caseysmith14

Oh I figure that he spent a solid hour between driving there, waiting for us to unload, then driving back; as well as provided a private access point on the river that was safe to store our truck. Sure he's not out gas $ but his time is worth something. Luckily 1 of my friends dropped out last minute, if not there would have been no room in the truck for the shuttle guy and thus he'd have to drive his own car, meaning they'd need 2 people to help shuttle and then it woulda been $100..... I woulda had a different point of view if that had happened;)

Returned mid day Sunday from floating the BP Mason Bridge to Rich's Last Resort. We rolled into Rich's Thursday evening. Appeared like we may have been some of the only ones there and had our choice of camping sites. Guess they got their place in shape for the floating season because we were greeted with mowed grass, ice for sale, and even a decent restroom/shower facility. They told us to be ready to go around 8am and sure enough they were ready to help shuttle us up to Mason Bridge right at 8. For one of them to hop in our truck with us and then shuttle it back the charge was $50; not too painful to divvy up among 4 guys. Friday with the late start we floated down to just below Slabtown and called it a night. Saturday we were moving at a good pace and actually had to slow down so as not to roll into Rich's early. Overall we had a great float, minimal dragging, and optimal temp's to stay cool at night but hot enough for the occasional dip in the water. The fishing was so-so. Fish were few and far between, except for 1 spot that yielded a number of fish. Most fish were taken on zoom finesse worms, a few early in the day on Rebel craws. Wish we could have kept floating past Rich's as it seemed like the fishing really got better the further down river we floated. I'd guess we boated 15-20 fish total; only a few goggle-eyes, the rest smallies. This was the biggest, I'd guess a 13" smallie caught on a finesse jig just upstream from Rich's. Thank you guys for all the pointers and other info. Was a great float. Looking forward to the next trip!

Thanks for the advise; but you posted as i was on the phone with Rich's so it's too late! So there is a change in plans. Wilderness Ridge called me back and said they cannot help with a shuttle because of personal conflicts, sounds like something with kids still in school and some surgery that the ladies husband just had... So I just called Rich's; super nice guy for sure, he's more than willing to make it work for us; so now we're shuttling with him. Curious to see just how sketchy it turns out because atleast on the phone he seemed friendly and very much on top of things. Still going Mason to Rich's, got a few guys going that aren't big into fishing so I suppose we'll end up covering more milage than I would on my own pace; plan is to get one of the none fishing guys in my canoe and then they paddle as i fish allll day long!

You bet, going next weekend (not this coming weekend) so you can expect a TR soon after.

Per the recommendations, I called Wilderness Ridge and we're planning on camping there Thursday night, then shuttling up to Mason Bridge Friday morning and floating back to Wilderness Ridge sometime Sunday. Seemed like a very nice lady working there.

Is Rich's Last Resort located right at Ross? Maybe I could see if they would shuttle us up to Mason Bridge Thursday evening... Thanks for the info guys.

I'll choose motel over hillbilly buttsex any day... But until I hear banjo's I'll assume no fool play by the locals.... Thanks for the info Al, I suppose I could put in at Boiling Spring and pull out at Six Crossings; that'd get my distance about right but I have a feeling I'd be missing some great stretches between Six Crossings and Ross; not to mention if Boiling Spring still does private shuttles.

I'm looking at doing a 2.5 day float (Put in Thurs evening late, pull out noon-ish on Sunday) on the BP in a few weeks. Looking at the map I think we'd be best suited for a Mason Bridge to Ross float to allow plenty of fishing and such. I'd really like to put in somewhere and then pay to have someone shuttle our truck down to Ross and have it waiting there for us on Sunday. Is there any campground that would offer services like that right at Mason Bridge? I've seen that there is a resort up at Boiling Spring but I'm worried we wouldn't float fast enough for the additional milage.

Here's mine from last week, sure are fun to catch!

So we ended up having a great trip. Got to Cedar Camp and launched around 6pm Friday night. Floated down a mile or two and set up camp for the night (fished a bit along the way and managed a few sunfish/goggle eyes). Floated all day Saturday and caught a number of fish throughout the day with a bunch coming from the slab below the conservation area. Catfish/crappie/white bass/smallmouth/largemouth/sunfish/bluegill all were landed. Wrapped up the float early Sunday coming out at Greenmill. Never saw another person floating until we met a jetboat fishing the slab late Saturday. Drug bottom only a couple times early on and had a couple spots requiring portage to get around fallen trees but nothing too bad. Great little river!

