Thomasville to Greer: bass water that needs spring rain
The Forest Service measures its Wild and Scenic river from the Highway 99 access at Thomasville, mile 0.0, to the Highway 142 Narrows access at mile 44.3. Congress designated the reach on October 2, 1968, as one of the first eight rivers in the national system. Above Greer Spring it is a small river: smallmouth, longear and bluegill, goggle-eye and a few largemouth. MDC's recent spring samples up here estimated 400 to 500 fish per mile with over a tenth of them past 15 inches.
The catch is water. The Forest Service says Thomasville to Greer, 16.6 miles, usually floats only March through June, and that July through October canoeing from Thomasville may not be possible. As of April 2025 the Forest Service listed the Thomasville access itself as closed, so Cane Bluff at mile 9.3, under its 250-foot bluff, is the practical upper launch. MDC's tip for the big goggle-eye is a deep-diving dark crawdad crankbait in the rocky pools below riffles.
Where Greer Spring Branch comes in
About half a mile above the Highway 19 bridge at Greer Crossing, Greer Spring Branch enters from the west after running just over a mile from the second-largest spring in Missouri. MDC puts its mean flow near 210 million gallons a day, and the Forest Service says the branch drops 62 feet in 1.25 miles and more than doubles the river. The spring sits in a 1,097-acre natural area owned by Mark Twain National Forest; a 0.9-mile trail leads to it. Missouri Trout Hunter says the branch itself is closed to fishing; no agency page we found says so either way, so ask the ranger district before casting there.
That junction is the top of the trout water. The wadeable fast run above the Highway 19 bridge, almost up to the branch mouth, is one of the few places you can fish on foot.
One fish over 18 above Turner Mill, four below it
From the Greer Spring Branch junction to Turner Mill Access is the Blue Ribbon Trout Area, 5.5 miles. The limit is one trout of at least 18 inches, flies and artificial lures only, and soft plastics, scented and natural baits are banned for every species. Gigging and bowfishing are prohibited too. Downstream from Turner Mill Access the next 14.2 miles are a White Ribbon Trout Area: four trout, no minimum on rainbows, 15 inches on browns, any bait. Porous-soled waders are illegal in all of Oregon County, which covers the whole trout reach, and you need a trout permit to keep one.
The bass rules run from Thomasville Access to the Arkansas line: six black bass a day, only one of them a smallmouth, and that fish must be 15 inches; goggle-eye need 8 inches and walleye 18. Stream bass are catch-and-release from March 1 until the May 23 opener. Private scenic-easement land makes up about half the corridor, and stepping onto it is prohibited under the 2012 forest order that also caps motors at 25 horsepower.
What lives between Greer and Riverton
MDC stocks about 8,000 rainbows a year into the Blue Ribbon water, spring and fall, on top of a wild population. Its 2024 sample put wild trout near 83 per mile and all trout above 300 per mile, most 9 to 16 inches, with the occasional wild fish over 18 inches and 2.5 pounds. The White Ribbon reach gets 16,000 rainbows averaging 12 inches between March and October, plus a few Montauk hatchery lunkers over 4 pounds. Below Riverton trout thin out within a few miles, and the last 13.5 miles to Arkansas are smallmouth and walleye water, with 20,000 walleye fingerlings stocked in 2022 and another stocking planned for 2026.
Guide Justin Spencer, who rows this river, fishes marabou jigs under an indicator all year, sometimes with a San Juan Worm or nymph trailing, on 3X to 4X in spring and 4X to 5X when it clears. He finds wild fish in the riffles and stockers and bigger fish in the runs and tailouts, and calls fall the most consistent season because spring trips are so often lost to high water.
A drift-boat river with float camps
Flyfishers at the Crossing put it plainly: with few exceptions, the Eleven Point does not lend itself to wade fishing. Inside the Blue Ribbon, the only road access is Greer and the Forest Service gravel roads to Turner Mill North and South. Greer to Turner Mill is 4.9 miles over Mary Decker Shoal; Barn Hollow float camp is 10.4 miles below Greer; Whitten has primitive camping; Riverton sits just above the Highway 160 bridge at mile 35.6. Greer Crossing campground has 16 single and 3 double sites and a concrete ramp, and no river access charges a day-use fee. Glass and foam are banned on the river.
Hufstedler's on Highway 160 floats Greer to Riverton as 19 miles, a long day or two, and wants everyone off the water by 6 p.m. Richards Canoe Rental is 7 miles north of Alton on Highway 19.
Bardley reads the bottom of the trout water
USGS 07071500 near Bardley is below Riverton, so it adds Greer, Morgan Spring and everything else together; it tells you little about the upper river. Its monthly means since 1921 run from 452 cfs in October to 1,390 in April. On September 24, 2026 it read 274 cfs after a slow two-week fall from 366. One river-conditions site graded that poor, yet Hufstedler's the same day called Greer-down floating great, just a little low. No outfitter publishes a range, so this page uses 275 to 1,400 cfs, from that September reading up to the April mean; above that, expect Spencer's cancelled spring trips. The 2017 crest reached 28.66 feet and 122,000 cfs.