THE ELEVEN POINT RIVER.

The Eleven Point rises in southern Missouri and gently flows southeast into northen Arkansas. Although not as popular as some other Ozark streams, it still has many fine features and is relatively untraveled. My fishing buddy, my canoeing buddy and one other person made a trip to this river in early spring. When we got there, it was unseasonably warm, with highs in the mid-eighties. This made the fishing great and the trip a real pleasure.

At the time we paddled the Eleven Point, fishing season had not started for rivers in Missouri, but we could fish in lakes, so my fishing buddy and I found a little lake near the river and caught a few small bass. Once the sun set, however, I landed a keeper that put up a great fight. We heard a big one splashing around near a weedbed, and my buddy cast a floating crankbait to the sound. He managed to miss the weeds and the bass clobbered his lure. Immediately after the bass hit, though, there was a load snap and the fish was gone. It must have been a real lunker.

We did quite a bit of hiking along this river as well as paddling. We took a good part of a day to climb to the top of some bluffs and watched hawks and vultures soar in the thermals below us. It is unusual to see them flying from this perspective. We also observed for some time a large snake swimming in the river.

Further down river, we found a wonderful campsite near an old mill dam on a tributary stream. The dam formed a small, weedy pool. Since it was an impoundment, we could fish it, and there were plenty of fish to catch. They were good sized pickerel, and they were very aggressive. We threaded sinking crankbaits through the thick weeds and caught a half-dozen apiece. We kept a few for dinner. They were tasty, but, as you might expect, pretty bony. We ate as the sun went down and had to be very careful in the light of the lantern to avoid the bones.

That night we heard a raucous chorus from across the river. We were never able to confirm what animal made the noises we were hearing, but it must have been some big birds of unknown species. It was unlike any bird noise I have heard, and was almost as loud as Sandhill cranes.

For a quiet, scenic, and relatively undisturbed river, the Eleven Point is hard to beat.