WestCentralFisher

Bennett Spring was awfully pretty today. The fishing, well, I didn't get skunked, though I had to work harder at that than usual. Still a lovely day on the river and a few of the nice, long conversations with fellow fishermen that only happen when no one is really catching all that many fish.

Thank you. And nicely put.

About a week ago, I came to this same lake and took my first skunk in a long time. I mentioned that on a thread here, and someone mentioned that reports when we get skunked are just as important as when we do well. I'm not certain I agree with that, but one type of fishing trip that tends to go undocumented are the perfectly normal ones, where you catch about the normal amount of fish at a regular spot, and the most exciting thing that happens is the beaver that startled you when it dramatically slapped it's tail. This is that kind of story. Today, the smell of skunk didn't outlast the first cast. Fishing was easy, lots of good sized bluegill and redear, and the type of little bass that fall into the category of honorary panfish. Except, unlike the bluegill and redear the same size, they get released. I could keep them here, but my dad's phrase from when I was a little kid, "Bluegill are for eating, bass are just for sport" is one of those little ethics that have held through thick and thin. That the little bass all came from the hole next to the same log where I once caught an honest to goodness 4 pounder is more a footnote than anything. Anyway, I'm off to clean the bluegill and redear. I'll need to stop by the store to get some breading and Cajun seasoning, too. Overall, life isn't so bad.

Fair enough! I could see that being fun. Here goes. 😆 On Saturday, April 25th, I drove to a medium sized lake in mid-Missouri. I fished along the dam, catching zero fish with a variety of lures targeting largemouth bass. These fish were all released unharmed, or would have been if I'd been given the opportunity. Then I did the same thing elsewhere, but on the contrary, this time instead of zero fish, I caught none at all. These fish were also released, except for one that would have swallowed the hook, if it had bitten and I'd caught it. After that, I switched to worms and targeted bluegill and redear. These made for an excellent fish fry, in an alternate universe where I caught any. After that, a competent fisherman would have breaded them and fried them along with some fried potatoes and cole slaw. Jumping back to our timeline, I got bored after awhile and went for a walk before driving home and cooking some frozen chicken. Below are pics of every single fish I caught. I only ask that everyone tries not to get jealous or feel too bad. It took me years of learning how to be an aggressively mediocre fisherman to get to this point.

That's awesome. Smallies, rookies, and browns in one day is a pretty rare accomplishment in the Ozarks.

I went fishing this past weekend and fully intended to post pictures.... but instead took my first honest to goodness skunk in like 2 years. The lake was pretty high and muddy, but it's one of my old reliables where I can usually do well (or at least ok) in most any conditions. Hell, I gave up on bass and started bluegill/redear fishing and still got skunked. I've fished this lake probably 30-40 times and the worst I'd ever done is maybe a half dozen fish over a few hours. So bottom line, didn't get around to posting that particular report.

That looks excellent! That said, I actually don't mind the freeze-dried meals. I spent a good chunk of my 20s hiking/backpacking/mountain climbing out west and I essentially lived on them. They're no steak dinner, and there's a place for that on the river for sure, but I generally prefer to keep it simple. Also, less time cooking during the evening equates to more time wade-fishing around camp.

The streams around here are muddy and largely unwadeable, throwing a major wrench in my Friday afternoon creek wading plans. So naturally, I'm thinking about high summer and floating, in the Ozarks and elsewhere. There is no particular purpose to this thread, other than to talk about my summer plans, and hear about others. The first big trip of the year we're planning is to northern Michigan. The streams up there, in many ways, are very recognizable to anyone who has fished in the Ozarks. The streams are clear and spring-fed, and the little 5-8 inch wild rainbow trout (baby steelhead in many cases) are not unlike what you'd catch on the Little Piney or Crane Creek. The Big Manistee in particular, which we plan to float, reminds me a fair bit of a north woods version of the Eleven Point, with its big water and mixture of trout and smallmouth bass. My heart has always been captured by the north woods in a way that is only eclipsed by the Rocky Mountains. That is a trip that will get me through many a boring day between now and then. The other one planned is the annual float trip with my Dad. That is usually a Thursday night to Sunday operation on an Ozark stream TBD, though there's a very high likelihood it'll be the Eleven Point or Big Piney. With any luck, there will be camping, some probably modest fish catching that will be slowly exaggerated in my own mind to epic fish catching, and mountain house freeze dried meals cooked over a one burner. On the median trip, we'll probably dump the giant, over-burdened and unwieldy canoe once, and agree to simply tell others that "we had a little trouble in one spot, but we got it figured out ok." Which will be mostly true, because we'll have everything well-secured and in dry bags to guard against this likelihood. Some key item will get wet anyway. If course, those are just the planned trips. There will be many a Friday afternoon/evening trip to a a little smallmouth stream, maybe a weekday float on the Niangua if it can be arranged. Too many trips to count to the pretty little lake with lots of big redear and an occasional bass that's worth taking a picture of. That has already started; muddy water and all, the redears do not seem to care a bit. In fact, as soon as I'm done with work I'm going over there. Even when conditions are mostly a wash, there's usually still a loop-hole you can find somewhere. (Note: third time is the charm, I guess. Not only did I originally post this errantly in the Conservation Issues forum, it somehow double posted there. Apologies for any confusion created by this. One can assume I am simply very excited for summer/floating).

Fishing is a little better today...Should have guessed, its always the crazy weather days that are really good.

Great day on the river. Fishing would be best described as real slow. The river was up and a bit murky but not muddy. With all the dogwoods and redbuds blooming, just a lovely day to be outside and kinda hard to care that the fishing wasn't all that great. Hooked into a few smallies and longears upriver, and then caught one 11" brown and a decent sized...redhorse, I think? down in the white ribbon section.

I somehow completely missed out on this story, and until I did some research was assuming y'all were just trying to scare people away from fishing the Niangua River. Sadly, I am mistaken.

Yeah, the problem with small rivers like that is that at summer low flows, you can pretty much see every fish in the river. And it seems like an unusually high % of the folks you see around the accesses are serious fishermen as opposed to people there to play in the river who may bring a fishing pole along. It equates to a situation where it just doesn't seem like there just are a whole lot of places for fish to hide in the sections that are easily accessible. The fish tend to run small in those places, though it can still be a perfectly pleasant place to fish. Of course, there are some sections that aren't easily accessible, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

LN is a funny stream. Fishing can alternate between excellent and horrendous. It doesn't have as much spring influence and thus base flow as most similar streams, so conditions are really variable. You also have impacts from it feeding into LOZ and sometimes parts of the river that appear to be good smallie water most of the year are an arm of the lake at other times. Meanwhile, in drought years the upper stretch is basically a tiny creek. I find as I go upstream, I often find higher proportions of largemouth vs smallmouth which is an odd dynamic for an Ozark stream though it really depends on the exact reach. It's really on the edge of the Ozarks, and it feels and looks like it. It's an Ozark stream with an awful lot of prairie creek characteristics. Your feet aren't going to be chilly in July if you're wet wading. All that said, on the right day in the right spot it can still be a decent smallie stream. You just never know on any given day until you get there. The country around much of it is quite pretty. Often when the river is being excessively moody I'll decide it's a better day for a hike. There's no question in my mind the Big Niangua is a significantly better and more consistent smallie stream, both above and below the trout water (and some times of the year, within it). The Little Niangua is much quieter, because while floatable, at anything but elevated flows it's a whole lot of dragging. I don't even really consider it a proper floating stream, but there are plenty of people who do it anyway. During the last couple summers everyone I saw paddling on it seemed to be complaining a whole lot about dragging.