Goggle-Eyed

Floated Sunday/Monday Got a late start (As Usual) and started fishing around 9:30 Sunday morning. The fishing was great we went up to the top of the eddy at Prosperine and had over 10 fish in the boat by the time we got back to the put in. We made it down to the Oldhams take out a little after lunch and the skies opened up on us. Big Storm/heavy rain the back of the boat had about 6" of water that I had to bale out of it in the 20 minutes it rained. Put rain gear away and started fishing again after that. The fishing stayed strong all day on Sunday. We had several nice fish with the memorable moments being a 14", 15", 16" and 17" fish all in about 2 hours. We caught numerous 10"-12" fish. The strongest bite was on a medium size White Rapala X-Rap twitched fast. Caught a few on Soft plastics and Crankbaits but the Rapala was the ticket! We stopped and set up camp a couple of Gravel Bars above the old Blue Springs resort. Luckily we brought tarps so when it started raining in the middle of the night, we stayed dry. Got up and hit the water around 9 or so Monday morning. The fishing started off okay but by 11am it was pretty dead. Big fish for the day was a 14" and only had about 15 to 20 fish between two of us. Most were in the 10-11" range. Threw everything in the box at them but could never figure out a pattern, other than if you caught 1 throw back in 50 times because their was always 1 or 2 more. There was no constant pattern, one area they were in the push water then a mile down river they were only in the tail water then they were in slack water then they were in shallow water.... Just a whole lot of fishing and very little catching!!! Great weekend on my favorite river! We only saw two kayakers in the two day float. Tight Lines, Joe

X2 on What Wayne Said. I usually use the upper access with the ramp if I am leaving my vehicle overnight and use the lower access if I have someone meeting me there. I am making the float starting about 7:30 in the morning. I have my fingers crossed the weather stays decent and the fishing is awesome!!! I will post report next week! Joe

I am planning a float from Prosperine to Lead Mine on Sunday/Monday. This is my last opportunity to do an overnight float trip before I head back to China for three months. Just curious what others think about the storm forecast for Sunday. Knowing that most summertime storms come up quick and leave in a hurry would you just chance it? I have ridden out several storms on the river and had to hunker down for awhile. I have also had the river come up several feet while I was floating... I just don't think the storms will produce enough rain to matter... The actual storm/lighting/winds are my concern... Anyway, what are your thoughts about going ahead with the float based on the current forecast? Of course if it is really bad we will cancel, just curious about your thoughts based on today forecast... Joe

I don't know of any shuttle services that do Prosperine to Lead Mine, it is a very long shuttle since they are on opposite sides of the river and no easy way to get there. I just heard a rumor that Mountain Creek (campground beside prosperine) does offer shuttle to Bird Island (below lead mine a couple of miles). I haven't floated that section of river for several years so I don't know how it is but it is usually kept opened up by the Cherry Mountain church camp. Joe

Have been really busy and haven't had much time to fish off the dock but decided to walk down and try a little. Holy Crap!!! I wasn't counting on catching much, I was mainly just getting out of the house a little... The crappie were tearing it up! I started fishing in about 40' and didn't even get a sniff. Moved into about 25' and started catching from right off the bottom up to suspended about 15'. I only fished about an hour and caught well over my limit of 10" fish, didn't bring a bucket and turned everything back. I will probably go back down with my buck later today or tomorrow and not be able to even get a bite... Oh, I am located about 1 mile from the Dam. Anyway, they were turned on about 10:15am... Joe

Dennis, I just finished two trips on the Niangua and the first one was with my BIL and I would say we averaged 50 fish each, each day. I floated the same float with my girlfriend and she actually kept track of my fish. I was fishing very very fast, maybe similar to Al. I would have thought I caught around 20 or 25 fish but I actually caught 40 Smallies. I am sure that I could have caught more if I would have slowed down and actually fished the "good looking" areas harder. I didn't even slow down after hooking/landing a fish so I missed a lot of the prime water above and below the riffles. Anyway, I was shocked at the actual number of fish I caught versus what I would have guessed. Most of the fish were 10 to 12" Joe Edited to add: The number of fish on these two floats were way up from last year. Normally on a two or three day float we have at least one day where we are begging for a strike. This year the 2.5 day float didn't have any "slow" days. The only slow period was around 11am to 1pm and then they turned back on strong...

Have floated Prosperine to Lead Mine a couple of times in the past couple of weeks. First trip we put in on 6/14 late afternoon and spent a couple of nights on the water. The fishing was great and we had one fish that went over 21". Didn't keep track of numbers but had well over 250 Smallies in 2.5 days of fishing. Most came on White Rapala Slash Bait and/or Crankbait. The pig came off of a 1/2oz jig. Second trip did the same float but was speed floating and had to get it done in one day. This float is way to long for me to make in one day but Girlfriend wasn't interested in staying on a gravel bar with the current heat wave! She actually kept track of my fish so it worked out well. I had 40 Smallies biggest was 14" most were 10-12". 4 largemouth, and 3 goggle-eye. Caught most everything on Rapala and Crankbait. Didn't even throw any jigs or soft plastics, we really only slowed down a few times to fish. Never really stopped and worked an area. Two great trips and one more scheduled for next week! Joe

Has anyone tried a smaller A-Rig in a river enviroment? I am thinking it would be amazing in a riffle that has a few deep pockets and/or large boulders. Obviously there is a high risk of losing it if you are not careful about where you throw it. Just curious if anyone has tried it??? Joe

I was able to log in just fine about 2 minutes ago... Joe

I am pretty sure I was doing this long before it was cool! I was doing it because I was poor and about to run out of senkos!!!

