Eleven Point River Fishing Guides

About the Eleven Point River

The Eleven Point is best known for its Missouri miles below Greer Spring, but it does not stop at the state line, and the Arkansas reach below Dalton is a quieter and in some ways more interesting river. By the time it passes the gauge near Ravenden Springs it is draining better than eleven hundred square miles, yet it still carries the signature of the springs that built it: a flow that holds up through August when neighbouring Ozark streams have gone to a trickle, and water that runs clearer and colder than the gravel-bottomed country around it would lead anyone to expect. That spring influence is the whole argument for fishing it, and it is why the river is classed here as a spring creek rather than simply another Ozark float.

The fishing is a float fishery first and a wading fishery second. Smallmouth are the headline, holding on the shaded edges of bluff pools and at the heads of the long gravel runs, and they are joined by Ozark bass and shadow bass in numbers that surprise anglers used to thinner southern water. Longear sunfish fill the shallows and will eat anything, channel catfish work the deeper holes after dark, and walleye move up out of the lower river in the cooler months. Trout stocked in the Missouri reach drop down and hold through the spring in the coldest pools, which gives the upper Arkansas miles an odd and welcome mixed-bag character. A canoe or a small raft opens far more of it than boots ever will.

The gauge reports discharge and stage but no temperature, so the thermal story has to be read sideways. On this river the flow trace does the job well, because the spring component is what keeps the summer baseflow up: a long flat recession that settles above the bottom of the range means the springs are still working and the fish are spread out, while a drop toward the record lows means the river has thinned to its pools and the gravel between them is not worth the walk. Spring and autumn are the best months by a wide margin.

Access

Dalton - the small community near the state line and the usual put-in for the upper Arkansas miles.
Ravenden Springs - the gauge community and the reference point for reading the river before a float.
Birdell - a river access downstream used to break the float into manageable days.
Pocahontas - the largest nearby town, with lodging, groceries and shuttle contacts.
Spring River confluence - the downstream end of the float water, where the two spring rivers meet.
Mammoth Spring - north on the highway, the source of the neighbouring Spring River and a useful alternative on high water.
Hardy - the regional base for guides and outfitters working both the Eleven Point and the Spring.

Seasons

Spring: the strongest months of the year, with cool stable flows, smallmouth feeding hard on the gravel runs and holdover trout still in the upper pools.
Summer: the spring influence keeps the river fishable when others are not, but the productive window narrows to early morning and the deeper bluff pools.
Fall: clearing water, dropping temperatures and the best smallmouth fishing of the season, with walleye beginning to move up from the lower river.
Winter: low, cold and clear, floated rarely but rewarding for anglers willing to work the deepest holes slowly on mild days.