This Weekend

[DoveTail]

Went to the river at the public access of Hwy 64 pretty early before anyone was there so the fish were not messed with. Quite a bit of water coming down that could be tricky getting out in the current crossing. Managed to catch a few on a fly but it was pretty slow. Some were putting in pontoons later in the day. Went down to Barclay and did not see or catch a single fish. Maybe have been the wrong time of day or fished over already?

A guy on Saturday was using some PowerBait and said he probably caught 30 fish in the morning. The clarity of the water has improved since the big rains but still stained. This next rain system will probably bring the water back up pretty high.

[oneshot]

Thanks for the Update.I was wantingb to go but haven't bought my Permits for this year yet,found other things to do.Looks like going to have to wait about a week again for the water to go down.

oneshot

[Paola Cat]

Dove, When you fished the Highway 64 access did you fish upstream or downstream from the "last" boat ramp? PC

[DoveTail]

PC,

I'm not sure which ramp is the "last" one, but if you go downstream from Hwy 64 into that access area, that is the only one I know of (other than the one at BSSP upstream of 64). I fished the area from the boat ramp in that access area up to Hwy 64.

It was enough visibility for the trout to see the flies but still stained and swift in areas.

The park will be fine but the river may be hard after the rains last night?

[Paola Cat]

Dove, Sounds good. If you pull into the Highway 64 Niangua River access on the west side of the 64 bridge, and drive all the way to end of the parking area .... there's a boat ramp. We call it the 2nd boat ramp. We walk straight out from the 2nd boat ramp to the middle of the river (if we can) and work the west bank downstream toward the first island and below the first island. Good patterns include glow balls, leeches, buggers, and slumpbusters. It's usually a mixed bag catch mostly trout and some quality smallies. PC

[DoveTail]

Oh, I see. I used an olive heavy jig head to get it down. The current was pretty swift. When I first got there on Friday I was the only one but quite a few people started moving in. I ended up working towards the bridge. Those that arrived later were in the area you were talking about, then some boats started launching. Plenty of water to fish so I didn't want to work downstream where they were getting in their way.

Trying to wade out across the area from the bathrooms where the bank has been cleared is where I am talking the footing could be intereseting (at least in the river levels when I was there).

It didn't seem like very many people were catching a lot. I am sure that will improve when the water clears up more and the stockings increase.