WestCentralFisher

Spent yesterday morning on the Niangua and had the river to myself. Fishing was very slow, but after awhile I did manage to figure things out a little bit and catch and release five rainbows before calling it. Tried to locate some smallies/goggle-eye, but they were either not on the usual winter spots or uninterested in what I was tossing. More likely the latter you have to figure. It's always strange (in a nice way, of course) having a usually crowded river all to yourself. Especially in the first 45 minutes to an hour when I was still working to break the skunk, there was a real feeling of "what does everyone else know that I don't?"

The Uncompaghre River below Ridgway Lake is a wonderful tailwater to wade fish in beautiful foothill country. Not easy fishing but there are some big, BIG fish. I'd highly recommend Pa-Co-Chu-Pak campground along that stretch of river. There are also several heavily stocked ponds that offer easy catching. That's nice because those tailwater trout can induce absolute headaches at times. I second the Mesa Verde rec. One of the coolest places I've been.

A peaceful, pleasantly out of the way cove of LOZ.

Maramec Spring. No fishing today, just sight-seeing with the lady friend.

It looks like you found some beautiful places, some adventure, and beautiful, wild fish. I'd call that a success. Compared to fishing equivalent mountain creeks in the Rocky Mountain West, I find back east there is a much, much higher amount of exploration and frustration/failure required to find the gems. Between warmer summer water temps, higher pressure, etc, there is just a lot more water that looks fishy than what actually fishes well. And a lot of places that are only good for a few months out of the year. But when you find those rare creeks that defy gravity so to speak, it's all worth it.

Yup. There really is an impressive amount. And they're quite aggressive too. You have to size up lures/flies quite a lot to mostly lose their interest, but short of throwing musky lures you're going to catch some.

Spent a pleasant, if absurdly warm winter day yesterday on the Niangua. I fished down by Barclay, which when I do that, it's usually more for the scenery (which in my opinion is much nicer than around Bennett) than the catching. This proved true on all fronts yesterday. I spent a very pleasant day in a beautiful spot and caught two trout in perhaps 4 and 1/2 hours of fishing. One rainbow of the usual stocker size, one small brown. Not to mention the usual compliment of creek chubs this stretch of river seems to have more if than any other I'm aware of. It was easily the slowest day of fishing I've ever had as a grown adult on this river, but after all the chaos of holiday season I think a quiet day without much happening is sort of what I needed. I did go up and check out the Bennett Spring Access, and it was hopping with people, so I opted not to fish there. Hard to blame them on a 70 degree winter day that most people have off work/school. Planned to go back out today, but I woke up sick. Ah well. At least I got some fishing in first.

This post isn't a complaint, just a self-observation. I've noticed since about mid-October my fishing ventures have been in what I'd call a serious rut. All summer I fished just about everywhere I could in the Ozarks, but since it got chilly and the smallmouth have retreated to their winter holding areas, it's like every trip is groundhog day. This isn't a bad thing. I'm consistently catching trout and smallmouth bass every trip out, in the same few holes of the same couple rivers. It's not that I'm struggling, it's that there is no drama. I know pretty much what I'm going to catch, how I'm going to catch it, and there remains but little mystery in either. I've found myself passively hoping I'll get skunked once or twice to build some anticipation. It hasn't been unenjoyable. I find myself leaving the river after a couple of hours and going for hikes, scouting for deer sign for potential future outings, or just generally exploring. But I think I need to expand my horizons a little. Might be time to visit one of the particularly challenging wild trout creeks or go try and find the wintering holes on a smallmouth stream I don't know well. It's just a strange feeling I don't know if I've really experienced before, mostly because I've spent most of my life as a pretty mediocre fisherman, and I've generally had to scratch and claw just to catch fish.

I've caught smallmouth semi-regularly while nymphing for trout, especially with larger patterns, but occasionally even something like a #16 Hare's Ear. Smaller bass definitely seem to eat aquatic insects often enough that it's a pretty reasonable way to target them. Egg patterns, never before until today. I've also had very little (though not zero) success with them for brown trout or anything other than stocked rainbows (I know they get used in more natural contexts in places with anadromous fish or lots of actively spawning trout). For the most part they've always been the definition of a one trick pony, though a very effective one for their specific use. Even chubs usually seem more hesitant to take them than most other things. So that's why I found it strange.

Not much of a story here, just something I've never had happen before. I was trout fishing on a stretch of river that I know to periodically have good smallmouth bass fishing. But it's usually not consistent enough to target them. Anyway, I was fishing with an egg pattern and caught a pretty, fat smallmouth somewhere in the 12-14 inch range. At first, I was concerned it might be a foul hook situation, because what smallmouth bass would take an egg pattern? But no, it was an honest take. Knowing that when you find one this time of year there are usually more, and figuring that had to be a coincidence, I switched to a woolly bugger, then a crayfish pattern. Outside of a couple half-hearted takes, nothing. Figuring that it maybe had just been the one smallie, I switched back to an egg pattern to target trout...and caught several more bass, mostly smallmouth but one little largemouth as well. Barely a story worth telling, I know. But I literally have never caught a bass on an egg pattern in my entire life, so catching multiple in less than an hour was notably strange.

I caught a bunch on a #14 Parachute Adam's today on the Niangua. But I think it was one of those days where I could have caught them on anything north of a bare hook, and that's just what I felt like throwing.

My stock answer to that question is "Oh, just enjoying the beautiful day". It's not actually a lie, because I almost always am, and if people want to conclude I'm putting a positive spin on a bad skunk and move along, well that's on them.

People will really cheat over anything. All for $200. But it's not really about the money, it's about the ego boost. A guy I used to fish with quite a bit would regularly lie about the size/quantity of fish he caught any time we were not standing right next to each other...even though a non-zero amount of these times I was still close enough I could actually see him plenty well enough to know it couldn't be true. I wrote it off as weird but harmless, but eventually it became clear it was part of a larger trend of having to be better at everything than the other guy, which wore thin quickly. The silly bit is he probably was a better fisherman than me. He didn't really need to lie, but he couldn't help himself. I'm immune to these things, because I know I'm only an alright fisherman, and it's been a long time since I could be bothered to care.

After fishing the Niangua River yesterday morning, I popped over to an empty Bennett Spring State Park to look around. Not pictured are the many trout that were rising enthusiastically to the pieces of leaves on the water, presumably thinking they were pellets 😆

This is the exact time of year I worry about. Particularly on the stream that I very much fear is the one in question. They are just so concentrated in a few pretty obvious places, and it's so easy for one person to cause so much damage.