Goggle-Eyed

Just trying to find out if there are any marina docks with collapsed roofs around Norfork? Thought maybe Larry or some of the guys down there could help me out!!! If you know of Marinas that are needed new docks or repairs please let me know... Thanks

If a dock is properly designed for the snow load (or ice) it should go down "level" under the load. The issue comes in if the dock has old "white" foam that has lost bouancy or has been underfloated , this usually happens on a dock that originally had white foam and has been upgraded to encapsulated foam, for some reason a lot of refoamers short cut on the refoam. When the dock goes down un-even it will cause the roof to lean and collapse in one direction or the other. I have seen them split down the middle and fall both ways also. When the ice storm hit at lake of the ozarks a couple of years ago we had 4" of Ice with 12 to 18" of snow. There were millions of dollars in docks that collapsed but most of them all had white foam under them. One of the other problems is that most of the docks on T-rock or other lakes down there is that they are not built as "heavy" as a lake of the ozarks dock. Therefore they are prone to collapse much quicker. A dock with "in-line" slips is more prone to "lean" and and collapse under the weight, where as a dock with slips down both sides of a "main walk" will typically be more stable. One thing that we recommend is pulling all concrete decking off of the fingers so the ends of the fingers are better supported by the flotation. Obviously, On docks with wood deck this is not an option. Docks don't collapse often but when there is an unusual snow or ice event you have to prepare for it by getting as much weight off the dock ends as possible. We also have crews that go out and remove the snow from the roofs. I have seen people place 55 gallon drums on the dock and build a fire to help "heat" the roof from underneath. I don't recommend this or know if it is helpful. Hope this helps understand how it can and does happen. By the way, my company does have commercial docks around the country and we did not have any go down during this ice and snow event!!! We did have some go down at lake of the Ozarks but they were all "old" docks with White Foam and we encouraged the owners to replace the foam 5 years before the collapse!!! We did have docks go down to the point the "steel" was in the water but they just floated back up after the snow was removed or melted (very little to no damage) Sorry for the last bit but, hey, I am the director of sales for the company. Goggle-Eyed

Yes Leadmine is a horrible place to fish or run a boat. Please, everyone take note of how bad the cocnditions are at lead mine and stay away you don't want to go there it is very bad.

put in at Lead Mine and ran up about 2 miles above Blue Springs. Fishing was awsome.

Going to fish the niangua tomorrow and just wondereing if anyone has ran a boat from prosperine down to leadmine to tell me if there are any major obstructions... I acn get around or past alot but are there any completly blocked or just "bad scary" places. I have been floating this stretch for 30 years just haven't been out on it yet this year... Thanks in advance for any input. I will post report over the weekend!!! Joe

went fishing this morning, river was dingy but fishable. Caught several smallies, LM, goggle-eye and 1 catfish. Most all fish came off of soft plastics fished slow. Went again this afternoon and caught a few smallies up above the power house on crank baits. Caught several on a Mepps as well, I have never used a an in-line spinner before but decided to try it a few days ago. I must say, I caught a lot of fish on that little thing!!! The weirdest part of the trip this afternoon was the fact that we caught 5 Channel Cats all on figertiger cranks and the mepps. all in all a great day fishing and had the river to ourselves both trips. Joe

Since this lake is a power supply we can't drain it. But, I have a better idea, we will just make it a "locals" only lake and everyone must stay off of this lake. There's no fish in it anyway!!! Joe

Not sure why they completly shut off at night. I have found that I can usually switch to Solid Black and get some type of action when this has happened to me. Also, the current thermocline on the Glaize is around 10-12 feet and mostly the fish have been holding just above that... Your report about catching them 20' deep completly blows that out of the water though... Glad you had a good trip overall. Joe

Ran up the River from the Ninangua bridge yesterday about 3:00pm. We went about 1 mile above the power house before the river was choked up enough we couldn't get the boat through... anyway, about the fishing! For a quick trip and only a couple of hours fishing it wasn't bad. 4 Smallies, 4 Spots, handful of Goggle-eye and a couple of LM. Mostly threw green pumpkin, watermelon or watermelon red 4" and 5" senkos, a few on green pumpkin crawdads and NOTHING on spinner baits, crank baits or top water. The smallies are getting non existant on this part of the river. I have made several trips up this year and not done well, I have been blaming it on the high and murkey water, but yesterday the water was great. The spots all came out of perfect Smallie water and the LM came out of slow woody stuff. I have only caught 1 smallie over 15" so far this year but it was about 2 months ago, big fish yesterday was about 13.5". Tight Lines, Joe

