mke22

My dad and I finally got our first chance of the year to float & fish the Niangua (Bennett Springs to Barclay). It’s our first time going after his father/my grandpa passed away earlier this year, so bit therapeutic since he loved to fish this section and it’s close to the holidays. Never fishing this in winter before we didn’t know what to expect but ended the day limiting out with our 4 trout each and catching a few smaller brown trout and smallmouth. On top of that we saw no less than 8 different bald eagles, with 4 adults gliding above us at one point, and a different one flying 30 feet above our canoe. Pretty awesome. Water was clear and low, but no dragging the canoe. Fish were mostly caught on small crankbaits, blues, purples/pink, and silver colors working them slow. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Caught two keepers back to back on Lindley Creek side a couple years ago near a boat dock about 20 feet deep near brush pile Caught them while fishing for crappie on a pink twister tail jig. I've never caught another one at Pomme, but haven't really targeted them either.

My dad and I had a great day yesterday morning floating Bennett Springs to Barclay. Water was still a bit swift but landed 20 trout between the two of us. Three were over 15" inches with lots of additional hits, mostly rainbows with about 4-5 browns. A few smallmouth and goggle-eye were caught as well. Also had a beautiful golden colored trout on that shook off (didn't look like a brown though) so not sure if anyone knows if there are periodically caught other trout species in the Niangua or not (from the hatchery overflow year or something else). We used mostly crankbaits yesterday in various colors and diving depths including light purple/pink, orange/gold, and silver/rainbow trout looks,. Also some crawdad imitations worked well too. Good luck all.

This afternoon it was very slow at 215. Fished for a couple hours b/t 3:00 and 5:00 from the bank and didn't catch anything right before the rain started. Only saw one other guy land a small white bass, but the cold front was coming in and the rain / thunder was starting so I'm sure that didn't help anything. My dad floated 215 to Taylor yesterday morning and couple a few whites and a couple smaller walleye.

Fished a few hours with the kids this weekend from the bank near 215. Caught a 17" walleye, and couple small white bass on jigs (black/white and purple). On the topic with the Musky above, I know of at least one being caught in the river recently. My brother sent me a pic of one his friend caught 2 years ago near 215 bridge. It was big...close to 36" inches and he released it back into the river. Good luck all!

On little Sac River up from Aldrich the fishing was pretty slow and water was still high, but fished a few hours with the kids this weekend. Caught a 17" walleye, and couple small white bass between Hwy 215 and Taylor Bridge.

I fished on Lindley Creek Arm in a couple coves on Friday morning of the 26th from about 7:00 a.m to noon. Pretty slow bites and windy, but caught about 6 keeper crappie (5 males, 1 female) and about the same for non-keepers. They were mostly off the rocky banks with bobbers/minnows, and jigs working very slow. Minnows were set about 2-3 feet under the bobber. Fish were caught in 5-10 feet of water mostly near timber.

Sounds like an awesome day. Those are memories a boy and his father will cherish for years!

Sunday night and Monday morning I took the kids camping and fishing around Cedar Ridge campground. Caught 4 keeper largemouth and a smallmouth with the 4 yr old getting his first "keeper". Most of them were on silver/black with hint of red shad raps or FireTiger flicker shad around the rocks and trolling over the rocky points and near the small island. Most were in water at least 12 ft deep (I don't have a depth finder so not sure exactly the depth). The biggest was 18 inch was on a deeper diving Fire Tiger flicker minnow. Also caught several smaller ones early last week near Masters working same silver/black and purple shad raps in 6-12 ft of water. One was about a 20 inch largemouth.