flyguy_stl

Yep. It's very important to know what it is you want from a rod and then take the time to cast them at a shop, preferably with the setup you plan to use. 300gr with a 6" weighted fly will cast much different than a standard double taper floating line with a piece of yarn on some mono. Do you need to make 30' casts or 60'? The best rod is the one that does what you want it to do with your casting style in your budget. The Sage Bass II does one thing really well, imo. It's a specialty rod which I would not recommend for anything other than topwater.

Smallieguy - it definitely helped me get my butt out the door! It was a great first time down there. I'll be back with a canoe next time so I can explore much more upstream. I have the Bass II Smallmouth in an 8wt. It was with me but I didn't fish it much. It's an amazing topwater rod, decent with intermediate lines and unweighted streamers, and poor with full sink lines or weighted streamers. An extra foot makes a lot of difference when you're moving a lot of weight around. I think on water the size of the Mineral Fork, it could certainly do it all. It just doesn't hold up with a lot of weight if you're casting >30ft. I generally only rig it up if I'm taking two rods out - one streamer and one topwater.

This was my first time on the fork and I will definitely be back soon. I covered the same water you walked today. I ran into a very dedicated fellow that hauled a loaded 17' aluminum canoe down to the water. I haven't been to the Big or Mineral Fork before, so I left my kayak at home. I was curious how difficult it would be to paddle upstream on either body. Needless to say, I'll definitely bring it next time, though I'm tempted to finally pull the trigger on a canoe. I had two takes once I found the right color but lost them both. In my rush to get out the door I forgot my other spool case which had the sinking line I wanted to fish, so I tried to improvise. I found a 7ips versileader in my bag but it had almost no mono left at the tip, so I improvised a bit. My improvised sink-tip did the job with some lead eye streamers. In the last hour I hooked this 16" chunker and another 10" from the same hole a few minutes later. Not bad for what is likely a very pressured section.

Thanks for the report. I was getting ready to hit Kingston in a few hours. Sounds promising!

In the rule changes put out today by the EPA with the Army Corps of Engineers, there are several "clarifications" on waterways for the Clean Water Act. Of particular interest to anglers is clarification on the definition of "Traditional Navigable Waterways" they are putting forth. If it holds, there are certainly ecological protection implications of interest to us. I'm not sure it would help us regarding access, but it can't hurt. http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-05/documents/rule_preamble_web_version.pdf Page 82.

Still looking? I have a 2011 Pungo 14 I'm looking to sell.

It's a shame that common sense never seems to prevail.

Rep. Sonya Anderson has introduced an amendment to specifically address the concerns I've seen raised. http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB955&year=2015&code=R "2. Nothing in sections 60.700 to 60.710 shall be construed to limit or expand any public easement for navigational or recreational purposes as described in Elder v. Delcour, 269 S.W.2d 17 (Mo. 1954), if such a right exists on a watercourse."

I checked with NRO and they said the fee for takeout at their access is $2/boat. Thanks for the advice, everyone. Should be a great weekend.

Yeah, I know the trout are all down river from Bennett. We would be targeting smallies, too. So up river put in is fine and froggy water will not necessarily be passed over.

I'll give NRO a call just to find out either way. Gavin - I laid down a route in my route planner and here are the rough distances I'm seeing to Barclay: Moon Valley - 14.5 Cat Hollow - 10.3 Spring Hollow - 7.2 BS Access - 6.7 NRO is 3.3 closer. These line up very closely to Missouri Canoe's map. The best sections I see (hopefully somebody down recently can confirm) are Moon Valley to the West end of Riverfront Campground, then 2 miles before NRO until Barclay. So miles 0 -> 6 and then 9.3 -> 14.5 going Moon Valley to Barclay. Food for thought. Back to tying.

Felt sole ban: http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/regulations/porous-soled-wader-ban

Done.

Sounds good, Gavin. This is Bryan if you haven't already guessed, btw. : ) Hooking up with you guys sounds great if you don't mind the company. Lester offered to run my car from put-in to take-out if needed. I'll talk to you Thursday night and we'll figure it out.

I'm headed down this Thursday for the Trout Bust and decided to finally load up one of the kayaks for a float on Friday. I haven't floated the Niangua yet, so I'm looking for some advice from you fine folks. The first question I have is which yak to bring? I have a Pungo 14 and have access to an Ascend 10, both are sit-in angler models. From what I've waded around BS access and viewed on Google maps, the 14 should be a perfectly good option from BSP to NRO or Barclay CA. Most of that stretch is non-technical and is all riffle -> short run -> slow and deep until next riffle from what I gather. The Pungo is obviously much longer, tracks much better, and is more comfortable, but at the cost of some maneuverability. I'm guessing the discharge at the Windyville gauge will be down to 150 or less by Friday. Given the conditions and how I'm looking to fish, will the Pungo be fine or will I definitely need the maneuverability of the Ascend? I plan to put in by 7am at BS access and take out around 6pm. NRO seems like it could be rather short. Should I continue on and take out at Barclay? I'll be fishing 5 and 8 weights targeting rainbow, brown, and smallies. I'm happy to take time and experiment but I don't want to end up at NRO by noon. Any advice would be much appreciated!