If you are anchored you need to have your Stern light on. I always keep a spotlight in the boat for mulitpile reasons. Mainly to "flash" at the drunk idiots heading home from the waterfront bars. I suggest you Pick up and read your boating law book... Oh yeah, Good Luck and have fun!!!

I am sure that Henry was Ed's dad but not 100% positive. Ed would be 75+ now, so the timing would fit, they opened a campground in the bottom for about 10+ uears... There is still a nice shaded gravel bar there, the problem is now there is a big sign that says "no stopping or camping... I usually camp about 50 yds past the sign on a small gravel bar. It is still one of my favorite rivers and I always make at least 1 two day float down through that stretch... Joe

Scooper the Spring itself was owned by the TWA pilot. Don Reagan owned the resort, and aren't we all a little Nutty??? After Don was unable to run the resort his brother John ran it until the mid 90's when he too sold to the "niangua river land and cattle company" They now own both sides of the river from the old Ed's (Dampier) campround all the way past the spring. CC - I was not there the day the cabin burned but the boy was Matt, he was John's wife Barbs son. I don't know you but I do know that John was very thankful for the help during the fire. John and Barb are no longer together and he is actually living pretty close to Lead Mine. They were very good friends of ours and I used to work down at the resort helping him on the weekend. It was very sad when John had to sell the resort but the guy just kept offering stupid amounts of money. From my experience the new owner is not a nice guy and has been very rude and even tried to run people off for camping on Gravel bars anywhere between Ed's old place and Blue Spring... Joe

ended up going up from LOZ to the tunell dam Power House. Had a decent day of fishing 4 Small Mouth largest was barely 13" 3 Nice sized catfish and 3 keeper crappie No large mouth or walleye Catfish and SM came on a green pumpkin/blue flek zoom or paca craw. Crappie were on a red/chartruese crappie jig. SM were in the current, catfish were in/near brush in shallower areas, crappie came out of 6' of water around root wad.

was gonna take the jet up from LOZ to about the power house this morning but the rain is killin me and I am stuck typing about fishing for the morning....

Well, My nephew and I camped at Lead Mine on Friday night and got up early Saturday morning when another friend of mine arriver and we all started up the river. We motored/drug up the river about 4 miles and started fishing right below the cabins. The morning started off pretty good and we had several nice smallies in the boat (and back in the river) by 10:30am, the fishing stayed good until about 4:00 pm and after that it pretty much died... We only caught 3 smallies and 2 LM after 4pm. The bite was erratic and came on everything from soft plastics to spinner baits. The overall best bait was a 4" senko or 2.5" crawdad but those are our confidence baits. The only issue we had was the amount of Jet Traffic on the river. We met or was passed by 4 larger jet boats (which is the most I have ever seen on this stretch of river). Luckily they were not fishing and were just joy riding. Two of them slowed to an idle and passed very nice, one cut back the engine and got to about 1/2 plane, which created a very large wake. No problems just a rough ride for a few seconds while the waves crashed into our 17' paddle jon. Anyway, all in all we caught 60-70 smallies 4 LM and a handfull of Goggleyes. I was a little dissapointed that we did not boat any fish over 15" and only had two that were over 14", I do think my nephew had one on that would have went over 15 but we never got to see it!!! Joe

Here is an article out of todays lebanon newspaper. I would guess that most all of these people were going to Mountain Creek or Prosperiene. Checkpoint yields 76 arrests Friday By LDR Staff The Laclede County Sheriff’s Department reports 76 arrests made at a safety checkpoint set from 2 to 9 p.m. Friday on Route E about five miles northwest of Eldridge. Those included 28 misdemeanor citations for possessing less than 35 grams of marijuana, 20 misdemeanor citations for drug paraphernalia possession, 14 traffic-related offenses, two citations for felonies of marijuana possession, one citation for a felony of LSD possession, one citation for a felony of possessing hallucinogenic mushrooms, three citations to minors in possession of alcohol and seven warrant arrests. Twenty-five officers and three K-9 units were involved. Agencies involved included the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and Posse, the Missouri State Highway Patrol drug and crime control division, the Missouri State Water Patrol, the Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group, the Lebanon Police Department K-9 unit and the Missouri Department of Conservation.

