Scooper

Used to camp and/or take out at Ho Hum when Chuck and Wanda Robbins owned it. Nice place then, but that's been a while ago. Who is this "psycho" and what is this "pipe in the chute below the main bridge??"

MopanFisher is right, Oneshot. I recognized you from your old profile photo and the fact that you appeared to be fishing with power bait, your favorite bait, from your posts on the forum. Put “two and two together.” Hope you have a successful summer of fishing. We’ll talk again soon.

Oneshot: Nice meeting you at Barclay Access on Tuesday. We did well floating from the Bennett access to Barclay. Used artificials. Caught a few browns, mostly down stream including a couple at Barclay.

The place where we camped on Henry Dampier's farm was right next to the river, on a gravel-covered piece of ground shaded by huge cottonwoods. It was maybe a half mile to a mile below Blue Spring. There was a riffle next that spot, the sound of which lulled us to a restful sleep at night. Just upstream of the camping spot was a thicket of willows, and on the other side of the willows was a small open gravel bar where we would park our canoe and a johnboat. The canoe was a green Oldtown made of treated canvas with cedar ribbing and gunwales that probably dated to the 1930s. The johnboat, also painted green, was made of yellow pine by a master johnboat builder named Hufstedler whose family owned a canoe and guide service on the Eleven Point River. I think the business is still there, but under different ownership. That johnboat was HEAVY, but sturdy and almost impossible to flip. Doc Bruner rigged it with a Johnson 3 hp outboard. The place where we camped on Mr. Dampier's farm was perfect. To reach it, we would drive down a long gravel county road to Mr. Dampier's property, then down a steep farm road to a bottom field next to the river, around the field and into the wooded gravel-bottom camping spot. The field was usually planted in corn, and over the years we found some arrowheads and other artifacts by walking between the corn rows. I think the Niangua has a lot of archaeological sites along its course. Lee's comment about finding Indian relics on his family farm would seem to confirm that.

Lee: I would wager that Doc Bruner knew your folks and maybe even camped/fished on your farm. Do you remember Mr. Henry Dampier? He probably passed away in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I think Doc Bruner became aquainted with him in the 1940s. Phil: I too, hope you're correct about the landowner who started this thread. Although he doesn't overtly say that no one can fish, camp, etc. on gravel bars along his property's stretch of the river, it does seem to be "implied," e.g. "we do not mind those who pass on by on their tubes and in their canoes - especially with a friendly wave- we, like most of you im sure, just want to preserve the beauty of the river----- especially the blue spring- therefore it is marked as private property w/ no trespassing signs." It is unfortunate that it takes only a few selfish jerks to ruin things for the majority -- good, conscientious folks who are caring stewards of the river. The landowner's concern is likley aimed at the literers, drunks and profanity- spewing louts one sees on most Ozark rivers during weekends. However, I do recognize that there are far fewer of those types who are on the Niangua that far downstream. Time will tell. If anyone has any contact or conversation with this gentleman (or lady), I hope you post it to this board. Thanks!

Fascinating thread. I first started floating and fishing on the Niangua with my dad in the 1960s. He had camped and float fished on the river since the 1940s. He was a football coach at Mizzou from the ‘40s to the ‘80s and loved to float, fish and camp on the Ozark Rivers., He and the other coaches took an annual weeklong camping and fishing trip, often on the Niangua. He usually went with our next-door neighbor in Columbia, an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor named Claude Bruner. Dr. Bruner had a weekend home on the Niangua arm of the Lake of the Ozarks and owned several hundred acres, some of which he sold in the 60s and 70s, including the property that later became the Old Kinderhook Golf Course. Dr. Bruner knew many of the landowners along the Niangua, including Henry Dampier. Mr. Dampier owned a farm just downstream from Blue Springs Resort and it was on that farm we camped (opposite side of the river from the resort.) We would often motor up from our camp to Blue Springs. We didn’t know the TWA pilot who owned the property, but we did know Don Reagan who either ran the resort, or owned it, not sure which. Don could be a little cantankerous, but was a good guy. He lived on the property and the TWA pilot lived in KC, as I recall. Blue Spring was beautiful, and we often caught a trout or two in the cool water where the spring branch entered the river. Sometime in the early 70s, my Dad and I, along with another coach and his son, stayed in one of the cabins at the resort. There wasn’t much to the resort as I recall, a few cabins and a primitive campground. On that trip, after supper and right before sunset, I remember going down to the small gravel bar where the spring branch entered the river. We had been using small plastic worms to fish for smallmouth that day. I took my rod with the worm still rigged on it and casted it into the river, retrieving it through the cool water . On the first cast caught a brown trout of about 14”. I caught another on the next cast. I yelled to the other guys and they joined me. We ended up catching about 6 trout before the bite ended. This was during July so the river was pretty warm. It was obvious that the trout were congregated there to escape the warming river. It's a memory that I will never forget. It’s probably been close to 30 years since we floated that part of the river, although we try every year to get back to my native Missouri to float below Bennett for trout. I haven't done that since 2011, however. Thank you, Fishinwrench and Troutnut69, for pointing out the legal rights fisherman and floaters have on our Ozark Rivers. These rivers belong to the people, not individual landowners who think that everything they survey is their own personal domain. All should respect property rights, but a gravel bar below the high water mark is NOT private property and folks should not be hassled if they stop there to swim, fish, or camp, for that matter. All trash should be removed and like others on this board, I pick up trash that isn’t mine. Someday, I would like to revisit the lower Niangua of my youth and conjure up wonderful memories of my Dad and Dr. Bruner, both of whom have long since passed away. I would like to do that without worrying about being harassed by some misguided landowner or one of his hirelings.

