he found a warm sunny spot to rest, he was comfortable and fell asleep.

After a few cast, it was proved to be nonproductive, so I retreated and made a move to fish upstream of Frank. A bear came out of the brush and stood were I was fishing only a few minutes before, Frank was still cat napping and had the sun in his eyes. All of a sudden Frank realized it was a bear only a few yards away from him and not me, I was on top of the bank overlooking the situation with Frank scrambling up the hill to join me. The bear walked the riverbank just below us and made it’s way downstream. We talked about that bear encounter for several days at the dinner table.

Rod learned while fishing, how important it is to check the hook point on your fly especially when several fish are missed. Rod was near the lower hole using a fuchsia rabbit hair flash streamer (which does a good job hiding the hook point), missing one fish after another. After his fifth missed salmon, he inspected the fly and discovered it had a broken point; there was no way to hold the fish. Yep… it happens and the moral of the story, check that fly, even after a single miss.

Here is Rod's broken point fly that lost numerous salmon;
it now  on display in his office.

September 28 Friday: Our last day to fish, the lake dropped 1.5 feet overnight and continued to drop throughout the day. I was able to fish around the cove starting on the lodge side just below the property line, covering as much water as possible to the stream then crossed to the other side fishing up to the standing rock. My first fish of the day was in front of the rock. It was mid-morning and as the day progressed I managed to pick up more silver salmon. I finished the day with fourteen released from hand. Most of the silver salmon were taken with Clouser minnows. I did manage to take the last two silvers on the lodge side at 5:30 PM, I called last cast last fish and managed to hook and release one within five minutes that was to be my last cast for silver salmon for this trip. The other guest had already called it a day with Geoff and Rod near the mouth of the stream; Geoff hooked silver salmon and he called it last cast last fish for the day. Rod continued to work the water downstream and missed two fish and finally broke off his fly; on that he decided to call it and that concluded our fishing day, week and fishing trip the Alaska.

September 29, 2012 Saturday: We did not fish this day. After breakfast, we chatted with the other guest, watched the first snowfall for the season and packed our gear. The ground was covered in white from frost, with dark clouds to the west indicating incoming snow. There were some concerns to flying out and with the ceiling dropping; Dave decided at noon it was time to get us to Kodiak City and on to the airport. The flight in the floatplane out was rough and turbulent with the windows constantly fogging over. The landing was uneventful with Dave dropping Rod and me at the airport with our gear and frozen fish. Our flight to Anchorage did not depart until 7 PM. We had to several hours before we could check in and we waited until 3 pm to check in and leave our gear. We took a taxi back to Kodiak City and ate at Henry’s near the harbor and watched some football. We returned to the airport and left Kodiak on time with the other flights back to Springfield on time without incident.

Overall, Rod and I had a great trip. We managed to catch ninety-three silver salmon, a number of Dolly Varden and a Chum Salmon. The fishing was very good on Saltery Lake and river. My best fly was a Clouser Minnow pattern in a variety of sizes. The bears may have been a little too close; it was amazing fishing with them on the lake and stream banks.  A special thanks to Geoff our guide and to Dave Magoffin for being a great host and pilot. The web site is salterylakelodge.com with an active web cam capturing photos every ten minutes can be seen at www.kodiakweather.com/webcams/salterylake.php.

you tube video: Bears, Bears and Bears http://youtu.be/JIHX08BKbbk

         Rod fighting a silver salmon in the upper hole: 

            See video here: http://youtu.be/ioEiNPb1pQQ

July: How the beat the heat

July 1: I had another opportunity to fish the Pot Hole. Jessie Scheve, Rod and I met at Rod’s home before driving down. Table Rock Dam began to release water at 1500 and know we will see some release water below Power Site Dam that evening.  We parked on the east side of the Pot Hole before 18:30. There was a mild breeze from the south, with no release water. The lake level was 653.2 feet. It was 1900 before we heard the horn sound to announce the release of water from Taneycomo. Jessie was the first to hook and fish; it was a large bluegill. I released a short large mouth. Thirty minutes later. Rod moved down the lake and found a 14.5-inch small mouth bass and a crappie. An hour later, I found a few white bass with the larger near 18”. The shad were moving but did not concentrate the fish with surface movement more along the west shore. This will be last trip for a while, with a planned trip to the Eleven Point mid-July.