It is a 99 or 2000, Carburated, tiller steer, 35 at the pump. Joe

I would recomend driving down to Cuba to Cowtown. they are an evinrude dealer and experienced with jets. If not them, I personally feel that Troutt and Sons in St. James is the best jet shop in the area, however they are a mercury dealer. They have worked on my Honda many times and always done great work. Joe

Saw ky3 deal of the day today. $125 for guided 1/2day with tandem fly outfitters. Don't know anything about them, but seemed like a good deal.... Joe

I might be able to help with boat slip. I have an extra slip at cedar heights. I am currently in China but will be home for a couple of weeks around the first of march. Send me a pm if you haven't found a solution by then. My slip has a 4k lift in it and set empty for the last year. Joe

I would think a petition to BAN bed fishing during the spawn would be better!!!

Geuss I should have kept my stupid fingers quiet. The forum section of OAF if now a "forbidden" site in here in this fine country. I can still access the main site but as soon as I try to open the forum I get the "warning" page from the Chin@ Firewa11. I can still VPN/proxy through and get on, it's just a pain because I have to log on through a couple of accounts and then reenter my OAF information everytime. Anyway, that's life behind the Great Wa11 (Fire-Wall) that is!!! Joe

Just tie on an A-Rig and drop it in, that's all it takes these days, you should be able to make a couple of casts and have caught a days worth of fish!!!!

Phil, I am living in China right now and the new forum is working great. Not sure why but the Chinese Goverment had blocked Ozark Anglers Forum so I had to log in using a VPN Proxy but with the upgrades I can now log in with no issues. It is funny though when you see the banner ads at the top of the home page advertising in Chinese! Thanks for keeping this forum going it is one of my only connections to fishing since I don't get to do much of it in China. I can however buy a LM Bass at the local grocery store!!! I guess I am going to have to bring my fly rod over and try carp fishing on the fly! Joe

Gotmuddy, I would have to assume yes there are migratory fish on the property. I have caught several small browns while fishing at C9R. Most of these have came from the crossing right above the waterfalls, knowing C9R doesn't stock browns means they had to come up from the river. Joe

There is a Niangua River Stream Team in place. they usually do the clean up in September and there is a big BBQ at NRO or one of the other outfitters. I am sure anyone at NRO could provide you with more information. Joe

We were targeting smallies but did manage to catch 6-8 goggle eyes. I had one that was around 10". I actually thought it was a nice sized smallie! All the Goggle Eyes came fromsoft plastic "craws" deep in the root wads. Some in current some in slack water but all were buried in the brush. I didn't notice the rocks but there were a few people camping and fishing from the rocks. One guy had the "biggest bass of his life, a 15incher, ya wanna see it, I have it in that bucket". I was very pleased to see that it was Largemouth not a smallie! He did catch it right of the ramp though. Joe

Wayne, I use the jet for day trips to just run up. I used to do everything out of my lowe paddle jon and a 1956 johnson 5.5hp. It took a lot of work to get up the river. With the jet I can run down to about 250CFS with no problems on this section of the river. I also do an overnighter from Prosperine to Lead Mine a couple of times per year, I use the paddle jon for the overnighters. I did have a couple of issues today about a mile above the lead mine access... River went left, I went right and more importantly we had extra gear in the boat and it was stern heavy. Rearranged the boat and never had another issue. The trip a couple of weeks ago that my brother in law beat me was an overnighter in the Paddle Jon and my nephew in a conoe. We caught a ton of fish, each of us caught a 15incher, but my brother in law caught 6 over 15 with one at 18" and one at close to 20". But I was gracious and kept running the trolling motor... today he learned how difficult it is to "guide" and "fish"!!!! Oh and all his big fish came off of an old Bomber crank bait that was crawdad colored but had a "sun faded" red belly that had turned Pink. I hate crank bait fishing and hated it even more since he had the only color that was catching fish!!! I enjoy soft plastics much more and that was the bite today!!!! Joe

Had a great day on the river today. Put in at Lead Mine and ran up about 2 miles above Blue Spring. Started fishing around 8:15 am and had 3 smallies in hand by 8:30! Thought it was going to be one of those kinda days, but the fishing slowed down some and we probably ended up catching about 5-6 fish per hour. I had one close to 18" right below Blue Spring and then I had one about 16" about halfway from Blue Spring to the upper Lead Mine access. Brother in Law put it on me two weeks ago so I made him man the trolling motor all day! Worked very well and I win!!! Joe

You should talk to Living Waters, they partner with Windemere and do conoe trips from Lead Mine down to Cherry Mountain. Anyone at Windemere should be able to help set the trip up. With that said... I run my 16' jet from Ha Ha Tonka to about 1 mile below the "whistle" all the time and then float back down. I don't drag in this area. I usually stop about a mile below the whistle because of "dragging" water but it wouldn't be bad in a small v bottom boat (in my opinion).\ \ Joe

GRDA just lifted the no water contact. Said just don't swim if there is alot of algae! Let business flow again!!!!