Big Mike

Anytime I can get my 14 year old to hang out with the old man I call that a win. Oldest daughter probably loves to fish more than me. 2nd daughter could take it or leave it and 14 year old well we will wait and see. I want to fish the river/park again on Friday but Going to wait and see what the weather does. I dont mind the cold but The 45 minute drive with the road conditions might make it a no go for me.

Yes, She will remember that day forever. My last kiddo at home and got to make as many memories as possible, time moves too fast! She caught a 26 in Walleye this fall and it got the hook in her for sure.

yes, bad weather tends to keep a lot of folks on the couch😃

Went to the park Friday to practice with my new fly rod. My daughter was out of school and she wanted to tag along and I enthusiastically said yes. We mainly fished zone 2 and fishing was ok. Most of our fish were caught on dark colored wooly buggers. I am still learning this fly fishing stuff and missed several fish. I set my daughter up with an ultra-light spinning outfit and spent most of my time helping her, untangling lines. retying hooks, etc so I did not get much fishing in but I would not have it any other way. I get way more enjoyment watching her catch than any I would have caught. we fished from about 8:30 until noon. Fishing was slow in the morning but picked up the last hour we were there and probably caught ten between us. She was a trooper and stuck it out except for going back to the truck and warming up her hands a couple of times. Biggest fish of the day was caught by my daughter on a black bead head wooly bugger that was probably 20-22 inches and maybe 3 lbs. I bet everybody that was fishing that day new she had caught a big fish the way she was carrying on and screaming "I caught that, I cannot believe that I just caught that". Between her excitement and me with my bad netting skills it must have been very entertaining to watch. Sorry for the bad picture. I kept the fish in the net and wanted to make sure it had a good release.

Well I ended up getting a 5wt 9ft rod. Went the the river this morning right at daylight with no luck. Decided to go to the park to practice casting. I threw wooly buggers exclusively and caught around 10 and best color was black. I had way more bites but it took me a while to get the hang of it. I tried different retrieves but most were caught on a fast retrieve in the middle of the water column. I did catch a few letting it bounce slowly along the bottom. I think I’m hooked:) here a few of my better fish.

Fishnwrench mentioned wooly buggers and cracklebacks to start with. I catch quite a few brown trout on the Niangua, would these work also or would something else be better for browns? I catch most of them on reaction type baits like small jerk baits and spoons.

I had a cheap fly rod combo for years and played around with it some in a pond I fish but never really took the time to learn how to fish in it in moving water. I love to solitude of the river in the winter months and looking forward to learning something new.

thanks fishinwrench, this is great information will help me get started. I am 6'5" so will start looking for a 9 ft 5 wt. If I can get the gear together by Friday I will give it a shot and report back.

Just starting to get back into fly fishing and need some help picking out a fly rod. I mainly trout fish the Niangua in the winter months and Bennet in the catch and release season. What weight/length fly rod should I get and what type of fly line should I use. What would be a good starter pack of flies for the areas I fish?

size 7 flicker shad purple color. They make 3 or 4 different ones. Slick purple candy, purple fire tiger and a few more that I cannot think of. Stockton walleye love purple but I also catch a good number of crappie on them as well. June through October. if i was just after Crappie I would go with a fire tiger. I have done well with the Uncle Rico color also. I always get ficker shads for xmas from my kids and they always get me the uncle rico ones(they like the name)😄

I have a 2011 22ft Fishing pontoon that I bought new so I have lots of experience fishing out of a pontoon. wide stable platform and have plenty of room to move around. Lots of storage and mine will run 25-30mph. Fast enough to get you where you want to go but I would always like to go faster:) I upgraded to a 24 volt wireless TM and works great drift fishing keeping the boat straight or fishing out of the wind in back of coves. If it is windy I do not care how big trolling motor you have you will not be able to have good boat control. I fish Stockton so it is always windy. Boat control is the most frustrating thing you will find fishing out of a pontoon.

What gigging parties? I am sure what ever they did back then is still going on now.

when I was a kid we always camped and had our family reunion there in the summer. My grandmother was related to the Burns and she always talked about growing up with them. My memory could be fading but it seems like you had to cross an old wooden bridge to get to NRO. I started fishing barclay in the winter months about 5 years ago and noticed how much it has grown with cabins and zip lines. Looks like someplace I would avoid in the summer

Is the NRO still owned by the Burns family?

its hard to tell from the picture but the boat car thing looked like it was going to sink at any minute. There was a couple in the back seat getting a ride and the water was coming right up to the top edge of the car. I did see it on land as we were leaving and it is pretty cool looking but just not so sure how seaworthy it is.