Good deal, thanks guys. Looking forward to finally getting out there.

So anyone have any guess on what I can expect for fishing conditions this weekend? River's getting back down to normal, but does it usually still run dirty for a while after the heay rains?

Ahhh we threw in the towel. The steaks and chicken wings are going in the freezer and coming back out next weekend instead. Extended forecast looks like it will be much better by then, I hope. fyi - it appears the gage is working again.

Most definalty. Although I may learn that taking care of USGS gages beats the hell out of my current job... regardless of the pay:)

dohhhh! Well I'm sitting on some nice T-Bone steaks and chicken wings just begging to be grilled up over a camp fire on the bank of the river so I suppose we're goin regardless.... My trip report may just include pic's from a campground:(

Yea yea yea..... I try to monitor the data but also be as optimistic as humanly possible! Called Cedar Camp and they said the weekend is looking real iffy, they said water is going over the bridge and it's most certainly in flood stage right now. I have kept an eye on the gage reading but the last reading was at 3:30pm and it doesn't appear to have been updated since. Is that fairly common to miss readings like that? I have looked at the 2 below links, are there better sites to look at? http://waterdata.usg...ite_no=06925250 http://weather.hamwe...auge/LNIM7.html

Been keeping a close eye on it myself. Appears its starting to recede a little bit now. Still planning to put in at Cedar Camp Fri evening and float down to Greenmill by Sunday but may call tonight to see how it's looking. Hope the fluctuating water doesn't mess up the fishing too bad.

Called Greenmill CG to schedule our shuttle for next weekend but he said the river was low and he wouldn't recommend floating it right now. Called Cedar Camp just to see what they thought and she said it's running just fine right now and is very much floatable. Decided to go ahead and book a float launching at Cedar Camp on Friday afternoon and pulling out at Greenmill early Sunday.

Awesome, thanks for the info guys. I'll make a couple calls and see what we can work out. I'll make sure to post a TR afterwards.

Thanks for the info. So I see Fiery Fork Conservation Area on the map but not Greenmill, is that in the same general area? This is the map I was looking at: http://www.missouricanoe.org/river-maps/littleniangua.html

Looking to do a weekend float on the Little Niangua in March but was curious what the flow needs to be for a decent float? Current USGS readings show gage height on the river near Mack's Creek to be 4.5-5ft and running at 80-90cfs. The discharge seems low to me but everything I can find online says this river is easily runnable except in drought conditions. Trip is still a few weeks out but should I be worried at all? Also any suggestions on best places to drop in and take out? Looking to do a 1 or 2 nighter and would love to stumble into some cooperative smallies (catch and release of course!).

Couldn't tell you what line it is but I know its atleast 8 yrs old and hate to say it but I don't take very good care of it. I'm a diehard bass fishing guy and flyfishing has always been a small hobby I didn't put much time into. Most of my flyfishing has been in small backcountry waters in Colorado so I rarely get more than 40ft of line out. When I do cast I have plenty of slack line to feed thru and a lot of time I'm stalking fish from points where roll casting isn't always feasible. I may try cleaning the line up and giving it a shot; worst case I splurge and buy new rod and line, the wife will surely understand!

I have a decently cheap Pfluger rod, 9ft/5wt. When I try to make short casts its very dificult to pull flyline though. Ex. I'm making false casts and slowly increasing fly line to lengthen the cast, the first 10-20ft of line will not go through easily; but once I get roughly 20ft or so of fly line out its very easy to add more length (hope that makes sense). What is the biggest contributer to making flyline not easily travel through the guides? The rod / the flyline / the eyelets themselves???

Much appreciated

Thanks for the tips! Sadly I'm a weekend warrior as well so I guess I'll have to be ready for combat... unless anyone has other secret rivers they know of in the ozarks with good fishing and solitude! So is portaging on Bryant a problem year round? I'm actually most excited to fish in the late fall/winter so I hope crowds aren't a porblem then.