Joe- Thanks for the info. Nice to connect with someone who knew Don Reagan. He was good host for us, but he could get a little "ornery" with folks. A good man, nonetheless. That's interesting that you're catching rainbows below Blue Springs. It's still kind of a mystery to me how they get down that far, as I think the farthest down they stock now is around Ho-Humm Campground, and that's, what, 8 miles upstream? I wouldn't be surprised if, as the weather warms, they all move upstream to cooler water, such as where Blue Springs and the river join. I think our camping below Blue Springs was mostly in late June or early July, so maybe the trout had all moved up by then. I've hooked two smallmouth on one lure before (usually a multi-trebled plug) but NEVER a trout and a bass at the same time. That IS an accomplishment. Thanks for the tip on the lures. On those once-a-year occasions I get back to Missouri and float the Niangua, we usually float below Bennett for trout and use jigs that I tie myself. I've occasionally used Rebel craws with decent success. I'll take a look at the White X-Rap and Square Bill KVD sexy shad.

Joe- And your point is??

Fishinwrench, thanks, that makes sense. Question: What is Blue Springs like these days? At one time, it was a small resort with a campground, some cabins and a canoe livery. A guy named Don Regan owned it. Back in the early 70s, on a hot July day, we stayed in one of the cabins there after floating down from either Bennett or Prosperine. We had caught smallmouth during that float using small (4") plastic worms. That evening, after a late dinner, right about sunset, myself and a buddy of mine went down to where the Blue Spring branch emptied into the Niangua, We stood on small gravel bar and casted the same plastic worms we had used to catch smallmouth earlier that day. We were just passing the time before going to bed, not thinking we'd catch anything. Much to our shock, in rapid succession, we caught four brown trout that apparently had congregated in the cooler water where the spring branch and the river joined. I think that happens with springs throughout the Niangua during the hot summer months.

Back in the '60s we used to camp on a gentleman's farm about a half mile below Blue Springs. His name, as I recall, was Henry Dampier, so he might be Ed's father. It was a beautiful campsite, on a gravel shore line shaded by big sycamores. We could actually drive down to it on a very rough farm road that wound through a bottom field that was sometimes planted with corn. Over the years we found a few arrowheads in that field. Back to Oneshot's question. From our base camp below Blue Springs, we would motor up the river a few miles and float back down. We caught plenty of smallmouth, but the only trout we caught were in the cool water below where the Blue Spring branch flowed into the Niangua. We never caught any trout below Blue Springs. Of course, that was a number of years ago. Does the MDC even stock trout that far down?

Al, thanks for the info. Not surprising. The most cottonmouths I ever encountered in the state was during a weekend field trip in April, 1976 to the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge led by my herpetology professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Back then, there was a MU research facility near the Refuge that we used as a "base of operations." As we drove the back roads of Mingo, water moccasins seemed to be everywhere sunning themselves. From an ecological standpoint, it was a fascinating place. We caught species of snakes, lizards and amphibians that you'd expect to see in Florida rather than Missouri, including the very "tropical looking" green tree frog.

Many years ago, in the early '60s, my Dad took us down to Bunker Hill Resort, a facility owned by the Missouri State Teachers' Association located on the Jack's Fork. I didn't know if it still existed, but I just googled it and saw that it is still going strong. I was just a little kid back then and more interested in catching crayfish, sculpins and lizards, but my Dad was an avid fisherman. I accompanied him out one morning as he waded up from one of the gravel bars near the resort. I quickly got distracted by what I could find under the rocks in the river as he moved upstream. After flipping over a rock, some motion caught my eye and I turned my head. Like steve I described above, I found myself staring at a very agitated, reared up water moccasin with its "cotton mouth" open ready to strike. Scared the livin' hell out of me! I screamed for my Dad who came running down the gravel bar. He smacked the snake with his fishing rod and drove it away (didn't kill it). Needless to say, I avoided that area of the river the rest of the trip. I guess they're still common on the Jacks Fork. On those rare occasions I get back to my home state, I usually fish the Niangua. I've never seen a water moccasin on that river.

Mine was a brown trout that weighed about 4 lbs, I'm guessing. It was caught (and released) in the mid-1990s. My brother caught a rainbow about the same size 10 years earlier. We have not caught anything that big in recent years. There are likley bigger browns in the river, but probably not rainbows anymore. Fishing pressure goes up every year. Attached is a photo of the brown.

I'm always amazed at your knowledge of Ozark rivers, Al and your willingness to share it. Have you written a book on the topic? If not, you should consider it. I'd buy it!

Thanks for the report. The Niangua's low water levels should start to recover after the rains last week and more forecast in the next 3 days. Nice to hear you saw a hellbender. Their numbers have dropped substantially in the past 20 years according to the MDC and no one knows why. Everything from herbicide to trace levels of birth control hormones have been speculated as reasons why. Back in the 1970s when I was attending MU, we took a field trip for a herpetology class in southern Missouri. Over the course of that weekend in late April, we tried to catch and identify as many species of reptiles and amphibians as possible. We stopped at the 64 bridge over the Niangua to see see if we could catch any hellbenders. We probably caught 10-15 in about an hour. Nowadays, as I understand it, you would be lucky to see one in that time.