OneShot, there is good Catfishing at both access if you have a boat. The upper access does allow some decent fishing from shore. I usually do a two day float up above Leadmine and put out a couple of cat rods in the evening. I have caught a few over 5lbs but most are just good eating size... If you would like more specifics about the river please PM me. Joe

How was the fishing? Hopefully it was good. I saw you all at the Mike's General Store before your trip but didn't have time to stop and visit. You have one of the only firberglass boats in this area!!! Anyway, I hope went well and you were able to catch a bunch. Let us know. Joe

We beat the rain and went on a two day float Friday and Saturday. We caught alot of nice fish on Friday. We had one rain shower that lasted about 30 minutes friday afternoon. We set camp on a high gravel bar with a couple of escape routes Friday night, the rain started about 8:30pm and quit about 4:00am (we checked river level every 2 hours). The river only came up about 2" overnight and actually dropped about 1/2" Saturday morning by 7:00am (We were about 1.5 miles below blue springs). By the time we got to Lead Mine the river was up about 1.5' and the fishing had shut off. We got off the river well before the flood water reached us and all in all had a great trip. Probably wasn't our brightest move floating this weekend but it ended well and we caught several nice fish. I have been on this river when it was rising at about 1-2' per hour... All smallies but ONE were taken on some sort of soft plastic we did have one 14.5" taken on a spook. The goggle-eye fishing was probably the best it has been in several years. Joe

Fished below the dam yesterday and didn't even get a bite. There were several people fishing from the bank but were all worm and bobber or catfishing. They were catching a few blue gills but not a lot of catfish. I threw everything from topwater to softplastics with no success. The water was up but about the same as a trip a few weeks ago that produced a couple of smallies with one going over 15". All in all it was a lousy fishing trip but still nice to be out on the water. I think I might pull this section of the river off of my list for awhile... I am going to try and float the little niangua this weekend but with the weather forecast it might not be floatable. Joe

Brian, PM sent... Give me a call if you have any questions. Joe

I have been floating the Niangua for about 20 years and have floated everything from Bennett to Lake Niangua. I usually know where the "trouble" spots are from Prosperine down to Lead Mine but as you know they can change with every flood. I float in a 16' paddle john that is pretty stable but still end up "walking" through several riffles every time. I prefer the safe side of things, not to mention when I am on an overnight float I have everything but the kitchen sink in the boat (I like comfort, even on the river bank!!!) I have "rescued" several dozen canoer's over the years and usally find at least one paddle or fishing rod every trip. It was really wild last Friday with the river being up 10-12", it did however, drop about 2" while we were out.

Fished both ends of the Niangua over the weekend. Fished way down about 6 miles above Lake Niangua on Friday and caught about 6 smallies all Day had one a little over 13" and one that was about 14.5". The river was up about 10-12" but had good color. After battling the raging water of the lower niangua Friday, we decided to try some other areas we hadn't been before. After discovering most all of the flows in my area were still way up we dicided to go way up the niangua and try our luck. We were about 10 miles above Bennett and the water was up but fishable. Having never been that far up the Niangua we had no idea what to expect. We had a pretty good numbers day but did not have any fish over 11" to 12" most were 8-9". We did not catch any large mouth, which surprised me some. The river is really beautiful up there and this time of the year was very floatable. I just wished we would have at least caught something with some size... All fish were caught on some type of Green Soft Plastic but we pretty much threw everything in the tackle box at some point!!! Joe

Phil, Great Idea Put me down for 3/5/07 Joe

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow!!!! You got to let us in on this "secret" bait. I know what I think it is but I could be totally off... Really looking forward to hearing the Gasconade report. I have fished the Gasconade a few times recently and it always left me wishing I would have went back to the Niangua. Joe