July 15: Ann and I returned from St Louis after spending the weekend with Desmond our grandson, Jenn and Brent. We spent some time and had a few meals with Sean and Sarah.

It was a few minutes before 6 PM, Sunday evening after returning to Springfield…. I checked the computer links to verify the water levels and discovered Taneycomo was generating and on the rise... it was up four feet with 2 generators on line. I decided to drive to the Pot Hole to find a white bass or two.

It was after 7 PM and I parked the truck on the east side of the Pot Hole. There were a few people in the water and fishing the west bank. Four boats were moving around the rock pile. The lake continues to drop and is now at 652.4 feet. There was a variable wind and no current passing through the powerhouse. I caught a bluegill in a short time. There was some shad activity, but without the current difficult to concentrate the shad and white bass. I fished until 10 PM with a half dozen bluegills. It was a pleasant evening under the stars.

Eleven Point Trip

The Eleven Point River below the Hwy 19 Bridge

For me, trips back to the Eleven Point River is like falling back to sleep after a pleasant dream and replaying the dream over and over in my mind. The Eleven Point River is a scenic, serene stream with a touch of mystery; every evening a fog rolling in at sunset and that lifts the next morning. This wilderness with all of the sounds of nature; the screech of a bald eagle overhead, an orchestra of frogs in still pools, kingfishers constantly chasing and calling others from their favorite fish spot. And there are sounds I cannot explain; the movement of unknown creatures on gravel after dark, the call of a raccoon breaking the sound of insects in the air and trees pulsating to nature’s rhythm. It is difficult to sleep soundly at night, in a sleeping bag over gravel and stones. Many of these trips end the day with a threat of a thunderstorm with lightning flashes off in the distance without thunder. It is the movement of water over rocks and cobblestones creating the white water and a backdrop of constant sound, which is necessary for trout to survive; that brings me back. This is my dream and my reality when I return to the Eleven Point River.

July 18-20: Sean and I met Wednesday at Greer Spring access off of Hwy 19 for a three-day float and streamside camping through the blue ribbon section of the Eleven Point River. The day temperatures were hot (upper nineties); the river was low (2.95 feet with a 400 cfs flow), with outstanding fishing. We camped two nights on the different gravel bars and endured several thunderstorms. We enjoyed the waist deep pools; wet wading most of the day; fishing less than 1.5 miles of river a day, allowing the day to pass until the shadows cover the stream before setting up another camp for the night. We enjoyed camp stove breakfast burritos, ate our lunch from a cooler midday alongside the canoe and steak and baked potatoes in the evening at sunset in our campsite.  I made arrangements with Richard’s Canoe Rental to shuttle my truck and drop it off at Turner Mill access on Friday. Jerry told us the MDC had been planting trout the week before and we would probably catch a bunch of fish. He was correct, many trout eager to take a fly. I will admit many 14-16 inch were taken by a short strip of a Clouser, with other flies from the past working well. Sean and I totaled sixty rainbow trout, a few small-mouth bass with a green sunfish and small large-mouth bass for three days of fishing.

Evening fishing below the third island

The first night we camped below island #3. We saw eagles, a woodchuck going for a swim, deer running across the stream and an otter staring us down. There were a number of green heron with a blue heron protecting his favorite spot.

Dragonfly nymph

Only a few mayflies and caddis in the air, the cobblestones in the river upon inspection had plenty of caddis larva and mayfly nymphs. Mosquitoes bit as we sat in our chairs waiting for darkness. The adult dragonflies could be found over the stream in most locations, with the bats coming out after sunset to feed on these insects in the night air. With the stream level down, there are more places to pitch a tent. There are a few new down trees in the water. The epic floods from 2008 and 2011 moved tons of gravel downstream from the scoured banks. There are fewer habitats for the trout with several productive waters too shallow to hold trout; these stretches are featureless with small gravel and sand on the bottom, not many bugs or plants in these areas. Hopefully time will restore these areas. 

