darryl ward

Scooper, At the time, I was surprised that the water level was quite good and even a little discolored. I thought the river looked in good shape. Since that time, there have been plenty of storms pass through that area of the state and I'm sure have charged the river. Sorry I can't give any more up to date info on present conditions but I'd feel safe that the river is still in good condition if not even better. Darryl

I fished the Niangua on the 11th with typical results for this river. For a full day’s fishing I caught 12 (six bows, five browns, one smallmouth). My buddy did about the same. Such a tough river to fish but it’s the closest to me (3 ½ hours from my place) so you do what you can do. Spent the morning fishing between the bridge and Bennett Springs confluence. Egg patterns fooled some. Bennett Springs was a zoo. We didn’t fish it (and hardly ever do). That afternoon we fished Barclay until storms pushed us off the water. One of the largest caddis hatches I’ve seen. It lasted almost three hours from 3:00-6:00 pm with every size and color imaginable. Crazy thing was nothing came up for them. #16 and 14 Cracklebacks fished wet as caddis emergers fooled the ones we caught. Others took 1/100 oz long tailed marabou jigs. Overall not allot of fish but the solitude was worth it.