Al Angiocchi fished the Blue Ribbon area of the 11 Point River this past weekend with the crew from the Ozark Fly Fishers club.  Guide services were provided by Brian Sloss and his team out of Alton Missouri.  There are not many places to wade fish on this section of the river so drift boats were the way to go.  Putting in at the Highway 19 Bridge, the fishing started out slow.  Our guide Denny Robison, explained that the weather has been so mild this fall that there has been a lot of pressure on the fish.  They have seen just about every kind of fly and they are easily spooked.  To prove his point we counted more than a dozen canoes, kayaks, and other floats on the river throughout the day – a lot for mid-October.

Fishing got better as the day went on but still spotty.  White/Grey and White/Cinnamon jigs were the order of the day.  There were a lot of bugs flying around and a few rises but Denny explained that jigging was the primary way to get fish on this river.  He knew where they were and how deep the upcoming holes would be so we had indicators pre-set.  The fish, all rainbows, averaged between 12 to 14 inches, good and thick with lots of fight.  The crew averaged about 12 fish each.

The guides did not want to keep the fish out of the water very long and maneuvering in the drift boats was not easy so there were few good photo opportunities.

Along with guide services Brian has a number of cottages in Alton available at very reasonable rates (which is where we all stayed).  If anyone is interested he can be reached at canoe@ortrackm.org or through the 11 Point Canoe Rental at 417-778-6497