The canoe is packed and ready for another day of fishing

The second night we pitched a tent on a gravel bar below Little Hurricane Creek. It was late afternoon with clouds building, the temperature in the high nineties. Sean decided to rest under a shade tree and I stumbled downstream to the white water. The best fish of the trip happen before and during a pop up thunderstorm that came in almost undetected. The skies darken slightly, when the rainbow took my fly. I had to hand drag the reel to slow the trout’s escape. The rainbow fought hard in the strong currents. Finally it came to hand, with a picture and release. A clap of thunder followed by rain came in as I released the trout; with two more bolts overhead; a few moments later, a flash and boom almost instantaneously. I did feel uneasy and sat on the left bank with the warm rain pour over me for five minutes. It stopped suddenly and the sun came out again. I fished a little longer and realized it was time to return to camp. I found a marked trail and hiked back to camp. Sean and I sat for a moment to rest, and we could hear thunder again, indicating another storm was on its way. We unrolled our mats and took to the tent for a fifty-minute shower that lasted until 6 PM. The passing of the front dropped the temperature twenty degrees; with our damp clothes we could feel a slight; it felt good to be cool. 

Best trout of the trip below Little Hurricane Creek

The next day we passed through Mary Decker shoal, to other blue water holes where Sean out fished his father. We finished at the white water above the Cave hole, where Sean caught the only wild trout of the trip. 

A stretch of water before Mary Decker Shoal

It was after 2 PM, the truck was waiting for us at Turner Mill Access. We unloaded the canoe, packed the truck and drove over dirt roads to Hwy 19. Sean and I took different paths, Sean went back to St. Louis and I returned to Springfield. We were both exhausted from the heat, slightly sunburn and delighted for the opportunity to share three days on the Eleven Point River. Now I can sit back in a chair on the porch and dream of fish with cold-water rivers, planning my next trip to the Eleven Point River.


July 25 2012 Wednesday: It’s a day off for me; I decided to drive to the Pothole and search the water for some white bass. One advantage to fishing the evening to dark is the air begins to cool after a 100-degree day; it is a relief to night fish Bull Shoals Lake. Keith Pennington was in the water when I parked the truck. He had fished the morning at Bennett Spring State Park and had a good day with a number of rainbows taken on a dry fly and a nice 18-inch brown trout caught in zone 1. Keith had already picked up a few largemouth bass before I arrived.

A weekend crowd at the Pothole

The lake continues to drop with the level at 650.3 ft with a steady flow moving through the powerhouse. The eddy pools have moved downstream with many of the shore features exposed. There were a few fishermen standing on the gravel bar with a few fish taken. I did not see many shad breaking the surface. I did release a large white bass and caught an 18-inch drum after sunset. Keith did well, releasing a dozen large-mouth bass with a few measuring 16-inches.

A blue heron on watch

July 28, 2012 Saturday: Rod and I drove together, we returned to the Pothole for an evening of fishing. There was a family and several fishermen on the gravel bar with little space left to fish. There was water moving through the powerhouse and the lake level was at 650.8 ft. We fished on each end of the fishermen and moved to the center when people left. Rod caught a small line bass and bluegill. I could not find a fish until I moved down in front of the three trees and managed a crappie. We finished at 9:30 PM with the constellation Virgo in the western sky looking down on us.

A beaver found near the water's edge in rock opening

July 29, 2012 Sunday: Rod and I returned to the Pothole and decided to make a change by fishing the west side of the Pothole.  We started near the dam and worked our way downstream. I was across from the three trees and met a beaver resting in a small cave den along the water’s edge. I took a picture of him and retreated. I did not want to cross in front of him and block his path to the water. I walked back to where Rod was fishing; he had caught and released 15 bluegills of all sizes. I managed to release a few bluegills, a trout, a line bass and a smallmouth. There were six fishermen on the east side standing gravel bar with a few leaving at 8 PM, Rod and I decided to finish the evening on the east side. We went to the other side and fishing until 9 PM without hooking a fish. We met Tom Ciocco, he had been fishing this area several times with success.